For those of you thinking that Fringe’s Kirk Acevedo, who plays Agent Charlie Francis, was lying about getting “fired,” you’re absolutely wrong. Earlier this year, the actor posted on his Facebook page that he’d been fired from his Fringe gig. And, in tonight’s episode, we found out that he was telling the truth. We won’t be seeing any more Charlie Francis — but we’ll be seeing a lot more Kirk Acevedo.
Confused yet?
On the season two premiere of FOX’s hit sci-fi drama, we dealt with someone with a shapeshifting ability as the monster of the week. However, at the end of the episode, it looks like he’ll be more of a monster of the year. In the surprising plot twist I talked about earlier today, Acevedo’s Charlie Francis was killed by the shapeshifter, who in turn took Francis’ place, returning at the end of the episode to dump the deceased agent’s body into a conveniently placed furnace. “Firing” him. Get it?
Of course, any really ardent watcher could have seen the twist coming from a mile away, especially after Charlie’s bedside discussion with Olivia, where he told the story of gunshots that killed his partner, though he had initially believed the gunshots had killed the woman. My certaintly was even more cemented in this twist during the cutaways in the hospital basement, where Francis’ encounter with the shapeshifter was forgone in order to focus on Peter running after the sounds.
So now, Charlie Francis is dead, but we still get to watch Kirk Acevedo, who now plays the shapeshifting agent from another world, taking orders from mirrored hands on a typewriter (a very cool scene if I say so myself). Thankfully, we are also rid of the shapeshifting storyline (a very cool one-trick-pony, but nothing more), because the spy’s equipment has been destroyed and confiscated by the government.
Was Kirk Acevedo’s Facebook teasing cruel? Absolutely. Was it also not fun to find out his little joke? Even more so. Glad we’ll be seeing more of him in an expanded role throughout next season.
Sam McPherson began writing for Walter's Lab in August 2009. He also writes for the sites TVOvermind, MovieOvermind and SpoilerTV, in addition to being an administrator on Lostpedia since March 2009. Sam's favorite shows are Lost, Fringe, Doctor Who, Flight of the Conchords, FlashForward, True Blood, and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Follow him on Twitter (@mcphersonator) or send him an email (sammcpherson@tvovermind.com).
Poor Charlie. Ever since the first few episodes of season one, my wife has been proclaiming consistently that Charlie would eventually betray Fringe division. I’ve defended him from the beginning, and ardently so.
So I guess we were both right. The real Charlie won’t do any betraying. He’s dead, so I’m right. Then again the soldier as Charlie will eventually betray them, so she’s kind of right.
I love this show.
I have to admit to not exactly being thrilled with this development. I’ve never enjoyed story lines where a character is replaced somehow with a copy and tricks the other characters. I mean I know there are reasons why the other characters wouldn’t know right away but because I know the truth already it gets annoying quickly that no one realizes that something is going on. Not sure how long I can buy into the idea of the shape shifter being able to pass himself off as Charlie – even if somehow he does get the memories of the people he turns into…
Of course as soon as other people figure out that this isn’t really Charlie he will be dead and Kirk might as well be out of a job then. Unless they end up getting a Charlie from another universe…
Either way it put a downer on what was otherwise a pretty good episode.
Oops, I meant to comment on what Casey said too:
Then again the soldier as Charlie will eventually betray them, so she’s kind of right.
I’m REALLY hoping that they realize it’s not really Charlie when something like that happens. I’d hate for them to end up thinking Charlie betrayed them instead of realizing he truth.