Fringe Review: Olivia's Subconscious - A Life in Caricature

What a fun episode! Bellivia has been around long enough to be far less annoying, and more funny. Everything about this episode was enjoyable. Much of it comes from the mind of Olivia, via LSD she, Peter and Walter took to try to find her in Bellivia's subconscious.

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"Lysergic Acid Diethylamide", however, wasn't being honest with us. That ornery Belly was the one they found. And from there they became cartoons. Cartoons!

It's easy to see why there were no promo pics for this episode. It was just too good to let it leak out ahead of time. There are times for spoilers, and there are times when the journey of watching live is part of the fun. This was one of those times.

Source: TV Fanatic

'Fringe' recap: LSD and the red door: Feed your head

You remember that Bell is inhabiting Olivia: Anna Torv was employing her canny array of vocal and physical tics to portray Leonard Nimoy; I was particularly taken with her cocked eyebrow a couple of times this week, a very Nimoyish twitch. But two consciousnesses in one brain would eventually result in what we non-scientists call splatter, so the race was on to download Bell’s into a computer, thus freeing Olivia to resume control of her own mind.

Walter reminded us of the way Agent Scott and Olivia had shared their dream state, and LSD was the lubricant that enabled Walter, Peter, and Bell to enter Olivia’s brain. Two thousand milligrams shared, the male trio started stumbling around Olivia’s frightened psyche, encountering a murderous Nina Sharp (so Olivia really doesn’t trust her, eh?) and then finding themselves transformed into animated versions of themselves. Thus was the return of Leonard Nimoy, retired from acting only in the sense of not having a corporeal presence on-screen, effected.

The cartoons of Bell, Peter, and Walter enabled Fringe to have some fun — the Walking Dead parody of zombies chasing them was clever — but they also enabled Bell to impart some (final?) wisdom to Walter, who was fretting over “needing” Belly to solve the mysteries of the doomsday machine and the impending collision of worlds. Bell delivered a Spock-like speech that operated as a blessing upon Walter, telling him that while they once “needed each other,” Walter now possesses “the virtue of humility…the decisions you make will be the right ones; the direction you choose to take will be just.”

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Leonard Nimoy returns to 'Fringe'

So much for retirement?

Leonard Nimoy will be back on tonight's episode of "Fringe," in some form or another, as his character William Bell. (Of course it's quite possible that it's only his voice that has been "un-retired": This follows the announcement that he will be voicing the character of Sentinel Prime in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," a nice homage to his work in 1986's "Transformers: the Movie.")

"Bellie," as Walter calls him, has been back on the show for the past few episodes, having taken residence in Olivia's body, in a brilliant Nimoy-esque performance by Anna Torv.

"She is up for any challenge," executive producer J.H. Wyman said, speaking to reporters on Thursday. "This season, she's been pulled and pushed in every direction, and [executive producer Jeff Pinkner] and I are just amazed at how she hit the ground running with everything. The whole invention of the character, and how she spoke and everything, was all her creation."

Added Pinkner, "Anna and John [Noble] spent a weekend on their own, just working out their relationship, and John just helped her develop her take on Leonard Nimoy."

As fun as it is to see Olivia as "Bellie," there's still the question of what happened to Olivia.

"This episode is a journey to retrieve Olivia before it's too late," Pinkner explained.

So how did the "Fringe" masterminds get Nimoy to return?

"Leonard retired from acting at the end of our season finale, and he was very sincere about that, but Joel and I were talking about the notion that William Bell would inhabit Olivia's mind and we called Leonard and pitched the idea to him and he just started laughing, and said, 'I'm in, how do you want to use me?'" Pinkner said.

"He's participating in the show. William Bell is present in this next episode, and present in a way that gives new meaning to alternate reality, but it's very much Leonard Nimoy."

Source: CNN Entertainment

Anna Torv: The season finale left me speechless

PW: Then they even took it up another notch and had you playing Olivia playing William Bell.
Anna: Yea .... I didn't ask for that one [laughs]. I was petrified and I haven’t watched that episode yet. I’m going to wait until the season is over to look at that because I don’t know how I feel about it. I mean, what do you do? I just jumped in both feet, I don’t think there was another option.

Source: New York Post

This episode of "Fringe" brought a surprising amount of closure to a lot of storylines before giving us that stinger at the end. But first, how great was it to have Leonard Nimoy back as William Bell? Even if only for a single episode as "A Scanner Darkly" style cartoon. I presume that Nimoy is holding to his retirement from acting pledge, but he's at least willing to do voiceovers. If the entire "William Bell enters Olivia's brain" story hadn't featured him in some form, it would have been really disappointing.

Nimoy is such a gifted performer that even his voice is enough to carry some extremely moving scenes between Bell and Walter. In fact, as soon as Bell gave Walter his pep talk, I kind of knew that Bell's time was running out. Because those are the words that Walter has needed to hear all season. Walter has really changed and he may actually be a better man than Bell now. Bell's words were well written, but Nimoy gave them some added gravitas and power.

The same was true for Nimoy's final scene in the episode as Bell said goodbye to Olivia. There was something unsatisfying about Bell's death in the second season finale; in part I believe because it seemed as if he was being killed off to accommodate Nimoy's retirement plans. I get the feeling that Bell would have been around with a stronger presence in the series if Nimoy didn't have other plans. But this time, Bell's demise felt right for the character and the show doesn't need him after this. That's the best way to go out.

Source: Crave Online

The whole experience seems to have changed Olivia, possibly for the better. She's strong again, leaving her debilitating fear behind her not only in Toon Town, but also in real life. This means that ultimately, Olivia could end up with Fauxlivia's strength, thus fortifying her love with Peter and guaranteeing that the Doomsday device will blow up the other universe. LSD: Is there anything it can't do?

And finally, have we seen the last of William Bell? His consciousness was lost like a term paper to a disc-read error, but do you think he's gone forever? Has he slipped into the internet to live a life of spying on people's email and communicating via Chat Roulette? Is he the Ghost in the Machine?

I'm sure some fans will write off "LSD" as a failed attempt at something more, but I don't think it was meant to be anything more than a fun, experimental diversion from what has otherwise been a brilliant, heavy season. Mission accomplished.

Source: TV.com

Is Leonard Nimoy Coming Back To Fringe...Again?
New Fringe feature sees Leonard Nimoy implying that he'd be happy to do another appearance on the series, even after retirement and two on-screen deaths!

Well hey, if Michael Jordan can retire as many times as he did, we should all welcome back Leonard Nimoy with open arms should he return to acting.

The Fringe actor recently made what was thought to be his final appearance as series' character William Bell (voicing Bell as a trippy LSD cartoon), but already admits the possibility of a return. In a behind the scenes featurette for the character, Nimoy discusses his pleasure with the character, concluding with "I wouldn't be surprised if they have me back, and back, and back and back. I'm happy to do it, I enjoy working on the show."

Bell was last physically seen being corporeally disintegrated in the second season finale, and most recently in "Lysergic Acid Diethylamate" voicing his animated counterpart inside Olivia (Anna Torv)'s mind, who had until then been "possessed" by Bell. Of course "Diethylamate" saw the destruction of the character's consiousness as well, but we have faith in the Fringe writers to utilize Nimoy well again if possible.

Fringe continues toward its third season end with this Friday, April 22nd's "6:02 AM EST," and keeps rolling in time for its hotly anticpated finale "The Day We Died" on May 6th. And don't forget about the fourth season!

Source:UGO