'Fringe' looks for its own deadliest catch

In honor of the Piña Colada song mentioned in tonight's episode, let me see if I can sum up the episode by rewriting its lyrics: "If you like big hybrid hell beasts, running rampant all through town/Walter sad about his dark past, Peter staring with a frown." Because that pretty much sums up the hour, people. If it felt like déjà vu, well, that's because tonight "Fringe" took a few elements from previous episodes, threw them against the wall, and watched it slide slowly down over the course of an hour.

Element #1) Crazy creature seemingly out of a monster movie but based in quasi-scientific fact. Much like in "The Transformation," Olivia and Company dealt with what seemed like an impossible creature only to learn it was manmade. However, while "The Transformation" dealt with an infected human host, this week saw Swift Research trying to build the animal equivalent of Voltron: a little venomous lizard here, a little parasitic wasp, and to top off the genetic cocktail, a healthy dose of bat. Turns out that bats can host hundreds of viruses without being infected, and thus are the perfect hosts for hybridization, thereby giving me the all important Reason #452 I'll never go near bats.

Element #2) Something in Walter's past is directly connected to the case at hand, only it takes everyone more than half the episode to realize it. This was the way nearly all early "Fringe" episodes operated: something kooky happened, Walter went on and on about food, Peter snarked, Olivia struggled to express a human emotion, Broyles spent the hour wishing he were on "Lost," and then around the 40-minute mark, everyone would realize that Walter came THIS close to perfecting said phenomenon 30 years ago. If Kyra Sedgwick is The Closer, Walter Bishop is The Approximator. He always gets pretty close to the finish line, but can never quite seal the deal.

At least this week strove to take Element #2 to its logical conclusion: Walter finally feeling regret for the seeming hell on earth that his research in the 1970's hath wrought. Even upon learning it was not his research that led to Charlie's impregnation with LizardWaspBat babies, he still strove to atone for the sins of his past by selflessly seeking to save Charlie's life by poisoning himself before allowing the creature to attack him. Hopefully this character turn will give him a personal vendetta against his former lab partner. (If you're curious who the show cast as William Bell, be sure to check this out.)

As for Charlie: I'm all for more screen time for the B-listers on the cast. Had they ever mentioned or shown his home life before tonight's episode, I might have been more moved by what could have been their last conversation. But I get the sneaking suspicion we'll never see his wife again. Next on my list of people who need back stories: Astrid! More Astrid is always a good idea!

Also a good idea? Returning back to the show's central mythology. Once again, no one on the show seemed to remember anything about the ZFT, the blinking lights, or Mr. Jones. Heck, they've apparently also forgotten about The Pattern, instead settling into this "we take the weird cases" shtick that ignores the larger context. Only a few more episodes until season's end, "Fringe." Time to pick up the pace.

Just a few more items about tonight's show...

1. Granted, I'm biased, but did anyone else think "smoke monster" when they heard the sound effects for LizardWaspBat?
2. Olivia's jealousy over Peter's relationship with her sister is an inexplicable as the sister's mere presence on the show.
3. While I liked Walter's realization of the harm of his previous work, the show put a lot of unnatural tension between the Bishop Boys to reach such a revelation. Usually they build up to a high level of dissension, but this week they started on 10 and kept up the volume all hour. I guess an ear in the omelet will do that to a father/son combo.

So that makes it basically two weeks in a row of mediocre episodes. While the show has a grand plan in place, it's not always good at producing episodes that exist in the middle ground between seismic events in its universe. They either have to start producing better "crazy science event of the week" episodes, or start focusing on the mythology. Either one would be a welcome development.

Are you liking post-hiatus "Fringe," or longing for the glory of its multiverse days? Leave your thoughts below!