Just when I was afraid Fringe was getting too formulaic — already — the show delivered an episode that broke the mold. The mystery isn't tidily wrapped up at the end, the good vs. evil of Massive Dynamic isn't even a subplot, and Peter Bishop's actually given a reason to stick around! I wonder if the powers that be just wanted to give us a few episodes to get used to everything, because this is what I was expecting when I heard about Fringe. Did anyone else enjoy it? Just read more.

  • First of all, I had to laugh when within the first 10 minutes, Peter's talking about one of the things that's been driving me crazy: He really doesn't have a reason to be on the show. He tells Olivia he's just Walter's babysitter, he can't do anything to solve cases, blah blah blah — basically what we've all been saying. But by the end of the episode, that's all irrelevant, cause there are creepy things going on with Peter now, too.
  • Let's talk about The Observer for a second. Lame name, cool character. Sure, he's sort of an X-Files-style quirk-basket (11 jalapenos!), but I want to know more about him. He might have replaced Nina Sharp as the supporting character I most enjoy.
  • I guess we sort of know what "the cylinder" was (and isn't that a geometrically inaccurate description?) — or, at least, I assume it's related to the project to make a missile that could shoot through the Earth's core. But we still don't know what it was doing at the construction site or where it went later, which at least is a little more mysterious than the other Fringe cases have been so far.
  • I want to believe Walter is a good guy, but after he shoots Astrid up with whatever it was that makes her pass out, I'm less sure. His attempt at apologizing is hilarious, though, as he offers to let her inject him as retribution but adds that he would probably enjoy it.

  • So, Peter has a purpose, though we're not sure what it is. Someone knows, though, or has a good enough idea to kidnap him, shove wires up his nose, and extract a bunch of information he didn't know he knew. His scene with The Observer, where he seemed to be talking to himself, was pretty creepy. But I listened to Walter's monologue at the end no less than three times, and I still don't understand how that information made its way into Peter's brain.
  • Even though I like the global conspiracy stuff, it was nice to have a break from Massive Dynamic. I kept expecting them to have a magical cylinder extractor that would pull out all the information embedded within the object — but no dice. Whew.
  • Annnnd Agent Scott's back! I'm not as surprised as Olivia was, but still, I'd tune in again just to see what happens now that he's in her apartment.
  • Speaking of Olivia, I'm really starting to like her. She's been criticized for being dull, but she's really just the girl next door who gets too wrapped up in her work to eat anything but cereal for dinner.

Did you like this slight departure from the Fringe formula? Do you have theories about what's up with Peter? And did you gasp when Agent Scott came back — or shrug?

Photos courtesy of Fox

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