Television Breakdown: Unexpected Visitors

Fringe: Os

The show took the week off to gather their bearing and point themselves in the right direction, but this week showed a fantastic hint at that direction. The show has wandered a bit aimlessly since it got back from break, as one could assume for the mid-part of the season. This episode shed the slow proceedings to get right down to what mattered. The episode starts out with the a nice twist on the obvious heist, with two men with the ability to break the laws of gravity getting caught in the act of robbing a local mineral bank. The way they twist off of what is assumed and expected in this opening really makes for one of the best non-mythological moments of the series.

This was another one of those Fringe cases that began to make more and more sense as it unfolded. Watching the episode over again, all the different pieces all fit in so perfectly, and it makes this one of the more well thought out episodes. The villain of this episode is a peculiar one, a father trying desperately to get his son out of his wheelchair. The ending of this episode for his character was so tragic and heartbreaking, with his son misunderstanding his intentions and renouncing him as a father. His work wasn't maniacal or hardhearted, but from the best intentions. He's one of the more terribly conflicted bad guys of this series.

The case was baffling enough to leave Walter mentally and emotionally beaten, now missing his old friend William Bell more than ever. It seems he's gotten somewhat past trying to medically cure his brain and is instead looking for some emotional way of regaining his former intellect. It does offer a few tender and emotional scenes between Walter and Nina, and it hinted at something more that we can expect to see in future seasons. In any case, Walter is emotionally fragile enough to desperately believe that William Bell's soul magnets could actually work to bring him back. When that idea was brought up in 6B, we all thought "That's awesome! I wish that could work!" Apparently we weren't the only ones.

The third subplot of the episode involved Peter and Olivia finally being in the throes of a new relationship, and it was so sweet to see the two of them finally happy. After all Olivia has been through, being a subject to Walternate's cruel plans and being replaced by a more emotionally available version of herself, she deserves to be happy for at least one episode. That went great until the end, when Peter came clean to Olivia about killing shapeshifters. Olivia didn't so much have time to react emotionally, because before we knew it, she was gone. In her place was none other than William Bell, back amongst us once more. It was an unexpected twist we could only expect from these particular writers. Sure it edges on ridiculous, but Anna Torv does a hell of a Leonard Nimoy impression. It was the perfect way to cap off this fantastically directed and hilariously written episode. There are complaints that the science of the episode didn't exactly make sense, but the universe is collapsing, so it's not supposed to. Sure it's mostly an inter-mediating episode, but when Pinkner and Wyman are doing so well at their craft, it's hard to let that hold you back.

8.7 out of 10

Glee: Sexy

The last episode of Glee before the two week break was really something of a milestone for the show. They managed to handle a touchy subject like alcohol abuse in a way that didn't seem forced or condescending. It's one of those things that we know is awesome, and no matter what our parents tell us, we'll make our own decisions about it. This week followed that up with what really felt like overkill. It brought upon the return of Holly Holiday, and it was focused on illustrating the dangers of sexual relationships. It was going on a steady road to make the message appealing, but somewhere along the line it became hypocritical and pretentious.

Holly Holiday is currently substituting for the sex-ed class, and it turns out that most students at McKinley don't know anything about how sex really works. That's kind of hard to believe, and honestly somewhat pathetic. All you really need to know about how sex works in today's society, or any society, is a basic knowledge of the male and female body, and one viewing of American Beauty. I get Brittany being ignorant, because she's so darn good at it. The message of this episode fell rather hard and clunky, as if it was being forced down our throats. Emma was the head of the celibacy club, because she's been too afraid to have sex with her husband, perhaps because of feelings for Will. Seriously, what was the point of them getting married in the first place?

There were some sweet scenes, the strongest of which were Santana and Brittany investigating their complex relationship. Santana gave a heartfelt summary of why she is the way she is, but Brittany was just too damn sweet to give up on Artie. Theirs is one of my favorite relationships on the show, and as much as this endeared me to Santana, I still felt a little ache for Artie. When this blows up, which it will, it's going to shatter him. Then he's going to go back to Tina, that Asian slut, and Mike is going to go back to being silent and barely a character, and everything will be completely ruined.

As for the music, it was mostly miss for me. I'm one of the people who already aggressively hates "Landslide", because it just brings me back to horrific nightmares of Jack Frost. "Kiss" just fell flat and boring to my ears, and didn't really have much to do with what was going on. The one that rocked me was "Do You Wanna Touch", which is an instant favorite from the show. Perhaps my favorite part of this episode was the flash at Finn and Quinn, which I couldn't be happier about. The only thing keeping them apart before was Rachel liking Finn and Quinn lying to Finn. Now there's room for Quifinn to thrive.

8.0 out of 10