'Fringe': There are 'Alien' snakes. Gross.
Tonight on "Fringe," Walter tries some self-actualization exercises. And there are really gross Monsters of the Week.We open with a harried-looking man in Chinatown, and my boyfriend goes, "I got my Mogwai wet, what do I do?" The man's stomach hurts and suddenly he goes all "Alien" on us, as a tentacled creature comes out of his mouth. Gross.
Mystery of the Week
At the Dorchester harbor, our team finds bodies from a Chinese merchant ship that sank. Some of them are in the process of expelling their tentacled creature, which appear to be REALLY long. Gross, again. They find one person who is still breathing. Her name is Mai Lyn and she has no worm inside her. Hey, wasn't "Mai Lyn" the villainess on "White Collar" last week?
The only reason Mai doesn't have the worm is because she didn't take the seasickness medicine given to them on the boat. She wants the team to help her find her father and daughter on another boat. Back at the lab, Walter is keeping one of the creatures in a tank as a pet. Of course he is. They hypothesize that the worm creatures are inside the capsule for seasickness. Sounds like the "diet pills" from 1950s. Women swallowed pills that gave them a tapeworm, which is quite the "diet." Until they pooped out a giant tapeworm. Gross, cubed.
Meanwhile, the "doctor" who helped the man in the opening is harvesting more creatures from people. He takes something from the worms and packages it in paper, then seals it. The team has brought in a Triad gang member (they're known for drug trafficking), but he slits his own throat before they can question him.
Back at the lab, the pet worm starts to feed off Walter and he goes into a trance-y state. It appears to have gotten him high. Peter and Olivia take off to investigate Elizabeth Jarvis, who invested in Beijing Construction, run by a Jon Soo, who has been running the drug trafficking. While Olivia talks to Elizabeth, Peter notices the windows are "hermetically sealed." Which is what a germophobe would do.
Walter's theory is that the worms don't secrete drugs, they secrete medicine. The lymph gland secretes an immune-boosting enzyme that the manufacturers of the worm can sell for a lot of money. He takes off for Chinatown and Astrid follows him, but gets totally busted. He lulls her into a sense of security and then ditches her. She goes back to the lab and finds two strange Chinese men trying to steal the pet worm. Which they do, after knocking her out.
Back in Chinatown, Walter desperately tries to call Peter from a pay phone but can't remember the number and runs out of money. It's really heartbreaking work by John Noble. He meets a nice Chinese woman who helps him contact Peter. Walter is very distressed to hear that Astrid was hurt because Walter bragged to some herbalists that their worm was four feet long. Size doesn't matter, Walter. Silly.
Peter, Olivia and Broyles figure out that Elizabeth Jarvis' son Matt has a disease that's treated by the worm drug because it helps him produce white blood cells. The team raids the second boat, but it's empty.
The boat passengers are already in Chinatown. Peter breaks into their hideout and finds the creepy "doctor" from the beginning harvesting the worms. They fight, and Peter ends up tied to a table. The doctor tries to force-feed him the worm. It's gross. Again. Like a trip to the dentist from hell. But Olivia and Broyles save the day.
Back at the lab, Walter finds the beaten-up Astrid and she cries and he cries and I cry. Sniffle. They hug. Who's gonna hug me? The FBI team realizes that "Jon Soo" is an alias and they haven't caught him, but Mai Lyn is reunited with her adorable daughter, so that's cool. At the end of the episode, Walter tells Peter he implanted a tracking device in his own neck so that Peter can always find him. Touching. Extreme, but touching.
Thoughts & Tidbits
- I didn't love tonight's episode, but John Noble and Jasika Nicole both did really excellent work in this this episode.
- I do want to get back into the parallel-dimensions-war plot, though. When do we get more of that? Based on the previews: next week! Squee!
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Your article literally had me laughing out loud. Thanks for that. :)
This episode was so unnecessarily gross, BUT Walter broke my heart as per usual... John Noble is so. good.
Anyway, Fringe needs to stop with the MOTW episodes. They're not working, and the series is at a point where the mythology is intense and amazing annnnnd they should stick with that forever and ever amen.
More Astrid = Win.
Peter being stupid = lose.
Better than watching Private Practice, but not really a 'wow' episode -- just filler..
What I don't get is why they can't just give Walter a cell phone to use. At the very least, he could learn to scroll down the contacts and find Peter's phone number. Or even let it be one of those cell phones that parents give to very young kids that only call 911 and their parents & siblings.
Also, a cell phone would have a GPS chip. No need to actually implant something into your neck! otoh, i guess Walter might be so forgetful that he might leave the cell phone at home. I don't know. It's almost second nature for me to bring mine.
Monster of the week episodes have their place. I wonder if they'll ever consider doing mini-arcs within the large arc, instead of shifting from stand alone motw and large arc.
Didn't love the mystery of the week but adored the Peter/Walter and Astrid/Walter moments. I hope those continue.
I was grossed out by the worms, but I was simply blown away by the acting; mainly John Noble's Walter. What an amazing job he did showing his fear in being unable to remember Peter's number, or that he had the number in his pocket. Then his diress over Astrid being hurt. Moving scene between Walter and Astrid towards the end. Thought Walter placing a tracking device under his skin was very Walter. Lord knows a cell phone would be easier, but seeing that this is Walter, he'd likely lose it, or simply forget he had it on his person. Granted, this was a MOTW episode, which I personally don't have a problem with because, hey, all shows have more filler episodes. The trick, of course, is if they're well done and entertaining...this one was definitely both.
John Noble makes it hard to even TRY to picture someone else playing Walter. I believe its his emotional depth, I felt his sense of hopelessness when he couldn't remember Peter's number. I pray they don't have him and Astrid hook up, but last night when she found him and gazed into his eyes with the super glossed lips.....sigh. I sorta see Fringe as Xfiles for the new millennium, so the side stories are simliar to how Xfiles would have side episodes as well.
Walter broke my heart last night! I do like the MOTW though - I like some escape from the mythology. And loved Peter speaking foreign languages!
John Noble was fantastic! I'd have to say his character and acting have to be my favorite on any show now airing on TV. The writers do a great job for him and he is the perfect Walter.
I understand why some people do not like the sidetrack of a MOTW episode but I don't mind. It adds to the anticipation of next weeks episode. And come on it was not that gross. I can think of a dozen ways they could have made it more gross. The diet pill of the 50's thing makes me cringe more - never heard of that one.
I couldn't figure out how the Chinese men knew where the lab was???
John Noble really deserves an Emmy for this performance as Walter Bishop, but since the doofuses who nominate such things probably wouldn't deign to watch a show like Fringe, it's doubtful he'll ever get the award (I honestly don't remember if he got nominated last season or not). His emotional performance last night was spot-on, especially when Walter realized that he had unknowingly caused Astrid to be badly hurt. It was subtle, yet very effective.
As for the creature of the week, nothing beats the plant that exits through the throat of its victims on a certain episode of The X-Files (second season, I think, don't recall). That was just...ewww. Kudos to the comp-graphics department for coming up with such a convincingly-nasty thing.
If anybody knows where you can get a mechanical toy such as the one that the little Chinese girl was playing with on the ship, I'd love to know. I collect such things, and that would be something I'd love to add to my shelves.
As for the above question about how the men knew where the lab was, there were at least two men in cahoots with the doctor, so they probably had many ways to drive the refugees from the ship to the "clinic." Speaking of, that place of his reminded me of some of the more gruesome places depicted in the Silent Hill video game series. Bleah.