|
|
| Friday, May 1, 2009 03:10 AM |
| On the Viewer - Fringe (Episode 18 - "Midnight") |
 by Fëanor |
I wish I hadn't read a spoiler ahead of time revealing that this was the vampire episode! But I still would have seen through their tricks in the opening. They were too obviously leading me on to believe that the womanizing prick was the predator and the killer, so I knew it was going to be the woman instead.
Back at Olivia's, her sister's creepy friends are talking about some creepy relationship service called Two Singles Together, which seems to bring together people who have nothing in common. Very strange. [I was sure this would tie into the killings somehow, but it never got mentioned again. They must be planting a seed here for a future episode.]
Huh. Even Walter doesn't believe in vampires!
Broyles: "I can just about remember when a suspect being human was a given, not an option."
Ah, it's not a regular blood vampire; it's a spinal fluid vampire! With an extinct strain of syphilis, no less!
Gee, it seems like they put together an assault squad and jumped all over this pharmaceutical company based on pretty limited evidence! And hey, aren't you required to yell, "Police!" or some such before breaking into somebody's house? I guess I shouldn't quarrel with their methods, though, as they've already found the right guy! And once again this is connected with ZFT. Good stuff!
Mad scientist dude promises to tell them everything they want to know about ZFT, if they'll get his wife back. He says she's being held by ZFT. As there's no way they're going to get everything they want to know about ZFT, he's either lying or he's going to die before the episode is over.
Olivia actually does a body count! People dead on Fringe cases so far: 147 on Flight 627, and 81 more since then. Wow!
Already Olivia's putting another team together, this time to raid a... Chinese restaurant?! Okay then. And in the middle of preparing for the raid and giving out orders on how to handle the hostage situation, she has to take a call from her sister and comfort her about her impending divorce and custody battle. Olivia has a tough life! Charlie sees the humor in it, though. Good old Charlie.
Well, I'll be damned. There really is a lab in the basement of the Chinese restaurant!
Olivia seems a bit too quick to yell "clear!" sometimes, before she's really looked too hard in all the closets and hidey-holes.
Ah, now our mad scientist reveals the truth: to punish him for trying to leave, ZFT infected his wife, Valerie Boone, with a mystery compound. She's the spinal fluid vampire! And wow, those are some scary teeth she's got! Turns out the syphilis she's infected with is just a platform; a carrier for the thing that's burning through her spinal fluid so quickly, and forcing her to steal more from others to replenish it.
This scientist is the same one who made the skin growth toxin that killed people so horribly in an earlier episode. ZFT does this stuff to show off to other scientists. Which explains why they kill people in elaborate, insane ways instead of just shooting them with guns.
Walter is showing Dr. Boone around his lab. Aw, I think he's made a new friend.
Peter's connections to the criminal underground come in handy again - he knows the guy who stole the car the killer took. So they know where she dropped it off, and therefore where she's likely hiding out.
Dr. Boone: "I know very well who you are."
Walter: "That makes one of us."
D'oh! They find yet another dead body. Olivia's right; they rack 'em up pretty quick around here!
Pfft! Walter's installed the Clapper in the lab. "I ordered it on television!"
They figure out where Valerie's been picking up her victims and head there. Peter's scanning the crowd to find her. "You're definitely hot, but I'm looking for someone with syphilis." Heh.
Man, I've seen a lot of messed up stuff on this show, but watching them remove this guy's spinal fluid is really grossing me out.
There are a few really interesting conversations between Walter and Dr. Boone, about their guilt over the terrible things they've done with science, and whether redemption is possible. Boone sacrifices his health in the pursuit of a cure for his wife (I knew he wasn't going to make it!). He asks Walter, "How far would you go for someone you loved?"
So, they didn't put Valerie in a real police car; they just threw her in the back seat of Olivia's SUV? D'oh.
Well, I'll be damned. Boone knew he was probably going to die, so he made a tape for Olivia, naming members of ZFT, including the big one: the man funding ZFT is William Bell! Finally, the connection back to Massive Dynamic.
Woo hoo! Good episode! As usual, the science is questionable, especially the incredibly fast-acting cure, but also as usual, it doesn't really matter that much. There's some interesting character development for Walter, a fun story, and more information comes to light in the over-arching plotline. Exciting! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jim Genzano's books on Goodreads
