With its intriguing Shadow Over a Small Town premise, this could have been a strong Fringe episode with horrific elements. Instead, we found ourselves playing, “you know you’re in a mediocre Fringe ep when….”
- It plays like The X-Files, only dumbed down
- The Fringe Force heads out to investigate a crime and, sure enough, it turns out to be a Fringe case
- The solution to the mystery lies with mad science
- Walter played a key role in the development of said mad science, demonstrating once again he must have 27 degrees and Forrest Gump‘s guiding spirits
- One of the side-effects of the mad science is it causes everyone to speak in obvious expository dialogue
- The supporting cast are mostly average, but Anna Torv’s performance still seems mediocre by comparision
- Astrid exists so that Walter has someone to whom he can explain things
- The script makes Walter a key figure, but it doesn’t give him enough to do dramatically
- On several occasions the episode reduces my visiting sister to helpless laughter, even though it’s not trying to be funny.
However, I’m certain some of you hold a different opinion:
My biggest issue with this one was it seemed kind of rushed like it was supposed to be a multi-part episode but Fox made them stuff it into a single parter.
Also, anybody catch the Fringe that was on Monday after House called Unearthed and decide if it was a leftover from Season 1 or one from the alternate universe since Charlie was still alive. The Fox forums seem to think left over from Season 1 shown out of order.
This ep definitely could have been better if they’d given the mystery time to develop.
I came across the johari window in a speech class in college. I don’t get the connection?
The Johari window divides into four categories, including the façade (known to you but not to others) and the blind spot (known to others but not to you). The town has a façade; Walter has a blind spot (so does anyone who enters the town). Another category is the unknown (not known to you or others), which plays some part in this episode.
It’s not exactly how the concept is used in psychology, but the correlations exist.
Definitely a below average episode for a show that doesn’t have too many episodes that rise above “ok”.