Fringe: Power Hungry

Current problem with Fringe: Freak-science-experiment-of-the-week storylines.  Current best part of Fringe: John Scott is back!

Hope you enjoyed the debates last week, because we are back in full force with ridiculous science and gratuitous gore.  Enter on Joe Meegar.  He wakes up late to a nagging mother and reset alarm clock.  You can tell from the hunched shoulders, the shrew of a mother, and sad blue eyes that this is a man to whom good things do not happen.  A torn ad promising help in unlocking one’s potential is posted in his locker at a courier service depot.  Meegar’s boss bitches him out for being late and for peeking at a girl’s photo on his phone.  You get the impression Boss-man looks for ways to ruin the lives of his workers.

On a delivery, Meegar rocks out to REO Speedwagon until, nervous like a schoolgirl, he arrives at the desk of Bethany.  When crushing Meegar attempts to start up a conversation, they’re interrupted by the office-mate who’s taking her out to drinks that night.  Shot down, Meegar’s embarrassment is hidden by Bethany’s suddenly malfunctioning computer, and I’ve been on that end of a workplace meltdown, so I feel your panic, sister.   Meegar escapes to the elevator, entering as Baldy exits (duly noted JJ Abrams!).  Bethany also enters, in search of IT support.  Meegar drops his phone and she picks it up, finding the picture of herself.  Awkward!  Suddenly, the elevator lurches downward in time with Meegar’s embarrassment, and then in time with his fear as the elevator crashes to the ground, 26 floors below, killing everyone inside.  Except Meegar.  He realizes everyone is dead, and horrified and confused, runs from the parking garage, chased by the car alarms and headlights which jump to life in his wake.

In Boston, Olivia reminds us through Agent Francis that she saw John Scott in her kitchen.  She knows he wasn’t real and worries about her sanity.  He reminds us that Scott and Olivia were in love, yet he betrayed her and their country.  Thank you for summarizing Episode One so succinctly.  What’s the point of my job?  At Doc Bishop’s Harvard lab, Olivia and Broyles arrive to recap the opening sequence, and tell us the elevator is indicative of a Pattern event, because the elevator didn’t just drop, it actually ran itself into the ground.

On the scene, Olivia, Peter, and Doc examine the elevator and the bodies.  Doc discovers that all of the passengers were electrocuted and dead before they hit the ground.  Boston’s CSI team needs to step it up if they missed that.  Doc requests a body and personal effects for examination.

Fake science alert!  At the lab, Doc explains the government once asked him to find a way to make human beings trackable by pigeons.  Every person has a unique electromagnetic field, and altered pigeons would be able to track that signature.  While the experiments were successful, the side effects nixed the project.  Doc theorizes that someone has perfected the experiment, and the residual magnetic field of an altered person is responsible for the deaths of the people in the elevator.

Meegar returns to the courier service depot for a further bitching out by Boss-man, resulting in his firing.  Agitated, Meegar watches as Boss-man’s arm catches in a suddenly shorting electrical sorting machine, tearing at his arm in a way that guarantees amputation.  Beat that, Presidential debates!

Olivia and Broyles debrief, and Broyles reveals information about a doctor of biotechnology named Jacob Fischer, who lured unsuspecting civilians to clinics for experimentation through fake late night infomercials.  Doc’s theoretical human electromagnet may have been experimented on in this way.

Olivia works through the night.  The power goes out, and while investigating, she creeps toward the elevator.  The doors open to reveal … John Scott!  He assures her everything is okay; he promises that he loved her, “always,” and tells her that she’s on the right track.  She must find the man we know as Meegar before Fischer can.  Scott will prove his love, but “not just yet.  You’re going to have to wait.”  Isn’t that always the way, ladies?  He re-enters the elevator, and she races down the stairs to meet him on the ground floor.  Only the elevator opens to an empty car and an overlarge sign noting the weight capacity.  A light bulb blinks on over her head.

Olivia immediately rushes to the Bishops, still shacking up together in a small hotel room.  They work through the weight of the elevator before the accident and after, and come to the conclusion that Doc’s theoretical guy is real, and walked away from the accident because of electromagnetic levitation.  They also realize that their Static Shock may not be aware of his abilities so the incident was likely an accident.

Meegar arrives home, where his mother bitches him out for being late.  This guy cannot get a break.  They argue, and his frustration causes his mother’s pacemaker to stop working, and she dies.  He leaves in a panic.  Outside, he is met and drugged by Jacob Fischer.

Agent Francis collects an FBI team for Olivia.  Considering everything she asks him to do this episode, and the top secret nature of her investigations, it’s amazing that he does so much and asks no questions.  How convenient!  The FBI team finds the courier service connection and locates Meegar’s name and address.  A search of his home finds his dead mother and a “boom box,” which tips off Doc about a cassette tape he found.  At the lab, Doc plays Meegar’s REO Speedwagon.  I know the guy’s hard up, but a cassette tape?  Really?  Since Meegar has been enhanced, his electromagnetic field imprinted on the cassette.  Doc, who’s been institutionalized for 17 years and can’t use a cell phone, has no problem operating his Dell computer and strips the music field down to just Meegar’s electromagnetic signature.  Doc then imprints Meegar’s electromagnetic field on a dozen or so pigeons, and then attaches GPS chips so the field agents can keep track.  Uh, sure, it could happen.

Olivia steps into an empty hallway for a snack but encounters Scott.  He looks good.  She tells him to back off, he kisses her instead, and tells her he didn’t betray her.  He “wasn’t the one.”  Interesting.  Peter interrupts them, and she snaps out of it to realize she’s alone.

Peter, Olivia, and Team Francis follow the released GPS pigeons to the building where Meegar is strapped to a table.  Fischer experiments further on Meegar, but to what end, we’re not sure.  A thug arrives to warn Fischer about the FBI, then escapes with Meegar, who is the priority.  Meegar puts up no fight when encountered, holding his arms up, palms hidden, but nothing comes of that weird gesture.  Elsewhere, when the thug transfers Meegar to an SUV, Meegar decides to use his powers for a change and starts the car and charges.  He takes off, chased on foot by Olivia (surprise!), but he uses his powers against her.  He almost escapes except for the well-timed entrance of Peter and a crowbar.

A sedated Meegar is loaded up for transport to a hospital.  He wants to go home, but though Olivia promises to help him, she won’t let him out of custody.

Olivia ends up back at the lab, just after we establish that Doc still can’t remember Exposition’s name.  Or maybe that reminder is for us, because Exposition is still such a useless character.  Doc mentions Scott to Olivia, knowing that she’s been seeing him.  Not hallucinations, but a result of the mind meld from Episode One.  He theorizes that part of his consciousness crossed over to hers and is still there.  “Memories, experiences, thoughts.”  She says they’re not memories, and Doc says that Scott doesn’t belong in her mind, and this is her brain’s way of working him out.  How very Farscape.  It worked for that show, so we’ll see.

That night, Olivia drives home and finds Scott walking along.  You know, because that’s how dead people roll in Boston.  She steps out and follows him to a locked cellar space filled with boxes of files.  So….much for security.  The next morning, Broyles explains these were files of cases Scott apparently investigated independently, with no indication of who he worked for.  Most of the cases were Pattern-related, a surprise to them both.  Broyles also hands off Scott’s personal effects, as some were intended for Olivia.  Inside, she finds old family photos, and an engagement ring, inscribed with the word, “Always.”

Wow – that’s two decent episodes in a row.  I’m going to start expecting things if the writers keep this up.

Next week: Chemical suits, blood, and onion soup!

Season 1, Episode 5: Power Hungry (originally aired October 14, 2008)

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