Let me start by telling you how surprised I was that my DVR a week ago said Fringe would be on---and on the actual day it was to air, the guide for the HD feed said MLB World Series. Oddly enough the standard feed still said Fringe. I had found out that morning the show would be airing, thankfully news travels fast on the internet. Though not fast enough for everyone, as chatter was made that many who don’t watch it live, seemed to miss out on watching it on their DVR.
So the episode, definitely a stand-alone monster of the week type story. I for one was impressed with the special effects. I don’t believe special effects need to make the show but I liked how it was done. Watching the wife’s hand at the beginning touch her husband and watching his body fall apart while turning to ash in her fingers. It was also one of the first times I could recall a special effect not making me grimace from the gore.
Broyles has a softer side. I rather liked the beginning, seeing him interacting with the young boy at the restaurant. We know from last season he was married and has children. It’s clear from this scene he’s not just the tough, no-nonsense guy we’re used to seeing. He likes kids, not a huge surprise but the rather warm interaction was what caught us off guard. It stood out to me and no wonder since we find out this case was the same one that tore apart his marriage and ultimately ended it.
Russian Fringe Science. Now there is an interesting thought. Even Walter says “I’m always amazed at their advancements. Even 40 years ago.” It’s possible we haven’t seen the end of this. Though I don’t imagine it’ll be anytime soon, it could always be a theme revisited, perhaps in season three.
In Earthling, we find out the cosmonaut brought home an organism with him from space and it was his brother that stole the comatose cosmonaut from a Russian secret quarantine facility. We’re left wondering how his brother knew what was happening to the cosmonaut and how he would have abducted him from any type of secret facility. So much for it being a secret and for the brother believing he died in space. We learn that the organism needs radiation in order to survive and in stealing that radiation from people, it in essence turns them to dust after passing through them. I find it interesting their physical form doesn’t change until something touches them (a hand, a fly, air from the fan). I suppose it makes for nicer special effects then just letting them turn to a pile of ash at the moment of transfer.
I also find it strange that the surveillance at the hospital picked up the shadow organism. Why is it that surveillance video could see it but no one else in all that time at the hospital had witnessed it. Also if he’d been working at the hospital for years, why had there been no incidents? We saw the batteries that the brother was hooking up to the cosmonaut after he took him from the hospital and brought him to a hotel room. Was he getting enough radiation at the hospital and finally he needed more? How many coma patients get regular doses of radiation? Yes the cosmonaut was in a coma but why not focus on a cancer ward where radiation would probably be in higher doses more often? Perhaps that would have been the shadows next move.
In the end, in order to stop the organism that has become one with the cosmonaut, it is Broyles that is forced to shoot him--as the brother that kidnapped the cosmonaut is now dead--and he does so without a second thought. This certainly gives us a glimpse that there is perhaps a darker side to Broyles. Is it because this case has haunted him for the last four years or was he just doing what was entirely necessary to stop more lives from being lost? Fringe Division returned the cosmonauts body in a lead case to the Russians and we find out in the very last scene that in fact, a shot to the head, did not kill a comatose cosmonaut or the entity. Confusing, much? Just a little. I could understand the organism being alive but shouldn't the lead case---or rather coffin have prevented the entity from escaping? Why send it out into space? Do the Russians assume that the organism, being closer to the sun, getting higher levels of radiation---where they found it in space---is safer?
I do enjoy a good stand-alone episode but this one left an avid viewer like myself, feeling as though it came up short. Perhaps the stand-alone stories are the writer’s attempts at bringing in casual viewers without overwhelming the new audience. Maybe it’s the fact I’ve been following the show since the beginning, eagerly waiting to learn more about the shape-shifters, observers, the alternate reality, William Bell, Olivia’s ability, and Peter’s childhood. There’s still so much great story-telling and this show in its second season could easily attract new viewers.
The next scene was interesting in that it is Walter’s first actual contact with Massive Dynamic. He hasn’t seen or heard from Bell in decades but just being in the building, his presence is heavily felt. Early on we gain references and parallels to Peter’s childhood and Walter raising him. It’s the father of the kidnapped boy that says, “What I do here, it's -- it's my life. It's the only -- Tyler's mother died when he was just a boy. And now if -- if I lose him, I don't know what I'd do.” I imagine Walter was much the same way in that his work was his life. Certainly we know Peter was sick and it was his work that he tried using to save him and eventually used to bring the alter-version of him to this world. Though we don’t know much about Peter’s own mother, we do learn that Bell had been the one to introduce them at Neruobiology Conference in Berlin.
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The episode continues with a convenience store robbery and finally a ransom call from the kidnappers demanding two million dollars. Nina Sharp states that “Massive Dynamic will cover any ransom.” At this point to me, the alarm bells were going off. How many businesses would eagerly offer two million dollars to cover a ransom demand. That’s awfully generous. It’s Olivia that doesn’t buy the fact the kidnappers are after money and believe it’s a distraction for something bigger.
The boy isn’t with the kidnappers and Peter leaves Walter to chase the money only to find himself suddenly under the control of the fifteen year old boy. It was the kidnappers that had actually been kidnapped. Imagine trying to explain that to the police and FBI.
We find out it’s up to Walter to disable Tyler as the cocktail he’s taken from Massive Dynamic, the hormones, and his ADD medication have given him the ability of mind control. Walter can’t seem to work, worried about losing his son again and it is Nina that finally is able to get through to him.
I think this episode worked well in both a stand-alone and bigger overall story-arc. Nina writes to Bell in regards of the “Penrose-Carson experiments” and for those that have followed the show, may remember Penrose from early season one. I believe the episodes with character driven stories, where their emotions tie in and relate to the cases leave us feeling much more satisfied and invested as viewers.