As I watched the final season premiere of “Fringe” on Friday night after witnessing Mission Viejo’s one-sided beating of Redlands East Valley, I began pondering the mysteries of the universe … and O.C. football.

Walter Bishop is my favorite character on television. Here’s how executive producer Jeff Pinkner decribed Walter on Fringepedia: “Walter is perhaps one of the most brilliant scientists known but in the name of science, and on behalf of the government back in the 70’s and the Vietnam/Cold War era, he has perhaps left a lot of harm in his wake. He has potentially damaged a lot of people and developed a lot of technologies that others may have exploited in the past. As a consequence, there either was or wasn’t a series of events that caused him to lose his mind and break down. He was found criminally guilty and put into an institution where they have done all kinds of advanced therapies to him, which have further damaged his mind. Despite all that, he’s the only person we can rely on to help us solve all these cases.”

Walter is known for his odd dining preferences, including cheese steaks, ginger ale, root beer floats, papaya, Frankenberry cereal, blueberry pancakes, raspberry-lemon cookies, apple fritters, strawberry and tuttie-fruitie milkshakes, ccffee cake with cinnamon and sugar, custard, coffee yogurt, Kentucky Grilled Chicken, pudding pops.

Walter often prescribes and administers his own medication, varying cocktails of psychedelic drugs and a personally developed hybrid of cannibis.

Check out some of Walter’s musings:

“Most of us experience life as a linear progression… …but this is an illusion – because every day, life presents us with an array of choices … each choice leads to a new path. To go to work. To stay home. And each choice we take creates a new reality.”

“They all died, young lady. Horrible and most likely painful death. You see, when you open new doors, there is a price to pay. Now imagine… tonight, you look under your bed, and, lo and behold, you find a monster! And you’re immediately eaten. Now, if you hadn’t looked for the monster, you wouldn’t have found it and you’d still be happy in your beds, instead of being slowly digested in the stomach sack of the creature. But, with any luck, your sister or your brothers might have heard your screams, and your endeavor will serve as a valuable lesson to them.”

“You were right. What you said before about the consequences, I don’t think of them, never have. Don’t know if I can. That’s not who I am.”

“With all due respect, Darwin got it all wrong. I used to make the joke that Darwin’s thinking was rather … unevolved. For a brilliant man, Darwin was occasionally a moron.”

“We’re all mutants. What’s more remarkable is how many of us appear to be normal.”

“In the seventies, I innocently wandered into the wrong home and it was three days before I realized my mistake. And unlike Olivia, the woman with whom I was sharing a bed didn’t look like my wife at all.”

“The ride back was invigorating. The turbulence over Ohio was like being in the belly of a seizing whale. I screamed like a little girl.”

“The human brain generates a quantifiable electric field. I possited in 1976, that it is possible to synchronize two distinct minds to allow the sharing of information across the unconcious state. Like a string between two tin cans.”

“I hope she doesn’t notice the two thousand dollars for the baboon seminal fluid I ordered. I hope I can recall why I ordered it.”

“Either a green unicorn just raced across the lab or I accidentally took some LSD.”

“Once you are given the order to put on the headphones, do not remove them under any circumstances. If you do, you may die a gruesome and horrible death. Thank you for your attention and have a nice day.”

“When I mentioned that the poison would kill me within the hour, did either of you happen to notice the time?”

For some reason, I believe Walter would make a brilliant high school football coach.

HERE ARE SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS AND FACTORS HEADING INTO WEEK 6:

The Thursday Night Football Madness game of the week is …

San Clemente vs. El Toro at Trabuco Hills High on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Tritons won’t know the status of injured starting QB Sean Donnelly until Wednesday. We know the status of El Toro’s record-smashing QB Conner Manning. He has been throwing up jaw-dropping stats. I mean, the kind of stats that make the heads of defensive coordinators explode Scanners’ style. Manning is averaging 428.7 passing yards per game. He has 27 TDs and one interception. The Charger naysayers say El Toro has played a soft schedule and Manning won’t put up those kind of stats when South Coast league play begins. Believe me, Manning will put up monster numbers against anybody. The Tritons are ready to welcome the Chargers back in into the South Coast League in this week’s league opener.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

This is getting ridiculous. I should have known it was going to be a brutal week after my Thursday Night Football Madness science experiment with my mom, Sue, and her best pal, Sue Wilcox. I used my extensive OCVarsity experience to make my picks for Thursday Night Football Madness and the Sues, who both have absolutely no knowledge of O.C. Football, made their picks based on the mascots they liked the most. I got clobbered by two grandmas with a combined 11 grandchildren. My mom went 4-1, Sue Wilcox went 3-2 and I went 2-3.

That right there should have been the harbinger of my impending doom in last week’s OCVarsity Pickapalooza Deathmatch against JSerra girls basketball coach Mary Rossignol. I took Trabuco Hills over JSerra and, of course, the Lions go out and beat the Mustangs, 31-21, for my fourth consecutive OCVarsity Pickapalooza Deathmatch defeat. Now, my The Incredible Hulk bobblehead is sitting on Rossignol’s desk at JSerra.

(Falls to his knees and shakes his fists at the heavens)

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO … NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

This week’s OCVarsity Pickapalooza Deathmatch game is Servite vs. Santa Margarita at Saddleback College on Friday at 7:30 p.m. I’m going with the top-ranked Eagles. I will reveal my Deathmatch opponent on Wednesday.

