It’s fitting that this show will premiere on Fox, since this was the network of the X-Files. Fringe has got much in common with the X-Files, yet it is different. Fringe is the latest show of wunderkind J.J. Abrams. Like most new shows, the pilot was leaked on the internet a few weeks ago.
Just like a few other shows, like True Blood, I’m happily surprised by Fringe. The production values are great and I’m enjoying it a lot. A lot of money has been pumped into this show, and it just looks fabulous. The protagonists are also an interesting bunch. There isn’t much more that we learn of the Pattern, but Massive Dynamics is most definitely deeply connected with those events, even though they aren’t sharing their information with Agent Dunham.
I think that this show takes a few common elements from Alias, especially for all the things that concerned the mystic scholar Milo Rambaldi. The same kind of esoteric science is involved in this show. It’s done very well. I’d actually like to see this type of mystic science have more of an impact on the show. It would suit the show very well. A bit of the supernatural wouldn’t be bad either.
Warning: spoilers ahead
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The code for this week is PORTAL. This episode delves into the mythology of the show. The ones from the other world are trying to reopen the portal. The Freezer Head Man is back up and running and wants to open it ASAP. In order to do so, he needs some gray matter.
Fringe is one of the best shows on TV right now. It’s getting better and better, and I like it maybe a bit more than X-Files. Why? There are less filler episodes. Most episode deal with the mythology of the show.
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In a mental hospital in Boston, there is a procedure happening. A man takes out something from a patient’s brain. The doc uses a cauterizing laser to suture him up. He doesn’t have time and they have to leave. They are using some high tech gear. The patient is Slater and the back of his skull was removed.
Dunham and the Bishops arrive. Slater was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. The doctor says that Slater’s brain is structurally intact. He’s become sane. Walter wants to see the mental patient, not the sane man. The doc shows them footage of some sessions.
Olivia recognizes the man who performed the surgery. He’s the frozen head guy. His name was Thomas Jerome Newton. Walter is surprised. This is an alias. Dunham says that this man was going to be the person who would open a doorway between the worlds. It would be apocalyptical for their world. This was what William Bell told them.
Walter surmises that Slater wasn’t mad to being with. He wants to find the initial doctor. Astrid doesn’t find him on the AMA DB. 14 years ago, the doc wrote an indefinite prescription for Slater. There were 2 other people who got the same prescription. They find a woman who used to suffer from OCD. She’s been cured after 14 years. Olivia wants to examine the woman’s head. Peter finds something. There is a fresh scar, but there are no sutures. Mrs. Crampton is sane. Dr. Paris saw her for post partum depression. The OCD started one day after she was seeing the doc.
Their next patient is Stuart Gordon. He had a cough that developed into full blown schizophrenia. He was cured two days ago. He also has the scar. Walter finds out that one of the drugs that the patients were getting was for organ transplants.
Paris stored brain tissues in his patient’s brains. Brain tissues cannot be stored. They die. That’s why they were all on anti-rejection drugs.
Astrid learns that Paris visited his father at St-Claires on six different occasions. He’s got the sutures. It’s older.
Walter is getting an MRI. He’s antsy about it. Peter offers him some Valium and he accepts. He’s worried about what Newton did to him. Peter is also worried. Peter has Astrid take Walter home. Peter feels guilty. He didn’t visit his father in St-Claire’s. Walter had brain matter removed, not implanted, including something from the hippocampus. The gray matter matches the one that they implanted in the other patients.
Walter has trouble coming down from the Valium.
Peter thinks that Paris took brain matter because Walter did know how to open the portal, he just doesn’t remember how. Maybe those memories are contained in the salvaged brain matter. He thinks that Walter is in danger. Newton will try to implant these memories back into Walter. They are coming to get him. Walter is taken.
Newton and his accomplices are prepping Walter for brain surgery. The enemy agents also removed the GPS transmitter. Peter realizes that the ranting of the mental patients were part of Walter’s memories. The enemies want to make Walter remember something. They need to go where Walter first thought of the portal between worlds.
Newton tells Walter of the blight that killed off the trees and the grass in his world. They aren’t trying to implant it, they are just connecting the pieces of brain to Walter. They know that Walter built the door to get the Peter from the other side to this side to replace his dead son.
Walter talks. We don’t hear it. The lookout says that the others are coming. Peter bursts in and finds his dad. Dunham goes after them and kills two of the men as they are fleeing the scene. They bleed silver. She has Newton in custody.
Walter collapses. Newton says that he injected Walter with a neurotoxin. If he doesn’t get it, Walter will die in 4 minutes. There are three vials in a medical kit. Peter has to inject him in the right order, or Walter dies. Olivia has got about 90 seconds left. She sprints back and hands him her phone. Newton tells her blue, yellow, and red.
Newton says that now he knows how weak she is. Walter regains consciousness. Broyles says that Dunham made a rational choice. There is only one Dr. Bishop. Even if she would have killed Newton, this wouldn’t mean that this would have ended.
We see Walter’s memories. Paris is Bell. He is the one who operated on him. He did this because such knowledge was too dangerous. Bell planted the memories somewhere safe. It wasn’t safe enough. The other side now knows how to get through.
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