REVIEW: Fringe “The Abducted”

JJ Abrams is a man after my heart. I knew I was going to enjoy this week’s episode of Fringe when the villain, called Candyman by Fringe division, appeared from a closet looking like a cop from THX-1138. Yes please, I’ll have more of the geeky goodness.

George Lucas' THX-1138

Olivia’s (Anna Torv) long journey home is almost at an end. She is aware of the deception Walternate (John Noble) has perpetrated and is aware that her usefulness to him has expired. But she can’t just run off screaming into the sunset. Her escape has to be more delicate, more graceful and should preferrably play out over at least two more episodes. We have sweeps to consider folks!

Remember Henry the taxi driver who helped Olivia escape when she first crossed over? Well she didn’t stay escaped for long, but she has a mind like a steel trap so when she decided it was time to go home she went to Henry for help. He reluctantly agrees.

But first Olivia has to help Charlie (Kirk Acevedo) and Agent Browles (Lance Reddick) track down the Candyman who snatches kids from their beds, keeps them for two days and returns them with strange wounds on the backs of their necks and signs of aging. Director Broyle’s son Christopher was a victim of the Candyman two years prior, and in true Candyman style he wants some justice. It’s Candyman vs Candyman. I know what happens if you stand in front of mirror and say Candyman five times, but what about when there are two of them? I can’t wrap my brain around that.

It seems that even though Olivia is trapped and knows she will be killed if she doesn’t get home she still finds the discipline to be a kick-ass Fringe agent. When she hears that Broyle’s son was a victim she wants to question him again. Perhaps her gentle demeanor will coax more info out of the kid. It always seemed to work for Dana Scully. Broyles says “hell to the no” at first but after a chat with his wife he reconsiders. The conversation leads the team to a local church and eventually the Candyman himself, who has been draining hormones from the petuitary gland of the kids to stay young.

She rescues the missing boy but slips up and tells him she is with the FBI, which doesn’t exist on this side of the universal coin. When she visits the kid in the hospital later he asks her about it and she shrugs it off, but Broyles overhears with his Candyman ears. Now, he already knows that she’s not “their” Olivia, but he didn’t know that she knew it too.

“So what happens now?” Olivia asks, poised and ready to open a can of alternate-universe whoop ass.
“What happens is…I’m going home,” Broyles says and leaves.

So Good Candyman paved the way for Olivia to escape. Way to be awesome in BOTH universes Agent Broyles! She takes off and meets up with Henry who takes her over to Liberty Island. She sneaks into the lab, which has shittier security than a Starbucks, and hops into the sensory deprivation tank. Within a few seconds she is back in the gift shop on our side where a cleaning lady spots her. She manages to give the stunned woman a message before Walternate yanks her back to the other side and scowls menacingly at her.

Back on our side Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Bolivia (also Anna Torv) snuggle and watch Casablanca which she only heard of in passing and thinks that some other actor starred in it. And still Peter doesn’t realize she’s not his Olivia. As they snuggle and drift off to sleep I was waiting patiently for a knock at the door because you know that Olivia sent that cleaning woman to warn him. He gets a phone call instead.

Cleaning Lady: “Olivia is trapped on the other side.”

I feel honored that JJ Abrams reads my reviews and had the good grace to reward my fandom with a little nod to my habit of calling Agent Broyles “Candyman” all the time. Thanks JJ! Now that I have your attention might I suggest hiring James Van Der Beek to star as a villain in an upcoming episode? His character could be a psychotic who believes he is Steven Spielberg and has been summoned by God to write, direct and star in a sequel to The Color Purple called Shug’s Night: A Hip Hopera. Also he should be forced to cry at least once.

Is it just me or is that the single greatest facial expression ever committed to film. Emmy Awards…take note. I think a lifetime achievement award is called for here. If that doesn’t work for you JJ I’d settle for a scene were Olivia walks in on Peter watching Dawson’s Creek. Just a thought.

Fringe returns in 2 weeks and some shit goes down.

Similar Posts:

• REVIEW: Fringe “Entrada”
• REVIEW: Fringe “Marionette”
• REVIEW: Fringe “And Those We’ve Left Behind”
• REVIEW: Fringe “Stowaway”
• REVIEW: Fringe “The Plateau”

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