Fan Forum - View Single Post - Peter and Olivia Appreciation Thread #6:Cracks in the Universe couldn't keep them apart.

**JJH85** · 02-12-2019, 07:49 PM

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/body-s...d-orphan-black

I compiled excerpts from the article where it related to Fringe.

Quote:

Hooking up with someone and then finding out it is actually an entirely different person is going to lead to quite the conversation when this particular case of mistaken identity is unmasked — whether it is a body swap, clone, double or someone from an alternate universe. In Fringe, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, and Orphan Black, a character has sex with someone they didn’t intend to all because they look identical to the person they thought they were sleeping with.

This is not intended for hilarity, because here the sex is used to manipulate, coerce and distract. In all four examples, it is a man being duped and the notion of consent becomes murky as a result of these dishonest actions. What are the ramifications of saying yes, only to find out later that all was not as it seemed?

In each of these TV shows, there is a pre-existing romantic connection between the couple in question.

Even though Faith-as-Buffy looked and acted differently, Riley isn’t held accountable for his mistake, and in the Angel and Faith Season 10 comic Faith does apologize to Riley for this deception. The same cannot be said for the fallout in Fringe when Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) finds out his relationship with Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is actually with a woman from an alternate universe.

At the end of Season 2, Olivia is trapped “over there” after getting switched with her counterpart — Fauxlivia, as she is known. The romantic foundation had already been laid as Peter and Olivia were about to make the leap from co-workers/friends to something more, but when Peter sleeps with Olivia for the first time, it is really the version from an alternate universe. Fauxlivia has already utilized making out as a distraction technique — so Peter doesn’t see the blood trickling from underneath her bathroom door — and sex is the next logical step, an act she resorts to when Peter continues to question her out-of-character behavior.

t works; Peter later notes he was beginning to suspect her, but he put the differences down to their change in relationship status. He feels like a fool, while Olivia feels violated because this person who looks exactly like her has tainted everything, from the clothes hanging in her wardrobe to the man she shared her bed with. Olivia is so focused on Peter’s inability to recognize this imposter — or at least recognize and call her out — that she doesn’t consider his point-of-view. She has been through a lot, so she can be forgiven for her initial lack of empathy.

Peter believes he is a idiot for falling for such an obvious distraction technique — or "vagenda," as Walter (John Noble) calls it— but when the heart feels a certain way, logic is ignored. Separating the mind and the body is one thing each alt-version is banking on; lust takes precedence over reason. It is only when Olivia reads Fauxlivia's reports that she fully understands how easy it was for Peter to be duped. The similarities extend to how they speak and the words they use. He consented, but again it is perhaps even more complicated than Buffy's body swap, because while Fauxlivia looks and sounds the same, she is an entirely different person.

...Fauxlivia was on a deep-cover assignment and resorted to sex to keep on the mission...

The scenarios in Fringe, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Orphan Black, and Alias are unlikely, but “rape by fraud” is a very real thing. Mistaken identity is a romantic comedy and sci-fi cornerstone, but there are ramifications when the person saying yes does not have all the pertinent information. In each of the examples discussed it is a man being manipulated by sex; would it read differently to an audience if the gender roles were switched?

Separating the body from the mind is an impossible task, but not in science fiction. In the case of these four guys, the woman they had sex with looked identical to the woman they thought they were having sex with. Consent was granted; however, sex is often more than just a physical act and each woman was not the person they were pretending to be. Olivia, Buffy, Beth, and Francie are more than their body parts and the men duped into saying yes deserve better.