Fringe Watch: I Stand Corrected
Craig Blankenhorn/FOX
Brief spoilers for Fringe coming up after the jump.
So I've written once or twice, or maybe it's been basically every week, that Fringe would be much improved if it would get off its procedural focus and commit more fully to the Pattern storyline. Last night, we got another procedural mystery-of-the-week and only cursory attention (at least explicitly) to the Pattern arc. And it turns out it was one of the best episodes the show has done yet. So basically, don't pay attention to me anymore.
The difference last night is, in part, simply a better story. There were few of the repetitions the show has been plagued with. Walter didn't hook any corpses up to machines to read their thoughts. (Well, OK, we did have Olivia once again following Rule 1 of the TV FBI Handbook: Always confront the suspect alone, to ensure her escaping at the last possible moment.) The child musical prodigy was genuinely creepy—particularly the reveal of him playing the practice keyboard pad while he saw the illusion of his dead mother—and the Christmas Lights of Forgetfulness were something I hadn't seen before. Unless I was hypnotized into forgetting it.
But the other improvement is that, while the Pattern, Massive Dynamic et al. may have receded into the background, the episode still had forward movement, especially regarding Walter's character. Who knows what the significance is of his remembering the red-green light pattern from somewhere in his past, but by returning him to the asylum, the show fleshed him out, and made him something more than a charming lunatic. Instead, he was a poignant lunatic. His moment of self-realization—"Is that what it's like to talk to me?"—was perhaps the best scene he's had with Peter yet.
And if there's one rule of Fringe I'll still stand behind, it is: The more Walter, the better. But check back in another week and see if I've changed my mind.
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1
Can anyone explain to me what exactly happened with the apple? I'm so confused.
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2
@Chaddogg, it was eaten...sorry, couldn't help myself. I think they were trying to find a frequency that would turn solids into a liquid like state in that he could easily move through, ie "walk through walls", I guess to steal stuff from safes or something more sinister to be seen.
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3
The apple he put into the safe was a Stayman Winesap. But when he pulled it out, it was... a Jonagold!
No, having rewound the scene a couple times, I concluded that (1) the equation did something that enabled him to reach through a solid safe wall (either what Yogi describes, or some kind of wormhole, or sci-fi effect TBD) and that (2) we probably weren't supposed to know exactly what it did yet, so I decided not to worry about it.
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4
I agree with the 'more Walter' rule. Also nice to see Peter actually coming up with some ideas himself instead of just being a smart-a** Igor to Walter's mad scientist.
On a unrelated note, was Walter's story about being hired by ad firms to put blinking lights into commercials a warning? I think those little odd pictures with the "Fringe will return in 60 seconds." are loaded with their own green and red lights because I rarely bother to fast forward the DVR during this show. Unless it's the Saved by Zero Toyota ad...
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5
James, I agree- way to flesh out Walter!
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About the apple--maybe a winking 'eating the forbidden fruit' moment? But yeah, lobster guy did reach in to the safe-like thingy through its solid wall side.
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Also, IMO the Fringe casting director (or the person making the recent guest casting decisions) definitely deserves a Christmas/Hannukah etc. bonus bcse 'Mr Dashiell this week and Mr Jones last week were absolutely brilliant. dhanks. -
6
I think your point about the procedural doesn't exactly fit, James. Didn't X-Files have a similar set-up most of the time, what with each individual episode dealing with one singular phenomenon that usually gets left unexplained in the end or unproven? And yet that show really worked - so I you might be basing your critique subconsciously to LOST or other JJ Abrams serials that do continuously develop and aren't procedurals. I'm not saying Fringe doesn't have flaws, because it does - but it's still a really good show that I love watching week after week, and for a new show, it doesn't have anywhere near the weaknesses Heroes had in its first year.
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7
@dante: The X-Files ratio was something like 2/3 self-contained episodes to 1/3 "mythology" episodes. Fringe has clearly decided for now that that would be too much mythology for this show—probably for commercial reasons but maybe for others. Now I was always personally a mythology geek, so that may be my bias, but I suppose the lesson to be drawn from this episode is that if you're going to do procedural, then each installment really needs to be distinctive, without the kind of repetition you had in some of the earlier Fringe episodes.
In one way, doing a good procedural/anthology is tougher than a good serial, because story-wise, you're starting from zero every time. In any case, what worked for me here is that this week showed you can do a self-contained episode without sacrificing character development over time. (Which was for me why The X-Files worked, not because any individual monster plot really blew my mind.)
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8
@James: I have to agree with you, that moment between Walter and Peter was probably one of, if not the best scenes of the entire series so far. This episode was one of the first times I found myself comparing the show to Lost, in terms of we finally saw some backstory/character development. The episode followed sort of a Lost template in that there was a self-contained plot line (the kidnapping) which forced an event that developed one of the characters, and then just to keep things moving we had the apple scene at the end to contribute to the overall serial plot. After he got that apple I half expected him to turn to her and tell her that the Godfather thanks her for her contributions hoo-ra!
Also Kemper's comment above got me thinking, because I'm the same way, I don't skip commercials as much with this show b/c I know its only 60 seconds...I'm wondering if Fringe will be starting a trend here...
- poniewozik Loved the season. Mrs Tuned In wd have put u on the main list RT @boredtodeath Thank u for incl us in Time's Top 10. We'll take hon mention. - 7 hours ago
- poniewozik @carr2n Virgin is the best, LAX-JFK - 7 hours ago
- poniewozik Did NPR interview abt multiscreen multitasking. After, automatically reached for iPhone in pocket. Like don draper wd have for cigarettes. - 8 hours ago
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