Fringe: Bad Dreams

I really love it when Olivia works someone over, like she did in the this photo. But wow, this episode of Fringe was one psychological creep-fest from start to finish. They really had me feeling like something eerie was about to happen, and sure enough, a bunch of eerie stuff DID happen.

Just the idea that someone could possess mind-control abilities is creepy, and now it looks like at least one of our main characters -- Olivia, a.k.a. "Olive" -- might be in that situation. The scene on the street with Nick gathering followers and taking them to the rooftop gave me goosebumps. Olivia was really in a tough spot. Either shoot the guy with the mind-control powers, or let everyone die.

It was a good call on her part. And darkly funny when one of the people launched themselves off the roof and crashed into the car below, leading Walter to quip, "I sure hope Agent Dunham meant to do that." It's indicative of the Fringe writers' ability to be both creepy and funny at the same time.

And it's finally getting back around to ZFT and William Bell (and how cool to hear Leonard Nimoy's voice at the end, saying "Do we know what triggered it?") But oy, that video that Walter was watching. I've known that someone experimented on Olivia when she was a child, but did I know for sure it was Walter Bishop and William Bell? I think this was the first time I had something definitive on that. And how does Nina Sharp fit into it? She must have been part of it from the beginning.

I'll leave you with Nick's chilling rooftop monologue to Olivia: "I think they meant for us to forget. I did what they told us. I waited to be called up, stayed fit, stayed focused, stayed ready, the call never came. It never came. That man with the glasses showed up at the hospital. He spoke all the old words. He said, they're coming, what was written will come to pass. He said he knew how to wake me up. I want to stop hurting people."

Fringe: Safe

"Just when you thought things couldn't get any weirder..." - Peter to Olivia, on seeing a dead guy embedded in a wall

Wow, a lot of things started to come together in this episode. Let's analyze:

The guy in the wall. So I now know that the experiment I saw in the last episode - where the guy grabs an apple through the wall of a safe - is being used on a larger scale. Specifically, to steal things out of bank vaults. Only, not everyone gets back through the wall.

The safety deposit boxes. I pretty much knew that the contents were mysterious things that would bring ... something ... to light. But what I didn't know is that the contents of those safety deposit boxes were actually put there by Walter years ago. And that the box numbers were the same numbers he chants at night while he's trying to go to sleep -- the Fibonacci Sequence I learned about at the beginning of this season. Way to bring that back around.

Walter's time machine. I learned that Peter nearly died when he was a boy, from a rare type of bird flu. There was a doctor with a cure who had died years earlier. So Walter built a time machine to go back and get the doctor, but he didn't need it because Peter recovered. "In theory," said Walter, "it could retrieve anyone from anywhere."

Mr. Jones in the German prison. He's integral to all the strange things happening on the outside. In fact, he seems to be the Head Bad Guy. And thanks to the time machine, he's now on the outside with a captured Olivia. He also gives new meaning to the term, "Don't kill the messenger."

Olivia. Nina's still got John Scott hooked up in her gleaming-white lab, and she now knows that Olivia is harboring John's memories. I'm not exactly believing her when she tells Agent Broyles she had nothing to do with Olivia's disappearance. And Nina and Broyles seem to get chummier with every episode. She calls him "Philip" like they're old friends ... or maybe something more. And is Olivia the dumbest FBI agent ever? Why on earth would she get out of her car and try to run when the other cars surrounded her? She could have kept driving across the lawn! Not that I was screaming at the TV or anything!!!

Little Hill Field. Don't you think it would have occurred to the FBI agents to at least Google "Little Hill" and see what comes up? The abandoned airstrip was within driving distance, for cripes sake.

Fringe: The Dreamscape

"In case you hadn't noticed, I can be quite obsessive." - Walter to Astrid, on his current obsession with coffee yogurt.

Another great episode , and some of the little symbols I see leading into commercials were actually in the episode. Let's see ...

