Lower Decks

This review contains spoilers through the episode “The No-Brainer,” originally broadcast 1/27/08.

In case it wasn’t apparent in previous reviews, I’m aware (perhaps now moreso than before) that not everyone shares my exact enthusiasm for this show. I guess it’s a good thing that I volunteered to review it! I don’t know how a skeptic would write about it episode to episode. For me, anyway, this was another good one, maybe a little light on the fringe mystery, but an excellent episode for fans of the characters, and it should be made clear that as a fan of a series, I must be a fan of the characters as well. It’s my first and most important criteria, and Fringe passed that hurdle probably in the second episode. Don’t believe me? Go back and read my review for the first episode. I’ll wait.

“The No-Brainer,” unlike most of the earlier episodes, doesn’t have the central episodic crutch of the fringe mystery to rely on, as I’ve noted, which I think is actually a good thing. Maybe that’s the “reason” the show exists, to spin around those elements of the plot each week, but if that’s all it was, speaking from my own perspective I wouldn’t be as interested in watching if that’s the bulk of what I could expect to get. The problem this time is that it seems as if the mystery was almost taken for granted, introduced and then sort of walked through, as procedural as such a plot can get. With “Bound,” there simply wasn’t time to expend much focus on super-enlarged viruses (paging Captain Janeway). Here, a more traditional episode, the interest was clearly elsewhere, no matter the basic structure and what seemed like the intent.

Rather, we get a little more of the elements introduced in “Bound” as they fit into the regular pattern (once again, I peg patience for these puns that are so easy to drop in the reviews) of the show, whether it be meddlesome Harris or Dunham’s sister and her precocious daughter. As I was discussing with forst on the message boards, the value of Harris, as emphasized in this episode, goes beyond a one-dimensional foil, but rather speaks to a new layer of realism in the series. While he certainly acts as a “bad guy” toward our team and, at the moment, some manner of link to Dunham’s past, Harris also represents an acknowledgement that the weird things Broyles and company investigate and their methods aren’t inside a bubble, aren’t part of some closed-off world where it can simply be taken for granted that there are people doing questionable things with science and there happens to be some good guys working against them. Convenient or not, not everyone understands what’s going on, and that comes with a price. What comes of this arc, and Harris in particular, remains to be seen, but I think it adds genuine value, and I trust the creators to do what’s best for all involved.

Dunham’s sister, meanwhile, serves a similar role, humanizing Olivia while also demonstrating that she’s not your average woman, whose own sister doesn’t quite understand her or the focus necessary for the work she does. It’s one thing to know how to handle a daughter practically, it’s another to understand that girls need to be girls, too, and the way Olivia and her sister Lily handle the girl in the episode (not to mention Peter) reflect not only their varying relationships with her as their own temperaments and character.

Then there’s Peter himself, the suspicions that are increasing enveloping him (even to-the-point Astrid, who usually focuses on only the things that concern her directly, takes note this episode), with his obvious daddy issues, from which the bulk of the mystery draws its worth. He’s a guy who likes to keep to himself, but at the same time is fun to have around, the magician who doesn’t reveal his secrets but who is fascinating all the same. He’s constantly prodded about his relationship with Walter, and seems to have a new answer each time, something new he’s forced to realize. This time we may have gotten something entirely new, a breakthrough the episode doesn’t even spend that much time on, but enough to help the viewer realize for itself just how much is there.

From the beginning Walter has been noted first and foremost as a standout personality, and though we have often heard about his background and the reasons he became so eccentric, it’s been easy to see him only as that personality, even when we’ve been forced along with him to revisit his demons. The fact is, though, he was locked away in St. Claire (along with Dunham’s partner Charlie, another name link to another Abrams project) for a reason, and though it’s been referenced, I don’t think until now it’s been properly identified, much less explored, but I believe this is another significant starting point. A lab assistant died in an accident, and Walter was so traumatized (as Peter notes in the episode, he probably doesn’t prefer to think in terms of reality, except when it proves relevant in his thought process, which always needs directing, convenient for a scientist) he locked up. Combined with the psychological effects of literally be locked away, it’s no wonder he ended up exactly as he is today. As I’ve understood since he first appeared on my TV and I hope other viewers can relate now, Walter has always been more than he seems.

“The No-Brainer” is exactly that, another fine example of what has made this show such a pleasure to follow.