It’s pretty awesome to be treated to mid-season mini-finales; it forces networks to work really hard to make sure that, after the sometimes really long winter hiatus, viewers are going to come back for more. Supernatural really worked their last show, and so did Fringe. As mentioned in the last couple of reviews, Fringe episodes are becoming better and better, and it bode quite well for this episode. And boy, did the Fringe team deliver.
Already, for the second week in a row, the opening is quite gruesome, which makes me wonder if the producers are upping the icky factor in a bid to grow into the show’s potentiality. Once again we are taken into a psychiatric institution – a running theme in Fringe, it seems. It’s a good thing Walter Bishop is a fictional character; I felt quite bad for him, once again taken into a place he’d much rather forget about.
Guard: Are you’re Dr. Bishop?
Walter: Yes. And I’m perfectly sane.
At said psychiatric hospital, we meet with Joseph Slater, who, in the opening scene of this episode, was undergoing a rather gruesome brain surgery in his room, courtesy of the mysterious ‘omega boss’ Olivia Dunham was warned about by William Bell and the very goons that found his head and connected back to a body.
We soon come to discover that Joseph Slater has been cured of schizophrenia – which, by the way, is impossible. And Fringe Division figures out that apparently frozen heads to just get up and go places, as the identify the intruder who performed pro bono surgery on Joseph Slater as Thomas Newton, one of the frozen heads that were stolen.
Just to complicate matters a little more, we also soon discover that Joseph Slater isn’t the only one whose psychiatric disorder is miraculously healed, and all of these miraculous recoveries are correlated with the presence of a scar on each person’s scalp. Odd, to say the least.
Fringe Division soon figures out that each of these patients had foreign brain tissue implanted in their brains; someone was basically using them as a storage container. And soon, we figure out whose brain tissue was being stored: Walter Bishop’s.
Wanting to bring the other dimension Peter into this world after this world’s Peter passed away, Walter created a door that also opened the way for a possible invasion, as William Bell warned Olivia Dunham about last season. To keep the information safe, Walter Bishop’s hippocampus was removed, as per William Bell’s suggestion, but, it seems, with Walter Bishop’s consent, and placed for safekeeping in our three miraculously healed psychiatric patients. But now Thomas Newton needs that information; he took back the pieces of Walter Bishop’s brain tissue and, using an apparatus that seems to detect the brain’s electromagnetic field, is ‘fitting’ the pieces’ to electric impulses within Walter Bishop’s brain’s impulses, thus temporarily restoring his brain back to normal.
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Article comments
1 - teyweoe
Of course, you don't BOTHER to put down ANYTHING peter does in this episode. This whole review nothing but Olivia and Walter. I hate these two and I hate you.
2 - Sahar
Lol! teyweoe, thanks for the laugh, this is the most hilarious comment I have ever read.
3 - Flo
First of all, happy new year to you Sahar! Best wishes for 2010, health, success and all.
I don’t have much more to say about this episode, you covered everything in your review.
Olivia’s amazing skills at shooting made me think about Scully’s in “The X-Files”. She was a great shooter too. Remember when she shoots Mulder, easily finding his shoulder’s area, in the night, without a lot of light and while Mulder was bending over Krycek?
Anyway, FBI agents are trained to gun fight and with the adrenaline I suppose you can do amazing things! And I agree with you and Broyles, Olivia is not weak.
Back to the main story, a lot was discovered but like you said, it begs more questions. Who or what exactly is Thomas Newton and how did he know about the brain tissue? Who does he work for? This is really intriguing. I really wonder what will be Newton next move.
All of this looks more and more like a chess game.
As for Walter, Olivia is right, without his whole brain, he is a better person. The way he acts when he recovers his brain tissue is indeed colder but at the same time it was this man who in a gesture of desperation built a door to retrieve his son. So as cold and arrogant as he apparently was he also was capable of love. I think he always was socially inept. Now, he still has difficulties in this area but he tries to be a better father.
All in all it was a very interesting episode, full of developments. Good rhythm.
4 - Sahar
Happy New Year to you too, Flo! Always nice to read your comments - you have very interesting insights. Have you noticed how what you tell me always influences my future reviews?
I never really noticed Scully's shooting skills. I distinctly remember the scene where she shoots Mulder (it was in Season 2's Anasazi, if I am not mistaken) but... perhaps because it wasn't really an important element of the show, it never stood out to me.
Walter Bishop being a better person without pieces of his brain really tickled my imagination. Perhaps it's because I recently reread 1984... But I couldn't help but wonder (and shudder) and the thought of a society in which brain excisions would be performed to ensure 'good community life'.
Lesson of the day: I shouldn't read 1984 before going to bed ;)
5 - Flo
As incredible and shameful as it sounds, I must admit I never read 1984! I know, I know don't shoot!
The brain excisions for "community service" is really a scary thought. But like you wrote in your review, in a society where some people wonder if chemical castration would be a good idea for rapists, who knows? It is an interesting thought.
Yes, scully shooting Mulder is in season two's finale "Anasazi".
Thanks for the kind words. I don't really notice my influence on your reviews though. Probably because it is not a purpose of my comments. I mean, I find your reviews interesting and I just want to share my views on the episodes. Glad you find my insights useful, it's always nice to know your own comments are appreciated :)