Fringe Division are called in to find a teenage girl called Christine (Jennifer Missoni), who was kidnapped by a black-suited man matching the description of the so-called "Observer". It's strange because The Observer has never chosen to interfere with events before, merely monitor them as his nickname suggests. Olivia (Anna Torv), Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Walter (John Noble) are given an insight into The Observer's history via a scientist at Massive Dynamic, who has amassed evidence in ancient sketches and paintings that The Observer has been watching events in human history for many centuries. But why has one Observer, a new character referred to as "August" (Peter Woodward) by his clique, decided to breach their code of conduct and kidnap someone?
The answer was obvious for anyone with an ounce of sci-fi knowledge, as The Observers turn out to be rather similar to Doctor Who's Time Lords (spliced with "men in black" folklore), and the aforementioned August has effectively gone rogue and kidnapped Christine to prevent her dying in a plane crash. He's therefore broken a cardinal rule of The Observers, who thus contact an apparently human assassin called Donald Long (Paul Rae) to kill Christine and restore the timeline inexactly, meaning August's forced to try and find a way to make Christine "important" so her death won't be in the best interests of his colleagues.
The concept behind "August" was unfortunately quite thin and predictable, but it helped that these Observer characters are a naturally fascinating and curious bunch. A scene with four of them discussing events around a table in a restaurant (while soaking their food in Tabasco sauce, naturally) was soaked in that off-kilter charm Fringe does so well. And as they're a key component of the mythology, it was good fun getting an insight into how they operate while discovering more of their quirks (they can stop bullets with their palms, start car ignitions with their fingers, etc.). There was generally enough diversions and enjoyable moments to disguise the lack of a surprisingly storyline. It was a just too obvious that August had fallen in love with Christine -- having observed her all her life and become spellbound by her tenacity in the face of family hardships -- but the emotion of the story still worked thanks to Woodward's poignant performance and a climax requiring his sacrifice to keep his inamorata safe from harm.The episode also reminded us that The Observer has similarly cheated his race's regulations, by agreeing to give Walter a version of his dead son from the alternate-Earth, so they're clearly not above bending the rules. It'll be interesting to see where they stand in the context of the looming inter-dimensional war, though. Is the sudden regularity of their appearances just because they know a great tumult is due and worth watching? Or will they pick a side to fight for if their existence is threatened? Are The Observers able to traverse dimensions, or do they also have a parallel bunch keeping track of events in the other dimension? And will Fringe ever get to show this war on-screen? Even The X Files always kept its predicted alien colonization away in the not-too-distant-future, to perhaps only be answered with the necessary budget a movie would afford... but Fringe hasn't captured the zeitgeist or public imagination in quite the same way, so I doubt we'll ever get to see the inter-dimensional war played out inside multiplexes.
Overall, I enjoyed "August" and it was certainly an episode worth watching for the occasional nugget of mytharc information, but the plot was too anemic to get very excited about and it ultimately felt a little inconsequential.
22 November 2009
Sky1, 10pm
written by: J.H. Wyman & Jeff Pinkner directed by: Brad Anderson starring: Anna Torv (Olivia), Joshua Jackson (Peter), John Noble (Walter), Lance Reddick (Broyles), Ali Liebert (Danielle), Michael Cerveris (The Observer), Jennifer Missoni (Christine Hollis), Sunita Prasad (Waitress), Paul Rae (Donald Long) & Peter Woodward (August)
