Bookclub!

This week, our assignment was to watch the two episodes “Safe” and “Bound” from Season One of Fringe. (You can read the Television Without Pity Recaps here and here, while the AV Club has their recaps of the episodes here and here. The post dedicated to the Pilot episode is here and the subsequent episode posts are here, here, here, and here.)

As always, here are the ground rules: nothing that we have seen so far is considered a spoiler, anything that we have not yet seen should be considered a spoiler. Crazy nutbar speculation is *NOT* a spoiler, but confirming or denying said confirmation would be.

Here’s my idea for spoilers: please rot13 them. That’s a simple encryption that will allow the folks who want to avoid spoilers to avoid them and allow the people who want to argue them to argue them. We good? We good! Everybody who has seen the two episodes, see you after the cut!

We open with an old schooly bank heist. Remember when Loeb took an apple out of the safe using that rubber curtain thingy? Well, instead of putting his hand through the side of a safe, this week’s phased cationic pulse is “putting entire people through a vault wall”. We blow open safe deposit box 610 get the contents (a metal box!) out and Loeb and not-Loeb are getting the heck out of there… oops. Not-Loeb got stuck halfway coming out of the wall. Loeb’s got a bullet for him. He’s left in the wall and we now know what this episode is going to be about. Probably.

Our intrepid trio is discussing best friends and spleens as we walk into bank (Olivia has one but hasn’t really ever had the other). Broyles explains that this is the third bank robbery of safe deposit boxes but the first where one of the robbers is in a wall. Olivia takes a close look at the guy in the wall and gives a great little speech about how she knows the guy… she rattles off a *BUNCH* of stuff including the name of his wife and where he lives (!). Well. Should be a short episode.

Loeb and his gang are processing the death of their friend by arguing about it. Loeb yells about it in such a way that tells me that he’s sublimating by throwing himself into his work and he’s trying to get everyone else to do the same. Apparently, there is only one more box to steal. Thus we are given our ticking clock.

And we’re back to Germany to talk to Mr. Jones!!! Oooh, he’s one of my favorites.

In the hardware store, we have a moment of honesty between Peter and Walter where they both complain about the other one being emotionally inaccessible. They talk about the need for a saw that can cut through human flesh with an employee which, knowing what we know about the safe and everything makes 100% perfect sense but put yourself in her shoes. You’re making 8 bucks an hour and two guys come in and ask you for a saw that can cut bone. Then again, I remember working retail and can just as easily find myself thinking “gotta cut somethun” and pointing them to the power aisle.

Ah, Mr. Jones. He’s sketching Olivia and his lawyer is talking about the upcoming trial “the best we can hope for is life” (which makes me wonder what, exactly, put Mr. Jones in jail because Germany doesn’t have the death penalty anymore which then makes me wonder what the worst through so-so options are). Of course, Mr. Jones doesn’t want to talk about the trial, he wants to talk about “his people”. The lawyer passes the information along, Mr. Jones gives his lawyer some instructions that include wiring another $100,000 and giving the location of the next item. Do people in prison still have that much control over their assets? That seems dangerous. For one thing, you’d think it’d lead to stuff like financing operations. Anyway. Instead of signing the appeal paperwork, Mr. Jones flips it over and starts writing a list of things that he wants the lawyer to pick up for him. The usual. Suntan lotion, that sort of thing. Dramamine. Mr. Jones asks the lawyer “what size are you?” and then tells him “go here and get yourself a nice suit”. This is telegraphing things, Mr. Jones.

We’re now with Olivia and guy-in-the-vault-wall’s wife. I suppose I should look up his name. Raul. Ex-wife, we find out. They broke up two years ago and haven’t talked much since. Olivia rattles off the same list of stuff she knew about Raul to his ex and talks about how she came over for dinner. The ex- is freaking out because she remembers that exact same dinner and it wasn’t Olivia who was there… IT WAS JOHN SCOTT.

