Initial Thoughts on 1.13 “The Transformation”

Posted by Bryan Jones on February 5th, 2009 - (0) Comments

The thirteenth episode of season one of Fringe was titled “The Transformation”, and after last week’s horrific outing on Fringe, the title couldn’t have said it better. I really do love this show, and naturally there are going to be good and bad episodes in any series, but for me last week was the worst episode to date. Thankfully, The Transformation returned to some of the roots of Fringe, namely viruses running rampantly out of control and planes crashing (okay, so the plane in the pilot episode didn’t crash, but still!). I didn’t love this episode, but I really really liked it.

The Opening Scene -Pass
The opening scene featured our victim-of-the-week with a nose bleed and beginning his transformation. He knew exactly what was happening and as he went into the bathroom to hide out, we got to see the gruesome transformation begin, bloody teeth falling into the sink, and porcupine “hairs” ripping through the back of his shirt. The way the entire scene just ended abruptly, as the monster busted through the bathroom door and went to the title sequence was great. It left everything to our imaginations.

Olivia and John Scott -Pass
I’ll admit that I was quite disappointed in the initial reaction and dialog when Broyles took Olivia to Massive Dynamics. It felt more like they had been building that storyline up to a more climactic point, and it just sort of underwhelmed me in its delivery. Regardless, as Olivia got back into the drug-induced memory tank (a plot device I’m growing a bit tired of) and began interacting with John Scott within her own mind it was great character drama. I have enjoyed the conflict residing in Olivia over finding out that John Scott was a bad guy since the beginning, and I’ve secretly hoped that he would end up being on the right side of things. Of course, with Fringe its sometimes tough to know what the right side is.

I felt that the final scene with Olivia and John standing by the lake brought their relationship, and this subplot to a nice close (at least I hope so). Now Olivia can let go of John and move on.

Astrid -Fail
I’m not spending much time on this one, because it is pretty much my complaint each and ever week. The writers need to work to make these characters, even Astrid, mean something to all of us. Put them in danger, make them human, allow us to care for them. Then, once all of that has happened, we won’t even realize that you’re using them primarily as a plot device. We just need to have the connection first! Astrid, so far, has been nothing but a disappointing character (to no fault of the actress). Every week I cringe at the new ways they find to make her scenes seem awkward, out of place, and nothing more than a device to move the plot along.

Walter’s Crazy Sayings -Draw
I miss the Walter of the first half of the season. Granted, he’s still the same guy, but since the fall break it just seems as though they’ve started to tone down Walter’s craziness a little too much. He still gets a few lines, but there is nothing I like more about this show than the fantastic performance given by John Noble each and every week. He is what propels this show to a different level and the craziness he injects with Walter Bishop is vital. So lets have some more of it!

The Exchange -Pass
At the end of the episode Olivia and Peter have to make an exchange with Conrad Moreau’s men for the virus. This was by far the best scenes of the episode and provided some of the best tension of the entire season, I think. I’ve been saying for quite some time now, that I truly wish they would put our heroes into more life threatening situations. I think you learn far more about the characters in those types of scenes, and they’re fantastic to watch! Peter was quite impressive in this scene as well, which brings me to the next point…

Peter Bishop -Pass
I’ve been thinking for the past 2 to 3 episodes now that Peter Bishop has to be the most underused character with the most potential on the entire show. I feel like we’ve focused so heavily on Olivia that we’re slowly losing Peter. This episode corrected that and proved my point at the same time. His reading of the men in the room and improvisation in the situation was classic and made me long for more scenes where is directly involved in this manner. So lets have some more Peter…please.

This was a pretty solid episode over all, and worked well as a mostly stand alone mystery of the week while still incorporating enough mythology in it to satisfy my needs. I hope that this is the start of a trend and Fringe really begins to hit its stride over the next few weeks. I’m anxious to see what they can do with this show.