In sharp contrast to Peter’s withdrawal from his human side is Simone’s complete acceptance of who she is and her reliance on her emotions to enhance her understanding of life: “The heart will make sense of what the mind cannot,” she tells Olivia. The recurring theme of hope and faith in Fringe meets the concept of faith yet again, a connection made in previous episode such as season two’s “White Tulip”. Without faith, one can only cling to hope for a limited amount of time. Olivia seems to be at that point; having seen all the things she has seen in the last five years, she can’t have the same faith that Simone has. It’s to the point that Olivia believe the reason why the Observers are in power is that in a world where “it’s all just numbers”, they are “better at math.”
It has to be argued that there is definitely a line between having hope born out of faith and being just plain stupid. Perhaps this is what Olivia is keeping herself from. However, real faith is about intelligent devotion, because while, as Simone puts it, “you can’t know everything”, you can carefully investigate the truth, leaving a wisely chosen section chalked up to the mysterious. This intelligent devotion is also what keeps us from believing in false idols, as people do “make explanations, assign meaning to things without knowing, because it’s reassuring, it’s comforting.” It does make it difficult at times to see the difference between an extraordinary gift, such as Simone’s, and something fake. And I can’t help but wonder how much of Olivia’s gift is actually an inherent capacity that she had that was brought out full force by the Cortexiphan.
Although she might not believe in them, Olivia did rely on Simone’s words and faith heavily to plead with Peter (hence the glyphs spelling P-L-E-A-D), explaining to him that their daughter was still with them, thus inspiring him, through the power of the love he has for her, for Olivia, for Walter and for Astrid, to take out the Observer tech. She asks Peter to rely on what he is feeling only, to go beyond the physical reality Etta’s death: “[Etta] saved my life today, with the bullet she brought to us. She is alive, inside us, and there is nothing that Windmark can do about it, because the love that we can share with her now is invulnerable to space and time, even to them. And I know that our hearts are broken, and that is hurts, but that’s what makes us human.”
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Article comments
1 - Elliot
Three things:
1) you can't seriously take "crazyannastalker" seriously, can you? Olivia never was THE STAR, it has always been a triumvirate. And if you think Olivia's been sidelined for the past 3 years you're seeing a different show than I am.
2) Olivia was never only about being a superhero, she like Peter and Walter have been about the journey of their entangled souls. I find her more human aspects very poignant and impressive, compared to comic-book shoot-em-ups. I LIKE Olivia the human with human emotions and limitations to work around.
I've found this season slow, and frustrating to have them re-booted to solitary states instead of the tightknit family they (and we) wanted them to be, but they are finally together now.
3) Peter didn't kill Windmark because Plotline; he has to last until the finale. The You Are Here thing made up for that lack, though.