Fringe Summer Rewatch: #118 "Midnight" ~ Fringe Television - Fan Site for the FOX TV Series Fringe

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #118 "Midnight"

      Email Post       8/04/2011 12:01:00 AM      

Join us for our Fringe Summer re-watch, where we review every episode of Fringe during the summer hiatus. Comments are welcome as we dig into the connections made over three seasons.

Midnight was definitely one of those episodes you don't forget. Starting off with a relatively handsome guy that the writers let you think is the killer when he’s watching the news report and grabbing a pocket knife. We follow him to a bar where you begin to think this guy is a real sleaze, cheating on his girlfriend for a one night stand and he might even kill someone. He finally finds a girl who goes back with him and in typical Fringe-fashion, we find out the killer is actually the girl he's taken home.

When the body is discovered and the Bishops and Olivia show up Walter is clearly excited and Peter is in rare sarcastic form as he tries to cheer up a clearly down Olivia who is trying to avoid his questions. We later learn the reason she is down is because her sister, Rachel's, husband has filed for a divorce and also for custody of Ella.

Family drama aside, we get a good peek into ZFT through scientist Dr. Boone who has been coerced into creating experiments for them. The Fringe team is then tasked with saving Boone's wife in order to learn more about ZFT. Problem is, Boone's wife is the big bad spinal fluid vampire.

They're eventually able to track her down through a thermal gun that tracks her above temperature body heat (thanks to the syphilis) at a dance club before she can hurt anyone else. Peter and Olivia are taking her back when she wakes up and tries to make a midnight snack of Olivia while Peter is driving. Luckily Peter saves the day by tranking her again and they're able to get her back in one piece and without becoming food themselves. Meanwhile back at the lab, Dr. Boone with Walter's help has created the cure that should save his wife, but it must be injected directly into her spine with other spinal fluid. Since Dr. Boone knows that his spinal fluid is compatible with hers, he offers up some of his, claiming that he has enough left for her and him. We find out later that this s a lie when he dies on the table after they save his wife. Lucky for team Fringe, Dr. Boone left behind a video spilling all the secrets to ZFT that he knew and all the members he'd heard of, including the benefactor, William Bell.

Side Notes:






  • The Observer walks by twice in the club intro scene.



  • We learn the state of Broyles’ home life. Divorced with kids.



  • 81 people have died up until this episode in Fringe related cases. +146 people on flight 826.



  • Peter introduces Olivia to Mako a chop shop guy from Peter's mysterious past.



  • Walter enjoys sharing his lab with Boone and they talk the relation of faith and scientific breakthroughs.



  • Peter has way too much fun with the sirens.



  • Boone claims it is William Bell funding ZFT, which would explain Boone’s hesitance when Walter brings up sharing a lab with Bell.
Quotes:






  • How far would you go for someone you love?”



  • “You’re my kind of guy”
Song:






  • “Tear you Apart” – She Likes Revenge
If Peter Bishop didn't exist...






  • We wouldn't have nearly as much sassy sarcasm in the episode.



  • Olivia wouldn't have her sound board to talk to.



  • Let's face it, only Peter can hold a thermal reading gun and make it look hot.

5 Comments:

cortexifan said...

-Bob was the mysterious killer that the TV reporter was talking about. There was a hunting knife on the dresser.
-Ha, I finally made the connection of the title to the episode. Bob’s girlfriend looked at her alarm clock at midnight.
-Greg filing for divorce. Is this the same guy Rachel moves to Chicago with in 3.05 Amber 31422?
-Olivia asks Broyles for his divorce attorney’s phone number. She knew he was divorced because he only talks to his kids. The reason for his divorce is the case he was finally able to solve in 2.06 Earthling. From 3.07 and 3.08 we know that Alt-Broyles is still married.
-On that same note, I just like how the relationship between Olivia and Broyles is laid out.
-I’m still confused on who ZFT is and what side they’re on.
-How many languages does Olivia speak besides German and this Asian language? Peter speaks a lot of different ones as well.
-Glyph for this episode spelled: EIGHT. I still haven’t figured out what that means, any thoughts?
-Mr. Mako, another one of Peter’s weird connections. We have an auto repair shop in our town called Maaco’s. Maybe this is a “weird connection”.
-Walter talks about the soul.
-Walter baked cookies because he was expecting them. In 3.04 DSDOES Nina came to visit. If Walter had known she was coming he would have baked a cake.
-Boone says: “How far would you go for someone you love?” To another universe! And along the same line Olivia says later: “What Boone is doing for his wife, that kind of love.”
-Boone had a stroke because they took too much spinal fluid. Walter in the future had a stroke as well. We know from 3.10 The Firefly that Walter had done many experiments on himself. Was another experiment the reason for his stroke?
-Olivia seemed frustrated that Boone died. She wasn’t gonna get answers.


If Peter never existed in this episode…

-who would have driven the car with Valerie in the back?
-who would have pulled the trigger on the tranq gun?
-would Olivia have survived.
-how would they have found the car, since it was Peter’s weird connection who led them to it?

dana said...

"Let's face it, only Peter can hold a thermal reading gun and make it look hot."

-awesome and very true observation

fringeobsessed said...

cortexifan,
Excellent points, all of them.
Firstly, one of my fav Walter/Peter Season 1 moments is in this episode, when Walter says to Astrid as they are trying to determine the source of the syphillis, "See isn't this fun?"
Walter smiles at her and so does Peter. It's an awesome little moment.

The syphillis was sent to Lubov Phramaceuticals in Brighton. A wikipedia search revealed a very interesting scifi/fantasy artist named "Lubov," originally from St. Petersburg, Russia. Apparently she travels to different sci-fi conventions. I'm guessing someone on the Fringe writing staff fancies her work: http://www.lubov.net/bio.html

Regarding the glyph message "eight."
Eight is Olivia's number. There was Ella's gift of the magic eight ball to Liv in 'Bound.'
Dr. Boone told Olivia he made 6 vials of that XT43 stuff, perhaps there are 8, which means there are still 2 vials out there somewhere that could show up again?!

Peter driving Liv's SUV and saving her by grabbing and firing her tranq gun? The 3rd example in this series of "Give him the keys and save the girl." As you said, cortexifan, if Olivia had been driving alone with Valerie Boone in back, it would have been an entirely different story-Olivia may have died.

Maaco and Mr. Mako-yeah I'm guessing that's where they got that. :)

And Boone's "How far would you go for someone you love?" I guess we'll find out later in the series exactly how far Peter Bishop goes, maybe even how far Lincoln Lee goes, and possibly how far Walter Bishop, and even Olivia Dunham go.

cortexifan said...

fringeobsessed,
thanks for your insights. Regarding the EIGHT I'm going to borrow one of Astrid's line from 1.07: Now, I keep assuming it can't be this. That it's too simple to be plain text...."
I myself said that 8 is Olivia's number. And I thought that this is what it is referring to, and I also thought that there are 8 vials. But again I thought that's too simple and normally the glyphs go with the current episode. So I'll take your response and make it work for me :)

cortexifan said...

correction to my post. I said Walter would have baked a cake for Nina in 3.04 DSDOES, that is incorrect. He said it in 3.06 6599 KHZ. Sorry, my bad.

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