DUHN DUHN DUHN

Walter’s cutting the body out of the wall and Peter is catching the bits as they fall. This is why it’s important to do the pinewood derby when the child is young. If you miss out on that and have to play catchup when the child is older, you have to kick it up a notch. We have to take the bits back to the lab (OF COURSE) so we can figure out exactly what’s going on. Walter notices Olivia’s dilated pupils and asks her if she’s tripping. He’s not judgmental or anything, though. He’s asking as if he’s pleased… the way you’d ask your friend if they just came from a restaurant you recommended. “Did you eat lunch at Rasta Pasta?” Olivia, sadly, did not eat at Rasta Pasta. She tells us all that she didn’t recognize Raul, John Scott did. Walter is less surprised by this than by Olivia’s dilated pupils… but still surprised enough to say he’s going to investigate it.

Back to Loeb and they open the box… and, wouldn’t you know it, Loeb refuses to show the camera what’s in it.

We’re back to John Scott at Massive Dynamic (he’s still hooked up to the machine!) and the techs are saying they’ve hit a wall (was this a deliberate pun on their part?). Nina understands but, seriously, hop to it.

We are given an explanation of the phased cationic pulse by Walter and, actually, it’s pretty good. He has a box of toys, Peter asks “where’d you get the toys?”, Walter says “they’re yours, from when you were a little boy”, and Peter disagrees. Where was I? Oh, yes. We have an ELECTRIC FOOTBALL GAME!!! YES!!! They seriously need to bring that back. Anyway, Walter has a beaker full of rice and places a GI Joe action figure (not doll) on top of the rice. By turning on the vibrating electric football field, the rice vibrates and GI Joe sinks. This is how they got through the vault. Before we can really start to think about this, we go back to the recently cut off hand (ew) and find out that it’s radioactive. Olivia shows up to tell us all about the safe deposit boxes… they were all bought 23 years ago, paid in cash, bogus names on every account. Which seems to me like it *MIGHT* be a lead… couldn’t we just find out from the various banks if there was a safety deposit box bought in the same time period, with cash?

I’m getting ahead of myself. Anyway, they put out a call to all hospitals asking them to notify everybody if someone shows up and they’re radioactive. (I wonder how often something like that happens… do they have geiger counters somewhere? I should ask Russell.) The list of names given by the ex- include a bartender here in town. Aaaand, we’re at the bar. Olivia flirts, mentions the friendship (“you were at the wedding!”)… and we find out that Raul got weird when he came back from after the Gulf War. (This is the problem with Kinetic Operations that get won. Vietnam gave us The A-Team. The Gulf gave us the bad guys in Fringe.)

We’re back looking at Loeb’s team (I had to come back to this section from below to point out that they’re playing chess) and find out that Loeb has a map of Germany. (Another Kinetic Action!)

In the bar, Olivia and Peter and drinkin’ and she lets us know that she has a photographic memory when it comes to numbers… she rattles off a bunch of random numbers from her childhood and names all of the safe deposit box numbers: 233, 377, and 610. Peter gets all weird and they run off to find Walter and tell him those numbers and he gives us a short lecture about the Fibonacci sequence and then *HE* gets all weird… and tells them that he has just now remembered that the safety deposit boxes are his.

Which, lemme tell ya, is pretty awesome.

We’re hammering out that Walter remembers getting them, he just doesn’t remember what he put in them… but, seriously, it must be *AWESOME* because he didn’t use his usual hiding spots (e.g., the family plot). Walter takes some drugs, licks some pictures, and we hammer out that Walter was in Syracuse around the time we care about and Raul was in VA, no, wait… He was in a VA in DC… around the different time we care about.

Nina and Massive Dynamic figure out that John Scott’s memories are in Olivia. THE PLOT THICKENS.

Raul first, I guess. We go down to the VA in DC and watch Olivia try to get the doctor to violate patient confidentiality where she fails. The orderly in the room, however, is *MORE* than happy enough to violate it. “He was in a chess club with the following people…”

Jump to the chess club… and one chess club member happens to have shaking hands. Back to the Feds where we hammer out information about the rest of the chess club and we figure out that one of them bought a ticket to Providence. Peter uses some trick questions to figure out where the bank is “do you remember where you got a safety deposit box?” “No.” “If you needed to get a safety deposit box, where would you get it?” “The one on Fifth and Vine!”

