This week, Fringe Division are on the tail of a two men who have kidnapped Tyler Carson (Cameron Monaghan), the teenage son of a scientist employed by Massive Dynamic. At first it appears that his kidnappers are able to evade capture by controlling the minds of authorities who try to stop their crime spree, but it later becomes clear that the unconventional "kidnappers" are themselves victims of Tyler's newfound ability to impose his will on other people...Fringe is a very well-constructed show with high production values, so it's always a pleasure to sit back and enjoy the thrills it serves up. This episode was peppered with memorable moments -- from a group of cops being forced to kill themselves and each other, a burly customer pouring hot coffee over his own head, and Walter's (John Noble) plan to catch the kidnappers by outfitting a FBI task force with headphones channeling "alpha waves" to circumvent the effects of mind-control.
"Of Human Action" even found time to push the mythology forward in some interesting ways, both small and large. It was very interesting to see Walter finally step inside the Massive Dynamic building, marveling at its architecture and the fact it has 73 laboratories, while also realizing just how much his former lab partner William Bell has achieved on his own. Indeed, while Bell flourished and became the head of a billion dollar corporation, the equally-gifted Walter floundered in a mental institution.
Until now, I've never really considered the fact Walter would feel like such a loser when confronted by his old friend's achievements, as he's never come across as a very materialistic person. I can't wait for William and Walter to finally meet on this show now, can you? My guess is that Walter was always the real brains behind their partnership in the '70s, but William was more mentally stable and possibly cheated Walter out of his deserved fame and fortune.
The script by Glen Whitman and Robert Chiappetta managed to keep a human face on all the action, by having Walter fret about his son's safety after Peter was kidnapped by Tyler and forced to do his bidding. There was even some interesting father/son parallels sewn throughout this episode, that we weren't bludgeoned over the head by: Peter saw aspects of his younger self in Tyler, who feels insecure around his scientist father, and it turns out that Tyler's dad has been lying to his son about his mother's "death", just as Walter has kept secrets pertaining to Peter's childhood.But for all its pace and excitement, the abiding memory of this episode will be of the twist in the denouement -- where it's revealed that Tyler is just one of many "Tylers" (clones that Massive Dynamic are mass-producing, assumedly as mind-controlling foot soldiers for the encroaching inter-dimensional war), and that this entire situation was probably a field test to see how well Tyler would do evading capture. I'm glad to see that Nina (Blair Brown) and William Bell are therefore back to being written as "villains", or at least people with a contentious view about what's necessary to save our dimension from collapse.
15 November 2009
Sky1, 10pm
written by: Glen Whitman & Robert Chiappetta directed by: Joe Chappelle starring: Anna Torv (Olivia), Joshua Jackson (Peter), John Noble (Walter), Lance Reddick (Broyles), Blair Brown (Nina Sharp), Philip Cabrita (Clerk), Peter Graham-Gaudreau (Seth Davies), Cameron Monaghan (Tyler Carson), Jasika Nicole (Astrid Farnsworth), Jacqueline Ann Steuart (Renee Davies) & John Tench (Patrick Hickey)
