||SPOILERS|| When Akiva Goldsman's name appeared on the credits (as writer and director, in full control), "Bad Dreams" could have gone either way. Goldsman's keyboard has been responsible for many cinematic turds (Batman & Robin, Lost In Space, The Da Vinci Code, et al), despite being an Academy Award winner (for adapting A Beautiful Mind). Thankfully, while the storyline to this episode wasn't especially brilliant, the development of the premise worked nicely and its importance to the mytharc (continuing elements recently introduced in "Ability") really helped sell it...
Olivia (Anna Torv) is having bad dreams; the first of which involves her pushing a young mother into the path of a subway train as she reached for an errant balloon her daughter had let go of. Strangely, after waking up, Olivia discovers that her dream really happened, although the woman in question committed suicide by jumping infront of the train (as seen on CCTV footage.) Later, Olivia dreams about helping a woman stab her husband to death in a crowded restaurant, and the event is proven to have happened –- although the woman has no idea what compelled her to do so.Is Olivia somehow influencing strangers to kill? Or does she have a psychic connection to the real killer? Of course, it's the latter. We come to realize that the killer is a blonde-haired man called Nick Lane (David Call), a man with dangerously infectious emotions, whose moods can be transferred to people in his vicinity and push them to act. Olivia has a bond with Nick because they were both child test subjects at Jacksonville, Florida and given Cortexiphan to expand their mind's capabilities.
What I liked about "Bad Dreams" was how the mystery slowly flowered, taking us through a few possibilities of equal unusualness, before providing a welcome return to issues raised concerning Olivia in "Ability" -- that she, herself, is a Fringe case-file. Akiva Goldsman's episode was nicely-constructed, if a little exploitative (was the sequence of "Olivia" kissing a sexy stripper necessary?), and ultimately provided a fun hour.
The location filming around New York (Fringe is filmed there, but usually set in Washington) also paid dividends, and "Bad Dreams" became rather unsettling in its coda, with Walter (John Noble) finding an old VHS tape showing Olivia as a frightened little girl sat in a cell corner, being debated by her experimenters Walter and William Bell (Leonard Nimoy, voice-only for now.) It was quite a shock to be reminded that, as lovably eccentric as Walter is written, he was actually quite a scary man back in the late-'70s when pioneering his questionable work.Overall, I really liked this one, but it wasn't quite as clever or creative as it could have been. But, it had plenty of moments that worked beautifully (the rooftop threat of mass suicide was great), and the storyline expanded and developed at a decent speed. And I find Fringe has the opposite problem of The X Files right now; the standalone episodes can be too perfunctory, but ones that touch on the mythology receive a jolt. What's not to like about the threat of inter-dimensional war?
21 April 2009
Fox, 9/8c
Writer & Director: Akiva Goldsman
Cast: John Noble (Walter), Joshua Jackson (Peter), Anna Torv (Olivia), Lilly Pilyblad (Ella), Ari Graynor (Rachel), Duane McLaughlin (Todd Pears), David Call (Nick Lane) & Victor Verhaeghe (Billy Willis)
