The aforementioned opening found a stressed businessman suffering hallucinations that his co-workers were monsters, before he snapped and bludgeoned his "demon" boss to death with a laptop. Fringe Division got involved after hearing reports of the man's vibrating pupils, necessitating a westward trip to Seattle for Olivia (Anna Torv), Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Walter (John Noble). After arriving to see the exhausted murderer, the man promptly dies in his hospital bed moments later, apparently from such extreme exhaustion that his hair actually turned white.It's the kind of setup that's proven to be Fringe's bread-and-butter, so I wasn't especially excited about seeing how this episode panned out in the early stages. Walter would undoubtedly discover how exactly how the man died after carrying out bizarre test, he'll settle on a pseudo-scientific explanation for the event, and eventually Olivia or Peter will pin the deed on a rebellious doctor or dangerous cabal of scientists using the populace as human guinea pigs. But, while that was precisely what we got, writer Josh Singer did a good job disguising the joins.
I turned out that many people across the state are willing test subjects of one Laxmeesh Nayak (Ravi Kapoor), each implanted with a cutting-edge microchip in their brain. Said chip was being manipulated into depriving subjects of their dreams, feeding the imagery to someone who had essentially found a way to get high from dream-stealing. Unfortunately, sometimes the chip's usage blurred the distinction of reality and dream when it was activated, resulting in terrifying waking nightmares that compel the inflicted into attacking their reveries. In one of the episode's better moments, a restaurant worker thought the short order chef was cooking human limbs, etc.
As a subplot, Olivia is struggling to get over the death of her close colleague/friend Charlie and seeks the help of bowling mystic Sam (Kevin Corrigan). This is still a new facet of the show I'm not very engaged with, mostly because Sam's unusual methods don't make a lick of sense. Olivia thinks he successfully released her repressed memories last week because of his old-school bowling lessons, when it was patently obvious that ringing bell in Walter's lab reminded her of her experiences and opened the floodgates. But anyway, Sam now has her collecting business cards from anyone she meets wearing red...
To begin with, when Olivia made her first request for a card from a handsome doctor, I thought Sam had basically encouraged her to try and flirt with more people to take the edge off her dangerous line of work. Maybe that would have been more interesting (if a little patronizing to Olivia that she needs a matchmaker), as instead the storyline ended with Olivia solving an anagram made from the card-owner's names: "you're gonna be fine" (creepily the first words Charlie ever said to her back when she was a nervous rookie.)Overall, this was an interesting idea falteringly told. There were a few moments that drew me out of the drama (like Walter experimenting on a FBI Agent against his will, with the assistance of Astrid*), and some of the latter developments didn't convince me (like the kindly doctor having a "Jekyll & Hyde personality" as a result of his addiction?), but it was still entertaining enough. I also appreciated seeing Peter's nightmare of Walter in his bedroom, apparently a repressed memory of being kidnapped from the alternate-Earth as a child and brought back to replace Walter's dead son. It should make for gripping television when that skeleton tumbles from Walter's closet at Peter's feet...
15 October 2009
Fox, 9/8c
written by: Josh Singer directed by: Paul A. Edwards starring: Ravi Kapoor (Laxmeesh Nayak), Travis Schuldt (Agent Kashner), Kevin Corrigan (Sam Weiss), Jim Thorburn (Greg Leiter), Drew Nelson (Carl Langdon), Alex Zahara (Detective Green), Kevan Ohtsji (Shayne Wilson M.E), Jrrett Knowles (Zach Miller), Emily Holmes (Jill Leiter), Jovanna Huguet (Leanne Lamia), Stephen Dimopoulos (Mister Lamia), Hakan Coskuner (Grill Chef), Emy Aneke (Captain Jack), Kurt Evans (Co-Pilot), Lane Edwards (Lawyer), Steven Garr (Rob Rosiello), Mia Ingimundson (Secretary), Derek Morrison (Mover) & Nico Ghisi (Young Peter)
* Sure, they didn't go as far as drilling his head open as threatened, but it still overstepped the mark, and making Astrid complicit was out of character and wrong.