There's the moths (or butterflies, as the case may be), who showed up in a Massive Dynamic employee's hallucinations, causing him to leap through a window and down several stories, landing on top of a car. Yeah, that did not end well.

And there's the frogs, which Olivia discovered in a basement storage room, thanks to a clue sent to her by John. You know, it seems clear that her hallucinations - or memories, whatever - of John are more than that. How could a memory be sending her emails with important clues on which to follow up? Or saying that yes, he DID see her in the restaurant when she went back into the tank to rid herself of his memories. As a side note, it also makes me wonder how many of these basement storage areas with important data are scattered around our "real" world. If Fringe is in any way true to life - and who's to say it's not? - apparently, the world's secrets are not all locked up in secret vaults somewhere.

Other thoughts:

Olivia is on to Massive Dynamic and Nina, but Agent Broyles says they've been cooperative with everything. Maybe they're slipping HIM some hallucinatory drugs.

Olivia was actually going to have FUN! Yep, I saw her smile and everything. But alas, it didn't last long and she was quickly back with her sad face and heavy attitude.

Walter's obsession of the week: coffee yogurt.

Hmmm ... who is the girl who met Peter who's being beaten up by that other guy, Michael? This storyline seemed out of place, for some reason. Did it tie in with the other stuff in this ep? Was the other guy part of the John Scott group?

Didn't see The Observer (again!). Seems like he's usually in a crowd somewhere.

Creepiest line: "I saw you. In the restaurant," written by "John" (or someone) on Olivia's computer.

Fringe: The Equation

Well, after eight episodes I can say I’m officially hooked. While things started off a little slow on this show, I can now see why FOX was willing to throw out that full season pick-up in early October. They’d probably already seen at least scripts or early screenings for some of these episodes, and I'm finally starting to get somewhere with the Pattern. Oh, I don’t have any idea what the hell it is, what it’s about, and what they’re trying to accomplish, but at least they’re touching on it.

Another week, another person with a cryptic name. This time it’s the Attendant, and she’s trying to get a formula completed. And this is one hardcore bitch, too. Trotting out Ben’s mom only to have her die right in front of him when he proves unable to complete the musical composition (it’s also the formula, don’t ya know!). And it’s not the first time she’s used such ruthless psychological tricks to try and finish. But I still don’t know how Ben (the boy musician) suddenly learned to play and got hooked on that composition, or how Bishop’s friend Dashiell got obsessed with the formula so many years before.

John Noble was absolutely stellar in this episode. With facial expressions alone he was able to express such a breadth of emotion during his impromptu incarceration. I’ve read online in a few places that some people aren’t sure about the casting of Joshua Jackson on this show. Everyone seems to agree that John Noble is turning in masterful work, but I think Jackson is doing a wonderful job of playing his foil. He has just that blend of sarcasm and heart to make it work.

And while I'm at it, let’s give Anna Torv some credit, too. Not once did she pull me from the story or action with bad acting or awkwardness. In fact, she was downright effective in her role. It looks like Torv may have finally figured out her character. She was intelligent, commanding and a little bit Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs when tracking the Attendant. Too bad that damn green-green-green-red is so effective or she would have had her.

In the end, though, I guess it doesn’t matter because the people behind the Pattern are as ruthless as they are elusive, and the Attendant had outlived her usefulness now that she’d completed the formula. Should I just call them “The Others.?” Maybe I’ll find out that they’re behind the island on Lost, too. Abrams could be building his Abrams-verse and I don’t even know it.

Fringe: In Which We Met Mr. Jones

“Hello Peter, this is me, your father. Walter Bishop.”

An agent named Mitchell collapses from what appears to be a heart attack, but when the doctors open him up there is a horrifying gray-slimy-thing-with-tentacles-that-look-like-teeth nestled around his heart. Good god. Walter has never seen it before, but research leads him to one David Robert Jones and a “scientific terrorist” cell called ZFT, apparently one of several. Jones specializes in genetic weapons.

