Finally, I can look forward to Tuesday nights again because Fringe is on the upswing. This week’s episode was actually well thought out, well written, and not confusing at all. Plus, the characters seemed to be complete. Now, all the brains behind this could-be great show have to do is keep it up.
Mr. Jones and Little Hill returned and, for once, didn’t contain some bigger conspiracy. I mean, of course there’s a conspiracy but for at least one episode, it was pretty contained. It all started with the Major who is friends with Agent Broyles. Remember that apple he pulled out? Turns out it was inside a solid box. Now, he and a team of recruited ex-military personnel are doing the same thing on a larger scale. They’re breaking into bank vaults, to be exact. The first two go smoothly but then on the third, one of the guys doesn’t make it through the wall in time and gets stuck in it, thus causing him to die. And thus causing Dunham and the Bishop boys to be called in.
They’re in fine form, too. Peter was witty and Walter was funny in his own strange and slightly unsettling way. Dunham was ready to go and seemed to have her first lead when she recognized the guy in the wall as Raoul Lugo, a friend from the Marines. She goes to tell his ex-wife what has happened and that’s when she discovered that Raoul wasn’t her friend. Though she could remember particulars about a dinner she ate at Raoul’s house years ago, the wife has no idea who she is and informs her the only person at the dinner was her, her husband, and John Scott. So, on top of dealing with dead Raoul and the bank robberies, now she’s confusing her memories with John’s. Hey, at least it’s something we’ve already seen, right?
The wife is able to give Dunham a few names, probably because she thinks Dunham’s insane and Peter and her go off to meet up with Raoul’s best friend from high school. Meanwhile, Walter has discovered how the bank robbers are getting in and it has to do with quantum physics..blah blah…vibrations changing the wall’s structure…blah blah. Above my pay grade so let’s get back to Peter and Olivia. They meet with the friend and he tells them that after Raoul got back from the war, he was all depressed so he went to a VA Hospital, which is when he stopped coming around all together. Onto the VA Hospital. But not before Peter and Olivia have some quality bonding time at the best friend’s bar. They share card tricks and drinks and I actually buy that they’re supposed to be love interests for each other. No, really. There’s a little bit of chemistry there. Guess they just needed a little courage in the way of shots of whiskey. Turns out Olivia can remember all sorts of numbers and when she mentions the numbers on the stolen safe deposit boxes, Peter’s mind snaps into detective mode and they go wake up Walter.
The numbers are really Fibonnaci’s sequence (a famous sequence of numbers where the next is the sum of the two previous). Who would use this code to choose deposit boxes? Walter, naturally. Though, he can’t remember what he had to protect so diligently. Good thing Olivia is on the case, too, because she’s wrangled up some names from the VA Hospital of friend’s of Raoul. She and Agent Francis delve into those guys financial and personal records and find three one-way tickets to Providence. It must be the next bank hit. Knowing about Providence, Peter tricks Walter into remembering the bank he used there and, indeed, it was just robbed. I mean just, though, so Olivia and Francis chase down the suspects and shoot one of them in the leg. By the way, this is probably the first time I buy either of them as FBI/DHS agents.
The guy can’t tell them anything because the Major never shared with the team what they were doing. Basically, Raoul and his friends were hired hands. Seriously? Who walks through walls when they don’t even know why? Whatever. It’s the only silly part in the entire episode so let’s move on. The one thing the guy can say is that he overheard a conversation about a field in a town in Massachusetts. It’s not too small of a town so finding the field could be difficult except that one of the fields is called…Little Hill Field. We all remember Little Hill, as does Olivia.
Now everything’s coming together. Just as Olivia and Francis are racing to Little Hill, separately, of course, Walter remembers that when Peter was young, he was very ill. In order to save his only son, Walter built a machine that could pull anyone from anywhere in time and space to a destination he chose. Before Walter could test the machine, Peter started getting better, so he stashed each piece in random cities around the country. So now we know what the Major was building and why Mr. Jones was asking for suntan lotion and a watch from his lawyer.
Not surprisingly, Olivia arrives at Little Hill first but before she can race out of the car, two black SUV’s pull up around her and tranquilize her. See, the last thing Mr. Jones asked for was Olivia Dunham. They capture her just in time, too, because just then a bright light explodes from the machine the Major and his crew have put together and Mr. Jones is no longer standing in prison. He’s now standing smack dab in the middle of Little Hill. Guess all of Walter’s experiments work. Please contain your shock and awe.
Okay. Just as we’re getting to know, and like, Olivia, she’s captured? Really? At least she has the impossibly annoying Agent Broyles looking for her. Mr. Jones should be a little worried, though, because the Bishop boys and Agent Francis always come through. Not to mention, Massive Dynamic has learned that Olivia has John Scott’s memories and they want them back. Hope that creepy Hannibal Lector wannabe gets what he wants quickly from Olivia because something tells me he doesn’t have long.
Wow. Imagine my amazement. I’m actually excited about next week’s episode!
