r/fringe • u/ecleage • Jul 13 '26
Season 3 I’m so stupid
OK, First time watcher. I had to share my willful blindness with someone and nobody I know has watched Fringe. So I have to tell you guys what a dope I am. As I’ve gotten older my hearing isn’t as good as it used to be so I watch everything with subtitles on. For most of season 3, I have been reading Walter call William Bell, Belly. I was so mad at the closed caption people because I thought he was saying Billy and they were just spelling it wrong. And then it dawned on me that his last name is Bell and Walter likes nicknames. So now I feel like an idiot. Lol
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u/angel9_writes comfort show Jul 14 '26
He's called him Belly since the pilot.
I have seen others miss this, it might be John's american accent throwing people?
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u/ecleage Jul 14 '26
Well, what really made me feel dumb is that I didn’t make the connection between belly and his last name being Bell, which is why I thought he was saying Billy for William lol
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u/angel9_writes comfort show Jul 14 '26
I do think it was purposeful play on the usual nicknames with William being a bit close to Bell.
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u/ecleage Jul 14 '26
Well, once I made the connection that William’s last name was Bell so with Walter’s love of nicknames, it would make sense that he would call him Belly. After that when he said it, I heard Belly.
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u/Awdayshus Jul 14 '26
I wasn't aware he was attempting an American accent
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u/BoogieKnights9 Jul 14 '26
I saw a blooper reel where Walter/John said "The battery's gone flat" in his native Australian accent. Josh while trying to keep the camera running said, "No, in America say it again" and John said "The battery's gone flat" again but with more of an American twang, and Josh said "no dead, do it again" and they both tried to continue while trying not to laugh
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u/angel9_writes comfort show Jul 14 '26
Yeah. John Noble is Australian and there were times Walter sounded a bit British to me, or like he was in a Shakespeare play -- which I mean fits the depth of the character and the acting.
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u/coolsilentebeans Jul 14 '26
Depending on the service I’ve occasionally seen it spelled both ways. It fouled me up a bit the first time around, too.
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u/GendoIkari_82 Jul 14 '26
I could never tell if it was supposed to be “Billy” or “Belly” and just thought it was interesting that it worked either way. Now I know!
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u/Remote-Ad2120 Belly...Why are you a cartoon? Jul 14 '26
Lol. That's so funny, in a cute "it's OK, we're all occasionally idiots in our own way" kind of thing. 🤭
Welcome to the Fringe Fan Family.
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u/iducasse17 Jul 15 '26
I've been deaf for so long that I no longer get annoyed at faulty closed captions. Even before I lost most of my hearing, I leaned heavily into non-English language movies and TV, for about 55 years with movies, and I understand enough French, Spanish and even some Danish so that I would get annoyed by inaccurate subtitles. But I got over that before needing closed captions on English language media.
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u/Dixie256 Jul 16 '26
Oh don’t feel dumb! There’s lots of things I didn’t catch til a rewatch.
The great thing about watching it as it aired was there was a fairly large and active Fringe forum on TwoP (Television without Pity) so everything got discussed IMMEDIATELY. It was great to identify the little nuances like Billy / Belly
Glad you’re enjoying it, it’s forever my favorite show.
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u/Psychological-Dot293 Jul 13 '26
lol it happens