Two Moments of Goodness: Friday Night Reveals on Fringe and Grimm 

Don’t let anyone fool you. Friday nights are a great night for television. This fall, my lineup usually includes: the CW’s Nikita, FOX’s Fringe, NBC’s Grimm and Syfy’s Haven. Three of those shows currently air at the same time. Yup, this Thanksgiving, I’m definitely giving thanks to my DVR. Don’t know what I’d do without it.

Seeing that Nikita didn’t air this past Friday and we already have a Haven recap up and ready to be viewed, let’s talk about the two other shows. On Fringe and Grimm, a couple secrets were outed.

Moment of Goodness #1: Olivia Finds Out about Peter’s Observer Secret, Fringe “Five-Twenty-Ten”

Peter’s in a world of trouble and I don’t think he has the capacity to realize that anymore. In “Five-Twenty-Ten,” do you know who was quickly realizing it? Olivia. She voiced her opinion to Astrid telling her she felt like she was going to lose Peter. She had every right to feel that way. By the end of the episode, he was speaking in that monotone Observer voice and he had a board full of formulas and scenarios in his singular mission to avenge Etta. His streamlined focus is on how to get to Windmark. Olivia finds him in the midst of his obsession leaving Peter to reveal his plan:

Peter: “Their tech that gave them their advantage over us. I have it now.”
Olivia: “That thing in their heads? You implanted one in yourself?”
Peter: “I’ve been following them. They don’t know where I am. But I know where they are. Today. Yesterday. And the day before that. It gives me enough information to determine their probable futures. Mueller was going to get in a town car and be late to their meeting. Royce would have left. I needed them there at the same time. I made that happen.”

The younger Bishop is slipping deeper and deeper into his new state of mind. He’s able to help the group out using his newfound “powers” and he’s causing fringe events. But, he’s also bleeding from his ear. So when he revealed what he had done to himself in such a matter of fact way, it was shocking. Even though we knew what was going on with him all along. And things got a bit scary when Observer Peter anticipated everything Olivia was going to say:

Peter and Olivia together: “You can’t do this. This is…dangerous.”

Poor Olivia. She’s lost Etta — she is about to lose Peter. And she doesn’t even know what’s going on with Walter yet. As for Peter, you can see the gradual loss of emotion. At the end of the hour, he’s downright robotic. There’s this montage that cuts between Walter, Windmark and Peter that’s set to David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” that ends with Peter dealing with the consequences of his choice once again — he’s started losing his hair. That was a heartbreaking moment.

Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” is, apparently, about a man who no longer recognizes himself. The legendary singer is someone who once struggled with his identity and used songwriting as an outlet to express those feelings. Keeping this in mind, the amazing song perfectly captures what’s going on with both father and son. Walter is aware he’s reverting to his old (horrible) self and he doesn’t want this to happen. His son’s identity issues are that he’s no longer the man everyone knows and loves — he’s completely lost who he is. Walter’s counting on Peter to save him. Will he be able to do that? Will we ever see the real Peter again?

By the way, Nirvana awesomely covered “The Man Who Sold the World.” Also, one of my favorite versions happened on a talent competition show. Jordis Unga did a beautiful rendition of the song on a late great (to me) reality show called Rock Star: INXS. And this happened way before she was on season 2 of NBC’s The Voice. Anyway, you can find all three versions (Bowie, Nirvana, Jordis) on iTunes.

Fringe airs Fridays at 9/8c on FOX. Unfortunately, there’s not another new episode for three weeks.

Moment of Goodness #2: Nick Finds Out Juliette has Feelings for…His Boss, Grimm “Season of the Hexenbiest”

Oh Nick. Grimm‘s “Season of the Hexenbiest” wasn’t a good one for the detective. He had to deal with Adelind who was back in town with a vengeance. Her Wesen goons beat the you-know-what out of Hank. He had to arrest Adelind right in front of Juliette. And he figured out that his sworn enemy is after his key. The worst thing he had to face, however, were Juliette’s feelings for someone else.

Monroe broke it to Nick about his encounter with Juliette at the spice shop. But he needed to hear it from Juliette. She was blunt about it because she was so scared to tell him:

Juliette: “There is uh…there’s no easy way to say this so I’m just gonna…I am having feelings for another man and I don’t know why. And I gotta admit, it’s kind of starting to drive me a little bit crazy and…I know this isn’t fair to you. And I wish I knew what to do but I don’t.”

Nick said he didn’t want to know who the mystery man was, but he ended up finding out. When he finally moved out (I don’t really understand why he and Juliette were still living together in the first place), he headed over to Monroe’s house where his Blutbad friend gave him his spare room. And being the bud that he is, Monroe had to let Nick in on the guy’s identity. He recognized him from a press conference that aired on TV. That’s how Nick found out Juliette had feelings for his boss.

What is Nick going to do with that information? Will he start digging into Renard’s background knowing a spell may be responsible for these sudden feelings? Will he find out Renard’s a Royal and that he knows all about Nick’s Grimm-ness? Now that Nick’s moved out of the house, will Renard and Juliette take things to the next level? These are all questions destined to help make this winter hiatus a painful one.

What is great about Grimm is how it doesn’t let all the mysteries linger for a million years. They actually answer some of them. I love Nick has found out about Renard already. Maybe he won’t be so clueless where his boss is concerned from here on out. I cannot wait until the show returns in 2013.

Grimm airs at 9/8c on NBC.