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Is Nina Sharp… William Bell?

This week’s pattern is: Apple, Apple, Flower, Flower, Hand

While enjoying another episode of Fringe, I realized that this episode was different from the others because there was no correlation between Walter’s work and the case at hand. No fun, crazy, wacky way to figure out who the big baddie is, but just some good Peter leg work. To be honest, I was a little disappointed in “The Cure.”  No shockers, except for the gore and blood. It was over the top! There were two salvageable occurrences that made this episode more important than meets the eye.  The first was getting some Olivia back-story and the connection of Nina Sharp/Walter/Peter.

I don’t think it’s ever a good thing to be thrown out of an unmarked white van when the guy throwing you out is wearing a white hazmat suit. I can sum up the story/plot line in one or two paragraphs. It was that straight forward. Emily Kramer gets dropped out of a van and eventually boils the brains of all the people in a diner. I’m glad they didn’t show her head bursting open as I probably would have turned it off. But we did get to see her stump later on, which I could have done without (but it didn’t look real, so that was good). Olivia’s team comes to check it out and finds that Ms. Kramer had an autoimmune disease and was being treated by Dr. Patel. After researching the victim’s blood, they find she had a controversial treatment that caused her disease to go into remission. Another lady, Claire Williams is taken with the same disease and undergoes the same treatment and it leads back to Patel. He reveals that he was working with Intrepus, a drug company and a fellow name David Esterbrook. Unfortunately, Esterbrook was weaponizing these women and their disease by making them radioactive. He was caught in the end, thanks to Peter finding him via Nina Sharp, who is the competition of Intrepus at Massive Dynamic. She would gain from Intrepus going under and Peter exploited that (and her connection to him?). Olivia goes to the location Nina gave to Peter and finds Claire about to explode. She the antidote Walter cooked up in his lab. That’s the highlights.

The relatively thin plot wasn’t such a bad thing. I could think more about the moral of the story, human scientific testing and the problems it causes. I don’t think JJ was getting on his soap box, but it seemed to me that he was making sure we knew that he thinks human testing is outrageous. I think it is too, especially if it is against someone’s will. All the other people volunteered for their testing, where as this doctor took it too far by not giving the people a choice. Not that the people Walter experimented on really knew what they were getting into and how it would be used either, but at least they knew they were an experiment. The look on Claire’s face was heartbreaking as she went radioactive and had to jam a syringe in her neck. How could this guy be so diabolical? What would he have to gain? Is it all about money or something else? Is he just a puppet for those causing attacks all over the world? Was Peter onto something when he said these people were “preparing” for something? It does seem odd.

Besides the moral of the story I want to discuss Olivia’s back-story and the Nina Sharp/Walter/Peter connection. First, Olivia’s back-story about her father was heart-breaking. I would have a deep sadness too if my father abused my mother and then I shot him twice but he didn’t die. How do you shoot someone twice and then they don’t die? I understand she regrets not killing him. After the incident he disappeared and now dad sends Olivia a birthday card every year, and low and behold it is her birthday. I can’t imagine being scared and looking over my shoulder my whole life. Then, when she doesn’t receive a card there is relief, right? Wrong. She arrives home to find a card under her door. What does that mean? Will he surface to confront her finally? Why did he chose now of all times to personally deliver her card? Was that really from him or someone else? 

The most interesting turn of events involves Nina Sharp. She was close with Walter and played with Peter when he was young. What if Walter saw Nina, how would he react? Who is she to Peter and Walter? I thought at first she might be Peter’s mother, but obviously she isn’t with their encounter. Was she a part of Walter and William’s experimental past or IS she William Bell? I know that sounds weird but I wonder now if she is because her connection with Massive Dynamic, Walter and Peter. Maybe something happened and he became a woman to cover something up or to walk around unnoticed. I’m not sure. Is that possible? Please tell me who she is, JJ! Do you have any ideas about who she is? I’m so intrigued. Love it.

So this is the last episode for a while, I believe three weeks. It gives us time to pause and think about all the questions we have and the piles more that each episode leaves in its wake. The more we learn about the pattern (which we don’t even know what that is), the more we wonder who, what, when, where, why and how. We still don’t fully understand John Scott’s appearances or who the observer is and why he is who he is. Plus, the more we see Nina, the more we want to know who she is. Maybe in three weeks we will get some answers, can I have one, just one little hint? Please? What do you think the pattern is? Who do you think Nina is? I’m eager to find out.

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