Fringe: New Season, Same Lab Cow

Hey all you Poptima-holics! After a long summer rife with decent movies, awesome TV (thanks, True Blood!), and a disconcertingly high celebrity death rate, the return of regularly scheduled autumnal programming goodness is upon us once again and that means the return of old tele-friends, the resolution of wild cliffhangers, and the arrival of many new shows, most of whom will fail but several of which will take root in our collective consciousness and join the tapestry of what we call popular culture. One show that pulled off such a feat in the glory days of the 08-09 season was a freaky little marvel known as Fringe. Fringe launched with all the buzz and anticipation worthy of a show with J.J. Abrams’ name above the title and before long its tales of the paranormal horrors and wonders that exist along the “fringes” of science (get it?) were a Tuesday night appointment for millions. The season did have its ups, downs, and occasional struggles to find its footing and establish a deep but accessible mythology revolving around a worldwide “Pattern” of the unexplained, but by the time its dimension-tripping endgame unspooled last May, fans were begging for more.

With apologies to Arrested Development, Fringe is the story of a crazy family who started with nothing and the one FBI agent sane enough to keep them together. The family in question is father/son duo Walter & Peter Bishop. Walter’s a former mental patient and quite literal “mad scientist” whose arch-unusual expertise is necessary in decoding events of the strange. Peter’s a brilliant hustler with a gruff exterior that belies the little boy who could’ve used more of dad growing up. The aforementioned Fed is Olivia Dunham, a steely dame who found herself drowning in the world of fringe science after the death of her traitorous lover—but that’s a story best left in Season 1. Point is, she soon became a true believer and honorary member of the Bishop clan as they teamed up with the FBI’s newly created Fringe Division to deal with Walter’s considerable quirks as often as they deal with mutants, psychics, and trans-dimensional terrorism. When we last left our heroes, the existence of a parallel dimension had taken center stage with the startling revelation that the Peter Bishop we thought we knew died as a child and Walter coped by crossing the barrier between worlds and snatching himself a spare. Meanwhile, Olivia scored a face-to-face on the other side with William Bell, Walter’s former partner and CEO of Massive Dynamic, a corporation whose connections to The Pattern are too numerous to be coincidental.

Enter the scene of a major car accident in NYC. Olivia seems to have vanished pre-crash, and the other driver flees the scene to kill a man and assume his face with a painful looking gadget. Yep, Fringe is back. A few moments later, Olivia flies through the windshield with great force. After several touch and go days in the ICU, Olivia wakes up shouting in Greek with no memories of her visit. I’m no fan of amnesia plotline abuse, so I best know what went down in her convo with William before Halloween. With the help of a curious new agent, the Bishops find evidence linking the shapeshifting assassin to the other side and track him (her? it?) to Olivia’s hospital in time to keep it from becoming Liv’s angel of death. Fellow Fringe Division agent Charlie tracks down and eliminates the shifter, or so we are led to believe until a bummer of a last minute twist when J.J. steals a page from his own Alias playbook to reveal a very dead Charlie and a nasty transdimensional being taking his place. Elsewhere, F.D. director Broyles fights for congressional funding and reveals a heretofore unseen romance with Massive Dynamic CEO Nina Sharp (she’s got a robot arm!). All seems lost until Peter offers Broyles use of the shifter’s warping gizmo as congress bait. Fringe Division is saved! So onward we march into a glorious year of gross out scares, warped humor, and the dynamic combination of creative twists and multi-layered characters that J.J. just gets right.

For another take on this episode, check out A New Day in the Old Town by Jaimie Campos.

Season 2, Episode 1: A New Day in the Old Town (originally aired September 17, 2009)

For more on Fringe, click here.

Thursdays at 9/8C, Fox

Photographs courtesy of Fox and IMDbPro