FRINGE: August

First of all, can somebody explain to me why this episode was entitled “August”? I’m guessing that the reason is either (a) completely obvious and just escaping my little brain for no apparent reason or (b) a very minor detail that I failed to catch, likely because I could barely hear the TV over the noise of my husband tearing into our latest DIY project. Help me out — PLEASE!!!

One Less Watching
This episode had not one, not two, but FOUR Observers in it! This makes it difficult for us to continue to refer to Walter’s follicallly challenged friend as “THE” Observer. From here on out, I will call him O1…not to be confused with O2, the star of the mysteriously titled “August” episode.

O2 was observing the 1989 San Francisco earthquake and witnessed a little girl lose both of her parents in the bridge collapse. Her bravery touched him and he experienced feelings, an ability which the other observers appear not to possesa. For the next 20 years, he observed her, even though to the other observers she appeared to be unimportant. On the day that she was meant to die in a plane crash, O2 kidnapped her to prevent it from happening. By doing so, he broke an important rule of observing – he altered the natural order of life.

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FRINGE: Of Human Action

Grrrrrr…this episode has completely caused me to get a song stuck in my head – Nerf Herder’s “5000 Ways to Die”. It’s not exactly a classic so I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t know the lyrics. The ones that are now on repeat-play in my brain are “get in your car and drive real fast/up in the attic with a shotgun blast/take a bath with a clock radio/vodka and valium overdose”. Great – add that to the fresh visual of death by hot coffee over the head/face through a glass door, and I should have some really great dreams tonight…

Twists and Turns
Nothing is as it first appears in this episode. Initially, we are led to believe that two used car salesmen kidnap the son of a Massive Dynamic scientist and hold him for ransom. One of these men seems to be able to hypnotize people and cause them to violently kill/harm themselves or others.

By mid-episode, it becomes clear that it is really the teenage boy, Tyler, who is the kidnapper and the one with the power of mind control. The two car salesmen are his innocent victims. Tyler stages the kidnapping to get money from his father to use to start a new life with his mother…a mother who his father had led him to believe was dead. Tyler kidnaps Peter along the way and the two compare bad daddy notes (more on that later). Peter is eventually able to stop Tyler, with the help of Walter and the rest of the gang.

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FRINGE: Earthling

Can I just say that I was really creeped out by the opening scene of this episode? Maybe it struck a chord because today is my own wedding anniversary and the thought of my husband planning a nice surprise for me and then turning to dust in front of my very eyes is beyond horrific. Or maybe it is because my television inexplicably turned itself off in the middle of the day yesterday (probably should have been doing something more productive anyway)…either way, the first few minutes were pretty darn scary for a TV show!

Russian Fringe Science
The body of the husband that turned to dust opens up a case that rings a bell with Agent Broyles. Broyles had seen a similar phenomenon four years ago in DC. Multiple people, linked to a particular hospital, had turned to dust. At that time, Agent Broyles had received a call from an Eastern European man who said that the murders would end if Broyles could find someone to solve a particular formula. Broyles was unsuccessful in obtaining a solution, but the murders inexplicably stopped and he thought it was over…until now.

The team learns that the murdered husband had been at Latchmere General Hospital, visiting his mother, the day of his murder. They begin their investigation there, looking specifically for an Eastern European employee who had previously worked at the DC hospital where the previous murders had occurred. They find a suspect named Thomas Koslov, who is a night nurse in the coma ward.

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FRINGE: Dream Logic

My apologies to Gretchen and FRINGE fans. This has been sitting in a ‘drafts’ folder since the 17th.  Can I blame the pain meds? - Kath

It is 8:00 Friday night and I just got around to watching last night’s episode of Fringe, thanks to a long list of things including (but not limited to) my husband, baseball, and my own ridiculous inability to stay awake while watching TV from the comfort of my own bed – even for my most favorite shows! For those of you who were anxiously waiting to hear my thoughts on the show (Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?), I apologize!

I’m Yawning Just a Little Bit
After last week’s killer episode, this one left me feeling just a little bit flat. Someone mentioned in a previous comment section that they found the show to be “uneven” and I tend to agree. I think all of the episodes are solid, entertaining, well acted, etc., — but the momentum seems to pick up at a crazy pace one episode and then settle in almost as if nothing major had happened by the next. This episode addressed the repercussions of last week (Olivia killing Bad!Charlie) and also advanced one of the most compelling storylines (Walter kidnapping Peter from the other universe), but most of the hour was spent on a stand-alone, non-Pattern (Observer-less) case. I understand the logic behind wanting to keep the show more accessible to the casual or new viewer but it ultimately makes it less compelling to the hard-core fan base.

In a Nutshell
What I’m learning from Fringe is that it is never a good idea to sign up for experimental medical research of any sort. In this particular case, individuals with sleep disorders enrolled in a clinical trial in which a wireless transmitter was implanted into the portion of their brains that controls sleep. The test subjects were all happily relieved of their sleeplessness, but the doctor conducting the research was actually robbing them of their dreams. In fact, he was essentially mainlining their dreams — to the point of complete addiction. To feed his own addiction, he was using the chips to stimulate dream activity in his patients while they were still awake. This basically caused their dreams and nightmares to come to life, which in turn led them to do all kinds of bad things, including killing people. To make matters worse, it ultimately kills them of sleep exhaustion.

The Dream Team

OLIVIA –

Olivia goes back to Sam to return her bowling shoes and to thank him for helping her solve her problem. He points out to her that she has other problems and that her life is basically a nightmare. She reluctantly agrees and he gives her another task which involves collecting business cards from people wearing red, circling one letter from both their first and last names, and then deciphering an anagram from those letters. The solution is “You’re Gonna Be Fine” – the same thing that Charlie said to her during her very first week with the FBI.

