Contributor: John Keegan
Written by Graham Roland
Directed by Jeff T. Thomas
Knowing that this season could boil down to a glorified fetch quest takes a bit of the air out of the room, so to speak, but it also means that the writers have a structure and, at worst, they are going to play well within it. I still hope that the hunt for the videotapes is short, however, because if the episodes are going to be like this, the season would bog down pretty quickly.
Not that this episode was terrible; there was quite a bit to like about it. But it was a step down from the excitement and freshness of the previous two episodes, and there was something missing from the overall equation. Was it that the story amounted to getting some rocks from a dangerous cave for an unknown purpose, hidden within the contents of a videotape that Astrid had to hang back in the lab to decipher? Or was it something to do with the predictable events at the camp near the mine?
It’s nice to know that there is a group dedicated to documenting the history of the Occupation, and that there are enclaves of people who remember the Fringe team and what they represented. Not only that, but there is more talk about resistance members hidden among the Loyalists, which provides an interesting possibility of a “Fifth Column” scenario. It helps flesh out how the Fringe team, even should their plan succeed, might manage to make things work with relatively few resources.
Ultimately I feel like the overall episode could have, and maybe should have, been a single segment or half of an episode. This story killed the rapid pace of earlier installments of the season arc, and the anticipated acceleration I was hoping would come in the second half never materialized. With so few episodes left, this episode is a prime example of why the “fetch quest” concept is so limiting.
The character work among the principals worked very well for me, and it’s good to see Peter and Olivia hashing out their differences over the loss of Etta and everything following that fateful moment. I’m sure we’ll get the full story before all is said and done, but these moments feel authentic. What is lacking is the sense of urgency in asking the primary question: what does Etta remember about her childhood? The longer it takes for Peter or Olivia to ask that question, the more absurd it becomes.
Some of the fans have been less than pleased with the direction taken this season, because it feels too “off format” for their tastes. But “Fringe” has always changed from season to season, one way or another, and this is the change they needed to finish the story on their terms. In the first season, they mentioned a war was coming, and that war is now here. This episode, however, stepped back towards more familiar ground, and I think it suffered in part for that very reason.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Score: 7/10
