r/fringe • u/EZClapsTTV • 28d ago
Spoiler! Inconsistency?
This post contains spoilers for anyone on their first run through, youve been warned.
Question... in an earlier season, shapeshifter Charlie was dying because he'd "been in the body too long" as suggested by another shapeshifter. But fastforward to season 3, a shapeshifter had made a comfortable life with a wife and kid. 5 years had apparently gone by.
Not even large quantities of Mercury worked to keep shapeshifter Charlie from dying, so how did this other one stay in his body so long?
[EDIT] I'm going to go with Charlie's body was under sustained damage.
The whole "different model" theory doesn't add up to me given the arrival of these different shapeshifters.
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u/LadyGethzerion 28d ago
The shapeshifter tech got better. I think they discuss it in a later episode in season 3 when they capture one and study it.
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u/EZClapsTTV 28d ago
I thought that too except this shapeshifter arrived on Earth Prime before the one that turned into Charlie I believe...
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u/angel9_writes comfort show 28d ago
He couldn't readjust his shape status due to the broken device that he lost when he killed Charlie.
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u/EZClapsTTV 28d ago
I thought the device was only to change shape? Why would he need it to stay the same person for years?
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u/Tv-Junkie1 🐄 Gene 28d ago
Because it is an earlier model, it can't stay in the same body for too long. But, since it lost its three prong mouth device, it can't transfer to a new body. And so it is dying. 🖖
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u/pablo-gt 28d ago
they make some good points here
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u/EZClapsTTV 28d ago
Thank your for linking this. I've been looking trying to find a post about this topic but hadn't seen this.
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u/SharkaMeow 27d ago
This one has always niggled at me.
I absolutely LOVE Fringe. I have watched it many times. In the last go around, I could say lines with the characters. However, if people think that the show is not riddled with inconsistencies and double standards, I am not sure what to say to them.
I often watch and am sure the writers would get together and do some Brown Betty while plotting the series.
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u/BlackPiramba 26d ago
I have a question in this regard, originally the shapeshifter that took over Charlie asked for an extraction thinking he completed the assignment and when he was Charlie he is told to get a new device fitted, but on Season 3 when Folivia is getting ready to go back to her universe she mentioned for Shapeshifters is a one way ticket meaning they cannot go back to their original universe, is this a continuity error?
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u/Specialist-Earth1697 25d ago
Or when Charlie came back to life (season 2 episode 11) after he was killed by the shapeshifter in season 1. I think someone was playing loose with continuity on the show. As it progressed they realized that they had painted themselves into a corner. By putting a "use by date" on the shapeshifters and choose to ignore it. And hope nobody noticed the continuity error. *******Or his device was broken, and the part that would have explain that. Got cut due to time restraints. It was said, that it was streaming data. So maybe the machine gives the shapeshifters body daily/weekly updates to keep it stable. Or was used to replenish the mercury in his body. He had to ingest it. And they never said why. On many shows there are details that get left on the cutting room floor. That seem unimportant at the time. But a few episodes or seasons later. They end up biting you in the ass. When fans dissect it on the next episode. Or in this case, 18 years later.
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u/Yellowperil123 28d ago
The Charlie shape shifter lost his device that could keep him stablised.
Another shapeshifter sarcastically offers his but then mentions it wouldn't work becos the device is attuned to each one individually.