"Hey, guess what just happened? Finding out that my father gives
drugs to bugs, somehow just became a typical moment in my life."
drugs to bugs, somehow just became a typical moment in my life."
-- Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson)
Fringe found form in its last four episodes before the mid-season finale, and this latest episode acts as a "soft re-launch" for the series -- aiming to continue doing what's been proven to work, strengthen its weaker elements, and introduce a few new faces and ideas. For the most part, it works -- although I'm sure newcomers will still be left scratching their heads.
Before Fringe went on hiatus, FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) had been kidnapped by sinister scientists (a weekly occurrence for some poor unfortunate) and we catch up with her predicament here. She's transported to a typically creepy makeshift research lab, to be given a strange spinal injection by a man wearing a rubber face-mask. Against expectation, Olivia manages to escape relatively easily – by tricking a lab assistant into loosening her bonds, so she can drink some water. Unfortunately, after stealing some vials and hotfooting it away from her abductors to bury her evidence somewhere safe outside, she's captured by her own people – led by Homeland Security consultant Sanford Harris (Michael Gaston).
Harris is leading an investigation into "Fringe Division", as the Pentagon are concerned at how much power and influence Broyles (Lance Reddick) has been given carte blanche since their first assignment. Rather implausibly, it's revealed that Olivia and Harris have a history: she tried to get him removed from office on sexual assault charges, which Harris reveals have been quashed. Clearly this makes Harris' appointment rather biased, as he appears determined to prove how reckless and irresponsible Fringe Division has been in assigning Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Walter (John Noble) to their team – a man with a criminal record and someone released from a mental institution.
With Harris breathing down their neck, and Olivia trying to investigate who abducted her, a slight diversion comes with their latest case – the death of an epidemiologist called Professor Kinberg (Stephen Schnetzer), who choked to death during a lecture on a slug-like parasite that burrowed its way up his stomach and through his oesophagus. After capturing the errant slug, Walter's investigation leads to a bizarre conclusion: the creature is actually an enormous cold virus. Olivia suspects that the scientists behind the incident are targeting epidemiologists who might be able to stop an epidemic of such slugs.
"Bound" was quite a successful episode, but not really as punchy and exciting as recent episodes had been. The focus was on Olivia more than usual, and the writers are clearly trying to make that character work better in the context of the show. They appear to be doing this in two ways: by emphasizing Olivia's physicality (in a few sequences of Jack Bauer-like violence that justify Torv's tendency to scowl), while simultaneously showing a softer side we haven't seen since her boyfriend died in the "Pilot"-- thanks to the arrival of funloving sister Rachel (Ari Graynor) and her niece. It's not a huge reinvention, but it's a step in the right direction, and Olivia was certainly more engaging here – facing obstacles from all angles, like the creepy Harris whose career she nearly ruined.
It's business as usually everywhere else, particularly regarding the latest gross-out fringe science idea (a super-sized cold that grows inside your stomach in seconds, when triggered.) "Bound" also took a big step forward regarding FBI mole Mitchell Loeb (Chance Kelly), who has been behind many of the season's unsolved cases, and was Olivia's masked kidnapper here. Eventually, Olivia exposes Mitchell and we get a sense that things may not be as black-and-white as we've been imagining – with Mitchell insisting he actually "saved" Olivia by kidnapping her and giving her an injection. And then there's his cryptic line that there are two sides to this conflict.
Overall, "Bound" was an interesting series of baby-steps into a new phase of Fringe – signalled by the arrival of Harris to keep Broyles on his toes (although we already get the impression that Harris isn't all bad), Peter's criminal past was returned to again (helping the FBI set-up an illegal wire-tap), Olivia blossomed in the physically tougher sequences, there's now a family for Olivia to protect and interact with away from work, and a sense that the big overarching mythology may be more wrinkled than expected. Indeed, could it be that Loeb is actually one of the "good guys"? Well, at least when compared to his rivals.
I suppose the real test for "Bound" was that, beyond a few excellent moments, scene-stealer Walter Bishop was pushed into the background for the most part, and the episode didn't suffer too badly as a consequence. That would have been unthinkable just seven episodes ago.
20 January 2009
Fox, 9pm
Writers: Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Alex Kurtzman & J.J Abrams
Director: Frederick Toye
Cast: Anna Torv (Olivia Dunham), Joshua Jackson (Peter Bishop), Lance Reddick (Phillip Broyles), Kirk Acevedo (Charlie Francis), Jasika Nicole (Astrid Farnsworth), John Noble (Dr. Walter Bishop), Michael Gaston (Sanford Harris), Ari Graynor (Rachel Dunham), Chance Kelly (Mitchell Loeb), Trini Alvarado (Samantha Loeb), Sarah Wilson (Tina Coleman), Peter Jay Fernandez (Dr. Simon), Lilly Pilyblad (Ella), Stephen Schnetzer (Professor Stewart Kinberg), Chinasa Ogbuagu (Lloyd), Chad Gittens (CDC Agent) & Brian Slaten (Man #3)
