An amusing Fringe photo recap. [link] I made the same Wizard of Oz joke during the September scene.

but it was a manufactured reality. It shouldn't have existed in the first place.

Manufactured by the Observers because it's what they thought really should have been. But the multiverse knows better? I don't know, I'm having a lot of trouble with understanding what the different universes and timelines are anymore, and that colors my understanding of the characters and what I want for them.

but it was a manufactured reality. It shouldn't have existed in the first place.

We could discuss circles around this idea. Either timeline could be viewed as manufactured depending on your point of view. I think most of us think of blue as the "real" reality because that is where the show lived for 3 seasons, but it only happened because September saved wee, kidnapped Peter from drowning. You could look at amber as the universe without Observer tampering* or you could see it as something created when they removed Peter from existence. At this point, if you asked me which one was real my answer would be yes.

• edit to add EVERYTHING we've seen has been influenced by September distracting Walternate before he could cure Peter. So really, we haven't seen a reality that wasn't in some way manufactured by September (the ultimate bumbling tourist) in one way or another.

Olivia, and she really did live that life, and have those experiences, and the show has decided that they're less important than shmoopy kissy-face with Peter.

But it's not like she's only getting a relationship for it. She's getting a whole other life, one she lived.

She's getting a whole other life, one she lived.

Is she, really? If nobody else in her life experienced it? And she doesn't know it's going to work: they don't know how or what is happening.

It's possily irrelevant that she's making the choice: the process may well be unstoppable, and maybe it will spread to Walter and onward, like ripples from a stone. But the way that this is structured, that she's choosing to give up a loving relationship with her foster mother, and a much more emotionally-extroverted psyche, in order to pursue a romantic relationship with someone who isn't even supposed to exist at all--it just strikes me as negating a lot of what made Olivia so compelling to begin with.

I cannot imagine the Olivia Dunham of S1 or S2 turning away from her sister or niece for the possibility of a romance.

The way Olivia's memories reverted I feel like it wasn't amber Olivia choosing to be blue Olivia. She just became (or is becoming) blue Olivia. I think the idea of choice really is kind of irrelevant because ultimately they are the same person.

she's choosing to give up a loving relationship with her foster mother

She did ask Nina to try to connect with her if she did forget.

ultimately they are the same person

How do you mean?

They literally are the same person, just with different life experiences.

But don't your life experiences make you who you are?

That is, of course, the question at hand.

Okay, physically they are the same person.

I love that the show does this to us but I may need another drink and my existential whale t-shirt before I can continue.