Olivia's on the 'Fringe'

NOTE: I have been buried under a pile of episodes of my favorite shows, and thus, have not been able to write my thoughts about them here at PTR (this is what happens when you have out-of-town guests for a week and then you, yourself, go out of town for several days). This pile, however, was so deep that there's no point in attempting to go back and do write-ups from last week's shows, so I'm going to move forward starting with some belated thoughts on this week's episode of Fringe.

When it comes to these "intrigue shows," I find it's best to just sit back and enjoy the ride without attempting to figure them out. Doing the latter only leads to frustration, headaches and constant disappoint as no significant information is ever divulged in serving sizes greater than a dollop. They tend to give you just enough to keep you hanging on, but not enough to leave you feeling any satisfaction. So, I adopted this new philosophy this season and suddenly, things like Lost are much more enjoyable (sadly, not Heroes, though. I fear nothing can save that show). Most recently, I have started using it for Fringe. Oh, I cannot tell you how much more enjoyable the show has become for me. I'm no longer worrying about Massive Dynamic and their connection to John Scott or why "The Pattern" seems to have been completely dropped (save for a brief bald guy sighting right when the newsstand guy started getting suffocated by his own skin). Nope, I'm not obsessing or allowing my frustrations to ruin an otherwise entertaining and well-played show. Because if I were, then I would never have appreciated this week's awesome Olivia stunt and reveal. I never doubted that Olivia would be able to turn out those lights by using her mind. One because, well, had the bomb released the toxin everyone would have died and there would be no show. But also, I figured there had to be a reason why the group recruited her to do the task.

Olivia's one-woman save the world show wasn't the night's most impressive feat. Turns out, Olivia could be one of the cases she's charged with working. She was injected with a non-FDA approved drug when she was just a child. The drug helps the mind hold onto its complete functions -- opening up pathways that normally die off as we get older according to the drug's creator. These pathways include powers usually reserved for comic book characters. From what we saw this week, it looks like the drug worked. Talk about making things personal. Could this be why Liv can interact with her dead love's memories? And on a totally unrelated note, could that last sentence have been the most ridiculous one that I've ever written? I guess we'll have to keep tuning in to get the answers.

Fringe airs Tuesday nights on Fox. If you missed this week's episode, watch it for free at Fox.com. Photo courtesy Fox.