Fringe is back. Not with a bang, but with a subtle, creepy whisper. As far as I can tell,
Inner Child is a prologue of sorts to the remainder of Season 1, laying a foundation of weirdness for the revelations to come.
"He could be significantly older..."
Our Pattern event of the week: the mysterious appearance of what can only be a young Observer. Or perhaps, as Walter theorizes, a young-looking one. He was found in a creepy subterreanean complex that hadn't been opened since the 1930's, and it looked to me like he was hiding from the construction workers in a holding cell of sorts. Was this some kind of abandoned research facility? Was our bald friend left behind by his experimenters to survive on rats and moths?
Or, could he have come through to our "universe" down there more recently? Given our clues from ZFT, it sounds like the Observers hail from a parallel Earth. Perhaps this one picked a bad place to cross over, and has survived down there for years (but not 70 of them).
"Our perp's name is The Artist."
Congratulations, writers. You managed to successfully incorporate a non-Pattern mystery into the show. By using the young Observer to solve the crime, I didn't feel like our time was wasted with the Artist subplot (like I did with the cyber-killer in The No-Brainer).
The Artist himself was nicely cast. He reminded me of John Fowles' The Collector, a novel about a mild-mannered sociopath who kidnaps women. But making surgical and cosmetic alterations and then putting them on display? That's pure Fringe.
"Not a psychic, more a shark."
Walter's shark analogy to explain the child's mental abilities was brilliant. I was spellbound by the implications. I have a feeling Olivia may be capable of similar feats, thus reinforcing my idea that Inner Child acts as a prologue for the rest of the season, where we may learn more about Olivia's cortexiphran effects.
On the same subject, what did Walter pick up with his wire-infested halo ring on the child's head? A signal from the Ghost Network? I have a feeling we'll be hearing that recording again soon.
Stray Thoughts
- Best Line of the Night: "Don't be such a prude. I'm sure Agent Dunham knows what a penis looks like!" John's delivery is perfect, once again.
- This was Anna Torv's strongest performance yet. She's great with action sequences, as we saw in Bound, but her scenes with the young Observer in this ep were touching and filled with nuance.
- Walter's dance is my new favorite scene. It wasn't just hilarious, it was touching. Walter's still got a very big heart underneath all those years of madness.
- Was anyone else reminded of the Green Lantern when Olivia mentioned her avoidance of yellow M&M's? (The Lantern's weakness is anything colored yellow.)
- Ari Graynor and Lily Pilblad are adorable as Olivia's family, and part of me is glad they're apparently here to stay. I do wonder how the writers will incorporate them into the story's meta-narrative.
- Does Walter's halo ring remind anyone else of Doc Brown's similarly-purposed mind-reading device in Back to the Future?
How would you grade "Inner Child"?Adam Morgan is a writer for the page and screen in Chicago, and blogs daily on writing, film, tv, and pop culture at Mount Helicon.
I know a lot of you were upset by American Idol's overrun Tuesday night, but here's the good news: it may have helped Fringe's ratings.
Fox sent out an official press release confirming what we have already known for a little while - the role of William Bell has been cast. Who will be playing William Bell? Technically, that is a spoiler... so we have posted the information in the Fringe Spoilers section. But the news is so huge it will be next to impossible to avoid the elephant in the room (no pun intended), as this will definitely hit the mainstream entertainment news over the next few days. The question for you is:
For each episode of Fringe, Popular Mechanics asks experts to analyzes the science of Fringe, and separate the science fact from the science fiction.
The Man With the Voice himself, Kirk Acevedo, will be doing an exclusive one-on-one interview with Fringe Television on Friday, April 10th to celebrate Charlie's emphasis in next week's ep, Unleashed. You guys have already given me great questions for John, Anna, and Jasika, so keep 'em coming below!
For the next six eps, I'll be giving you a little tease every Tuesday morning about what to expect when Fringe airs. No spoilers. Just something to whet your appetite (like the image above).
We think FringeTelevision.com is already the best and most up-to-date Fringe site anywhere, but for those that like their news even faster, you can now follow FringeTelevision on Twitter (FringeTV).
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