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- TV Series: Fringe
- Episode: Night of Desirable Objects
- Starring: Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole
- Written By: Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman
- Directed By: Brad Anderson
- Network: Fox
- Series: Fringe
Fringe: Night of Desirable Objects Review
Walter breaks out the frogs this week. By
Stephen Lackey
September 25, 2009
Fringe Review(2009).
© Fox/Bob Trate
There’s a lot happening in this episode of Fringe. There’s a monster case of the week, Olivia’s is dealing with an evolution of her own, and the changeling continues making his moves in the background. Now obviously the different plot threads aren’t given equal time and you wouldn’t expect them to be. The trick is to give each storyline the proper amount of time to actually make some impact. Sometimes, if you’re really dedicated to not having a television series spoiled for you, it’s a good idea to not follow news about the actors in said series. If you followed much of the behind the scenes goings on of Fringe last year the cliffhanger of last week was probably something you expected. Sure, you may not have known how that end was to come but the end was inevitable.
This episode kicks in with a really nice sort of Children of the Corn homage that offers up a nice jump scare. Often the scenes of television shows that are supposed to be scary are at best just mildly creepy but this week Fringe actually brings feature film level jump scares to TV. Six people have disappeared in this small country town and Peter wants to take the Fringe team to investigate. Last week, Peter brought the government a bit of Fringe tech and apparently since then he and Broyles has the power. The only demand that Peter has made that he hasn’t had answered is a transport plane! Peter and Walter are technically considered “special investigators” for the FBI but they don’t have any real credentials or even ID’s other than key cards to get them into the FBI offices. This is a situation that should be rectified. Speaking of Peter, it’s time for some expansion of his background story. It was so mysterious last year for a while but it just seemed to vanish into the background as the show progressed, much like “the pattern” actually.
This episode’s main story is not only creepy, it’s good fun. It has that old school X-Files vibe with the oddball scientist and the underground monster killing people. Having just watched the It’s Alive remake, much of this episode’s monster didn’t seem all that fresh but it was still well executed storytelling and of course it featured some good scares. Olivia is out of the hospital and on this case with the rest of the team. She’s not fully recovered yet though, she’s walking with a cane. During the episode, Walter hints that Olivia could experience some repercussions from what he believes is her trip to another universe. He doesn’t elaborate and oddly, Olivia doesn’t ask him to. Throughout the episode, one such repercussion begins to affect Olivia offering her extra insight into the investigation while also distracting her and also causing her to nearly kill Peter.
Charlie is around but that’s really all he is until the end. He gets enough time in the episode to reveal what his new mission is. The one bit of humor in the episode involves Walter and Astrid trying to build a model of what happened to Olivia when she went to the other universe and returned. This experiment also led to a nice emotional moment between Walter and Olivia. He has become very connected to her, whether he shows it on a regular basis or not. The monster of the week is great, Olivia’s new ability is fascinating, and the impending finality of the Charlie changeling is riveting. This was a solid installment of Fringe and it offered up the goods while setting up more stories for the rest of the season.
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Great review, great episode. You say oddly she doesn't ask Walter to elaborate but come on, man, ha ha, I think Olivia knows Walter enough now that Walter elaborating isn't actually going to get her answers. Whenever has he given a straight answer to even the most basic questions?
It's funny I thought of "It's Alive" as well and figured on all the reviews or comments to thos reviews that a lot of people would be complaining about it and calling it a rip-off. We'll see. I'm already on a hate train for people calling it a X-file rip-off though it's nothing like it. I mean, yeah, it has FBI guys searching for strange things but X-files definitely didn't own or even invent that territory or perfect it. I have the opinion that Fringe will. I could never get into X-files though there were a few shows I did like here and there. Though the last movie pissed me off.
Speaking of movie like scares and stufff from Fringe. I've always felt like every episode gives you movie quality entertainment period. I mean the first scene from the last episode was the coolest thing on celluoid I've seen in a long, long time. Both shocking and kick awesome. Sorry, can't cuss anymore apparently. Big Brother has found us.
Though, they didn't address it much this episode I think they are gettting to Peter's past eventually. I mean last episode they showed that he does have some combat experience and that he has some ties with the mafia and other shady elements.
I think this show, unlike many other shows, is giving us answers at just the right speed. I never watched Lost until last month and I watched all five seasons in a week when I did and that was just about the right speed, too. Though I think Fringe is doing it much better.