We go to Fifth and Vine where the bank manager assures everyone that they have the latest in technology and nothing could possibly go wrong. The next box in the sequence, of course, is missing. They quickly figure out that the robbers didn’t come in from any of the walls, they must have come in through the floor! After a quick chase scene, we have a captured bank robber shot in the leg and a van that escaped with the contents of the vault.

Speaking of which, the bank robbers are all yelling at Loeb about losing another guy and they don’t even know what they’re stealing. Loeb shows them some… sciency… stuff and tells them that they don’t want to know what they’re stealing. For some reason, they buy this. Loeb tells his cellphone that the plan is a go.

Mr. Jones! He’s getting the stuff from his lawyer and disappointed that the lawyer didn’t get a new suit. See? Telegraphing. Anyway, he says he needs one more thing and gives his drawing of Olivia. Creepy.

This, of course, means that we’re cutting to Olivia who is showing up at the office to interrogate the chess club guy. It’s the shaky one. Olivia isn’t getting anywhere (Shaky just keeps repeating his name, rank, and serial number) and so Peter gives it the old college try. He rattles off a list of symptoms that makes the guy ask “what’s happening to me?” “Radiation poisoning.”

This, of course, makes the guy spill his guts. I mean. Wait. This makes the guy start answering questions.

So now we’ve narrowed whatever is going to happen down to a 30 square mile region… and Charlie is complaining that it can’t be narrowed down any further. Olivia notices that there’s a field called “Little Hill” and everybody in front of the television gets all excited because they remember the “in which we meet Mr. Jones” episode.

They should be equally excited about this next part because this next part, seriously, gets played over and over and over again in season two. We see Walter explain to Peter how “you nearly died when you were a boy…” and he talks about he thought it was a rare form of the flu that had only successfully been treated by one doctor… a doctor who died in 1936. He thinks that the machine was a machine that he invented that could pluck someone, from any time. Of course, Peter got better and so Walter didn’t need to use this machine… which, of course, is being set up in Little Hill field right as we cut to it. Olivia is in the car on the way! There’s Mister Jones! He kills the lawyer and steals his suit! I KNEW IT!!! He takes the dramamine and uses some eye drops and puts on some suntan lotion! Olivia is being run off the road and shot with a tranq dart! Mr. Jones gets in the corner of the room and everything turns bright!!! We go back to Loeb and Mr. Jones is there now!

Now we’re in Europe where Nina (and Massive Dynamic, I presume) answers the phone to hear Broyles tell her that Olivia is missing.

And jump back to Mr. Jones who asks if they have Olivia… and Loeb says that they do. AND THE EPISODE ENDS THERE AAAAAAAA

According to the Wikipedia, “Safe” aired on December 2nd. “Bound” aired on January 20th. Just think about having to wait that long between those two episodes.

Isn’t it nice that we have all of these together in one box set?

 

Anyway, Bound. We open with Walter dosing a caterpillar with LSD. “What are you doing?”, Peter asks. “I’m dosing a caterpillar with LSD”, Walter tells him. Astrid comes in to remind the home viewing audience that Olivia is still missing.

Which is our cue to go to Olivia who is in a scene from Jacob’s Ladder. The hospital one. Ew. We see a guy in a mask readying a needle. EW. I hate needles. Doubly so for non-consensual needles. Meanwhile, Broyles is going nuts getting a team together to find Olivia. Back to Olivia, who is having needles jabbed into her back while she looks at the shoes of the guy doing it. Loafers with tassles. Remember the episode of Quantum Leap where the little kid said that the bad guy “had money in his shoes” and that was confusing until we realized that it was the guy wearing penny loafers? That was more subtle than this. Anyway, the bad guy is Loeb. He leaves Olivia with the two other guys…

Which brings us to the scene I was talking about a while back. Remember last week, in the Dreamscape, Olivia fought the chrismas lights lady to a draw? Well, she kicks a mudhole in these two military-trained guys and then proceeds to walk it dry. It’s my theory that the John Scott memories that are being absorbed into Olivia are also giving her a whole bunch of fighting skills which give her the ability to kick the crap out of folks that a John Scottless Olivia would never be able to outcrapkick.

