What's it about?
In the alternate universe, the Fringe Department investigates a shocking breach of security when a twin frees his brother (guest stars Shawn and Aaron Ashmore) from an area quarantined in amber. Walternate reveals to Broyls that the people in Amber are in fact alive; trapped in suspended animation and if people learnt the truth it would lead to revolt has they are nessary to keep the amber containment stable. Meenwhile the freed brother is slowly revovering from his ordeal; watched over by his wife and family who plan to protect him from Fringe division who would experiment on him to make the Amber more efficiant if they caught him. Olivia works out the brother they thought was trapped in amber was his twin who took over his brother's life after his attempt to rob a bank with a phase devise led to a dimensional breach and trapped his brother in amber. As the team sets out to crack this sophisticated case, Walternate experiments more with Olivia as she reenters the tank. Meanwhile, visions of Peter continue to haunt Olivia about returning to the prime universe.
Review
'Fringe' is back! After a few weeks away my favourite show is back on the air with one of the highlights of the season so far. Sadly the show continues to drop in the ratings and I fear that despite the outwardly positive attitude of the writers discussion will soon turn to the potential lack of a fourth season.
I hope that it won't come to that as I genuinely believe that the loss of a show like this would leave a huge gap in the genre on mainstream TV. Other shows like 'The Event' do a good job of bolstering the science fiction seen on our screens but this show has such a unique point of view (unless, like me, you're currently watching 'Deep Space Nine' on DVD and notice the similarities to the alternative universe theories used there) of the subject matter that it deserves to be watched by all.
That being said this weeks episode shows how purely sci-fi this show can be. JJ Abrams shows have a flair for great cinematography and certain shots in this episode screen out classic sci-fi. There's jaunty angles, lens flares aplenty and any avid viewer would be happily lapping it up from start to finish.
It's good that after a period of jumping back and fourth between universes with no connection we're starting to build towards something far more grand. It may be that as production on the season began the writers felt that keeping the universes totally separate for a prolonged period of time might dissuade certain viewers from tuning in every week (we'll see how the ratings look once the universes collide) and so decided that instead of slowly introducing Olivia's revelation that she has been brainwashed into thinking she is from 'over there' they just decided to crash land the whole realisation into this one episode. Of course it works, on 'Fringe' it always works.
That wasn't all that was going on this week, there was also the very interesting story of what actually happens to the members of the public who are trapped in amber following one of the events which so regularly take place in this broken universe.
From it's first appearance I've wondered if something more would be made of this very out-of-the-box method of containment and at last it has. It might have been the obvious choice to decide that those trapped inside were still alive but in a form of suspended animation but it was at least played out in an original way.
The story featuring the Ashmore Bros could have easily been a pap story-of-the-week and to a degree it was but with the added injection of conscience which made it all the more interesting to watch. There were a couple of twists which I didn't immediately see coming and the story did a good job of subtly moving Olivia towards the point she needed to be at the end of the episode.
This is a show which doesn't put the special guest stars face on the camera for the pure sake of saying 'look who we've got on our show!' and I like that they were used for their genuine acting technique and not the potential exposure brought by their name.
I do feel this show is underusing the character of Marilyn Dunham (Amy Madigan) quite drastically. Her extremely brief appearance in this episode could be attributed to the fact that our Olivia is currently convinced she that her mother has always been in her life in contrast to the reality that she lost her at a young age but there's a lot less chemistry between the two here than in the season premiere. I would much prefer to see the angst it causes when our Olivia comes in to contact with her knowing that once she returns home she will once again be an orphan.
This season can also be accused of underusing the characters of Nina and Broyles. At least Broyles currently exists in the alternate universe and has a part to play, even if it is a derivative leadership role compared to that which he has in our universe. Nina has barely been seen on screen this season and that is a serious loss to the show.
It has been a point of fan talk online that we have yet to meet the alternate universe version of Nina so I hope that one day we are introduced to her in whatever form she currently takes. When considering her role in charge of the day-to-day running of Massive Dynamic over here there's room for some serious contrast with her over there counterpart.
There's some room for improvement with the show so far this season but I can't fault the storytelling as it is taking the show in a very interesting direction, I just hope the network is prepared to take us on that journey with less viewers rather than cut the show off before it has a chance to reveal what the real master plan is.
Next week...
In the prime universe, the Fringe Division investigates a bizarre phenomenon when fifteen people suffer retrograde amnesia from listening to their shortwave radios on the same frequency. Much to Walter’s dismay, Peter presses on with piecing together the mass destruction device. Just as alternate Olivia and Peter’s chemistry deepens, the anticipation of Olivia’s return escalates.
Overall
Story 4.0
Character 4.0
Science 3.5
Overall 4.0
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