FRINGE 1.09 - " DREAMSCAPE"

Oh, how 'Lost', 'Heroes' (the first season) and other television shows with ongoing stories have spoiled us. We can no longer tolerate non-mythology, monster of the week type episodes in a season. These episodes, which don't seem to be connected to the "big picture" of the show in discussion, made up the majority of a season for shows like 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and the 'X-files', and also seems to be the main type of episode for this season of 'Fringe'.

As I was watching last night's episode, I spent 0 time trying to figure out the details behind the murder mystery that was taking place, and spent all of my time wondering what the big secret behind this season could be, a secret so big that it could get this show greenlighted in the first place.

Who cares about the actual murder in the beginning of the episode? As soon as we see the dweeb executive, Mark Young, in the first shot, we know he is going to be a corpse before the beginning credits. In this case, after Young, gives a presentation at the home office of his company, Massive Dynamic, he is attacked by sharp poorly cged butterflies, and throws himself out a very high window, to escape.

As interesting as this case might be, it takes a back seat to the story of Olivia dealing with the fact that she has John Scott's memories in her head. John's presence is sending her messages once again, this time through email. With the help from the clues John gives her, Olivia discovers a container of exotic toads. At this point, Olivia is as confused and disturbed by the cryptic messages that John sends her, as we, the audience are confused and bored of the show's cryptic messages.

Olivia wants John out of her mind, and, in spite of Walter's protests, she goes back into the deprivation chamber to have an exorcism of sorts. Once in the Dreamscape ( Hey, that is where the title of the episode comes from) Olivia receives another tip off from John. He shows her a memory of a deal that went down between John Scott, Adam Young, a black man and a Latino man. When the John Scott in the memory kills the black man, Olivia shoots back to consciousness.

Olivia is able to find the Latino man in the FBI database. Remember those toads that I mentioned before? Well, it turns out they secrete a hallucinogen, which according to Walter, can be used for a great high or could even be weaponized. Olivia makes the connection between the toads, Adam Young and the Latino. From that moment, the hunt is on to bring in the Latino, for possibly murdering Adam Young.

While being chased by Olivia, through Manhattan, the Latino gets hit by a car. He is brought to a nearby hospital, where Olivia begins to interrogate him. Now, we finally get the carrot dangled in front of us. The Latino is ready to give up the dirt on Massive Dynamic to Olivia, and therefore give us audience members a huge piece of the puzzle.

Do we get an explanation out of him? Not a chance. Olivia leaves him alone in the hospital, while she goes off to run her mouth to Mina Sharpe, at Massive Dynamic. For those of you who actually watch 'Fringe', do you think Olivia's actions were in character, or was it just bad writing?

It was almost too painful to watch. Instead of sitting down and recording all of the secrets the Latino is ready to let out- Which could possibly debunk the whole idea of the 'pattern', give an explanation for why John Scott betrayed Olivia, and could lead to ending all of the demonic experiments that the fringe team has been investigating for months- Olivia leaves the poor schmuck in the hospital.

Of course, the Latino begins to hallucinate. Of course, he sees an image of John Scott. of course, the Latino dies in a spectacular way. The John Scott in his hallucination slashes his throat with a knife. In the real world, the Latino's throat opens up and he dies.

I think it is safe to say that there won't be any major reveals until the last or second to last episode of this season. All we have each episode are little peeks at the big secret. If you are like me, you get more enjoyment trying to figure out what this big secret is going to be, as opposed to figuring out the answer to the mystery of the episode.

All we are left to work with, after this episode are the little hints the Latino blurted out before Olivia left him in the hospital. When he was still alive, the Latino hinted at the idea that the 'Pattern' and all of the intrigue connected to it is just a ruse created by Massive Dynamic, to take attention off of their immoral ventures. We know this couldn't be the big secret that has been alluded to for nine episodes now, since it is very bland and pretty close to realistic. No, we are going to need something very fantastic to be revealed by seasons end, or like I have said in the past few blog posts, this is going to be a waste of time.