“Olivia” is a make it or break it episode for me, as I’ve watched Fringe with hesitation over Anna Torv‘s acting ability. I’ve digested the premiere and feel the future is bright. Whew!
You have to hand it to Liv; she put up quite a fight against the alternate world’s insistence that she’s their Olivia Dunham. At first I wasn’t sure whether or not they believed she was actually Fauxlivia or Olivia. (Segway — for the purposes of these posts, Fauxlivia is NOT our Olivia; in her world, she is also called Olive. Any reference to Fauxlivia or Olive is the character from the alternate universe. Olivia, or Liv, will be the girl we’ve grown to know over the past two seasons.) The psychologist questioning her sanity was making me feel crazy, so I wouldn’t have wanted to be in Olivia’s shoes.
To prove to her she was Fauxlivia, Walternate infused Olivia with Faux’s memories (not sure when they sucked them out of Faux — maybe its a prerequisite of being in Fringe Division?). In spite of the infusion, Olivia persisted, escaped, and tried to find her way home. This is where Torv started to impress me. Emotions played subtly over her face as she wrestled with memories, no longer sure if she was remembering or forgetting who she really was. When Olivia met Faux’s mother (guest star Amy Madigan) — the alternate of her own mother who died when she was 14 — Torv didn’t disappoint. I could feel relief, fear, trepidation and happiness as it commingled and swirled around Olivia’s brain. By this time, I was persuaded that half of her believed altermom was her mother, and the other half wished to hell she was.
In the end, she let out a hearty laugh, a touch from Torv that the transformation was a success, and I bought it hook, line and sinker. When they finally cut over to Fauxlivia struggling in her attempt to convince Peter & friends she is Olivia, it hit me; the challenge for Anna Torv is she’s is no longer playing Olivia at all. She is Fauxlivia acting as Olivia in our world, and a fake Fauxlivia with no memory of Olivia in the other. Talk about confusing! Everything she has created the past two years has to be set aside while she invents distinctly new personalities for her characters. Kind of a cool place to be as an actor, and for the first time I have faith that Anna Torv can pull it off.
Clacked by Carissa Pavlica 
on Sep 23, 2010 @ 22:00 EST5EDT
I didn’t really read this yet, but are there spoilers? Because the episode premiers Thursday, so I’m just trying to avoid knowing too much
Not reading this until the show airs, but I can’t wait to see it! Fringe has been at the top of my favorites list with Supernatural since it premiered!
I’m very happy with this episode. The first half of the last two seasons have been horrible, so I’m glad this broke the trend.
Amazing job by Anna Torv. Kudos to her. I have grown to like her over the episodes, but she won me over with this episode. I didn’t even notice that Peter and Walter were missing until about 1/2 way through.
I’m not entirely convinced that our Olivia is entirely taken over by the memories and personality of Fauxlivia. I think she may be playing them. I really really hope she is!
I thought Fauxlivia was going to give herself away when she was talking to Walter by saying something about his oddness. I mean Walternate was the head of DOD. Big difference.
The saddest moment was also the happiest … when Peter walked out of his interrogation and had a huge smile on his face and said all he wanted to do was …and kissed Fauxlivia. I don’t think we have ever seen Peter truly happy like he was in that moment. Joshua Jackson was great in that moment. I hope he gets a happy ending w/ the real Olivia soon.
Shows how little you care about Walter and peter. you stupid olivia lover!
Wow – pretty harsh comment. If you give some more detail, maybe we can get a discussion going. Since Walter & Peter weren’t in the episode much, why is it wrong to give Anna Torv kudos?
I thought Anna Torv was outstanding in this episode. It seems as if she is really going to have a great opportunity this season to show what she can do. I did miss the Walter/Peter interaction, and I do worry about there being less of both of those characters this year, but I thought the first episode was thrilling. I love that Olivia never needs anyone else’s help in order to escape captivity. She is so capable and yet also strangely vulnerable. I was certainly rooting for her throughout the episode.