Fringe is finally back from its way-too-long mid-season break, and I’m realizing that I’d forgotten more about what had been going on in the show than I cared to admit to myself. Still, it didn’t take long and I was back in the game.
On the whole, I’d have to say that this season of Fringe has been pretty devoid of all the things that I liked about the show when I started watching it. There isn’t enough freak-of-the-week action, the overall mythology of the show seems to have taken a break while we go on a “what if”-excursion to yet another parallel world and the best actor of the show, Walter Bishop (John Noble), is sadly underused. What with the show circling the cancellation drain at the moment, I have to hope they do something amazing as they round off this season, because I’m desperately hoping for a fifth season and a return to form for this show.
Lincoln, Meet Lincoln
In this episode, Back to Where You’ve Never Been, Peter (Joshua Jackson) realizes that Walter isn’t going to help him return to his own world, so maybe he should go talk to Walternate and see if he can help. Olivia (Anna Torv), still recovering nicely from the migraines that were introduced to the series last episode, realizes they have just the device for that and send him to the alternate universe along with Lincoln (Seth Gabel). Naturally, Olivia and Lincoln have more vested interests rather than just helping Peter; they want to pin the new shapeshifters on Walternate, having decided that he’s definitely the guy responsible!
Dr. Moriarty, I presume?
To cut a long story short, Lincoln meets Alternate Lincoln, as I knew they would eventually, and fun times are had by all. Walternate and Peter meet up eventually, and he agrees to help Peter, but only if Peter helps him with something else first. You see; he’s also being affected negatively by these new shapeshifters, and he’s most definitely not responsible for them. Insert dramatic music and cameo from Professor Moriarty himself, Jared Harris in his role of David Robert Jones, who we now realize must be the one behind it all. The alternate Fringe team seems to be figuring out that all is not as it seems when it comes to the shapeshifters, and they’re going to be doing some research in this as well, even though their Broyles (Lance Reddick) seems to be playing for the wrong team. Also, an Observer tells Olivia that he’s seen all possible futures and she’s got to die. How enigmatic.
I like the way they’re going with this show, but I’m worried that the season we’re currently in will be underwhelming and earn the show a cancellation before we can return to the interesting stuff in ‘our own’ universe. We’ll just have to wait and see.
How did you like Fringe – Season 4, Episode 8?