(S01E19) It's an interesting premise. That we can have several different alternative realities, and if the brainwaves are hitting just right, we have the option to see more than one reality. Or in this case, more than one charred body.
I must say, Olivia handled it way better than I would have. I would have been FREAKING OUT and curled into a fetal position if the whole time-shift thing was happening before my eyes. But she took it all in stride, using it to help solve the case and find the twin sister in the lab. But oy ... what a shocker ...
... to learn that Harris was the one doing the experiments in the warehouse. Guess that didn't turn out so well for him, huh? It's not that I didn't consider that people in the agency might be involved; I just figured Harris was too much of a dolt to be involved in any significant way. And here he's the one who's got the girl strapped to a chair in a makeshift lab doing experiments on her, "activating" her.
So ... he's working for William Bell...? And I'm guessing Bell is the "he" in this statement: "He's losing patience. We need her active. Get it done."
Things are really, REALLY starting to come together in a big way, which is good, considering that the finale is fast approaching, and we really haven't even seen William Bell yet, only heard his voice in the video that Walter watched a couple weeks ago. It's like the storyline meandered a bit to get to this point, and suddenly, everything is ramped up big time.
We've got Nina Sharp back in the equation, the mysterious William Bell out "traveling" somewhere (to another dimension perhaps?), Walter revealing the old typewriter with the raised "y" and then finding the missing pages of the manuscript, Olivia confronting Walter outright about what they did to them as children ("What the hell did you people do to us?"), Walter breaking down because he can't remember, and the big topper, Walter being visited by The Observer and being told "It's time to go."
Go where?!
And let's not forget the awesome spontaneous combustion effects. Poof.
Nor the "weird Walter food fetish of the week": Frankenberry.
Nor the quick shot of the lightboard in the lab room where the girl was being held.
I did think the whole Spock, son-of-Sarek, Romulan-war thing with the guy from Moonlighting (at least, I think that was Curtis Armstrong) was a bit of a throw-away. I was taking notes watching it on my office TV and yelling at my son across the house, "REALLY?!" It was just too ... too ... too much, with the reveal of Leonard Nimoy fast approaching.
What did you guys think of this episode?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-06-2009 @ 8:47AM
hub said...
Uh, that was Clint Howard, not Curtis Armstrong.
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5-06-2009 @ 9:03AM
Cap'n Bludd said...
Clint has been popping up on shows lately, I know I just saw him in something else new in the last couple weeks, kinda remember him in a shirt and tie - lab or office setting i think..
5-06-2009 @ 8:59AM
Jason said...
People can say what they want about this show and critique it until it's blue and bloody, but I can't help but love this show for filling my X-Files void. Do the monster of the week. Do the "the attraction is there but they never kiss" thing with Olivia and Peter. Recycle a few X-Files story lines here and there. I don't care, it's all good. It's all overdue.
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5-06-2009 @ 11:33PM
Eludium-Q36 said...
Exact opposite of what he said.
5-06-2009 @ 9:10AM
Gord said...
First of all, I love this show and cannot wait until the next episode every week.
I love the "X-Files" feel to it, but I think they are doing it better.
Clint Howard was in Heroes I think last week, he could shatter things with his mind, till Sylar put the kibosh on that.
The whole Star Trek thing was very funny, I totally thought Clint had some real answers for them and then told them he was Sarek, great stuff.
As much as it pains me, I cannot wait until next week.
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5-06-2009 @ 9:38AM
Mark said...
And ironically, Clint Howard was in an original Star Trek when he was a kid. Damn, why do I know that?
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5-06-2009 @ 9:27AM
Artieb said...
[POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT] Isn't the scenario mentioned by Clint Howard (time-traveling Romulans) part of the story line of the new Star Trek movie, directed by J.J. Abrams, exec. producer of Fringe? Sounds like a tie-in to me...
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5-06-2009 @ 12:15PM
scott said...
exactly...
5-06-2009 @ 9:27AM
misguided said...
Blatant Star Trek plug! JJ Abrams is great at viral marketing.
I love this show. It's very different from The X-Files and quite similar.
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5-06-2009 @ 9:32AM
JPN said...
You and your son watch the same show on different TVs across the house? :)
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5-06-2009 @ 9:50AM
Junyo said...
Yep, Clint Howard, Ron's brother. Which of course is cool, because Clint was on Star Trek as a kid ("The Corbomite Maneuver" episode), and because Nimoy will be ojn the show.
It was a decent episode. I don't think the "dimension shifting" would be massively disorienting, at least at first, because you'd dismiss it as having seen it wrong, or daydreaming or some such until it happened a few times; I think that aspect was portrayed perfectly. I think Harris, doing an experimented which separated him from a person he was hoping could project fire by a short distance and a piece of clear glass, was kind of stupid. Looking forward to seeing how the Bell connection develops.
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5-06-2009 @ 10:30AM
Todd said...
What did I miss when she went into the elevator at the end of the episode? Freaking american idol went long AGAIN and missed it on my dvr.
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5-06-2009 @ 10:19AM
Ian said...
What happened in the last 90 seconds, as my dvr cut me off, as that other show over ran its alotted time AGAIN!
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5-07-2009 @ 10:57AM
chrissthomas said...
You know you can watch it on Hulu right? Heck I got rid of my sattelite TV all together cause you can watch everything on the net these days.
5-06-2009 @ 11:16AM
Tony said...
When she got out of the elevators two masked men showed up and and shot her. It's hard to tell if she was shot with actual bullets or tranquilizer darts, though.
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5-06-2009 @ 12:28PM
Cody said...
it doesn't really matter either way, if she was shot with real bullets they can just bring her back to life or something super fringey like that.
5-06-2009 @ 10:53AM
D said...
She goes up,the doors open and two guys wearing ski masks shoot her with a gun with a silencer on it.Pow and then black.
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5-06-2009 @ 1:23PM
bruce said...
Did anyone notice that the page of the ZFT manuscript we saw said something about "skin on chocolate pudding"? What the hell?
I'm still kinda annoyed at the fact that the ZFT manuscript has been there and yet we know hardly anything about it. It would be great if they stuck it online for us to read. But that's asking too much. At least tell us more about it. It looks to be about 150-200 pages long, it must say something interesting. Unless it's all about chocolate pudding and the dried up puddin' skins it leaves behind.
This show is very good at making it seem like the plot is moving along, making it seem like they are giving us info, yet in reality they never do. We didn't learn anything we didn't already know in last night's episode. Well, other than the fact that Harris was a bad guy, but we basically knew that already.
It looks like next week might give us some real info. Hopefully.
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5-06-2009 @ 6:28PM
mrkorb said...
You do realize that somebody would actually have to write the damn thing for it to be put online for us to read. If anything, the 100 or so pages we see them flipping through is likely just a bunch of random pieces of paper put together to look like a book. It's a fictional TV show, not a documentary.
5-06-2009 @ 3:35PM
jboursaw said...
Clint Howard! Thanks, guys. Dang, I thought it was Curtis Armstrong.
JPN - Yeah, I record and watch shows on my office TV, so I can take notes for my reviews. My son watches in the living room, which is not that far away from my office, and no walls between here and there.
Sometime I'll do a "Confessions of a TV Blogger" post and you guys will know all our secrets. :-)
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