Welcome to Multiversity Comics’ Summer Binge of Fringe, a series that Parks and Recreation’s own Ben Wyatt once called “airtight.” The show’s twelfth episode is honestly a bit of a letdown after a series of top-notch entries; let’s hop right into figuring out why.
1. Sure!
After multiple really strong outings, “The No-Brainer,” while standing as the owner of the best episode title yet, is a notable step down for Fringe. It’s still good television and the general formula of the show is pretty good; the characters are strong and the writers are still creative and engaging when their putting out their most average work. This just isn’t on par with “Safe” or “Bound” or even “In Which We Meet Mr. Jones.” On top of the fact that the episode is a one-off, there isn’t a ton going on here even as its own story. So we end up working with a thin contained story. It’s well-told, but not as well-told as it could be. My feeling at the end of it all: sure, why not.
2. Screens Melt Brains
Imagine it’s 2009 and screens are creeping more and more into daily life. You’re coming up with a villain for your sci-fi crime show and you settle on a character that literally melts people’s brains with video software. In theory, it’s very cool; but in practice it’s more of a rejected Black Mirror pitch. After the opening scene, with jaw dropper of a visual when a hand reaches out of a computer to kill a teenager in which got my hopes up about something really crazy happening, it’s soon made clear that it’s just a hallucination. The culprit, a sad sack aggrieved computer programmer killing the loved ones of people he feels wronged him, is neither sympathetic nor interesting which makes him, uhhh, pretty bad to watch. None of what we get is offensively bad by any means but it’s far from what we want to see out of an antagonist.
3. The Weirdest Walter Story Yet
An truly odd Walter story starts out in a promising way, with Astrid reading a letter to Walter that Peter read and threw away before showing it to his father. For a moment, I thought we might finally be getting a real moment for Astrid but no, there’s more Peter/Walter material but not anything groundbreaking or even fresh. Basically, years ago a girl died when Walter experimented on her and her mother wants to know what she looked like beforehand. The real point of it all: Walter is capable of taking things on than Peter gives him credit for. It’s material that we’ve covered but I guess that final scene is nice which is cool, I guess. Still not up to snuff, but nice.
4. Down With Sanford
Sanford Harris is an absolute snooze-fest of a character. He exists solely as an obstacle which isn’t a sin in and of itself but if you want a character to be worth a multi-episode investment, he should be charming at the very least (and ideally dynamic). Instead, we’re stuck with a guy who just keeps talking about how much he doesn’t like the Fringe division. It’s not particularly interesting, he’s already been effectively proven wrong which renders his presence inert. I hope there’s something deeper going on with him because until then he’s just deadweight.
5. Everything is Better with Ari
Thank goodness for Olivia’s sister, Rachel. Ari Graynor is a very welcome presence on this show, bringing really great, positive energy to the whole endeavor. She and her daughter are still crashing with Olivia and outside of one moment of thrilling turmoil, they’re making her a whole lot happier. Seeing nice moments, particularly for Olivia, whose arc has been defined by a lot of tragedy, is really cool. I mean we open the episode hearing Single Ladies for gods sake! Here’s for Ari Graynor and here’s for more happy moments on Fringe.
