I went into "The Abducted" expecting it to move the Olivia/Fauxlivia storyline along quite a bit.
And although that didn't happen, it's hard to complain about an episode this well done. A very tense, creepy hour. Take it out of the parallel universe context, and it would have been a strong season one episode, back when this show's monster-of-the-week installments were a lot more frequent (and usually hit and miss).
The monster -- or monsters -- in this case were members of a church abducting children for a series of bizarre experiments that cured diseases and reversed aging, but turned their test subjects into withered, sickly shells.
Because I expected the last half of the episode to mostly be about Olivia trying to cross back over, I was surprised when the There's Actually TWO Bad Guys twist popped up. And I was willing to forgive Fringe resorting to the Sympathetic Witness Is In Danger trope, because of the way it complicated Olivia's relationship with Alt-Broyles.
All the same, I'm looking forward to where this all leads in two weeks, where we spend time in both worlds, with both versions of Olivia in way over their heads.
Other thoughts:
- I sort of wish we'd seen a little more of Andre Royo's Henry. Maybe next week.
- Notice that Over There spells "Manhatan" differently. Or the Fringe graphics department screwed up.
- Is there a President of the alternate United States, or is Walter running everything?
Tom Coombe
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