What's it about?
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.
Review
First things first: guest starring Kevin Weisman! I miss the character of Marshall Flinkman and a little bit of me was hoping that maybe we'd get some kind of very awesome cross over into the universe of Alias. Obviously I was aware that this would never happen but to have the genius that is Kevin on screen was brilliant even if he was villainous and making people lose their memory.
'Fringe' is beginning to feel as though it is ramping up towards something, this is the feeling I've had during the previous two seasons roughly four or five episodes from the finale so maybe that's a good sign at this point. Although knowing that we're going off the air from December through to the end of February I feel that we're ramping up to such a 'WTF?!!!' mid-season ender that we could be left holding our breath through to springtime.
But as for this episode we've gone to a more season one-esque villain of the week, who does end up being tied in to the bigger picture in a BIG (underline, bold, italic, exclamation mark) kind of way. But for the bulk of this episode we're on a standalone investigation into what fans of listening to their old school radios at home are losing their memories.
It was nice to have a slightly more generically formulaic episode in amongst the mass of mythology which has become the Fringe-verse, particularly in this week-by-week hop across the universe barrier. I hope this episode wasn't written in the hope that it would miraculously up viewership by being so obviously a villain-of-the-week piece.
As for the ratings, yes they're continuing to dwindle on the lower end of the scale and with the announcement that post break 'Fringe' will be returning in the Friday night death slot most fans are probably in the same 'let's save our show!' place as I am right now but all we can do is watch, promote and discuss as much as possible in the hope that more people will jump on the bandwagon but it's not going to be easy considering the sheer bulk of storyline which needs to be caught up on at this point.
We're clearly edging closer to the return of Olivia from the other side, either that or Alt-livia is about to drop the biggest clanger which will reveal her and set us on a path to rescuing the damsel in distress from the evil Walternate.
I'm fine with this happening, in fact it would be nice to bring the team back together and have us move towards how we're going to protect ourselves from the pretty hostile alternate us. If this show is going to come to war I hope it happens before it gets cancelled otherwise there's going to be a pretty big what if left in the air about what would happen should our two sides meet.
I think with this episode it's best to focus on the mind numbingly twisting discovery of burial sites for pieces of the apocalypse device all over our world. So is this a twin device to the alternate universe one? Is this part of the alternate one and it has been deconstructed and hidden here for our protection from the alternates? And who are the first people?
For a while I felt this episode was going to go completely biblical and explain to us that the device was actually built by an entire race of humans who existed in prehistoric times but had become further technologically advanced than modern day humans.
If we were to spin the show in that direction I think I would automatically order it to pack its bags and move to the sci-fi network. But jeez it was an awesome revelation.
Removing my fan boy hat it is an interesting gamble for the writers to take by introducing the average viewer to further complicated developments in the story. For those who aren't already incredibly well versed in the world of sci-fi dealing with alternate universes is probably enough to give you a mild headache on your Thursday (or Friday) night but to also deal with prehistoric humanoid technology may be a bit much for some.
I've sadly already seen the next episode as I'm running so far behind on reviews so I've found it hard to review this episode knowing the awesomeness which follows... so please go and read my 3x07 review haha!
Next week...
In the alternate universe, a serial kidnapper known as the "Candyman", due to his secretion of glucose in his sweat, strikes again. His modus operandi is to kidnap children, hold them for a few days, and then release them. However, when the children are released, they have severe health problems symptomatic of old age. Olivia, while searching for a way home.
Overall
Story 3.5
Character 3.0
Science 3.5
Overall 3.5
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