Olivia plans to confront Mr. Jones so he will tell her how to save Mitchell. But he’s in a German prison. Off to Germany! Where she reconnects with tall-dark-and-sexy Lucas and is instantly awkward and all smiles. Meanwhile, back in the states, Charlie calls Broyles and informs him that there is a mole in the agency. Broyles is in Walter’s lab at the time, and when he says the name “Joseph Smith” Peter looks surprised, then guilty. Hmmmmm.

Mr. Jones will not help Olivia unless he can ask Smith a question, but unknowing agents shoot Smith in the head first. Of course this is no problem, don’t worry at all, because Walter can hook up his son to the dead man so they can chat. He mentions that Peter has a low tolerance to electrical stimulation, and Peter suddenly remembers Walter experimenting on him as a child. He is not happy.

Back in Germany, Lucas asks Olivia to stay the night. She protests weakly. At his flat, they talk about why their relationship didn’t work out. Then they make out and tear at each other’s clothes for a spell before she gets a phone call and excuses herself, leaving Lucas addled and sexually frustrated.

In the Harvard lab, Peter eventually gets the answer to Mr. Jones’ question, and Jones tells Olivia how to save Mitchell. And I become absolutely certain that Broyles is the mole, underlining his name several times on my little notepad, only to learn that Mitchell and his wife are in on the whole thing. Oh, and the answer to Mr. Jones’ question -- and apparently the reason the Mitchells orchestrated this whole crazy situation -- is “Little Hill.”

Some notes:

* I never cease to be amused by Walter calling Astrid everything but her name – Astro, Asteroid, etc. Hilarious!

* Although I emitted an audible squeak when Peter called Walter “daddy,” I am nevertheless irritated that Fringe provided my most-anticipated moment via a drug-induced hallucination. But I did enjoy Peter buying his dad gum (adorable), and Walter’s absolute delight at working with his son, as well as the line “You may have found your true calling…working with me.”

* Olivia is definitely getting better. They’re writing a much more sarcastic tone for her, and when she sassed Broyles it was awesome.

* Peter only gave Olivia the Pacey look once this ep, so no romance for now.

* Broyles’ face when Walter started talking about fruit cocktail was priceless. I imagine the gag reel from this show must be pretty great.

Fringe: The Cure

"Where can I get one of those white suits?" - Walter, asking for a hazmat suit

Let's start at the end of this episode. I felt a little spark of something when Olivia and Peter were talking. At one point, he almost looked like he was going to lean over and kiss her. If so, I hope they don't go there -- at least, not quite yet.

The story follows the theme that someone is out there experimenting on people, with clues leading back to Massive Dynamic. Nina was only too happy to hand over the Intrepus intel to Peter, only now he's indebted to her, so I'll see where that leads in the future. But it's good for Nina, because the Intrepus' stock plunged, which gives Massive an edge.

The question is, why does someone want to turn humans into weapons? As Peter suggested, it's not only a matter of humans being used for guinea pigs, but also that someone is possibly preparing for something.

Points of interest:

Agent Broyles is surely one of the most intense guys on TV. His eyes burn laser holes into the head of whomever he's talking to, and I get the feeling that if you tipped him over, he'd crack into a million tiny pieces.

Walter continues to crack me up.

Nina told Peter that she and Walter were quite close years ago, and that she spent a lot of time with Peter when he was a kid.

I learned a little of Olivia's past, with her abusive stepfather and the card he always sends on her birthday. I wonder if he has any connections to what's going on.

A few of Walter's memorable lines:

"If you're going out, could you bring me back some cotton candy? Blue, not pink."
"Was I humming? I thought it was in my head."
"Could I get some of this onion soup? It looks delicious."

Fringe: Power Hungry

“You were hoping for something more specific, maybe?”

Fringe is getting consistently better week to week. Walter is fantastic as usual, Peter is subtly opening up, and even Olivia is improving. Last episode I commented on her lack of personal life being a detriment, and this episode actually addressed that a bit, giving her some nice interactions with fellow agent Charlie and having her show actual emotion. Yay Fringe!

