Fringe Watch: Mmmm, Parasites!

Lobster? Nope....clearly, the Pattern figured out a way to grow an Audrey II inside of people. I swear the parasite said "Feed Me, Seymour" at one time.

@James,
Agreed . . . Fringe has tons of potential and all of the right elements, but it needs to get out of it's formulaic rut! It seems like the show's premise is torn between "a rag-tag group of government operatives/ contractors takes on a global scientific conspiracy" and "how many different ways can you communicate with a dead guy?" And only one of those premises has any staying power . . .

While I hated the X-Files mytharc episodes, I've gotta say . . . Fringe needs more mytharc! So far my favorite elements are Walter, Bald Chili-Pepper Man, and now Self-Inflicted Lobster Parasite Couple . . . I'd rather be delving deeper into the conspiracy, not watching them chase through warehouses and revive corpses.

Is it just me or does Walter act even crazier when Broyles is around? Olivia and Peter can generally get a somewhat coherent conversation out of him with a few wacky points tossed in, but when Broyles shows up, Walter goes directly to gibberish about gum/mints or fruit cups.

I can't decide if it's just the show adding some humor or if it's supposed to be a clue that Walter doesn't trust him, and acts goofier to keep Broyles from getting too interested in him. Or that I think about this stuff waaaayyyyyy too much.

I agree with everything you said except wanting to eat the segmented parasite in that guy's chest. (I did think that was one of the cooler, creepier cases they've had - the attention to detail with the tendrils rising us the IV was neat).

I had the same thought last week. For all the crap JJ Abrams has been getting for this show, Fringe is a modest success. He contractually owed a show to Fox and he made one that's earning them money. So...(optimism here), what if while building up an audience and spoon feeding them the mythology, the whole first season is setup for the rules of the game. I envision the end of season one building to a major event where Massive Dynamic and/or other groups try to usher in a new world order. And the rest of the series has the former FBI working almost like a riot squad in a charged, slightly apocalyptic future. Characters introduced now will have larger roles later, like the electro-emotion guy. The case-by-case episodes are really serving to delineate scope (residual ghost memories isn't just a one-off, it will be part of the series' mythology), etc.

Not much to say myself about it - it was another episode by numbers (you forgot to mention "Dirty government agents" in your summary) - except for one bit which threw me:

Did they say that most of the Pattern events were just independent "bio-hackers" testing things?

The idea isn't unheard of: Greg Bear's Quantico posited a realistically terrifying near-future in which, instead of "script kiddies" that download computer virus code off the internet, fiddle with a few lines, and then recompile it as a new virus they release into the wild, your too-smart college kids would download the actual genetic code for real viruses off the internet, fiddle with a few base pairs, then run it through a gene resequencer and get a new virus that only their faulty consciences would prevent from getting into the wild.

But as a structure for the show, it is somewhat of a leap. Making the arch-villain of the show a distributed unconnected number of rogue scientists means that while you never run out of cases of the week (there's always a new cell starting up somewhere), the heroes also can't ever win - how do you defeat hubris (i.e. the need to play god)?

As commentary though, there are any number interesting things you could mention:
"The Pattern" - in fact isn't one. All it really is is a (partial) list of test results. This speaks to the need for human minds to organize random events into logical (if wrong) histories (A caused B, B caused C, etc.), and the root cause of our love of conspiracies - the desire to pin the blame on things on a single (or small set) of person(s), rather than face the dark truth that we live in an amoral and random universe, that simply does not care if your car is under a bridge when its masonry gives out.

The difficulties of fighting a distributed enemy with a hierarchical force - it is extremely difficult for organized forces to fight distributed, mixed with civilian, enemies that are intentionally covering their tracks. Your only real options are to, essentially, monitor everyone (which tends to violate civil liberties and usually produces too many false positives to be a net benefit) or incarcerate/kill everyone (which absolutely violates liberties and riles up the rest of the population but also "wins" - see American & British history in Africa in the 50s).
Given those two terrible options, there has since been an increased focus on espionage: and notice that in the show, the FBI was getting nowhere cracking the actions of independent mad scientists working in shadowy labs - until they made their own! (Of course, it's also a lot easier to produce & introduce a conceited western scientist into a shadowy underworld than it is to produce & introduce a credible Sunni Yemeni Wahabbi-ist into a terror cell.) Not that this plan is problem-free either; you never know if the operative is still working for your side (how long before Walter goes rogue?) and if the other side isn't simply using you/feeding you bad information (as was revealed in the finale of this very episode).

Hrmm, I waxed philosophical there. Maybe the episode was more noteworthy than I thought.

James, I was totally thinking the same thing about that Broyles speech. I was tickled thinking it could be the producers' attempt at one-upping all those Fringe whiners and haters out there, but then I figured it could very well be my overly suspicious, passive-aggressive 'other' overreaching, again--third time this week too (sigh)
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But I was excited to see on the credits that this epi was penned by JJ Abrams and Jeff P...and IMO, it showed. There was a definite tonal shift in the xters. Broyles was less automated and had more to do , Agent Dunham was more collegial and the actor was given material that showcased her range--impressive, and the supporting xters (the baddies at least) were brilliant.
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Which got me thinking... maybe the show can diversify the wackness portfolio by featuring weird science performed on other forms of organic life. The opening credits show graphics with a weird frog and apple, sooo... maybe storylines with mutating animals and plants? Nothing screams mass hysteria like altering food and water sources, throw in weird weather patterns and that's a scary massive dynamic...
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Then again, I'm just saying...
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Loved yesterday's episode, and not just coz I'm totally in the tank for Fringe. OK, maybe I am...haven't gotten round to watching The Mentalist, maybe after the season is up. Thanks for the post JP, it's a welcome midday entertainment/distraction.

Lobster tails? Come on James everyone knows that was just one of the fireball breathing Pirhana plants from Super Mario Bros....