Fringe: Fracture

And we’re back, with an episode lacking logical storytelling elements. It’s classic Fringe! This week, Exposition finds a case (yes, I said Exposition found the case) involving an explosion in a Philadelphia train station that left no trace of an explosive device – which we know is impossible after watching several marathons of NCIS on USA. Am I right, America? Somebody call Gibbs! But Exposition’s case went a little something like this:

On the historically charming streets of Philadelphia, Officer Gillespie receives a phone call from a “Colonel,” with instructions to proceed to a train station to pick up a briefcase from a man in a trenchcoat. When Gillespie tries to take the briefcase, his body hardens until he explodes, killing several people in the process. Oops!

The Fringe-ettes put their heads together and find pieces of Gillespie’s body in the rubble to study. Doc discovers that Gillespie injected himself with a solution given to him while he was stationed in Baghdad, as part of an experiment called Project Tin Man. Please don’t ask me the details, because if I understand this correctly, all  I can tell you is this: Officer Gillespie served in Iraq, and while there, was exposed to a chemical agent which should have killed him, as well as other soldiers. Several survived when their Iraqi doctors developed a serum to counteract the agent. One side effect, however, was that the treatment turned the soldiers into bombs when hit with a specific radio wave frequency. When the Fringe-ettes learn that Gillespie had a body full of the serum and that radio waves affected the electronic equipment in the station, they track down the other people in the program and find a Colonel Raymond Gordon: he knew about the serum, its side effects, and tried to keep Project Tin Man alive when the government shut it down. Further investigation reveals that Gordon is the one who sent Gillespie, entirely unaware of his fate, into the train station and detonated him, and that Gordon has sent another victim into a D.C. metro station for a similar explosion.

However, our crack team of Fringe-ettes uncover the plan and save the second victim. Unknowingly, they save her intended target as well. They catch the Colonel, and only when Broyles questions him do we learn that Gordon believes that mankind is at war with an unknown Enemy. The intended explosive attacks (and the one that already occurred) were to be a message. The Enemy has been collecting data and planning for war, passing their information via courier. The couriers were Gordon’s targets; the former soldiers were merely collateral damage. Gordon explains that the Enemy wants to “exterminate us,” and they plan to use our science, culture and technology against us. “Whatever is in the cases will destroy us all.”

We see one such messenger, the man saved from the explosion when the Fringe-ettes apprehended Gordon, deliver his package. The person he delivers the package to: The Observer. Oh, snap! The documents he receives: stealth-like photos of Doc. Someone’s keeping an eye on the elder Bishop, and if Gordon is to be believed, Doc is humanity’s doom.

In other news, we’re reminded about Peter’s shady contacts and history in Baghdad, which shall remain unexplained. Also, the cow doesn’t like it when people eat cheeseburgers in the lab.

Meanwhile, Olivia continues her bowling alley sessions with Sam Weiss, mostly taking baby steps because Weiss works exactly like Mr. Miyagi: paint the fence, Daniel-san, because you’re really doing something else. Olivia starts to experience the headaches that Weiss warned her about. This first one includes random flashes of memory from her meeting with William Bell. Olivia regains the ability to move her hands without shaking, kicks her vicodin habit and also loses her limp. And here I was looking forward to making a bunch of House-related jokes over the next few weeks. What a waste! Olivia could have done a House-style reality TV audition/elimination for a new agent to replace Charlie Francis. How fantastic could that have been? Regardless, it looks like she’ll no longer be needing that cane to move around.

In case you were wondering, no further reference to her super-hearing. I was wondering.

The appearance of the Observer makes the episode worth watching since his involvement creates an interesting new mystery. However, Gordon claimed not to know who the enemy was or what was in the briefcase. As a former soldier, wouldn’t he think tactically? Why detonate his Tin Men – why not have them take the briefcases so he could learn what was in them? And he’d run out of Tin Men in about a week, so what was Plan B? Not such a great premise when you really examine it. But as Charlie states: if you start putting plans under microscopes, nothing’s gonna make sense. And that reference brings us full circle with Philadelphia this week.

Of note:

Doc likes to start his mornings by singing operas in the nude while doing jumping jacks.

How times have changed. Apparently, Broyles had the Fringe Division reinstated but he’s not finding them work anymore. Exposition must’ve complained that the cow was getting more lines than her, because she’s the one who pro-actively sets up a filter on the FBI’s intranet to find potential cases. I assumed she spent most of  her day on Facebook, without any real Junior FBI stuff to do. Don’t the writers remember that she’s an agent, too? And since things have been slow with Doc, she’s probably Twittering also, with messages like, “Just sterilized the lab again. Doc better not experiment on any more fruit!” When things are really bad, I’m sure she’s Facebooking her tweets, and then tweeting about her Facebook, then emailing a few of her non-FBI friends about her tweets and Facebook, and it could go on forever, really.  Perhaps they’ll explore this on an upcoming episode where the neverending circle creates a cybernetic vortex where Mr. Jones is hiding (since I refuse to believe he really died). Plus, Exposition might get more than 10 lines to say.

Next week: Olivia’s memories and the return of Leonard Nimoy???

P.S. Exposition’s updated tweet: “OMG – Doc blew up a watermelon in the lab today. Will he ever listen?!?”  (But knowing Exposition, this tweet will most likely be typed in Ancient Sumerian.)

Listen to The J Factor with J.B. and Jaimie here or on iTunes.

For another take on this episode, read Blow Out by Paul Secrest.

Season 2, Episode 3: Fracture (originally aired October 1, 2009)

For more on Fringe, click here.

Thursdays at 9/8C, Fox

Photographs courtesy of Fox and IMDbPro