Polite Dissent

A decent monster-of-the-week episode of Fringe. There was a little advancement on the Peter end of things, plus a little more history of NüFringe continuity, but still a just slightly better than average episode.

The Plot: An aggressive neurotoxic fungus has been discovered in an old tunnel in Boston. By the time the Fringe Team has been called in, it has killed two twelve year-old boys. The extremely decomposed bodies of the two victims explode in a rain of spores. Walter understands what it happening and contains the explosion just in time. The medical examiners in the morgue aren’t so lucky, though, and die when the second corpse explodes. That brings the total dead to three four. A dead homeless man is found in another tunnel, bringing the total to four five. The fungus is spreading throughout the old tunnels underneath Boston.

The team has discovered a third young boy, Aaron, who was in the first tunnel. Walter learns that Aaron and the fungus have sort of psychic bond. When the FBI tries to kill the fungus it, it affects Aaron. Broyles gives Walter two hours to sever the psychic link, but he is unable to. Luckily, at just the right moment, he learns the fungus is more dependent on the boy that the other way round. He convinces Aaron to let go of the psychic bond, and that allows the Fringe Team to destroy the fungus, yet leaves Aaron unharmed.

After the fungus has been dealt with, Walter and Olivia realize that they’ve both been seeing images of a mysterious man — Peter. Walter sees and hears him through visual and auditory hallucinations, while Olivia sees him in her dreams.

1. More Of A Retcon Than A Reboot
We finally learn the fates of the Peters in the NüFringe continuity, and it’s not all that different from the original continuity. Walter’s Peter died young of an illness, just like what originally happened. Similarly, Walter crossed the barrier between dimensions to rescue a sick alt-Peter. Only, when returning to our world, after falling into the icy lake, Peter died. I guess there was no Observer to rescue them this time.

2. I Was Hoping For A Nosebleed
Interesting “psychic bond” from the fungus:
Tinfoil hats offer no protection (despite numerous independent studies showing otherwise)
It can link to a kid at a lab in Harvard, but not to itself in a Boston morgue, which should be closer.

3. I’m Guessing There’s No OSHA in NüFringe
Whose bright idea was it to send the Fringe Team into the tunnel, any of the three times, without protective gear?The first time, all they knew was that something was in there that could cause rapid decay — but that’s reason enough to be protected. The second and third time it was known what was in there and what it was capable of doing, yet no one thought to wear protective equipment (despite wearing it in the morgue). A little foresight would have prevented Agent Lee from getting trapped.

4. There’s No Percentage In That
What sort of reading is a respiratory rate of 89%. Respiratory rate is a number, not a percentage, and the there is wide variation in what is normal – from person to person, and within the same person from minute to minute. I suspect they meant oxygen saturation (which is a percentage score), not respiratory rate.

5. Leave The Carotid Alone
Just like a shot of adrenalin to the heart is a bad idea – no matter what Pulp Fiction says – a shot of epinephrine (another name for adrenalin) into the carotid artery is just as bad. Just put in the IV, it’ll get there nearly as fast and without the risk.
Walter has some of the worse syringe skills I’ve ever seen – not what you’d expect from a self experimenting junkie. Hideously poor sterile technique as well.

6. I’d Rather A Bottle In Front Of Me
The tools that Walter was using were the proper tools for a frontal lobotomy — at least the “from behind the eye” style that was popular for a brief time (a very brief time, thankfully).

Another episode that was neither good nor bad enough to move the Doomsday Clock. The fungus was suitably creepy, but the lack of common sense shown by the agents time and time again hurt the chances of moving the clock.

Tags: television fringe fungus cordyceps psychic