Back at the FBI, Broyles gets told that “Sanford Harris” is on the line. And we find out that there’s going to be a review of Fringe division. A *FORMAL* one. That’s one of those words that sounds like it’s happy but you think about it and there’s nothing good associated with that word.

Olivia continues to be a badass. Beats up a guy, steals some biological samples, steals a cellphone, steals some car keys, shoots a guy, steals a car, calls Broyles, gives him the lowdown, pulls off, buries the biological samples, gets back in the car, finds some agents, and, of course, they all yell at her to get down and she, and we, are all “WHAT THE HECK???” and she gets tranqed AGAIN.

Worst day ever.

We all wake up together and she’s handcuffed to the bed and there’s Sanford Harris. I prefer to give these guys definite descriptions rather than names but this is a name that we’re going to hear again. It’s that guy (you know… THAT GUY) from central casting. “We need a jerky authority figure who is a little bit corrupt but nobody with the power to do anything about it believes it.” Remember in the first episode how there was static between her and Broyles because she got a friend of his convicted for sexual assault? This is him. He’s doing a formal investigation. He tells her not to investigate her own abduction (seriously!) and tosses her the handcuff key.

We get back to the main building where Charlie tries to explain that he had nothing to do with how Olivia was tranqed, again… and we find out that the building was clean, the cell phone was clean, the car was clean, the car keys were clean… I don’t understand how Charlie is expressing doubt in Olivia’s direction rather than talking about how it’s obvious that Harris is pulling strings.

Because, seriously. It’s *OBVIOUS* that Harris is pulling strings.

At this point, we finally meet Olivia’s sister and Olivia’s niece. The niece gives Olivia a Magic 8-Ball. I have an X-Files flashback and I can’t remember why.

Anyhow, Olivia gets on the phone with the only people she can trust (Peter and Walter, in case you were just now joining us) and tells them to meet her where she buried the samples… Walter looks at them through his little mini-laboratory and looks downfallen as he says he knows what they are.

Jump to Boston college and we see a professor giving a speech about microorganisms and then he collapses. The kids in the class stand around while one of them attempts CPR but then a giant… *SOMETHING*… comes out of the professors mouth. Ew. Just when you thought it was safe to eat some Chipotle while watching the show.

We cut to our intrepid team being in the classroom and we get all sorts of really gross details about what happened and words like “esophagus” and “ripped” were used. Ew. The infrared camera sees a blob and then there’s a little keystone cops moment where everybody is running around trying to catch the spiky slug thingy which is then caught by Walter by putting an upside-down trashcan over it. “Things like this always used to happen in the lab.” That was kinda cool.

In the lab, we’re looking at the thing up close and, yep, it’s gross. Really, really gross. It’s also related to the biological samples Olivia stole.

We go to Broyles and Harris alpha dogging each other. Broyles is ticked about how Olivia was brought in. Harris is upset about how Olivia contributed to his conviction. We’re ticked that nobody can see that Harris is IN ON IT.

In the interview with the TA, we find that the TA was having an affair with the professor (next week on Fringe: a TA that is *NOT* having an affair with the professor) and that the professor was going to take a job with the CDC.

