Welcome to Multiversity Comics’ Summer Binge of Fringe, a series that Parks and Recreation’s own Ben Wyatt once called “airtight.” Thirteen episodes in, and the show delivers its strongest filler installment yet.
1. Back to the Basics
“The Transformation” is a good episode of television! After a pretty boring entry last week, we get a genuinely thrilling, engaging one-off episode. We meet a pretty freaky, interesting case, a great climax, and a wrap-up to a major aspect of Olivia’s character arc. Nothing here is groundbreaking or fresh for Fringe but it’s all exciting and smartly written stuff. Episodic storytelling often means that not every episode is going to be propulsive and grand. That’s something I actually welcome most of the time but Fringe’s non-grand episodes are a bit all over the place. “The Transformation,” though, is exactly what a good single television episode looks like.
2. Sonic the Hulkhog
The first moments of this episode have a lot in common with the pilot. We’re on a plane and there’s a very nervous, science-y dude. Then, body horror. The difference this time being that instead of a whole plane of people turning into jelly, the science-y dude becomes a giant porcupine monster while he’s in the bathroom. Then the plane crashes in Scarsdale, New York to add insult to injury. It’s a pretty cool scene! Really the whole idea of having a monster (and later a man who might become a monster) as the threat of the episode is pretty great. Everyone is always encasing people in amber or giving them crazy viruses or crashing elevators; Fringe needed some good old monsters present. As for the people that created said monster: they’re fine antagonists. Mostly, they serve to create one thrilling scene and are fairly forgettable outside of that.
3. The Dynamic Duo
Easily the best scene in “The Transformation” is Peter and Olivia’s sting operation to apprehend our episode villains. The scene is tense and commands the viewer’s attention; it’s not often that a scene like this feels like it has real stakes but somehow even in what is very clearly a one-off episode, things feel genuinely nerve-wracking. Now, a lot of this can be attributed to the effective writing of Zack Whedon and J.R. Orci but at the same time, it really sings because of Peter and Olivia as a pair. Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson have a ton of chemistry and it plays well in a scene like this one. On top of that I generally like Peter as Olivia’s right hand more than I like him as Walter’s. He almost always has more to do with her and they’re a more interesting pair in intense moments like these. Walter and Peter are great together, of course, but seeing more of these two together in the field would be very exciting.
4. Peace Out, John Scott
The most major development of “The Transformation” is the official, final departure of agent John Scott. Olivia once again uses his memories to figure out this week’s case and, in an ostensibly impossible feat, interacts with his lingering consciousness yet again. Later, after the dust has settled, Olivia convinces Walter to help her talk to John one last time as his consciousness leaves her body and they have an emotional goodbye. It’s a touching scene, though I never connected very much with John as a character. He was always just a bit too boring and felt more like a plot device than a character though Mark Valley certainly did decent work in the role. Ultimately, the conclusion of John’s storyline is welcome. He wasn’t the nuisance that, say, Sanford Harris is but he’s been a weight that I’m excited has been cast off.
5. Let’s Keep it Moving
Okay, so we’ve had two simple case of the week episodes in a row- one meh and one very good. And I know in thought one I said I like one off episodes when they’re done right. However, the season arc is very interesting and if we don’t get some progress on it, it will have been too long. We had a three episode span of filler episodes once before and it made things drag on in a way that would’ve been fine in a true binge- but when watching weekly, we need some momentum ASAP.