THE JOHNNY STANTON BUTTERFLY EFFECT

The Butterfly Effect, the idea, used in chaos theory, that a very small difference in the initial state of a physical system can make a significant difference to the state at some later time, e.g., a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio de Janeiro might change the weather in Chicago. That brings us to the Johnny Stanton Butterfly Effect. Stanton, who led the Eagles to a Pac-5 title and Division 1 state championship last season, went down with a season-ending knee injury two weeks ago in the Eagles’ 35-27 victory over St. Bonaventure of Ventura. It was a crushing blow to the Eagles. Not only is Stanton a great player, but he is a great leader. What will the ripple effects be in the Trinity League and in the Pac-5 Division?

OCVarsity’s Dan Albano wrote a very good feature on how Stanton is handling his status. Stanton is operating the passing machine for his receivers in practice and he is helping to coach up replacement Josh Canty.

“I want to be as involved as I can,” Stanton told OCVarsity’s resident water enthusiast. “We haven’t lost any hope in the season. We still think that we can win the Trinity League. We still think we can win the CIF championship.”

That’s what I’m talking about. That’s why I love this kid. He has tremendous heart. And he’s still leading the Eagles.

I’m expecting a big dose of running back Ryan Wolpin and the Eagles will rally around their injured QB for an emotional effort when they meet up with Servite in Friday night’s Trinity League opener. I think Santa Margarita’s Connor O’Brien will be a big factor in this game.

BTW, “The Butterfly Effect” starring Ashton Kutcher is surprisingly good. Seriously. Who knew Kutcher could act his way out of a paperbag? I can’t vouch for “The Butterfly Effect 2″ and “The Butterfly Effect 3.”

IS THIS THE YEAR OF THE TITAN?

I believe Tesoro has the potential to have a very special year. I covered Tesoro’s fourth-quarter comebacks against Hart of Newhall and Chaparral of Temecula. Those victories showed the toughness and never-say-die attitude of the Titans. Much of Tesoro’s senior class has been on varsity since they were sophomores. These dudes are battle-tested against top teams. They don’t give in. They know how to impose their will on people when the clock is ticking away. The Titans play at Trabuco Hills in a South Coast league opener on Friday at 7 p.m. The “Factor” player to watch in this game is Tesoro DE Chazz Roberts, who is the walking, talking peronafication of “wreaking havoc.”

KEEP IT FRESH

If you are heading out to the San Clemente-El Toro or Tesoro-Trabuco Hills games at Trabuco Hills this week, you might want to stop off at Sprouts Farmers Market on the corner of Los Alisos Blvd. and Santa Margarita Pkwy. It’s across the street from Trabuco Hills High. They have a great deli where you can get snacked up before you head over to the stadium.

RETURN OF “RED REDEMPTION”

Mater Dei was off to a great 4-0 start before running into Narbonne of Harbor City, the defending L.A. City Section champion. The Monarchs turned in a valiant effort in an 18-17 defeat to the Gauchos, who look like serious contenders for a state bowl game. The Monarchs get back on track this week when they play host to JSerra, which is off to a 5-0 start, in the Trinity League opener for boths chools on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Santa Ana Stadium. RED REDEMPTION!!!!

OLU VS. THE BEST 1-4 TEAM IN SO CAL

St. John Bosco of Bellflower is 1-4 on paper, but it is 5-0 on the field. The Braves were forced to forfeit their first four victories because of an ineligible player early last week. Then they went out to Utah and QB Josh Rosen threw a 28-yard TD pass to TE Nick Lehman with 24 seconds remaining to give St. John Bosco a 34-33 victory over Jordan of Sandy, Utah, in the XFINITY High School Football Challenge. What a week for the Braves. That’s the team Orange Lutheran faces in its Trinity League opener on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Orange Coast College. Yikes.

EPIC CENTURY LEAGUE COLLISION

We’re midway through the season, but Foothill vs. Villa Park on Friday at 7 p.m. at El Modena High will likely decide the Century League championship. Foothill and Villa Park are ranked No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, in the Southwest Division, so this game will also have major implications on playoff seedings. The Knights can strike through the air with QB Jack Gilchrist and the Moss twins, Julian and Jarrell, and on the ground with Sean Pihl. The Spartans like to play a physical game and rely on their defense and running game. I’m taking the Knights in a nail-biter.

HERE’S MY O.C. TOP 10

1. Santa Margarita; 2. Mission Viejo; 3. Tesoro; 4. Mater Dei; 5. El Toro; 6. Edison; 7. Orange Lutheran; 8. Servite; 9. Tustin; and 10. Foothill.

(Compare Arias’ picks to this week’s rankings.)

TWEET THIS

Here are some good people to follow on Twitter for high school football: @ocvarsity; @JonathanKhamis; @SteveFryer; @ocvarsityguy; @DamianCalhoun; @AdamJMaya; @TimBurtIrvine; @CalHiSports; @bangulo; @FHS_Knights; @SouthOCSports; @WeAreOLu; @JSerraAthletics; @DolphinDynasty; @Tritonfootball; @Missionfootball; @frithr; @HSFAmericaSoCal; @LaHabraFootball; @VaqueroFootball; @RonMFlores; @eltorofootball; @LBPrepSports; @StJohnBoscoHS; @mjszabo; @BarryFaulkner5; @SteveVirgen; @DCPenaloza; @SoCalBias; @ServiteSports; @OCHSSports; @MDFootball; @LesLukach and @Cox3.

Follow me on Twitter @LosOCVarsity.

Enjoy some of Walter Bishop’s best moments:

More football news from the OCVarsity blog:

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