Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Fringe through the current episode, “The Cure,” originally broadcast October 21, 2008.

Some of the things that’ve been simmering over the last few episodes aren’t revisited this week, but one important one that’s been neglected recently gets a big nudge, while Agent Dunham reaches a turning point in her relationship with Broyles.

I think I mentioned last time how I was surprised that there’ve been so few episodes, because at this point I’m genuinely surprised to have become a fan and staunch viewer, like I’ve been watching for far longer. Part of this is because I’ve been reviewing since the first episode, and technically, I’ve now more or less committed to reviewing every episode, which becomes a bit more daunting the further along I get because the episodes pile up differently the longer the series runs. I get to thinking in terms of a complete season, then, hopefully, about another season, and then where do we go from there? Suppose this lasts for years? Am I expected to keep reviewing indefinitely, for however long the show is on the air? I’ve become, for better or worse, at the very least the voice of Fringe at Lower Decks. If I skip even a single episode now, at this early juncture, does it come off looking like I’ve lost interest? And in future seasons? It’s a daunting task, one that I considered when I first accepted, offered really, to take on the challenge. I’ve never done this before, not for any other series, just the comic book 52, and with that, there were always more characters to bother with, plenty to talk about without looking over my shoulder, wondering what someone else might have been thinking, reading over my thoughts.

Six episodes in, that’s the sort of thing that I’m wondering about. The review is late this episode, but it’s somewhat okay. It’s another repeat, then I think a few more weeks off. Reviewing, you begin to appreciate the off-time fans might otherwise begrudge. It’s not that I don’t want something new rapidly, but that I like the breathing room. When these things start mounting, it won’t really be noticed. They’re just archives after a point.

To someone like Walter Bishop, that’s something to count on. “The Cure” is one of those episodes he’s not expected to know from firsthand experience the week’s mystery, just counted on to know what he’s talking about when consulted, as he invariably is (that’s why he’s around, after all). It’s a relief for me, because it can sometimes seem as if the writers expect him to have that firsthand experience every time, and he really shouldn’t be expected to. He’s got the background, is all that should be important. From that, things build around him, and that’s what an episode like this is about, what the show has been working on in its short life.

Once again, Walter’s son Peter becomes important for the things only he’s able to provide. Sometimes, it’s simply handling his father. Here, it’s turning to Nina Sharp when no one else will, asking for help and cutting a deal is known about would be frowned on, because Nina is a shady character, as we’ve known since we first met her, if not a direct hand in the mystery of the Pattern then certainly someone who’s been complicit, a part of the groundwork beneath the Pattern. I got a little excited during the episode thinking the evil scientist (hey, thanks Fringe, for above all rehabilitating the role of evil scientists in pop culture!) featured here was going to be important to remember, but he’s done in by the end of the hour, no matter how menacing he is towards Agent Dunham as she peels back the layers of subterfuge surrounding him. Finally, he is revealed as just another representative of merely the kind of menace the team is up against, which is fine.

Which is not to say this evil scientist doesn’t provoke some lasting impressions. As I’ve already said, as if Peter doesn’t have enough he’s already hiding from the rest of the team, he’s now got this deal with Nina Sharp, which is a welcome return for the character, a necessary element of her recurring role, something she slips by those who would otherwise do anything but trust her (mainly, Dunham, because we’ve already seen her collude with Broyles). Speaking of Broyles, the team leader has some sharp (no pun intended, I swear) words for Dunham after she appears to become too emotionally involved in the investigation, to which she retorts that if she’s going to be a part of this team, Broyles is just going to have to deal with it. It’s a wonderful incidental character moment, if not for stern Broyles then for Dunham, allowing Anna Torv to sink some real teeth into the character, establishing her, perhaps, as just the strong female her creator is so famous for.

After my recent admission for being somewhat purposefully lax on reporting the specific episodic mysteries, I’ve got to be somewhat embarrassed to admit that because I took so much time to write this review, I hadn’t really remembered much of what the evil scientist was cooking in “The Cure,” but it boils down to a fairly standard medical matter you might find on House or Grey’s Anatomy, so I’m not sure how much this review misses by skimming so nonchalantly over it. It’s probably going to be fairly standard that viewers won’t have to know about this stuff so much as what it provokes the characters to do, which is what the series should most be concerned with, as it has been. If these elements work, then they should almost be invisible in the reviews. If they have something particularly provocative about them, such as in “The Same Old Story” (this week’s repeat, the one with the rapid-aging that seemed to get all the viewers), I’ll definitely make a note of it, but I’m never going to be one to provide a beat-by-beat account, just in case that hasn’t been obvious yet…