"God, I hope I never have to hear him say the word 'nipple' again."-- Peter (Joshua Jackson)
Spoilers. It's goes without saying that the teaser's a fine piece of work, as the cold opens have been Fringe's strongest suit since a man's face melted aboard an airplane in the pilot. Another sky-high horror kicks off "The Transformation", which demonstrates its title through a passenger with a nosebleed who begins freaking out and insisting the crew incapacitate him with sedatives. Understandably believing him a lunatic, the flight attendants watch on as the man locks himself in the toilet cubicle... only to rapidly transform into a spiny, hedgehog-like man-beast.
Suffice to say, nothing lives up to that gripping open, as the Fringe Division are called in to survey the wreckage of the plane, which crash-landed soon after the creature went on the rampage inside. They quickly discover the dead body of the spiky beast, and transport it back to Walter's (John Noble) lab for closer analysis. One thing that's very refreshing about Fringe is how the authorities find clear evidence of the "supernatural" -- compared to its spiritual cousin The X Files...
The latter series would undoubtedly have made the creature unidentifiable after a scientific inspection of a charred corpse, or else a body would never have been recovered and the FBI's investigation would be based on eye-witness testimony only. Fringe has a few sceptics, like FBI Agent Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo), but even he opts to trust Olivia (Anna Torv) when she starts having "hunches" based on the residual memories of her late boyfriend John Scott (Mark Valley).
Written by J.R Orci and Zack Whedon (brother of Buffy creator Josh), the episode sadly fails to capitalize on the thrilling idea of a virus that can mutate humans into terrifying, mighty beasts. "The Transformation" returned to a few of Fringe's recurring ideas – primarily another outing for the sensory-deprivation tank Olivia uses with increasing frequency to enter John Scott's memories, like plugging into her own meta-Matrix. These days, Olivia undergoes that procedure nearly every week (or so it seems) -- so any sense of threat to her life or sanity, because of the accompanying LSD trip, has evaporated.
The meat of the story involves indentifying the transformed man – one Marshall Bowman (Neal Huff) -- and realizing he was dosed with a designer virus that rewrote his DNA, and has a strange red disk embedded in his palm. Bowman was aboad the plane to meet with Daniel Hicks (Felix Solis), an alleged furniture importer/exporter, who also appears to have been dosed with the same virus. Walter manages to delay Hicks' own transformation mid-interview, as Broyles (Lance Reddick) reveals to Olivia that Massive Dynamic have been trying to extract information from her clinically-dead boyfriend's own "red disk" (which apparently only works if its host body is living tissue.)
Eventually, Olivia and Peter (Joshua Jackson) learn that the John was part of a secret NSA task-force with Bowman and Hicks, who are due to take receipt of the transformative virus from a chemist called Conrad. They arrange to take Hicks' place at the exchange rendezvous, making a deal with Hicks to obtain the antidote so they can reverse his stunted transformation. Olivia and Peter both wear wires, with Hicks feeding them information to persuade Conrad and his bodyguard that they're genuine, with a FBI response team waiting to swoop in and make arrests.
It's a mixed bag, really. The promise of people being turned into freakish creatures ends with the teaser, and the rest of the episode didn't really venture down any new passages. It was a moderate surprise that Olivia has been told by Broyles and Massive Dynamic CEO Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) that her fiancé is still (technically) alive, but the Altered States-style mind-trips have run their course. Quite wisely, this episode ends with Walter telling Olivia only one more connection is possible, meaning Olivia gets to say farewell to her lover at an imaginary lakeside pier.
Torv herself has improved in recent weeks, but I'm still unmoved by her romantic past – although Torv and Valley do have nice chemistry together (they should do, considering the fact they're married in real life!) Some nice dialogue from Walter regarding nipples, too, which was both amusing and informative. But, despite being a fairly important mytharc episode regarding the Olivia/John storyline, "The Transformation" fell a little flat after such a fantastic start.
3 February 2009
Fox, 9/8c
Writers: J.R Orci & Zack Whedon
Director: Brad Anderson
Cast: Anna Torv (Olivia), Joshua Jackson (Peter), John Noble (Walter), Lance Reddick (Broyles), Kirk Acevedo (Charlie Francis), Blair Brown (Nina Sharp), Jasika Nicole (Astrid), Mark Valley (John Scott), Ari Graynor (Rachel Dunham), Felix Solis (Daniel Hicks), Neal Huff (Marshall Bowman), Armando Riesco (Gavin), Al Sapienza (Conrad), Guiesseppe Jones (Agent #3), Chris LaPanta (Gavin's Man #1), Olivia Jones (Female Flight Attendant), Mike Realba (Male Flight Attendant), Judy Sinclair (Woman), Dina Ann Comolli (Mom), Lilly Pilyblad (Ella), Darby Totten (Agent #1) & Ash Roeca (Agent #2)
