Fringe: "Stowaway"

Once I calculate the efficiency of communicating through brain waves, I'll offer up a review of last night's episode, after the jump....


If last week's episode can be seen as a requisite breather, than tonight's episode should be viewed as a wholly unnecessary stop-gap, a waste of screen time meant to pad out the season. Much like last week, I don't mean to disparage the hour by lambasting the standalone case, but once again the show is forcing me to do so, and this week to an even larger degree.

The case started off well enough. Staring Paula Malcomson (ALWAYS a good first step) as Dana Gray, we were treated to a Freak Meet (to borrow Noel Murray's phrase) that begins with some cryptic yet intriguing dialogue, and ends with Dana jumping off a building with another man, only to have her way away more or less unscathed, leaving the man dead. Interest peaked. Yet from there it pretty much went downhill. While I appreciate when Fringe attempts to give its Freaks an emotional edge, it seem like lately every Freak we've met has some sort of family-related strife, and after repeated visits to that well, it starts to lose its affect. Can't we come up with some more creative motivations for their actions? Let's mix it up a bit more, people.

But that wasn't even the largest problem. The main thing that irked me tonights was that so much focus was placed on a decidedly un-sci-fi subject: a bomb. Tonight, Fringe seemed to devolve from a quirky sci-fi procedural to a standard crime procedural, complete with phone traces and clues derived from ambient sounds. It feels as if the writers were so concerned with furthering the ongoing plot (and more on that in a minute) that they either threw this story together at the last minute, or pulled this one out of the season one reject pile. Not even Malcomson – who did good work here, and was perhaps the best part of this case – could salvage this one.

And yet....

The surrounding elements of tonight's episode were fairly good, and certainly better than the material it was wrapped around. First off, I'm still lovin' Anna Torv's Nimoy impression, even if she did falter a few times tonight. (That voice has got to be tough on her vocal cords, right?) But even beyond that, I liked the tension that the show has placed around Bell's possession of Olivia's body, specifically the time limitations to a soul inhabiting another's body, and the search for a suitable permanent place for Bell's soul. Say, why didn't that make that the focus of this episode? Odds are it would have been far more interesting. Plus, between the concern exhibited by both Peter and Broyles, there was certainly enough dramatic tension to move the story forward. I also enjoyed the little touches to this storyline, like Bell mixing up which Universe has an official Fringe Division, and just watching Walter and “Bell” work together was a real delight.

Elsewhere, we were treated to the Earth-1 version of Lincoln Lee. Though I'm not sure that his actual presence brought anything of substance to the table (okay, I have a theory, but it's a bit of a stretch, and since it will most likely fall apart, it's not worth sharing here), and though this version of Lincoln Lee isn't all that original/interesting, I did like how he fit in with the Fringe Division of this universe, and watching he and Peter work together evoked within me a certain kind of pleasantness.

(There was also some discussion of fate, and Peter's ultimate role as part of Walternate's machine, but this just came across as setup for future episodes, so I'll stave off on any sort of critique for now.)

My ultimate dissatisfaction with tonight's episode is best embodied my the closing minutes: After a forced connection between the standalone case and Bell's current possession of Olivia, we hear some bells ring from the distance, and see Olivia's face change, a wave of confusion washing over her face. Yet after a few words, Bell returns, saying that things are more complicated that he thought/time is running out (or something to that effect). Just when I have lost all interest, Fringe pulls me back in, and that is the show's main problem; as long as it thinks that it can get away with sub-par standalone cases by plying us with an interesting overall story arc, then we are going to continue to have to suffer through episodes like this one. And that's not something that sits right with me.

What did everybody else think?


Additional Thoughts:

“Imagine how I feel. I never realized a bra was so binding.”

“Well, stranger things have happened.” “No, they haven't.” “Don't listen to him – her, sorry.”

“Still...I'd have to milk you.” “We could assign Astrid.”

“They're doing that thing again where they don't finish sentences.”