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FRINGE: Momentum Deferred

I’m going to be honest and admit that it was hard for me to make the decision to watch Fringe at its regularly scheduled time tonight. If it weren’t for this blog, I would have been glued to The Office for the big JAM wedding extravaganza. It’s not that I don’t consider Fringe to be must watch TV – I definitely do — but my Thursday night TV line-up is way too crowded! Please, Fox, move Fringe back to Tuesday nights so that I (and the other viewers who are dropping off like flies) can give it the time and attention that it deserves!! That being said, I now don’t regret my decision to postpone the Jim/Pam love fest one little bit since “Momentum Deferred” was completely AWESOME!!! So many questions were answered, that I hardly even know where to begin!

He’s Baaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!
Last week I was wondering when we would get to see good old William Bell again and I am happy to report that we did not have to wait all that long. He was back tonight, albeit just in Olivia’s memories, but on screen long enough for the big reveal of what it was that he told Olivia during their time together “over there”.

Here are the facts, as I understand them:

• Walter and William had been trying to create a “guardian” — someone who could protect the gate between universes.

• It is difficult for humans to cross from one side to the other/not many can do it successfully.

• Bell is unable to leave the alternate universe for reasons yet to be disclosed.

• Those “over there” who are waging the war have created hybrids (part organic material/part machine), i.e. the shape shifter soldiers, which can cross over more successfully than humans.

• The hybrids have already crossed over and are referred to as “The First Wave”. They are searching for someone, a leader, who can open the door between universes.

• The leader’s body has a symbol on it (looks kind of like the Greek letter omega or a pair of headphones, depending on your perspective). Olivia needs to find it before the hybrid/soldier shifters or a “storm” will be coming. Bell doesn’t elaborate on what the “storm” is, but Nina later explains to Olivia that it is Bell’s theory of what will happen if the gate is opened – the two worlds will collide and only one will survive.

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FRINGE: Fracture

After a seemingly un-Pattern related episode last week, “Fracture” brings us back into the thick of things.

Fringe Science – The Cliff Notes Version
A Philadelphia police officer receives a mysterious call, instructing him to walk into Suburban Station and meet a man in a trench coat. He takes the briefcase from the man and walks away. Seconds later, he explodes.

As the team investigates, they learn that while serving time in Iraq, the police officer had been exposed to a harmful chemical weapon. He was one of only a handful of soldiers who survived, thanks to a classified experimental military project, code named Tin Man. Tin Man involved daily injections of a serum into the body. The serum was able to counter the effects of the synthetic neurotoxin, but it had a harmful side effect. When exposed to radio waves at a particular frequency, it caused the body’s tissue to crystallize and then explode. Project Tin Man was discontinued because of it.

Colonel Raymond Gordon, who had been a part of Tin Man, became a rogue agent. Colonel Gordon believes that there are others among us, making observations and gathering data about our advancements in science that they will later use to exterminate us. To prevent these observers from receiving their data (via the briefcases), Gordon was using the four soldiers who had been saved by Tin Man as unwitting suicide bombers. The team apprehends him before he can carry out a second attack in DC. They do not, however, get to the man who had been carrying the second briefcase and we see him successfully deliver it to the Observer! As the voice-over of Colonel Gordon describes what is in the briefcase, something that will “destroy us all”, the Observer opens the briefcase and pulls out several pictures of Walter!!!!

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FRINGE: Night of Desirable Objects

So did anyone still manage to catch Fringe even now that the Fall TV season is in full swing and it is up against The Office/Community, Grey’s, CSI, and Supernatural?! Thursday nights alone are making the HD TiVo that I purchased last year seem like a VERY wise investment indeed! Speaking of my beloved TiVo, I am in the unfortunate position of being temporarily without it since I’m tucked away in a hotel room in DC for the next few days. Trying to make sense of an episode of Fringe without the benefit of a rewind or two is a bit of a challenge, but I’ll do my best.

Fringe Science – The Cliff Notes Version

The team investigates a string of mysterious disappearances in the small town of Lansdale, PA. As the team combs the case files, a former doctor, Hughes, comes under suspicion. Olivia and Peter search Hughes’ house and come across a mysterious lab, complete with a big old periodic table of elements hanging from the wall. Later, Agent Jessup, uncovers evidence which suggests that Hughes may have killed his wife and son (he claims that his wife died in childbirth and that his son died just a few minutes later). Olivia brings Hughes in for questioning and asks for a sample of his DNA; they want to match it with some blueish material that was found at the crime scene (which Walter had already analyzed and found to be at least partially made up of human male DNA). Hughes denies DNA testing and Olivia puts him under a 24 hour hold while they obtain a warrant. The warrant becomes unnecessary because Hughes hangs himself from the light fixture while he waits.

Meanwhile, the exhumation of the bodies reveals two things (1) Hughes‘ wife had been suffering from an advanced case of Lupus and would have been medically unable to give birth and (2) the coffin of Hughes’ son was empty and had a hole in the bottom of it, indicating that something had burrowed its way out of it. Walter reveals that his analysis of the after birth taken from Hughes’ wife’s body suggest that Hughes had genetically engineered his son to survive even the most inhospitable of conditions by combining animal DNA (most likely that of a scorpion and a mole rat) with the human DNA. Oliva and Peter head back out to the farm where they confront the mutant boy underground and then proceed to take care of him before he can take care of them.

I’ll Take Mine With an Extra Side of Creepy, Please

What is it about corn fields that is so creepy? Thank you very much “Children of the Corn”, “Signs”, the pilot episode of “Smallville”, and now, tonight’s episode of “Fringe”, for making rows and rows of a harmless vegetables seem nothing short of terrifying.

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