Episode Title: "Jacksonville"
Written By: Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz
Story: In New York City, an office building is violently jolted, leading the Fringe team to discover a lone survivor — well, technically, a pair of survivors, as the man in the wreckage has physically merged with his counterpart from the alternate reality.
Doctor Walter Bishop (John Noble) recognizes the event from past research in Jacksonville, Florida, leading him, Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and his son Peter (Joshua Jackson) to his old test site. Their goal is to unlock Olivia's repressed ability to see aspects of the alternate reality that don't belong in their world. Doing so will prevent another catastrophe from occurring, but it also necessitates some deeply personal confrontations between the Fringe team's core trio.
Collisions: The alternate reality made its long awaited return in this episode — as did several other prominent plot threads — but the result was rather ugly, and not just because of the nasty nature of the collision between realities. It's taken a while to get back to the main thread of "Fringe," and now that the show is off the air for two full months so quickly after an already lengthy break, "Jacksonville" just did not scratch the itch nearly enough. I'm sure I'm not alone in that statement.
On a side note, it's as good a time as any to point out that "Jacksonville" allowed "The Wire" co-stars Lance Reddick and Jim True-Frost to enjoy a brief on-screen reunion. Sure, it was was a collision of a completely different color, but a better color, I'd say.
Defenseless Children: Returning to Walter's childhood experiments on Olivia brought about some great character work. Walter really was a soulless experimenter once upon a time, a man that would do whatever he had to for the sake of science, even if that cost a defenseless child like Olivia a healthy heaping of innocence. But her anger at Walter is too late and therefore misplaced — the man he was is not the man he is anymore, at least not entirely. In fact, I'd venture to guess that both Olivia and Walter are equally disgusted with the Walter Bishop of yesteryear.
Seeing Is Believing: Now that Olivia can see aspects of the alternate world that don't belong in her reality, she's finally able to tap into the truth about Peter's tragic origin, leading Walter to desperately silence her about what she's just seen. I'm excited to see whether or not Walter can convince her to keep the secret to herself — I'm betting not — but the wait between now and April isn't going to be pleasant.
While "Fringe" fans have waited a long time for the exposure of this secret, I have to call foul on how it came about. I just can't believe that Walter didn't foresee that Olivia would recognize Peter's alternate reality status. There was no hint during the episode that he was worried about this, which strikes me as severely out of character. I suppose it could be chalked up to forgetfulness, but he's so protective over this secret and Peter in general that I feel like he'd remember to plan ahead on this occasion.
Walter's Weekly Wisdom: "Fantastic! I never won anything before!" — Doctor Walter Bishop, thinking he's won a trip to New York City, only to find out that he's going on another assignment.
Conclusions: I'm reluctant to call "Jacksonville" a bad episode, but it was certainly a disappointing one, perhaps largely due to the upcoming two month wait for another new installment. "Fringe" has had some epic moments in its second season, but it has also dragged its feet considerably at times. The show needs to pick up the pace when it comes back in April, otherwise it could very easily join the ranks of "Dollhouse," "Firefly" and the many other canceled shows in FOX's catalogue.
Next Case: When "Fringe" returns in April (ugh), a series of flashbacks will reveal the ultimate truth behind Walter's abduction of young Peter from the alternate reality.
Tell us what you thought about tonight's "Fringe" in the comments section or on Twitter!
Tags fringe
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'Fringe' Episode 2.15 Recap: 'Jacksonville'
Posted 2/4/10 10:44 pm EST by Josh Wigler in Commentary, Reviews, TV
Written By: Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz
Story: In New York City, an office building is violently jolted, leading the Fringe team to discover a lone survivor — well, technically, a pair of survivors, as the man in the wreckage has physically merged with his counterpart from the alternate reality.
Doctor Walter Bishop (John Noble) recognizes the event from past research in Jacksonville, Florida, leading him, Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and his son Peter (Joshua Jackson) to his old test site. Their goal is to unlock Olivia's repressed ability to see aspects of the alternate reality that don't belong in their world. Doing so will prevent another catastrophe from occurring, but it also necessitates some deeply personal confrontations between the Fringe team's core trio.
Collisions: The alternate reality made its long awaited return in this episode — as did several other prominent plot threads — but the result was rather ugly, and not just because of the nasty nature of the collision between realities. It's taken a while to get back to the main thread of "Fringe," and now that the show is off the air for two full months so quickly after an already lengthy break, "Jacksonville" just did not scratch the itch nearly enough. I'm sure I'm not alone in that statement.
On a side note, it's as good a time as any to point out that "Jacksonville" allowed "The Wire" co-stars Lance Reddick and Jim True-Frost to enjoy a brief on-screen reunion. Sure, it was was a collision of a completely different color, but a better color, I'd say.
Defenseless Children: Returning to Walter's childhood experiments on Olivia brought about some great character work. Walter really was a soulless experimenter once upon a time, a man that would do whatever he had to for the sake of science, even if that cost a defenseless child like Olivia a healthy heaping of innocence. But her anger at Walter is too late and therefore misplaced — the man he was is not the man he is anymore, at least not entirely. In fact, I'd venture to guess that both Olivia and Walter are equally disgusted with the Walter Bishop of yesteryear.
Seeing Is Believing: Now that Olivia can see aspects of the alternate world that don't belong in her reality, she's finally able to tap into the truth about Peter's tragic origin, leading Walter to desperately silence her about what she's just seen. I'm excited to see whether or not Walter can convince her to keep the secret to herself — I'm betting not — but the wait between now and April isn't going to be pleasant.
While "Fringe" fans have waited a long time for the exposure of this secret, I have to call foul on how it came about. I just can't believe that Walter didn't foresee that Olivia would recognize Peter's alternate reality status. There was no hint during the episode that he was worried about this, which strikes me as severely out of character. I suppose it could be chalked up to forgetfulness, but he's so protective over this secret and Peter in general that I feel like he'd remember to plan ahead on this occasion.
Walter's Weekly Wisdom: "Fantastic! I never won anything before!" — Doctor Walter Bishop, thinking he's won a trip to New York City, only to find out that he's going on another assignment.
Conclusions: I'm reluctant to call "Jacksonville" a bad episode, but it was certainly a disappointing one, perhaps largely due to the upcoming two month wait for another new installment. "Fringe" has had some epic moments in its second season, but it has also dragged its feet considerably at times. The show needs to pick up the pace when it comes back in April, otherwise it could very easily join the ranks of "Dollhouse," "Firefly" and the many other canceled shows in FOX's catalogue.
Next Case: When "Fringe" returns in April (ugh), a series of flashbacks will reveal the ultimate truth behind Walter's abduction of young Peter from the alternate reality.
Tell us what you thought about tonight's "Fringe" in the comments section or on Twitter!
Tags fringe
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