Getting caught up: Fringe and Pushing Daisies

With a new episode of "Fringe" on tonight -- and don't forget, "House" is scheduled to run about 8 minutes long tonight (which means pad your recording for at least 15 minutes) -- it occurred to me that I never got around to writing about last week's episode, or about last week's "Pushing Daisies." (I was too busy talking about the latter's apparent cancellation instead.) After the jump, very brief thoughts on both, and then you have a chance to express whatever thoughts you've been holding in (or expressing in other forums), if you still remember at this point...

I wish I could have gotten to "Fringe" sooner, because that was the strongest episode they've done since the introduction of The Observer (or The Watcher, or whatever bald guy's code name is). Not coincidentally, it was an episode that was heavy on Walter -- not just for wacky non-sequiturs and mispronunciations, but one that took his mental illness seriously and gave Walter a window on how he must appear to the rest of the world. (The scene where he asked Peter if that's what it's like to have a conversation with him was perfect.) And because there was so much Walter, there was very little Olivia, to the point where I briefly forgot she was even on the show. At this point, other than J.J. Abrams' love of the (allegedly) strong heroine archetype, is there any reason to keep her around? Would the show suffer in any way if it was just about Walter and Peter, with Asteroid around to help requisition supplies and occasionally draw her weapon?

I really liked last week's "Pushing Daisies," too, and not just because it gave Kerri Kenney-Silver her first opportunity in what seems like forever to look like a woman. The magic setting fit in perfectly with this show, and seeing Ned finally throw off the shackles of his anxieties and try to be active for the sake of his half-brothers was a moment long in coming. (Of course, he's had that type of epiphany in previous episodes, only to revert to being a passive dweeb at the start of the next, so maybe this one won't take, either. But it felt like a more dramatic change.) And Emerson's line ("Where did I put that rat's ass I could give?") was one of his best barbs to date. Oh, sarcastic paisley man, I'll miss you most of all.

What did everybody else think?