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Info:
  • TV Series: Fringe
  • Episode: Inner Child
  • Starring: Ana Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Jesika Nicole, Lance Reddick
  • Written By: Julia Cho, Brad Caleb Cane
  • Directed By: Frederick E.O. Toye
  • Network: Fox
  • Series: Fringe

Fringe: Inner Child

The first of six new episodes.

By Stephen Lackey     April 08, 2009


Olivia Connects with a Child that Can’t Speak this Week on Fringe: Inner Child(2009).
© Fox

 

Fringe has been on hiatus way too long. When will people give up on American Idol? The show is back now for six new episodes. With Battlestar Galactica gone hopefully Fringe will start to fill the space that fantastic show left behind. I wish I could say Olivia and the gang came back with a bang but I can’t. This episode is good enough, but it’s not amazing. Dr. Bishop gets one hilarious line in the episode that’s spit take worthy and there are a couple of creepy scenes that still make the episode entertaining though. When will Dr. Bishop’s awkward sexual jokes and references to his or someone else's penis stop being funny? The obvious answer is not anytime soon.
 
“Inner Child” is a story of the week with some ties to the overall story arc. The way this episode connects to the greater story actually reminds me of how the writers on Supernatural have recently been attaching monsters of the week to the main story in that series. It’s all self contained until the final moments of the episode and then there’s a zinger that makes everything we’ve seen important. This episode is missing some of the more intriguing elements of the series with the most notable being Massive Dynamics. Just when you think the creepy lady from the mysterious company is going to appear she doesn’t. Instead a much less interesting CIA agent does appear.
 
Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop gets the really thankless and uninteresting role this week of finger wagger. He spends the whole episode telling his father “No no” in nearly every scene they share together. I kept expecting him to smack his father in the head with a rolled up newspaper. While Dr. Bishop did get one funny joke all of the out of place mentions of the record player weren’t amusing at all. The fact that the record player ended up being important to his investigation made the jokes even more disappointing. Dr. Bishop’s jokes are the best when they truly mean nothing to the case at hand.
 
The best parts of this week’s episode involve Olivia’s interactions with children, her niece and her latest case. The case involves a mysterious child that is discovered living under a building. He’s apparently been there for years getting no sun and living alone surviving on rats. He can’t speak but through some coaxing from Olivia he does begin to communicate with her and her alone. Not surprisingly he turns out to be gifted with psychic abilities. His abilities allow him to emotionally connect with a person or situation. He quickly connects with Olivia and is able to help her with an existing serial killer case. The serial killer case is about as important to this series as it is interesting in this episode. In other words, it’s a plot device and nothing more. Ana Torv sells her scenes with this child and the parallel scenes with her niece. She can often come off a bit cold and standoffish so this further development of her character is a nice change. The practice she is getting interacting with a child in her apartment make her a better agent in this particular case.
 
Overall this is just a case of the week even with the little cliffhanger ending. It wouldn’t be surprising if this child never appears on the show again. I thought the same thing about a certain child on the X-Files and I turned out to be really wrong on that one so who knows what the writers have up their sleeves. Hopefully next week the show will dig back into Massive Dynamic and the pattern and gear back up for some real conspiracy fun.
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LittleNell1824 4/8/2009 4:34:04 AM

I'm not sure why she's working the serial killer case because it's not sciencey... so that was a little off.

I agree that Anna Torv seems... well... uncomfortable with people around her. Her eyes are always narrowed when she talks to people even when she's smiling. She looks tense - a little wooden. Now, I believe it's just how she's playing the character (who doesn't have much reason to trust right now), because she really came alive with the kids. I almost cried just before the end - it all seemed so unfair. and wrong.

I hope we see more of the socially bonded Anna Torv in the future.

myklspader 4/8/2009 5:33:48 AM

She was working The Artist case because that was one of her previous cases (she says that in the opening).

I thought the show was better than a C , it is setting up what we have already seen and hopefully answer things.

Also Mr. Lackey it is: too long not to long. 

LittleNell1824 4/8/2009 6:36:11 AM

Ahhh... thanks myklspader (Michael Spader?). I wasn't paying attention, obviously.

darkheart00 4/8/2009 5:08:04 PM

 Bald guy in suit at the end......WTF?

lostfan 4/8/2009 5:42:40 PM

Very glad to see that Fringe is back. This episode was a little slow and there wasn't much revelations other than the kid being a kinda junior observer, but I guess they are trying to smoothly ease viewers back in. Peter didn't have much of a role tonight, but Walter had a lot of funny moments during this episode. Seems like he was a little more eccentric than usual.

“I’m sure Agent Dunham knows what a PENIS looks like. Don’t you, Agent Dunham?”

LOL freakin hilarious. Anyways, if you missed this episode, I just watched it online here at...

http://watch-fringe.com/season-1-episode-15-inner-child/
 

makabriel 4/8/2009 6:38:36 PM

Bald guy at the end is a reoccuring character.  He was in around Season one I think.  Had precognitive powers, I believe.  I'm sure we'll be seeing he and the kid again.

Oh, and I swear, if American Idol had an a$$, I'd kick it.  Because it ran long for some GOD AWEFUL reason, my wife and I had to watch the last 10 minutes on Hulu.  Really, that farce of a show has to go.

 

bear90 4/8/2009 9:55:45 PM

At least one reference was made to getting "another one" when the C.I.A. guy showed up.

darkheart00 4/8/2009 11:28:05 PM

 Ah, got the connection. Thanks for the info.

zaldar 4/9/2009 1:52:36 PM

Wow I found this much better than you did.  I actually loved this episode.  The child was cool, I don't need massive conspiricay stuff to make it interesting.  The war with the "aleins" and the things done to Oliva as a child are much more interesting.  The bald child was also incredibly creepy.  I liked.

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