“Fringe”: In Which We Meet Mr. Jones
Posted by SH
Well, between presidential debates and elections, and the occasional rerun, it’s been awhile since we investigated the Pattern. What a treat then to return with a show that shakes up what has become the standard Fringe formula over its first few episodes. We don’t start with some far-flung incident involving random people, although it seems that way at first.
A team of SWAT-type dudes is searching for something at a port in Germany, but comes up empty. Cut to Broyles’ office where the SWAT-type leader, Agent Loeb, is reporting to his boss that they didn’t find anything, when all of a sudden he begins convulsing and is rushed to the hospital. The doctors cut him open and find a nasty parasite clutching his heart. At first I thought it looked like a Venus Flytrap wrapped around his ticker, but later it reveals itself to be more worm-like. Either way, it’s nothing your average cardiologist could fix.
Good thing Walter Bishop is around. And no, this isn’t a progression of some shadowy experiment he worked on in the ’70s; this is something he’s never seen before. And he’s very excited about figuring it out, if he could just get a piece of gum! The first break in the case is brought forth by Agent Loeb’s wife (played by notable character actress Trini Alvarado, which suggests right off that this isn’t a throwaway role), who gives Olivia a piece of paper with a bunch of numbers on it. The numbers turn out to match a batch of case files worked on by people all at the same FBI office — Olivia’s old office, where she and John used to roam. But the info involved would have required a higher security clearance than John had, seemingly eliminating the most likely culprit. This plays as a red herring for this particular episode, but is set up to be important in the long run.
Olivia has to hop a plane to Germany to talk with the man who might know something about how to remove the parasite, but the authorities there are loath to let him talk with anyone. She somehow finesses the warden — probably by speaking a little deutsche, and maybe because she looks like Anna Torv — into setting up a meeting. But the doctor himself — the Mr. Jones of the episode title — also has a stipulation. He wants to talk with an old associate of his and ask a question. This would be Mr. Smith. The same Mr. Smith who is gunned down in a raid by Broyles’ squad. Shot in the head. Oops. But Walter figures out a way to get the information from the deceased, and it again involves putting his son in an uncomfortable situation. They hook up their brains electronically, give them both shocks and apparently Peter will be able to see the man’s brain waves in response to whatever question is asked. [Read more →]
Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer with director Alan Ball
, the Clone Wars have started up again. George Lucas, who “felt there were a lot more Star Wars stories left to tell” (and money left to make), is further exploring this period of the famed sci-fi saga’s history in a new animated series set to debut this fall on Cartoon Network. The network had already aired an impressive series of traditionally animated shorts dealing with the Clone Wars a few years back, in anticipation of Episode III, but this new series — which debuts following a theatrical release August 15 — enters Lucas’ seemingly favorite realm of computer-generated animation. This type of animation was sometimes overdone in the SW prequels trilogy, but from the looks of these pictures it should work well for this series. It has to be better than Droids.
