In "Snakehead", boatloads of Chinese émigré's are being used as unwitting drug mules, each fed the larvae of a giant hookworm, which reaches maturity inside their body and explodes out of their mouth like tentacle vomit. The creatures are then harvested by a Chinatown herbalist, who uses the worm's glands as an alternative medicine. We've seen variations of this basic idea before on Fringe, but this was a tightly-plotted example from writer David Wilcox with some fun tweaks to its credit. Helping things along were some excellent animatronic/CGI effects for the hideous hookworms (half eel, half squid), and a pulp atmosphere imbued by its Chinese association. There's a fine tradition of Chinese mysticism in genre stories, and while "Snakehead" leaned on Western fear of the Far East and overly-familiar casting (character actor Tzi Ma stars, last seen as the evil Cheng in 24), it remained a potent cocktail.But the real fun of this episode was in the human drama afforded by Walter trying to reassert his independence, by going out into the wide world alone to research Chinese herbalists. Noble was fantastic throughout this episode; a mentally-damaged man determined to get back to full health after a year out of the asylum, but whose genius mind still can't remember simple emergency phone numbers when he gets lost. Seeing him operate beyond the comfort zone of his Harvard lab, even with Astrid (Jasika Nicole) dispatched to keep a watchful eye on him, was like seeing a smiling baby takes its first steps. Unintentional fun was to be had in seeing Astrid out in the real world, too, as she's usually stuck indoors as Walter's hardworking assistant. "Snakehead" also did a brilliant job of tightening Walter and Astrid's friendship, and when Walter learned that Astrid had been attacked by Chinese hoodlums as a result of his blabbermouth, their tearful reconciliation was wonderfully tender. Almost father/daughter-like, actually.
Olivia (Anna Torv) and Peter (Joshua Jackson) handled the majority of the investigation, while Walter and Astrid researched hookworms, and came to realize exactly why the worms are so prized -- despite the fact they kill their expendable hosts, they can be used to treat the affluent sick. It was great to see Peter more active and useful alongside Olivia again, and he also benefited from his interaction with Walter in a final scene, where his dad realized he's not quite as autonomous as he'd like to think after getting lost, so to prevent future problems he's injected himself with a tracker chip.Overall, "Snakehead" was a good standalone episode of Fringe, mainly because the story slotted together neatly, there was some excellent effects/make-up, and the story gave John Noble more opportunity to stretch his acting muscles. The fact the mystery felt so familiar once it had been exposed was the episode's primary disappointment for me, but this was nevertheless a solid outing.
6 December 2009
Sky1, 10pm
written by: David Wilcox directed by: Paul Holahan starring: Anna Torv (Olivia), Joshua Jackson (Peter), John Noble (Walter), Lance Reddick (Broyles), Jasika Nicole (Astrid), Sean Carey (Paramedic), Zen Shane Lim (Pan Che), Tzi Ma (Ming Che), Colby Paul (Matt Jarvis), Ingrid Torrance (Elizabeth Jarvis) & Rene Wang (Mei Lin)
