TV Recap: ‘Fringe,’ “August”

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I have noticed that a lot of folks have been disappointed with Fringe backing up for the mythology this season after hitting us really hard at the tail-end of last season, and hopefully “August” is the start of some mythos stuff. And if it is, we are in for whole hell of a treat. “August” was a really great hour of suspenseful television. This effort was Observer-heavy, as we finally see that there are more than one of these bald fellows who show up during traumatic events. The episode starts when an Observer we have never seen before abducts a woman, which pisses off his hot sauce-eating brethren. It is revealed that there are at least three other Observers, and I can imagine that there must be a handful more. Other nuggets of information we learned about the Observers:

• True to their name, they are “people” who observe time at all points. Per the example from the Massive Dynamic geek, the Observers see time as fluid, at all points, so they know exactly what’s happening at all times, for everyone.
• They’ve shown up at a number of major events in the world’s history, but have been only documented to be at like 30 over 5,000 years. But now, they’ve been showing up fairly regularly over the past few months. So is shit about to hit the fan?
• They try to make sure time/destiny unravels the way it should. If there are any anomalies, they step in and try to fix it — especially if they’ve done the screwing up. Question: what would they do to screw up? And why?

Anyway, Peter and Olivia eventually discover that the abductor Observer, whose name is August, was present for the SF Bay Area quake, of which the girl who he abducted was also at. She lost her family during the quake, and she was supposed to be on this flight to Rome that would crash, killing her. August steps in to save her life, but as already said, the other Observers are not too happy with his tinkering, so they send an assassin to take her out, to course-correct if you will.

Meanwhile, August understands that his cronies are sending the hit out on the girl, so he calls up someone who he thinks can help — Walter. Walter, who had somehow learned how to crack the Observer’s uncrackable language in the book August accidentally left at the scene, meets with August and they have an interesting discussion. August (and I’m guessing all the other Observers) are completely detached from humanity, so they don’t always understand what to do — enough so that he’s willing to ask a crazy old man for advice. However, Walter has the good idea to make the gal important so that she’s not so disposable. Oddly enough, Walter is so paranoid about someone taking Peter from him that he pleads with August to leave Peter alone, as if he didn’t have anything else to worry about.

In the climax, the team gets an anonymous tip that August and the girl are at a specific hotel, but they arrive just a little after the hitman.  August is willing to protect above all else, so the hitman has no choice but to shoot him twice in the chest. While Olivia chases down the hitman, Peter tends to August, who gives him his badass, reality-bending gun. Right before the hitman caps Olivia, Peter uses the gun to take him down.

The Observer we all know shows up to save August, but there really is no hope. They discuss why August did what he did and he admits that he thinks he is in love with the girl, even though neither of them really understand that feeling. Our Observer tells August that he succeed in making the girl important — by being the first human to cause a death of one of them.

When Peter finds out that Walter met with August mid-investigation, he’s a bit ticked, but Walter’s fatherly charm and craziness allows him to change the subject quick enough. But Peter is clearly aware something is up.

And as Olivia takes her niece for a fun day at the theme park, our Observer and the old Observer do what they do best — watch. They note that it’s a shame she’s having so much fun, because things are going to get really, really difficult for her in the future.

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