The story centered on Joe, a delivery guy who just happens to cause electronics to go on the fritz when he’s upset. While delivering a package in an office building, to a girl he has a crush on, he gets mad in the elevator and sends it plummeting to the basement, killing everyone on board. Except him. Oh, and I saw The Observer just before the crash. Meanwhile, Olivia tells Charlie that she saw John. She knows it’s a hallucination. Charlie tells her to roll with it; it’s a manifestation of her guilt and confusion about everything that happened. Across town, Walter tells Peter the man who tortured him looked familiar. He is frustrated that he still can’t access parts of his mind. Peter gives him the sweetest look and says gently, “You’re doing fine.” Awwwww.

The continuity of this ep is all over the place. Peter, who was tortured in the last episode, is still all messed up; they even put rope marks on his wrists. But Astrid, who refused Walter’s apology in the last episode, is all smiles now. Grrrr.

While examining the bodies in the elevator, Walter realizes they were all electrocuted before the elevator hit bottom. Back in the day, he worked on a project to make humans trackable to homing pigeons. Each human being has a unique electromagnetic signature, and the idea was to augment the field in order to track people. However (of course), it had dire consequences. Broyles tells Olivia about Jacob Fischer, a biotechnology expert wanted in several states who lured in subjects via “the kind of commercials you see on TV at 3 AM” and then performed unspeakable tests on them.

I’m still not so sure Broyles is a good guy.

While Olivia is reading up on Fischer, the lights go out. I know I compare Fringe to Alias too much, but I wouldn’t mind if the show gave the impression that Olivia could actually defend herself without a gun. She seems sort of … weak. Anyway, she sees John again. He is reassuring, asks her to trust him, and says he truly loved her. Past tense. Interesting. John says she is on the right track and that soon he will prove that he loved her. It’s kind of creepy. He gets into an elevator and it actually moves, going down. Olivia races down the stairs, but when the doors open the car is empty.

However, Olivia sees the “maximum capacity” sign and does some research. She goes to see Peter, explaining that someone walked away from the elevator crash while Walter does a weird little dance in the background. Suddenly, Walter shocks Peter. Cute! His dance was to create electromagnetism. Meanwhile, Fischer tracks Joe down, takes him to a lab, and does things that make him scream his head off. After searching Joe’s apartment, Walter uses a cassette tape that Joe touched, which then became magnetized, to show pigeons how to track him. It sounds stupid, but it was actually kind of fun. Olivia is concerned about the pigeons’ welfare. Peter says, “We’re putting GPS chips on pigeons to track a man who can control electricity. This is your fault, right?” They’re so adorable.

Moments later, Olivia sees John again. He moves inhumanly fast but he kisses her, and that kiss seems real. He says, “I didn’t betray you, I wasn’t the one.” Peter interrupts and John disappears. Peter saw nothing. They follow the pigeons to a warehouse, and Olivia asks if Peter will have more faith in Walter if the scheme works. Peter says no. But he totally means yes. They save Joe, who just wants to go home, but he has to be tested and whatnot.

In the end, Walter tells Olivia she doesn’t seem herself. He knows she’s been seeing John. When she was in the tank, part of John’s consciousness crossed over and this is her brain’s way of working through it. But moments later, Olivia sees John again out on the street and follows him to an underground lair full of boxes and files. It turns out John was conducting his own investigations into the Pattern. And (so cliché) Olivia finds an engagement ring among John’s belongings.

Hmmm. Is Olivia’s mind really just working through something, as Walter & Charlie said (albeit for different reasons)? Or does this have something to do with Massive Dynamic? Since they have John’s body it would be a pretty huge coincidence if it didn’t. And speaking of MD, where has Nina been? She and Olivia had that loaded “everything we do leads us to each other” conversation … and then suddenly it doesn’t anymore? And finally, am I going to have to wait until the season finale to hear Peter call Walter “dad”? I think so.

