Fringe Continues Its Winning Streak With "The Box"

After last week’s crackerjack episode of Fringe, there was probably no place to go but down... But luckily, we haven’t gone down that much. This season is clearly pushing the serial aspects of the show to the forefront, while still balancing the procedural and wackadoo scifi aspects of the show. In otherwise, two weeks in, and Fringe is still the best damn show currently on TV.

This week we’re back “over here” in our universe, where Peter and Walter are still wrestling with the aftermath of last season, and Olivia is wrestling with being an evil alternate version of herself trapped in a world she never made! I’ve always wanted to use that in a sentence, even though I have no idea what it means.

Anyway, one thing that might have brought this a tick down was that we’re back to the freak-of-the-week episodes. Whereas last week Olivia herself was the freak, here we’ve got three robbers stealing an ancient looking box from a suburban basement. Naturally, they decide to take a peek in said box, and as we find out later, they release a sound so deadly, it paralyzes and then kills people. No, it’s not the Ke$ha record (badumdum).

From there, though, things continue to twist and turn. Olivinot is actually in charge of the robbers, working through Newton, the guy last season who had his head sewed back on, and now wears his shirts unbuttoned one button a little too sexy. And though you think they’re trying to steal the box, they’re actually running a long con to getWalter and Peter to build the X-Men style machine from the end of last season over on our side. Why? Who knows, but that does mean we’ll have a second chance to actually see the darn thing work.

So what worked about the episode? Again, I love how we’re pushing the serial aspects to the forefront. This episode is far less new viewer friendly than the first episode (even with the understanding that this is the second episode in), but as someone who’s watched every episode of the show, I kind of love that. And hooray for Anna Torv, getting to ham it up as her own evil twin. It’s uneasy to watch everyone being taken by her, but that’s probably the point... Though I miss our tight-lipped, buttoned-up Olivia. Let’s get her back soon, shall we?

What didn’t work? It’s convoluted, even for Fringe, with crosses and double crosses a-plenty. And though I realize there’s an effort to make sure there are reasons for her friends to trust Olivinot (Peter is blinded by love, she ends up saving him without a second thought, etc), she might as well be wearing signs that say she’s not Olivia.

Despite all that, though, Fringe is on track, and I can’t wait to see what’s next week, when we head back to the other side. Looks like where LOST left off, Fringe is picking right up.

Random Notes:

• Olivia is constantly showing up in mirrors. I feel like that means something, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
• “I’m trying to make chocolate milk. Or rather, I’m trying to make the cow make chocolate milk.”
• “Aspirin! We need to go to the market!”
• “Silent but deadly... Speaking of which, you might want to step away.” A fart joke? Really? Sigh. Low point of the series so far.
• Shooting guns next to Peter’s head to cancel out the sound is a great fix – and the sound design (or lack thereof) afterwards was great, too. It was almost a bummer when Peter actually talked.
• Someone please name their Fringe tribute band, “Exploding Dwarf Head”.
• “Bacon flavored pudding. That would surprise me.”
• Major spoiler/Plot Point: I don’t think Walter owning Massive Dynamic will change the show in the long run, but that was kind of an awesome twist. I hope they at least allow it to develop longer than one episode.