Olivia and Broyles break down what’s going on, Olivia explains that Harris forbade her from investigating her abduction, Broyles tells Olivia that Harris has taken over the Fringe division and all operations now go through him first, we tell the television that HARRIS IS… argh. This is cheap emotional manipulation on their part. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Of course, we now go to find another professor who may be going to the CDC and, on the way, we find out that Loeb is in charge of investigating Olivia’s abduction. Who did this operation have to go through, again? Argh. And when we get the professor in protective custody? Harris is all over it yelling and screaming about it. And nobody on the show thinks this is anything but Harris being a jerkface. Anyway, Olivia goes beta and asks Harris to help save the professor’s life and Harris says that he’ll be kept safe. Peter calls and says “we figured out what the samples are… they’re eggs… they’re activated by stomach acid and they turn into the giant gross things” and we see Loeb putting power in a glass of water and giving said glass of water to the professor.

The *ONLY* saving grace for how risky this stuff is is that nobody but Olivia, Peter, and Walter know about the samples. That’s it. (That’s a pretty slim reed, though.)

Charlie goes in and talks to the professor just in time to watch him barf up a gross thing. He shoots it. Good for you, Charlie.

Walter explains to us that it’s a single cell of the common cold. Just the size of a shoe.

Jump to Olivia’s house where we get background on Olivia and Rachel and figure out that Rachel is having relationship troubles and Olivia is having job troubles. I think it’s intended to give us more character depth or something. I want to get back to the giant viruses.

We jump to tomorrow at the office and Loeb asks Olivia how she’s doing and tosses the 8-ball to her. It hits the floor and Olivia, picking it up, notices his shoes. FINALLY. We’ve been waiting all episode for that. Olivia can’t tell Charlie about Loeb quickly enough but, of course, Charlie is skeptical. I suppose that that is part of the point of the parasite thing, maybe. It puts Loeb above suspicion in everybody’s eyes because, hey, why would you risk that?

Anyway, since Olivia has to prove it, she figures the best way is to steal proof from Loeb’s house. Which, I suppose, makes sense if nobody would believe you that Loeb had access to the professor before he died.

We cut to Walter putting liquid on the giant common cold cell and Peter asks if Walter is dosing it with LSD. Which would be awesome. No, it’s a decongestant. Because, apparently, single cells congest. Before we can think about that too much, we see Charlie show up and ask Peter to bug Mitchell Loeb. Which, honestly, is quite canny. (I’m feeling better about the writers already.)

Back to the house, the wife is at home. Of course. And Olivia tells the wife that she’s there on suspicion of a double agent… giving the wife just enough time to get a gun. Cut to Peter successfully bugging Loeb and we’re off to the races because Ms. Loeb is calling Mr. Loeb and getting instructions to kill Olivia while Olivia is getting proof about the giant cells. Peter, of course, hears the second half of this phone call and calls Olivia to tell her about the assassination plan. It sounds absurd to write it down but, seriously, this was some tense television making right here. Expertly crafted.

Olivia gets the drop on Ms. Loeb and has her drop her weapon but Ms. Loeb is hardcore and we’ve got a fight. Luckily, Olivia has that John Scott skillset in her and plants one between the eyes. Dang.

Back at the office, we’re going through Loeb’s desk and not finding anything… but then Peter points out that Loeb doesn’t know that he’s single again and they set up for Loeb to get a text from his wife telling him to meet her somewhere. Somewhere where Olivia can shoot him in the shoulder before taking him back to an interview room where he demands to see his wife. When given pictures of the post-firefight Ms. Loeb, he gets all indignant. That’s something that works better when you *DON’T* tell your wife to kill Olivia. Anyway, he confesses to killing the two professors. He also gives a speech that contains a lot of hints that there was a lot more stuff going on than meets the eye. Stuff like “we saved you” and “the two sides” and whatnot. It’s, of course, foreshadowing (that turns out to not make sense, if you ask me) that is, of course, waved away by pretty much everybody.

Anyway, it turns out that the person Harris put in charge of Olivia’s abduction was the double agent that abducted her. Oh, wait. They don’t mention that.

We close the show with a scene of Rachel tucking in Olivia and Ella and Olivia getting, I presume, the first good night’s sleep in a week.

These shows were exciting and, if screaming at the television is any indication, engaging.

I’d say that right around this point is when Fringe finally stopped wobbling.

So… what thinks did you thunk?