Fringe Recap: Vengence with a Side of Breadcrumbs

Walter gets the Scooby gang into Harvard via steam tunnels buried deep beneath the Harvard grounds.

Never underestimate a drug user.  I’ve seen a classmate make a bong out of a potato.  I don’t doubt Walter can get a few people past some checkpoints (and 5 5’s).

On a side note, anyone else love the new opening credit sequence?  I’ve come to love how the opening sequences tell you what ‘sciences’ are on the fringe of the universe we’re viewing.  Season 1 made tons of sense, as reanimation, precognition and artificial intelligence were included.  Season 3 added fringe sciences for the parallel universe that was interesting.  Can you imagine a universe where pandemic, biotechnology and genetic engineering are considered fringe?  But this season blows my mind:  Community, Joy, Individuality, Education, Imagination, Private Thought, Due Process, Ownership, Free Will and the real kicker, Freedom.  It’s these little things that blow my mind on this show.

Speaking of mind blowing, Walter reminisces with Olivia about his LSD filled past walking through the tunnels in only a speedo (just pause a moment to let that picture form in your brain) until he comes to a red dragon painted on a column.  It’s lab time!

The lab is exactly as you would expect it to be after 20 years of non-use: huge spider webs and a dusty layer of abandonment.  The lab also has a new artistic feature, a giant wall of Amber.

Asterisk, do you see Gene in there?

The Amber appears to have been created to hide a Betamax video recorder.  What’s on that tape?  More important, when did Walter switch to Grape Red Vines?  Will the Red Vines be retrievable?  I doubt the local Quik Trip or Casey’s General Store still has them in stock.  Before these questions can be answered, a Loyalist guard comes around the corner.  Loyalist uniforms are so reminiscent of Nazi designs to me, but in a very 60s way. 

I see nothing—NOTHING!

So Hogan’s, I mean Walter’s goal for this episode is to build a laser to get the Betamax out of the Ambered wall.  This shouldn’t be too difficult for a brilliant mad scientist, but the lab has no power.  To get power, the Scooby gang needs to split up and find a way into the power substation in the Science Building.  ‘Just use the tunnels’ you are screaming at the TV, but it’s not that simple.  The Science Building is deep in the heart of the Observer’s base!  What’s in that base?  What will it take to get in?  How many Observers are there?  If only we had a person to answer these questions…

Is this where our daughter gets all Jack Bauer on this situation?

“No problem!” Etta proclaims, as she isolates Sergeant Schultz to attach a Fringe torture device and get some information out of him.  Etta is a really nice girl, but it’s not the torture that’s creepy to me.  It’s her nonchalant attitude towards torture.

You bore me.  Can’t you at least cry in a unique way?