Last week, I praised Fringe for revelling in its weirdness. Thankfully, the show kept it up this week, juggling a self-contained main story that could have come out of The X-Files and the on-going ramifications of Olivia's trip to another universe.
We had more of Agent Jessup from last week (still not doing much), and I'm not sure I like the idea of the imposter Charlie if he's not going to be found out right away. Knowing more than the main characters is a bit frustrating. The typewriter in the mirror scenes are still pretty creepy.
Also creepy: the creature living under rural Lansdale, Pa., which was the focus of tonight's case. He was the result of a pre-natal genetic experiment gone wrong; once upon a time, a doctor tried to save his pregnant, Lupus-afflicted wife by altering the unborn baby's DNA. The wife died delivering the baby, and it appeared the baby died as well. Except it lived on...and tunneled its way out of its little coffin. (See: weird and creepy.) The "super baby," as Walter describes it, grows up into a Gollum-like thing that paralyzes its victims.
Meanwhile, Olivia's still messed up from her journey/accident. The physical scars have mostly faded (though she's moving very House-like, on a cane), but she's jumpy. And she has some sort of super-hearing. Nina Sharpe sends her to a guy named Sam Weiss, who asks her about the headaches. When Olivia says they haven't shown up, he warns her "they will."
My only real quibble was one I have with a lot of TV shows portraying Pennsylvania. Lansdale has its own police department. But on Fringe there is no Lansdale police, just a local sheriff. In real life -- and hell, maybe in the alternate universe version of Pennsylvania -- our local sheriffs typically don't handle this sort of thing. Yet every crime-related show I've seen, when characters visit small-town Pennsylvania, they almost always work with a local sheriff. The worst offender in this category is probably the movie Signs. M. Night Shyamalan should've known better.
I know it's not a big deal, and that writers probably come up with the story long before the setting. (Why not to stick to New England in this case? Lansdale to Boston's a pretty long drive.)
Other thoughts:
- Walter tells Olivia that traveling to another universe has its consequences. We know -- or assume -- he's made the same trip, so what's he talking about?
- I loved the scene with Walter and Peter at the end, Walter totally missing the point of the fishing story, yet being excited to go fishing with Peter. It was in keeping -- in a kinder, gentler way -- with the episode's father and son theme.
- Sam Weiss was played by Kevin Corrigan, who normally portrays much shadier characters. Although this was only his first appearance, so he could end up being a real dirtbag.
Tom Coombe
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