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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FRINGE: A New Day in the Old Town

Hey FRINGE fans – it’s Gretchen here and I’m super excited to let you know that I’ll be tackling Fringe this season for GMMR! I’m a huge J.J. Abrams fan and had high hopes for Fringe last season, but, like many of you, I was lukewarm on the first few episodes. Thankfully, I stuck with it and I was absolutely blown away by the back half of the first season. I can’t claim to be 100% caught up on all of the many theories and speculations about the show — but I’ll give you my take each week and I hope that you’ll share yours with me in the comments section below.

Fringe Science – The Cliff Notes Version

With a little help from one of Walter’s old lab experiment videos, we learned from a very tripped out woman about “soldiers from another universe” who are shape shifters. They can shift by pushing up a machine into the soft palette of the roof of their mouth, leaving three holes.

One of these soldiers was tasked to prevent Olivia from having her meeting with William Bell (remember the seemingly pointless car collision Olivia had on the way to her meeting with Bell during the season finale…not so pointless after all!!). The soldier flees the crash site, assuming that Olivia is dead, and shifts into a nearby body. Later, via a typewriter in the backroom of a repair shop, he learns that Olivia is not dead and that his new orders are to interrogate and kill her. He shape shifts into Olivia’s nurse and helps Olivia to remember all that she can. She remembers that she met with someone who told her about something that is hidden, but she cannot remember what or where. The soldier/shifter attempts to kill Olivia. Fortunately, Peter and team show up just in time to save her. Not so fortunately for Charlie, the shifter kills him and then shifts into his body!!!

Here and “Over There”

Previously, we saw Olivia narrowly avoid a serious car collision on her way to meet with William Bell. Now it seems that she did get into that car accident (planned and executed by the soldier who was trying to prevent her from meeting with Bell) but “after” she had already had her meeting. So, in addition to returning from the alternate reality, did she also return slightly back in time?

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