Fringe Review: Concentrate and Ask Again ~ Fringe Television - Fan Site for the FOX TV Series Fringe

Fringe Review: Concentrate and Ask Again

      Email Post       2/07/2011 12:31:00 AM      


“Do you know how it feels to be burdened with something that makes it impossible for you to relate to another person?”

What an odd episode. My narratological radar was pinging like crazy before the credits, as we were privy to three different opening scenes. A Tristam Shandy allusion? A structural hint that we may get a red, blue, and yellow universe? Or just an indication that this episode is transitional, drawing out mythological, emotional, and thematic plots that will have important resonances in episodes to come?


I’m voting for that last option. We really had three plots here, although of course they intertwined. Let’s take it one at a time:

Nina Sharp Does Research

We got confirmation that Seamus Wiles and his multilingual personae are all aspects of Sam Weiss. I wish we’d gotten a bit more of the delightful bowling guy and armchair psychotherapist, but he definitely served his purpose as exposition guy: regardless of what’s going on with the First People, now we know that Peter is uniquely tuned to the device, which indeed has the capabilities to destroy a universe. Peter’s feelings for Fauxlivia and our Olivia will determine which universe survives: whichever woman he chooses gets to keep her universe. (I suspect that may not be how it actually plays out, though.)

Olivia Feels Sad

This plot was simultaneously heart-breaking and redundant. Olivia’s continued angst over the trouble that Fauxlivia caused with Peter is still really, really sad. But it’s also information that I feel we’ve already gotten, so this plot felt a bit like treading water. Maybe the writers wanted to make sure that newbies felt caught up on the emotional relevance of all this dual-universes stuff?

Either way, Olivia took a bite of the forbidden fruit and found out what Peter has been thinking: he still has Fauxlivia in his thoughts. Olivia is developing a fairly serious inferiority complex, and she has begun to connect that feeling of not-measuring-up not just to her recent trip to Over There, but also to the childhood situation that made that trip possible: the Cortexiphan trials.

Our guest of the week, telepath Simon, acted as a counterpoint to Olivia’s pain. He can’t live in the world, because of Cortexiphan. Olivia has to live in the world—in two of them, in fact—but cannot bear the personal situation she is currently in. Oddly, Olivia didn’t seem to feel much resentment towards Walter in this scenario, although Peter let a few lines slip that indicated he was still feeling a bit grouchy about the whole abduction thing.

Bad Guys De-Bone Other Bad Guys

Of course, Simon was brought in to help out with the mystery of the week, in which three mercenaries used a deboning powder on the people who had made them unable to have healthy children. Although we didn’t get much about these guys, we can see some thematic parallels: past actions haunting the present, the desire for revenge, the futility of vengeance. Science gone evil.

This plot didn’t do much for me, although I welcomed the opportunity to see Olivia looking so glamorous at the museum event. I think my biggest quibble, though, is the sudden dependence on a Cortexiphan kid: it sort of felt like a telepath ex machina. Will we see him again? Will other Cortexiphan kids occasionally pop up, never to be heard from again? The dolls were fabulously creepy, though.


All in all, the episode felt disjointed and sort of off-key. A few moments reminded me of very early Fringe, before I came to love the show so much, like Walter’s scatological humor and inappropriate remarks, the telegraphing of key emotional points, and the disjuncture between the various plot threads. On the other hand, I’m watching this show as it airs. I could easily see this episode being quite wonderful if watched in the midst of a super-intense DVD marathon. In that situation, it would feel like a bridge to whatever is about to happen and a nice reminder of some of the key points that have been made in episodes past. I think it succeeds as an interlude, although maybe not as an episode. And, of course, I’m grading on a curve: this was way, way better than that episode of Toddlers and Tiaras that I watched this afternoon.

Bonus Points for the Creepy Factor:

• As the entire internet has already noticed, Dr. Bell had a copy of Dr. Spock’s book on children in his posthumous storeroom.

• Olivia: “She’s like me, but better.” My heart broke. Did your heart break? Poor Olivia.

• Walter: “Why would anyone kill a scientist? What did we ever do?”

• Walter: “We need a mind-reader to help us find a bomb.” Okey-dokey.

• Broyles: “I’m going to call Nina Sharp. She’s had more experience with the Defense Department than I have.” Neat nod to the different command structure of Over There Fringe division.

• Olivia’s sharpshooter skills are courtesy of her Fauxlivia neural download. Thanks, Fauxlivia!

• Remember when Broyles and Nina made out, lo these many episodes ago? What happened to that plot?

Not sure how to rate this one. 2.75 creepy dolls?

3 Comments:

Sophea said...

When you put it as making out, you really can add it to the creepy factor list.

SamGBishop79 said...

Funny enough William Bell's safe and Walter's lock for the Jacksonville facility had the same combination 052010. Season 2 Finale airing date and William Bell's Farewell.

Tankadin said...

What is the mop and bowling alley floor pun that someone mentioned on another site? I missed that.

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