Perhaps I spoke too soon about the success of Fringe Fridays. I don’t like following the ratings game too closely because many good shows have been canned due to bad ratings, but ratings pay the bills and Fringe has seen a steady decline over the past few weeks. Not a big decline, but a decline all the same. And I hate to say it but the revelations of this weeks episode have really rubbed me the wrong way.
If you don’t want to be spoiled then stop reading because I plan to discuss the big news. Granted, this news has been predicted and blogged about for weeks but now it is fact so if you like watching with virgin eyes then go read about Oscar picks or something.
So what happened this week? This episode, called “Immortality” took us back to the other universe to follow our favorite Alts around for a bit. The Fringe team is not aware that AltBroyles is dead but they have given up searching for him all the same and now Agent Lee (Seth Gabel) is in charge. Fauxlivia (Anna Torv) is settled back in to her life and at the start of the hour is reunited with her boyfriend Frank (Phillip Winchester) who has been in Texas working for the CDC. Frank suspects something is going on with his gal even though she says “everything is fine”. Not convinced he plots to take her away for a long weekend where he plans to pop the question. Frank confides in Agent Lee who them immediately tells Fauxlivia about it. She seems freaked out and she should be since she spent most of her time on the other side boning Peter Bishop. But this show isn’t about love and boning it is about creepy science stuff so it isn’t long before a new case snatches Fauxlivia from love’s warm embrace.
The case involves a man who was eaten from the inside out by bugs, and not just any bug either. These bugs are thought to be extinct and it just so happens that a man lives nearby who used to study them. When another body turns up the Fringe team tracks him down and Fauxlivia is knocked unconscious while Agent Lee gets himself locked in a freezer. The bug guy leads Fauxlivia to believe she’s been infected and that any moment now bugs will begin to eat her alive…all in the name of developing an avian flu vaccine. Agent Lee manages to escape and call for help and before long Fringe shows up with Frank. They take Fauxlivia to the hospital while Agent Lee tries to get the bug guy to tell him how to save her.
Only she doesn’t need saving. The bug guy is the one infected and a huge queen bug bursts from his neck, killing him. So what is wrong with Fauxlivia you ask? What indeed. In the ambulance Frank uses a sonogram machine to locate the bug infestation in her abdomen, but instead he finds a gestating human fetus. Fauxlivia is preggers! (cue dramatic music). Frank asks how far along she is and realizes pretty quick that this is not his baby. “Are you in love with him….the father?” he asks and Fauxlivia whimpers and cries. So long Frank.
News of the pregnancy travels fast and at the end of the hour Walternate (John Noble) shows up to offer support for her and his grandchild. No doubt he has deduced that when Peter finds out Fauxlivia is carrying his baby he will choose their world, therefore dooming our world to destruction. The previews for next week hint at more proof that Peter prefers the Fauxlivia anyway.
The episode was pretty good. I enjoy the different vibe of the characters on the other side. Fauxlivia is witty and has a bounce in her step. Her bad wig gets on my nerves a little but Anna Torv carries it well. We also learned that Walternate has a mistress, Miko played by the gorgeous Joan Chen who has not aged one single day since she was on Twin Peaks. I don’t recall her ever being mentioned before but I could be wrong. Frank also flirted a little with Commando Astrid which makes me wonder if she’ll get a little piece of that now that he’s single.
Pregnant. I really did not want it to play out like this. I’ve thought about it all day and I must admit that I can see why they did it. Peter needs a compelling reason to choose the other side, but will a kid be enough? Peter is an honorable guy but it seems to me he would realize that he is being used. He wasn’t having warm fuzzies about Fauxlivia when she was hauled away in handcuffs. I can’t see this would change his mind and make him sentence his real friends to death and dismemberment at the hands of a universal collapse. Do I have a better idea than you ask? No I don’t. But I have a feeling in my gut that Fauxlivia won’t carry this baby full term. Just a hunch.
Fringe returns next Friday with “6B”. Check out the preview below while I work on accepting this new development.
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I truly hope they don’t cancel this show, so amazing. what is green green red? Who are the observers? what happened to that little kid in the mine? So many unanswered questions!
In regards to Fauxlivia’s pregnancy I don’t like it either but Fringe always has something on the way, so who knows what comes next. All hope for is that FOX will give Fringe a chance to at least end on a high note and have a decent finish. Even though ratings pay the bill, a little bit of respect with viewers also goes a long way.
Unless the ratings tank over the next few weeks I would expect we’ll get at least one more season. The writers have said that they have a plan to wrap things up if a cancellation does happen but they also have some interesting story arcs to investigate if it doesn’t. Fingers crossed it can hang on because I love it, even if it lets me down now and then.