Fringe – Episode 18: “Midnight”
They almost made it for a complete episode without screwing up the science…almost.
The Plot: Strange murders have been occurring in Boston, murders where the victim has their spinal column ripped open and have been drained of spinal fluid. Agent Dunham and her team are called in after the second murder. While examining the body, Walter finds traces of Treponema pallidum, the bacteria that causes syphilis — only it’s a variety of syphilis that has been extinct for decades. They trace the syphilis to the CDC who note that they recently sent a sample of that very syphilis to Lubov Pharmaceuticals. The CDC also mentions that the same research lab ordered RND-390, a component of the rapid skin growth bioweapon seen previously.
Olivia and her team raid the lab — only it’s not a real lab, just a split-level house in a residential area. They arrest a wheelchair-bound scientist named Boone and bring him in for questioning. He admits to working for the ZTF and having developed the rapid skin growth weapon, as well as playing a role in whatever is terrorizing the city now. He tells Dunham that he will help her, only they need to rescue his wife who was kidnapped by the ZTF to ensure he keeps working for them. Eventually, Boone admits that his wife is not a hostage, but has been dosed with a contagion that has turned her into the killer stalking the city. If Dunham and her team can capture his wife, he will concoct an antidote and then tell Dunham everything he knows about the ZTF.
Dunham, Peter, and Charlie capture the wife and brings her back to the lab where Walter and Boone have concocted an antidote. The cure is a success, unfortunately Boone died of a stroke while making it. He leaves a videotape for Dunham naming names. He doesn’t know much, but reveals to her that the money man behind ZTF is William Bell.
1. Free Samples
The CDC is a little free with their germ samples, aren’t they? Particularly the bioweapon ones.
And they know the lab is in a residential area, but don’t seem to think twice about it.
2. It Goes to Eleven
How does giving cerebral spinal fluid to his wife going to cause Boone to become paralyzed? If that’s the case, then everyone who ever had a spinal tap would be in a wheelchair.
3. FBwhat?
Astrid gets the “Only Agent Actually Investigating” Award for her finding-the-club-stamp moment.
4. Billy Squire
Taking too much spinal fluid is not going to cause a stroke; if anything, it’s going to cause a herniation (the brainstem is pushed downward over sharp bony prominences and damaged — and not in a good way). At the least, it’ll give him a nasty spinal headache.
Because it’s not a stroke, the medication tPA (tissue plasminogen activator, a “clot busting” drug) is not going to do any good. And even if it were a stroke, tPA is not necessarily a good idea. If it is a stroke caused by a clot, then tPA is indicated, but if it is a stroke caused by bleeding in the brain, then tPA will make it worse. There are very specific rules about giving tPA to minimize the risk of bad outcomes.
Regardless, you don’t stab someone in the neck with a syringe of the medication.
5. K.I.S.S.
Why inject the antidote into the spinal column at the cervical spine (neck level)? It’s a tough shot, and runs a risk of injuring the cord. Since the CSF circulates throughout the spinal column as a whole, injecting the medication at the lumbar level will have the same effect, only be easier and less risky.
Everything was going for this episode, and I was going to move the clock back again, but then they started talking about stroke and tPA and lost all benefits. The clock stays in place this week.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:39 am
Boone’s disability might have been caused by a botched lumbar puncture- according to Wikipedia, anyway.
April 29th, 2009 at 6:58 am
I may have missed this, but exactly how did Boone draw his OWN spinal fluid? Is he double jointed?
Somehow, I don’t think drinking spinal fluid is the best way to restore your own spinal fluid, since it would just be digested.
When they injected the rat with the ’super-penicillin’, I thought, “Damn! How many cc’s is that? They put all that fluid into the poor animal’s spine? No wonder it died.”
I’m no doctor, but I suspect that your body is constantly producing new spinal fluid, like other bodily fluids.
I liked the ‘Clapper’ bit, but I doubt one could handle all the amps for the lab.
Hmm, a ‘contagion’ that changes your teeth! Can they make mine pearly-white again? Were-teeth!
and the final nit-pick: Mrs. Boone no longer recognizes her husband, but is still able to make-up, put on slinky clothes, and pick up men at clubs? I suspect that those are not part of instinctual human behavior…
April 29th, 2009 at 8:46 am
I seriously thought the Doomsday clock was going to strike (no pun) midnight tonight. Morphing teeth and eye color? And you can get dental work done just by injecting spinal fluid? (She also appeared to move several shades towards a more attractive bleached tooth color.)
And the vampirewife won’t recognize people because she’s such an animal but still has time to do hair and makeup? And a psycho is just put in the back of a van without restraints?
And would someone explain to me the contortions needed to perform a spinal tap on yourself as was suggested in this episode?
I love the show usually but this episode was just dire.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:17 am
[...] Polite Dissent does such a good job of it already. Head over to PD today for a recap of last night’s episode, including his ongoing homage to the Bulletin of Atomic [...]
April 29th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Official Comment
The teeth I had meant to mention, but it slipped my mind at the last minute. I was concerned not only in how the teeth changed (and so quickly), but that Walter had interpreted the bite mark as a normal human bite mark.
The eyes didn’t bother me as much. I figured the disease just pumped out some new pigmented proteins that changed the eye color.
I figure the disease must change the ears somehow as well; how else to explain the new found taste for bland techno music?
April 29th, 2009 at 11:26 am
I kinda liked the music. They led off with Bauhaus’ classic ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, which is a vampire favorite of course. I prefer Sepultura’s version, however.
April 29th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
This was the first episode of this that my wife & I watched. We nailed the CDC/residential thing as well as the ‘human bite’/weird teeth bit.
I doubt that we’ll be back to that show.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
ZFT…
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Had to look up Billy Squier. Heh.
The “tranquilize crazy syphilis lady and toss her in the back of a vehicle with no barrier between her and the other occupants and no restraints” sequence was a head-scratcher for us, too. I mean, they’re constantly dealing with things out of the ordinary; why would they assume that she reacts to medications/sedatives in the same way as an ordinary human?
May 6th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
So the evil genius behind ZFT is Mr. Spock.
May 9th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
One more nitpick on the spinal tap – Walter sat him right back up in his chair after the tap. It probably wasn’t a stroke, but just a really terrible headache. My head hurts just thinking about it. ;-)
October 29th, 2009 at 6:41 am
[...] episode is debunked at Polite Dissent, and you can read more about it at Fox, IMDb and the A.V. [...]
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