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| Thursday, April 16, 2009 08:55 PM |
| On the Viewer - Fringe (Episode 15 - "Inner Child") |
 by Fëanor |
Very cool opening. Demolition workers are about to blow a building when one of them gets a weird feeling like they missed something, goes back inside, and finds a shaft under the floor leading down to a hidden underground chamber. Inside the chamber is a weird little feral child!
It never rains but it pours. An old case of Olivia's reopens: "The Artist" sends in a fax promising a "new showing" in Boston soon. Meanwhile, Broyles wants Liv to grab the Bishops and head on over to Children's Hospital to check out the feral kid. Turns out the kid's underground chamber had been sealed shut for 70 years. How the hell was he living down there?! Apparently he adapted to the low oxygen environment by learning how to breathe without it!
We cut to a laundromat where a guy meets a woman and then later sticks her with a syringe, chucks her in his van, and cuts her up. I must assume this is The Artist.
The kid grabs a pad of paper and pen and writes a name - Sam Gilmore - upside down. Turns out it's the name of the girl The Artist just killed! Woah.
Walter claims the kid might be much older than he looks, thanks to growing up in the environment he did. That seems highly unlikely, but... I'll buy it for now.
Hmm. What is the deal with this kid? Empath? Telepath? The guy who says he's with social services is definitely not with social services. He calls someone and says, "I think we found another one."
The kid writes something upside down again - this time an address. They go there, but Olivia doesn't think to check out the van parked on the street, where The Artist is hiding with his latest victim. Argh!
Walter thinks the kid is sort of a combination empath/telepath. He's become sensitive to the emotions and intentions of others. Uh... that doesn't really make any sense at all, but... okay, I guess.
Walter: "I'm sure Agent Dunham knows what a penis looks like! Don't you, Agent Dunham?"
Walter's plan: find a way to listen to the kid's thoughts, so they can get a better idea what he's trying to tell them.
So, Olivia's just going to walk out of the hospital with the feral kid? Huh.
Astrid shows the kid vintage Bugs Bunny cartoons on the computer. Good call, Astrid!
Walter is planning on drilling the neural stimulator into the kid's head, but Olivia and Peter point out that could be disagreeable to the kid. Walter admits it could be modified so no drilling is necessary. Peter: "You didn't think to mention that to the last guy?"
Peter jokes that his father is making the creation of artificial vocal chords sound very easy: "Simple, like making an omelette."
Walter: "Actually, son, a good omelette is far more complex."
Ah, Olivia didn't just steal the kid; she got him officially discharged. "Social services" guy is not happy.
Very disturbing: Walter tries to make the neural stimulator seem fun by dancing it over to the kid while music plays. Oddly, he actually succeeds in making the kid smile for the first time.
Ah. Social services guy is actually with the CIA, and wants the kid badly, but agrees to let them keep him for a day so he can help them try to find The Artist.
Peter's odd past experiences once again help, as he guesses the cow's blood and plastic under the victim's fingernails have to do with a meat-packing plant. So off they go to search the local meat-packing plants! Olivia steps into a freezer - and suddenly the kid gets really cold. He's definitely linked to her somehow.
Another step closer to The Artist! They found the meat-packing plant he got his plastic from.
Ah, yes. Kid is in fact an empath, and has developed an emotional bond with Olivia. He's trying to help her. He also had a link to that demolition guy, and somehow to the killer.
Walter suggests jolting the kid with electricity to kick-start his ability. Walter, no! Bad boy!
Woah! The little shape the kid made out of the yellow M&Ms earlier was the air freshener in The Artist's van. That made for a very neat moment of recognition.
Hmm. Shooting at The Artist's van as it pulled away, knowing full well that he probably had a victim in the back, was maybe not a well thought out plan.
Huh. Olivia's dicking over the CIA and sending the kid to a foster home instead of handing him over to them. How's she going to make that okay? Ah. Broyles is going to claim the kid just disappeared. Nice. Dicking over the CIA is always a good time!
As the kid is being driven away, the Observer is there by the side of the road. Hmm...
A pretty typical episode of Fringe. A weird thing happens, Walter offers a highly improbable explanation for it, then does some highly improbable things that help them resolve a case, and meanwhile there's the suggestion of larger forces and deeper conspiracies at work. I wish those highly improbable elements weren't quite so highly improbable, but otherwise this was a reasonably entertaining episode with some neat character moments and a rather thrilling and suspenseful plot. |
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