Fringe - "One Night in October"

Season 4, Episode 2

“EWOP: Volume 2” actually delivers

“I don’t just understand him. I am him”

-John Louis McClennan

It seems like every season of Fringe is able to bust out at least one truly moving standalone case, an episode that somehow works despite the limitations of the show – whatever they might be at that particular point. Season three gave us “Marionette”, while season two gave us “White Tulip” and, if you’re so inclined, “Brown Betty”. (Season one is the aberration here, but nobody really talks about that season anyways.) Why these episodes work is a fairly easy question to answer: they give the viewer an emotional hook that easily connects with the larger story at play. The downside to all of this is that it only helps to highlight the lesser quality of other standalone episodes.

We can officially and technically add “One Night in October” to that list, though I think it lacks the power of those previous episodes. The hook in this case comes in the form of one John Louis McClennan, a man who somehow developed into two distinct personalities on each side of the universal barrier; in our world he’s a psych professor who can help the FBI track down a killer, but Over There he is the killer. (For ease of understanding, let’s pretend we’re in a Dr. Seuss novel and call them John-1 and John-2.)

The theme at play is an obvious one to be sure, but it’s also one that is still dramatically rich, as most philosophical hooks are. The idea that John-1 was saved by the simple fact that he decided to run, which caused him to meet Marjorie, who helped him to control his inner demons, but that John-2 was forever destroyed because he chose not to run and he got beaten for three days straight speaks to the very heart of the destiny vs. decision argument. Think of it as playing the “what if?’ game with your life, where you go over the consequences of not experiencing those big happenstance moments of your time on Earth. As much as we may credit out success to our hard work and talent, we also must admit that some time, in at least a small way, we got lucky.

That the episode decided to give equal measure to the power of fate, however, was what really gave the episode that emotional punch. It’s something that the show has done before, as the comparisons between Earth-1 and Earth-2 have shown us what about Olivia, Astrid, Broyles, and Lincoln Lee changes and what stays the same among that universal line, but it’s never been done to this extent. To wit: though I was intrigued by the idea of John essentially helping to capture himself, but it wasn’t until John-1 was able to confront John-2 that I really felt the impact of the episode. Watching those two men compare their lives may have made us feel sorry for how John-2 turned out, but it also made John-1 seems that much scarier.  (It also helped that that scene featured some fantastic acting by John Pyper-Ferguson.)

The other upside is that this episode also was able to incorporate the one thing that really intrigued me about last week’s premiere: the idea of the two sides collaborating. While I was hoping that the mystery over last week’s Freak of the Week (to use the phrase coined by Noel Murray) would carry over, and that it would feature both sides working with each other while also being distrustful of one another, I would never turn down any chance to see Olivia and Fauxlivia on-screen at the same time. While this collaboration may have not proceeded exactly as I had planned, it does point to the show more willing to mix things up across universal lines in the future, and as long as we have to keep sitting through standalone episodes, they show is going to need to be as diverse as possible.

Where this episode falters is in the fact that its connection to the overall plot is a bit more tenuous than previous outings. While the connection is obvious and technically solid – it’s not hard to figure out that the effect Marjorie had on John-1 is meant to evoke memories of Peter, and what is absence has on his loved one – but it also exists on something of a meta level, and that robs the parallel of its emotional power. Let’s put it this way: EWOP is a reality defined by its absence of Peter, which is something that only we the audience are really aware of, at least in terms of conscious acknowledgment. Therefore, the idea of a person’s “indelible effect on our lives”, as Broyles so astutely put it, is something that is only really rings home for us at home. In contrast, the Freak of the Week in “White Tulip” directly spoke to Walter’s current emotional state, as the one in “Marionette” spoke to Olivia’s. The Johns bring out no conscious feelings in Olivia, and for that reason it’s hard to buy the emotional angle that the show is selling, at least to its fullest extent.

And then there’s the fact that this episode officially marks the end of all the interest I could ever have in seeing EWOP. While I can forgive last week’s episode for showing us exactly what the two worlds would be like with Peter now erased from their histories, and this week get a pass for giving us such an emotional impact, I’m not sure what else the show could do to justify any remaining time that we spend in EWOP. The most obvious direction for the show to go in now would be to address just why it is that Peter had to disappear in the first place, what advantage that held for The Observers and/or the two realities.

However, based on the teaser for next week, it appears that it might be while until we get to that point, as the show seems most interested in teasing out how Peter’s going to come back. Now, his return may or may not also coincide with learning the reason for his disappearance (as well as the fact that it may or may not change the way things are now in EWOP), but until we reach that time, the show had better make that wait worth it, and now that they’ve played the “emotional hook” card this early, I’m not sure what else the show has up its sleeve.  

During season three, the show had a sense of liveliness about it, moving the story forward quickly, especially when it ended the Olivia-swap halfway through the season. I have yet to see that kind of momentum this season, and this isn’t the time for the show to slow down. This very well might be the last season for the show, and the writers should be trying to give us as much story with all the characters as possible, not dragging things out indefinitely. I would like to see a firm button on this story before it goes away, and this pace ain’t helping the show get there.

Next Week: Another standalone case, more Peter-teases. What fun.

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

Okay, I know I said last week should be Anna Torv’s Emmy Tape, but apparently I was wrong, though only because I thought it might be awhile before the show would do an episode that had the two universes working directly together like this. So unless there is an episode with even more Olivia-Fauxlivia interaction, THIS is Torv’s Emmy Tape.

For those of you who are interested, the show’s premiere last week garnered 3.53 million viewers and a 1.5 in the demo, which it about where it was at for the back-third of season three. FOX still claims to have made love for the show, and it’s not like there’s something else that would be a sure hit in the time slot, but it’s still quite possible that the show won’t be able to grow (or even maintain) enough of an audience to convince the network to grant a fifth season.

Differences in EWOP: Alt-Broyles is still alive. Fauxlivia, having never had a child with Peter, is still together with Frank. Olivia tends to wear her hair down – oh, and she killed her stepfather as a child. And Frank married the Bug Lady. (Though on that last one, we can’t be sure whether or not that was caused by Peter’s absence, though we do know it’s probably due to the fact that Kirk Acevedo is now on Prime Suspect. Kind of takes the magic out of it, don’t it?)

At one point I was going to make a joke about the irony of an episode with "October" in the title airing in September, but then I remember that I wasn't a dork, and also that this isn't really irony.

Another reason I hope the show brings back Peter soon: those heavy-handed nudges to the audience are getting really old. "Ever think your type doesn't exist?" Ugh. 

If you heard John-1 talk about the darkness inside of him and immediately thought of Dexter, congratulations! You watch too much television!

“She bought my ignorance with baked goods.”

“Kennedy, help me.” “Lincoln!"