Polite Dissent

The writers should have taken the extra week they had off from the World Series and used it to tighten up the lousy science in this episode of Fringe.

The Plot: Peter has a meeting with Walter but it doesn’t go well, with NuFringe’s Walter not being as confident or comfortable as the Walter Peter new.

Meanwhile, the single remaining Shapeshifter 2.0 is back, this time tracking down a former Massive Dynamic scientist, who she locates and kidnaps at gunpoint. She needs his expertise in “cellular replication” in order to permanently fix what’s wrong with her body. She spins a sob story about being a melanoma patient in remission and he agrees to help her. At the lab she has set up, he injects her with some of his serum and she loses control of her shapeshifting and takes on the appearance of his wife. Now the scientist realizes something bad is going on and tries to kill her by making a toxic serum. She stops him and forces him to make the correct serum.

Agent Lee pulls Olivia in on the scientist’s case because he realizes it involves a shapeshifter. They aren’t making much progress until Peter volunteers his help. He is able to analyze the data disk the team recovered from the dead shapeshifter in episode 1 and use it to track the remaining shapeshifter and the scientist to her lab.

The Fringe team arrives at the lab just as the scientist finishes the new serum. The shapeshifter grabs it and sprints for the roof. Olivia follows but is told by an injured agent that the shapeshifter jumped off the roof into the harbor. Of course — and everyone saw it coming — the injured agent wasn’t really an agent but instead the shapeshifter who, once again, manages to escape. As the episode ends, she pulls out an old typewriter — like those used in previous seasons to communicate with the alternate dimension – and makes contact with her mysterious boss.

Peter has a second meeting with Walter. This one goes better, at first, until Walter denies Peter, telling him that he is nothing more than temptation that must be avoided.

1. Knitting the Raveled Sleave of Care
Sodium thiopental (i.e sodium pentathol, “truth serum”) is a barbiturate and can be used as an inducer of anesthetic. Using it to induce sleep, however, is a little better than Michael Jackson doing the same with Propofol, but not by much. Adrenalin may counteract some of the effects of the thiopental, but isn’t by any means a sure counteragent.

2. Phantom Itch
“Copied genetic data of healthy cells…and used it to replace the damaged ones.” The DNA of cancer cells is abnormal, so that makes a little sense, but Nina also mentioned using the process for people with amputations, and there’s no abnormal DNA in amputated cells; it’s just missing.

3. This Week, in NüFringe
We learned that Nina was a foster mother to Olivia and her sister after their mother died

4. Pluck the Heartstrings
Stage IV melanoma is melanoma with distant spread. The prognosis is dismal and there are no good treatments.

5. Larry, Darryl, and Darryl
Newhart gas station in Vermont — really?

6. Some Restrictions Apply
Restriction enzymes cut DNA strands into smaller pieces (of course, it’s DNA in the lab, not DNA still bound up in chromosomes and all the associated molecules). It would lead to massive cell death, in which case internal hemorrhaging is the least of your worries.

7. Inherited versus Acquired
Despite what Peter says, copying DNA – and even every molecule — exactly won’t duplicate a person. For a quick example, say I lost an eye in a barfight – that’s not going to be reflected in my DNA or molecules – so an identical copy of my genetic material is still going to leave the shapeshifter easy to spot.

8. Sherlock She’s Not
Olivia is smart enough to spot a smudge of grease under a victim’s fingernails, but not enough of a detective to see through the shapeshifter’s clumsy masquerade as Agent Warrick?

This episode didn’t do much for me, from the clumsy understandings of genetics to the worthlessness of Olivia’s vaunted detective skills. The Fringe Doomsday Clock advances one minute towards midnight.

Tags: television fringe shapeshifter peter dna