Fringe, mid-season break
Confidential to gollumgollum: I don’t know about everybody else, but I only just watched last week’s ep the other night. And man, I could have sworn that opening sequence was about a bunch of changelings taking revenge on that guy for being a tool of the Weaver. Chimerical damage, anyone?
It feels kind of like they’ve been marking time until this ep, waiting to set everything in motion until the mid-season break. Obviously some previous eps were putting pieces in place (like the dude in the German prison, and the walk-through-walls equation), but I hope for some serious domino-falling after the break, after all the piecemeal setup we’ve had.
Peter: continues to please me, though I would really really like some meat to go with all the garnish we’ve been fed — his health problems as a child, Walter’s undefined experiments on him, other things about his medical history, not to mention whoever it is that’s after him. But they’re giving him more to do these days, which is nice. I particularly liked the interrogation — since after all, Peter was doing nothing more than using the very real knowledge he had. He’s best when he uses his brain, although they’ve done a decent job of making him physically effective on a realistic level.
Walter: I want more of what we saw when he went back into the asylum, though I agree with the speculation that at least some of his seeming insanity is him being a dick. (And in some respects I can’t blame him; it’s probably bad habits built up from inside, or else just a reaction to having some freedom again.) What I would like from his portion of the show: some development of why exactly everything seems to link back to work he did in the past. It’s gone well past “plot device” into “this better be a worthwhile part of the metaplot.”
Dunham: I guessed before she ever got to the widow’s house that it wasn’t her own memory; the Marines semi-gave it away (though yes, she could have been a Marine herself). I like the way that’s developing, though you would think Walter, upon hearing her insist that John saw her in the memory, would logically chalk it up to, oh, the cocktail of hallucinogens. (I don’t think that’s the cause, but I’d go there before I’d go to “that’s not possible” as an answer.) From her, I would like more personal development; sure, she’s solitary by nature, but I’d like to see more of her existence outside of work. She has one, even if it’s only family relationships developed before she started with the FBI.
Metaplot: I continue to not particularly care, though I’ll perk up if Massive Dynamic is not the Bad Guy, but rather an untrustworthy ally against whatever group the turncoat agent is working for. It kind of looks that way at the moment, at least, and it would be more interesting than the obvious alternative.
Next episode: I hope Dunham gets to have interesting hallucinations or otherwise do something more than be strapped to a table, and I hope Peter gets to bust out with his less-than-entirely-legal skill set.
