Television Breakdown: A Sign of Things to Come

Fringe: 6B

Fringe is in a bit of a slump, as you could no doubt tell from last week's abysmal ratings decline. I can't say that tonight was much help in terms of quality, but I can't go so far to dislike this episode. I can usually tell based on an episode's title whether it will be good or not, and a title as uninventive as 6B doesn't inspired much confidence. This season had episode titles with such ingenuity as Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep, Immortality, and Entrada, and all the week's writers, Robert Chiappetta and Glen Whitman, could think of was 6B? What about Feelings? I think that would have been rather more appropriate, don't you?

The episode focused on an apartment complex in New York where seven guests at a party fall through the balcony to their deaths. The Fringe team is called in, with two conflicting ideologies as to what is happening at the hotel. One is the local rumor that the hotel is haunted, and the other, which obviously turns out to be correct, is that the fabric of the universe is coming apart at the seams. For some reason it is starting at this hotel, and Walter prepares instantly for the worst case scenario. He sets up plans to quarantine the build in amber before the incoming vortex swallows up the entire block.

The episode only slightly touches on the ethical costs of what they're about to do, with Walter starting to see Walternate as less of a monster. I never thought that Walternate was evil, because he grapples with such emotional decisions in the same way Walter does. Across the years, one thing that hasn't changed about Walter is that he is still "as stubborn as a donkey with a nail at its head", as William Bell would put it. I also wish that Walter and Broyles had more scenes together discussing the ethics of the situation, because those two so rarely get that opportunity. At times it really felt like they may in fact quarantine the building, but they still could've done more with that quarrel.

Instead, the episode was overpowered with emotionality, which isn't necessarily something I'm against. I love the heart of Fringe, so long as it's kept in subtlety. There was no such subtleties taken in this episode, with one inhabitant of the building yearning for her dead husband, and the husband in the alternate universe yearning for his dead wife. Those emotions were bring the two universes together rather violently. When the episode needed to bring out the emotions, it did, but it also did so whenever it didn't. I find myself caught between loving this turn of events and hating it. I thought the woman who played the widow was exceptionally good at her part, for what that's worth.

Then there was the inevitable development of the Peter/Olivia relationship, which I actually didn't have too much of a problem. I've been rather fine with how their relationship has developed over the last six episodes, with the ultimate fallout of Marionette, the slow rehabilitation of such in The Firefly, as well as the unknown kinks revealed in Reciprocity and Immortality. I wasn't a fan of the overemphasized emotionality of Concentrate and Try Again. This episode was edging on being that obvious, but wisely dialed it back. This wasn't about Fauxlivia ruining their lives, but Olivia being afraid to take that next step. It's that real human emotion that I'm ultimately fine with. The direction by Thomas Yatsko was brilliant, and the performances similarly stunning, and despite all the gooey stuff, the final 10 minutes is one intense nail-biter. Unfortunately the obvious nature of the dialogue crippled this one from being great.

7.8 out of 10