Fringe ‘Wallflower’ Review!

Well, Fringe is gone for now. This weeks episode was until the hiatus is over in january. This weeks episode of Fringe was called Wallflower and personally I think it was season 4 best yet.

As for the plot…

Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), suffering from a late night migraine, runs across her fellow agent Lincoln Lee (Seth Gabel) at a 24/7 diner, and despite Lincoln attempts to make romantic advances on Olivia, she feels unable to show feelings in return. Meanwhile, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), having been allowed to live on his own under guard, attempts to figure out how to use the Machine to return him to his original timeline.

The Fringe team is alerted to the death of a man, his skin and hair turned white. Walter determines that the pigment from the man’s skin has been extracted, and identify traces of animal DNA among human ones. The human DNA leads to a newborn child that reportedly died within a week after his birth in 1989, but its body was moved to a pharmaceutical company that was a subsidiary of Massive Dynamic. Olivia and Lincoln approach Nina Sharp, who affirms that the child had not died, but instead suffered from a genetic disordered that allowed them to implant animal genes on his body, giving him the ability to perfectly camouflage with his surroundings and an instinct for survival. Kept in the lab for years, the name, named Eugene (short for “unidentified genetics”) eventually escaped during a fire, and has remained undetected for years.

As other incidents and deaths occur at a condominium high-rise, Walter Bishop (John Noble) deduces that Eugene is trying to extract the pigment from his victims to make himself visible, a treatment that will likely kill him if he continues the practice. After Walter identifies that Eugene can be seen using ultraviolet light, Fringe and the FBI seal off the building and conduct a manhunt. Olivia discovers Eugene first, who takes her gun and holds her at gunpoint while he explains that he has been invisible to everyone and wants to become visible once again. He refuses to heed Olivia’s warning about taking too much of the treatment, and runs off.

The teams are unable to find him and close down the hunt, while discovering his make-shift lab in the building’s basement; from the numerous valuables in the lab, the Fringe team determines that Eugene had been silently watching the residents. The next day, Eugene is elated that one of the residents he became infatuated with, Julie, introduced herself to him; after she leaves the elevator, he succumbs to the treatment and dies. As Olivia reports Eugene’s death to Nina, she wonders if she herself, as a Cortexaphan nootropic drug trial subject, is unable to feel for others.

In the episode’s conclusion, Peter buys a pair of glasses for Lincoln that Olivia will appreciate more than his current pair. Lincoln offers to meet Olivia at the late night diner. As she is getting ready to leave for the meeting, she is gassed, and agents working for Nina Sharp inject her with a formula that will give a migraine and make here forget a short period of time.

Conclusion…

The episode isn’t perfect. The story with the invisible man is a bit of a mixed bag as some of the cirumstances surrounding the antagonist are too convenient to really believe. However, it serves it’s purpose and I except viewers too go along with for the thrill. The episode does however dare to introduce a romatic angle between agent Lincoln Lee and Olivia which I think is daring and finally seems to give the show some of it rough edge back. Peter’s sidequest raises more questions however. The cooperative spirit which Broyles show towards Peter might just be an effort to get rid of Peter the sooner the better. As for Nina Sharp being revealed as drugging Olivia is surprising but probably a red-herring for non-regular viewers. Nina’s involvement in plot os welcome though because until now they had been a bit shallow when it came to the characters involved.

Score; 9 / 10.

Viewer rating; around 3 million. For a mid-season finale that isn’t good.

So what can we expect from the rest of the season…

Fringe will be back on january 13th with an episode called ‘Back to Where You’ve Never Been’, what is known is that actor Jared Harris will return to play David Robert Jones.