In Queens, two NYPD squad cars streak up the twisty ramp of a parking structure. Sirens blare, tires squeal, the works. Two guys, both wearing suits, both looking sort of tough, stand on the roof in front of a nondescript sedan with a worried-looking teen boy in the backseat. A cop, Officer Gibson, gets out of his car, gun drawn, and orders the men to get on their knees. One of the men tells him he has no idea what he's dealing with. Gibson looks confused. He starts backing up to the edge of the parking structure. Another cop, Officer Williams, asks him what the hell he's doing. Gibson seems to be trying to resist -- he's sweaty and panicky and struggling -- but he just keeps backing up, until he backs right off the edge and falls to his death. Safety barriers, folks. They're a good thing. With the same look of terror-struck confusion, Officer Williams shoots the two remaining cops and then, horrified, puts the gun to her temple and pulls the trigger.
Three deaths by gunfire, one death by falling... No flesh-eating bacteria? No spinal cords getting ripped out? On the Fringe gore index, this barely registers.
The Fringe gang -- Broyles, Olivia, Walter, Peter -- arrive at the crime scene. Olivia confirms that Officer Williams fired all three shots, including the one that killed herself. The boy who was with the two men is 15-year-old Tyler Carson, who disappeared about 36 hours ago.
Walter grouses about the lack of either cadavers or food at the crime scene. In Walter's world, both share equal importance. Olivia reassures him that the bodies are being transferred to his lab. Walter thinks the weird behavior of the cops can be explained by hypnotism, though Peter, once again stepping into his role as Captain Reasonable on a ship of lunatics, points out that hypnosis can't force someone do something against their will. Well, duh. I know television shows sometimes over-explain things to make sure the viewers are all on the same page, but is there anyone out there who really thinks hypnosis can make you shoot yourself in the head? The kid's father works for Fleming Monroe, which is the aerospace division of our good old friend Massive Dynamic. Broyles says he's already put a call in to Nina Sharp.
At Massive Dynamic, Olivia and Peter stride briskly through the foyer after Nina's gorgeous and intimidating assistant, while Walter stumbles around and gawks at everything. He's just been informed by "a screen in the elevator" that there are 73 laboratories in the building, and Walter is officially in Mad Scientist Valhalla.
In Nina's office, which is designed to produce instant tension headaches, what with the bizarrely-angled windows and walls, Nina introduces the gang to Dr. Carson, Tyler's father, who claims the kidnappers have instructed him to wait for their demands. Thanks to surveillance footage from the rooftop shootout, the two kidnappers have been identified as used-car salesmen Patrick Hickey and Tom Dobbins (so help me, I never quite managed to sort out which was Hickey and which was Dobbins, and I don't really think it's integral to the plot, so I'm going to keep identifying them both as "the kidnappers" from here on out), who have no connection to either the Carson family or Massive Dynamic.
Dr. Carson exposits that he's been working on highly-sensitive automated military aircraft piloting and guidance systems, and that Tyler's mother died when Tyler was a small boy. When Dr. Carson talks about the possibility of losing his son, Walter looks anguished and has to leave the room. Peter heads out after him.
Father and son look out over the Manhattan skyline, while Walter informs Peter, for the eight thousandth time, that he once shared a lab with William Bell. In fact, Bell introduced Walter to Peter's mother at a neurobiology conference in Berlin. I'm pretty sure that's where Ashton first hooked up with Demi. Walter and Bell planned to form a company together, but Walter mournfully notes, "He just couldn't wait." Hey, Walter? You were locked up in a psychiatric hospital for seventeen years. You can't really blame Bell for wanting to move on with his life in the interim.
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Comments (2)
I was happy to finally see some more sneaky behavior from Nina and Massive Dynamic now that Fringe Division has become relatively cozy with them. In light of all the ongoing William Bell revelations I still think MD is on the side of Fringe Earth in the coming conflict with Alternate Fringe Earth, but their methods are very very gray at best.
As far as the old school computer goes that was actually a step up from the older school mirror and manual typewriter setup we first saw used for communicating between parallel universes.
1 of 2 | Posted by Axodys | Posted on November 18, 2009 8:49 PM
This was probably the first time I wasn't impressed by an episode. My husband and I had figured out it was Tyler from the first scene with the cops. Meh. However, the end made up for the iffy episode. And I still LOVE this series. They are allowed an iffy once in a while because they normally hit it out of the park.
And its funny you mentioned Walter complaining there was no food at the crime scene. One of my favorite scenes is whe he is investigating that terrible car accident and Peter finds him eating some Taco Bell. He asks Walter where he got it and Walter just says "It was in the car." Love him! I don't think I will ever get sick of seeing him on my television screen. Great character.
Thanks for a great recap!
2 of 2 | Posted by Snootchy Bootches | Posted on November 19, 2009 7:14 AM