Comments on: Fringe – Episode 2: “The Same Old Story”

By: Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 2 Season 1, The Same Old Story « Cordial Deconstruction

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 05:02:03 +0000

[...] As always, an episode synopsis will be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent [...]

By: DJB

DJB — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:37:47 +0000

Ed, in case you look back…defibrillation is just that –De Fibrillation. A normally beating heart consists of a huge number of muscle cells all contracting in a specific pattern to push the blood through the heart’s chambers in the right order to supply body and brain. Think of it this way: The cells in the upper part of the heart have to relax to let blood flow into the heart, then contract to push it into the bottom part of the heart. At the same time they’re contracting, the cells in the bottom have to relax so the blood cam come into their part of the heart. When they contract, the cells in the upper part are relaxing to let more blood into the upper part. That’s simplified but I hope it’s clear enough to give you the idea. Now, imagine that all of these cells start contracting randomly instead of each part’s cells contracting together in a specific order. The heart sort of tremors or twicthes instead of beating. No blood gets into the heart, no blood is sent to body and brain. THAT is “fibrillation”, or as my cardio prof called it “The Big One” because it is fatal. The cells normally take their contraction timing from the impulses of a small clump of cells called the heart’s natural pacemaker. To get those randomly contracting cells to beat in a specific order again, a shock is used to essentially shut them off for a fraction of a second so that the pacemaker cells can “re-set” them to the right contraction order.

By: Matt C.

Matt C. — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:56:06 +0000

Regardless of whether pituitary hormones would be able to stave off the killer’s aging (it doesn’t make physiological sense to me) I would think that the killer’s scientist father would’ve been able to produce them recombinantly, thus obviating the need for all that murdering. You’d also get much better yield than from coffing pituitary glands.

By: irish viewer

irish viewer — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:37:31 +0000

Eh. I just watched the first part and am I right? Did I really hear the doctors say something like..forget anesthetic we will have to strap her down and do a c section.?????????????????????????????/ eh. WTF That was one of the most ridiculous parts.

By: SciNoFi Blog Roundup - Fringe Edition | Science Not Fiction | Discover Magazine

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:25:38 +0000

[...] Fringe “violates basic tenets of biology, chemistry and physics without any explanation.” [Polite Dissent] [...]

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:28:11 +0000

As for point (2) – I think there’s a movie-villain advice list that checks that one: “If my experiments require kidnapped human subjects, I will use homeless drifters from the edge of town, not pretty young co-eds whose disappearance will be immediately noticed and raise a hue and cry.”

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:26:04 +0000

The only good accelerated-aging (due to time travel) I’ve seen was a B5 episode in which one of their pilots falls through some kind of time warp. Afterwards, he looks unchanged except for being dead, but examination indicated his organs are like those of a much older person.

By: Jen

Jen — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 04:41:26 +0000

I see all points above and I concur, but I am wondering what the hell was at the end? Was that a bunch of Peters? Or more of the “son”? Any insight?

If in fact there were more Peters, who the hell has been taking care of those for the last 17 years?

By: mike.

mike. — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:33:36 +0000

I’m certainly not qualified to comment on the science/medicine of this episode, but I have to say that storywise it was pretty bad (by the way, in what universe is “From the writers of the Transformers movie!” actually a selling point for a project??):

1) far too much expository dialogue in the beginning, in the guise of having to explain everything that happened in the first episode because the crazy man “forgot”. “Don’t you remember? You have your old lab back!” “Don’t you remember? My name is ____. We’ve met several times already.”

2) I missed the part why the the pituitary glands needed to be of pretty young girls who hung out in bars. Wouldn’t it be easier to just sneak up on some sleeping homeless guy from behind?

3) the thought of these guys carefully extracting the one tiny bit of tissue that they need, leaving the rest absolutely untouched, then basically just placing the bodies where they would be discovered the next day is all a bit…precious, I suppose.

I’m sticking with the show for now as I’m enjoying the relationship between Peter and Walter, and I keep feeling like the show is gonna get better (at least, better than the “just alright” level it’s at right now).

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:24:27 +0000

You’ve linked to that bit you did on “never show them shocking a flatline” a couple of times, and it talks a bit about what _is_ done for a flatline, but did you ever go into when a defibrillator is called for, could you link to that as well if so? And maybe, if you didn’t, say a bit about that or give a link to some good info?