Fringe: The Arrival

"It has arrived." - Bald guy wearing shades

This episode definitely got me intrigued about fringe science. It's a combination of things, and of course, Walter's scattered ramblings about whatever strikes him at any particular moment.

The funniest line was at the beginning, when a frustrated Peter sat up in bed and said, "What formula are you rattling off at 3 o'clock in the morning?" Walter replied, "The formula for root beer. I thought I might make some in the lab tomorrow."

But what about the mysterious bald guy wearing shades and carrying a brief case? The guy who seemed to be keeping track of the glowing cylinder, and whom Agent Broyles called "The Observer." I wonder what his story is? The fact that he was present years ago at the precise time Walter needed him to save his and Peter's lives makes me wonder if he's not some sort of other-worldly entity. As Walter told Peter, "It was as if he knew my thoughts before I did. He made it clear that he would need me one day to return the favor, and this was it." Walter is talking about how he hid the cylinder for Bald Guy. So it makes me wonder what else Walter knows about the goings-on of all the experiments he's conducted over the years. What else is he hiding?

I loved the scene at the end, where, for the first time, Peter had an inkling of what Walter was going through, because HE had that same experience with Bald Guy reading his thoughts. At first I thought Bald Guy had installed some sort of device into Peter's brain, so he could hear his thoughts (and I think that was true initially), but when Peter saw him in the woods that night, and he was mimicking Peter's words, I theorized that Bald Guy was indeed reading Peter's thoughts. Or ...is there a device in Peter's brain now?

Theory on the cylinders? Let's see ... they explode into the ground and then disappear. So perhaps they're carrying intel to beings inside the core of the planet. Or something. And didn't they say the cylinder arrived from under the ground?

And what about John Scott showing up at the end?!

Fringe: The Ghost Network

"I'm making my own medication in the lab." -- Walter Bishop

I've passed through the third episode of Fringe, and I'm still grooving on the show. What I love best about it isn't the X-Files-type storylines, it's pretty much all been done before. But I love the characters, especially the talented John Noble.

I'm betting Noble will find a way with his scattered, brilliant character of Walter Bishop. He can knock your socks off with just one look or movement, and he has plenty to work with in the character of Walter -- whether he's making his own medication in the lab or trying to navigate a cell phone. He remembers where all his crap from 17 years ago is stashed, but can't remember that they put the family dog down two decades ago.

Not exactly the kind of guy you want doing brain surgery on you, but that's just what tonight's subject has to endure. Well, that is, after Walter sends Olivia and Peter on a mission to find a device he made in 1983. It's buried in the wall of their old house in Cambridge, so of course, the pair break in there and retrieve the device, which looks like something out of a Mystery Science Theater movie.

It's all centered around some research that Walter did years ago on the "Ghost Network," a sort of inter-cranial way to listen in on other peoples' conversations that puts the Patriot Act to shame.

Peter and Olivia are growing on me, too. Olivia seems like she could be your next-door neighbor. Well, an intense, Type-A neighbor who gets up and jogs at 5 a.m. I appreciate the interactions between the characters, as well as Peter and Walter's surprising talent as pianists. Peter's version of "Someone to Watch Over Me," as agent Broyles meets with Nina Sharp, was spot on.

And what's up with that meeting anyway? Either Homeland Security is working with Massive Dynamic, or perhaps Broyles is actually a double agent of sorts.

Fringe: The Same Old Story

"If you've read my file, then you know the truth about Peter's medical history." -- Dr. Walter Bishop

Ok, let's start with that quote. What the heck is he talking about? That maybe Peter is a clone or something? Seriously, that was probably the most interesting thing about this episode, and it happened at the very last second. I guess that's what they want -- to leave me hanging, so I'll be back for more.

I have mixed emotions about this episode. On the one hand, it seemed all over the place. There was the main plot about the baby that aged at a rapid rate and died, the killer on the loose who's stealing peoples' pituitary glands so he can stay young, the doctor who refused to talk about his previous cloning experiments, Massive Dynamic's Nina trying to recruit Olivia ... it all seemed a little scattered to me.

