Fringe: Chasing Shadows
We knew it! We knew it! Oh, maybe we shouldn't spoil this right up front. Let's just say there are a few things that make us very, very happy about this episode. Sure, it's a monster-of-the-week episode (what a monster!), but it also gives us a closer look at Broyles' personal life. Okay, not the big question about his kiss earlier this season with Nina, but some serious backstory for him. Let's just say in this episode Ahab got his whale. With a very decisive gunshot.
Of course, this is Fringe, which means more questions were raised than answered, but it sure was a lot of fun this week. We'll geek out our excitement over the reveals after the poll -- and the jump. You've been warned.
Right. Now that we're past the front page where just anybody can see....Ahem. IT'S ALIENS!!!!!! We've finally met aliens in the Fringe universe -- and better yet, they're ALSO the scary things that live in kid's closets. AND the Central Intelligence Agency is orchestrating things involving them EXCEPT when stray congressmen are meddling WITH investigations into old Russian fringe science AND it all goes back to the Pattern somehow.
Of course, those are just the usual conspiracy-theory references (what? don't your conspiracy theories usually involve serial killers that lurk in dark closets? Is it really just us?). This also pointed rather significantly at the long tradition in ghost-hunting circles of chasing "shadow people" because that's what our alien with CIA attachments looks like. He's just a shadow .... oh wait! We forgot astral projection! Ahem.
So a cosmonaut picked up a hitch-hiker while off planet and has returned to Earth in a coma. His brother stole him from the Russian facility he was being kept in and took him to the USA to see if he could get him cured. Instead, the monster has been killing people. Sucking the life/energy/radiation right out of them and leaving an ashy mess reminiscent of spontaneous human combustion. Yep, it's like an entire tour of the wacky side of the Internet packed into just one episode of Fringe! Yaaay.
And of course Olivia is in the thick of it.... (smartly sporting bulletproof vest and impressive handgun).
And of course, this is where we find out Broyles has been chasing the boogieman for four years. This mysterious case was the one that "broke the camel's back" for his wife. As he put it, he was so absorbed in making the world a safer place for his family, he lost his family. We got to meet his wife at the end of the episode when he showed up at her house, said hello to her new husband and told her he finally closed the case. She seemed quite nice. We're not sure what Broyles sees in Nina now, but hopefully we'll find out more about that one day. (Note to writers: this is not a story point you can ignore/gloss over/forget. Where were we?)
Of course, the Bishop boys are in the thick of it. Walter figured out the mystery (alien parasite hitching a ride on the comatastic Russian) thanks to the magic of tinker toys and was desperately rushing to contain the roaming evil (which was just stepping out of a closet to eat a little girl) when Ahab, we mean Broyles, whipped out his regulation side arm and put a bullet in the cosmonaut's brain. Woah.
Of course, just as he's feeling some personal satisfaction as he walks away from his ex-wife, he is intercepted by a brooding, handsome man who says he's from the CIA -- who implies that they sent the cosmonaut back into space (possibly in his component parts) once he started breathing again. Of course, the CIA knows how not to talk, so it was all very vague and suggesty. Oh, we so love our Fringe!
Of course, just as he's feeling some personal satisfaction as he walks away from his ex-wife, he is intercepted by a brooding, handsome man who says he's from the CIA -- who implies that they sent the cosmonaut back into space (possibly in his component parts) once he started breathing again. Of course, the CIA knows how not to talk, so it was all very vague and suggesty. Oh, we so love our Fringe!
Comments
I don't think it was necessarily an alien - it could have been his shadow-twin from the other universe or something, merged during a cosmic ray accident. There's too much we don't know. I do like the Russian fringe science aspect though - reminds me of X-Files. Now all they have to do is call in the Lone Gunmen! I didn't think the CIA involvement was portrayed very well. It was too dramatic and mysterious, not really how people operate. Not even spooks. And yes, I do know. :)
Posted by: Chris | November 6, 2009 2:24 PM