Aside from Dr. Bishop's ending words about Peter's medical history, my favorite part of this episode was when he removed the eye of the girl who died and was able to pinpoint the last thing she saw by projecting her retinal history, so to speak, onto a screen, thus helping Olivia and Peter track down the killer.

Scenes like that make me wonder if these things are in the works for real. Like, is someone working on this technology? Is it even possible? And are there people out there cloning armies?

The little scenes between the three main players are fun, too: Walter and Peter living together, Peter and Olivia making a tiny connection, Walter happily signing away his rights to the feds while Peter vehemently balks at the prospect, Walter fiddling with the seat warmer in the car ("It warms your ass! It's wonderful"). And then there's the cow. She and Walter seem to have a little connection going there. Really, all of this was a lot more interesting to me than the case itself.

And now, here's my question: At the end, Walter was lulling himself to sleep by counting numbers and Peter was singing, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," and then it cut to to the scene with the three guys lying on slabs in a lab setting. What does it mean?

I played it back on my DVR and paused the scene. Although I couldn't see the guy in the middle, the guys on either side of him looked like twins. So maybe it was a cloning experiment that Walter was remembering...? Which brings me back to my original question: Is Peter a clone?

Fringe: Pilot

"I knew someone would come eventually." -- Dr. Walter Bishop

Similarities to Lost. I admit I was a little bummed when I saw the first scene. A plane incident? Really, J.J. Abrams? Are you that fixated on planes? But the scene truly does work to set the tone for the series. Why? Because there are all these people trapped in the sky. Something weird happens and their bodies go haywire. The plane lands safely on autopilot, and the agents find the grisly remains of their bodies. It sets up a whole bunch of questions. What happened? Why did it happen? Who is doing it? Where are they now? And how can Olivia and her team make it stop?

The set-up. They've packed just about as much into a pilot as humanly possible. There was the skewed romance between the FBI agents (which might not be over, even though one of them is technically dead), the "fringe science" around which everything else revolves, a looming government conspiracy with a robotic-armed woman, an emotionally unstable father and a distant son, an outsider who's being reluctantly pulled into a world he'd rather avoid, and Olivia, the glue that holds all of it together. And then there's the cow...

The cow. Did it seem a little over the top to you? I appreciate the presence of the cow even though it just seems weird to have a cow in the laboratory. Really, it's basically there for comic relief.

Suspending disbelief. I know the show is all about weird science, but I can't help scratching my head over the way some things went down. No, not the dream sequence. I'm actually ok with that. It's the fact that they had this ancient lab up and running at light-speed, even though it had been collecting dust for years (and why was it still there?). Also, how was Olivia able to recover from her drug-induced dream state and spring back into action so quickly? The cocktail they gave her had LSD in it, for cripes sake, yet she was up and lucid in no time flat.

The characters. With her furrowed brow and husky voice, Anna Tory has just the right personality for both her job AND this series. She's tough, but also vulnerable, as her first scene with John shows. Olivia, Peter and Walter are such different characters, and it will be fun to see them form an alliance of sorts to figure out what's going on. Joshusa Jackson has that every-guy quality that makes me really like him -- ok, fall in love with him a little bit. He's mild-mannered until things don't go his way, and then he unleashes the fire. In contrast, Olivia seems more even-tempered, not as willing to fly off the handle as Peter. John Noble as the kooky, emotionally scarred mad scientist is fun, too. What a complete thrill to see Blair Brown again. I loved her in The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, but wow, I'm feeling old, because she's showing some age and so am I. But the fact that her character is covering up something and she's not all she appears to be -- it's intriguing. Likewise, the jury's still out on Homeland Security Agent Phillip Broyles. He seems on the up and up, but is he really...?

The special effects. I'm completely mesmerized by translucent skin you can see through. I didn't care for the the little 3D location markers between scenes. But did love the pre-commercial visuals of frogs, leaves, apples, handprints and so on. Those are cool, even though they're Lost-like.