Quick Take: Fringe, "Stowaway"
"Who knew a bra was so confining?" - Bellivia
Review: Fringe, "Stowaway"
(S0317) At the very end of last week's episode, William Bell was conjured into Olivia's body by way of "soul magnets." Yeah, I just said that. Anyway, he's comfortable there, except for the bra, and says Olivia is fine, sleeping, and totally unaware of what's going on. Further, since he's a good-guy, he promises that he'll leave her voluntarily within 48 hours, which should be easy enough now that he's back. And so the rest of the episode has him being her (or vice versa) as the A-Plot kicks in.
It seems there's a girl who can't die. They find her because there were witnesses to a suicide who saw her fall with the victim, then get up and walk away. Their investigation brings them into contact with our world's Lincoln Lee, who is much more by the book and uptight than the Redniverse's. He's been tracking the case of this woman; even though it's the first Fringe has seen of her, he's been trying to find her because this is what she does, and they think she's making people commit suicide. They soon realize, though, that they have it backward. She isn't making people kill themselves, she's trying to get other people's deaths to help her die because she can't live without her family, who were killed when she found out about her condition.
When they find a body that she didn't try to go with, they realize that she's decided to step up her plan. The last victim was a bomber, and she thinks if she's where the bomb goes off, enough other deaths will allow her to finally hitch that ride into the afterlife. Peter manages to track her cell number and manages to talk her into not blowing up the train she's on, but the bomb goes off and kills her once and for all before they can get to her. Deus ex machina, anyone?
And back at home, afterward, Peter finds that Bellivia is staying at his house on Walter's insistance. They're sharing a cup of tea, and as churchbells toll midnight, Olivia surfaces for a second, which informs Bell that something's wrong and this won't be as easy as he thinks.
When you're watching this show, it's sometimes hard to tell whether it's getting shark-jumpy or if that's just where it needs to go now. This is one of those episodes. On the one hand, it was great fun watching Olivia be Bell. He's got a cranky old man sort of charm, and she's a pretty young woman, so there that built-in fun. But on the other hand, I can't get past the whole soul magnet thing. I mean, really. Soul magnets. Triggered by a bell. When he was killed unexpectedly. In another universe. There was a scene where they discussed moving him to the cow when he has to leave Olivia.
In the end, though, it all makes sense within the context of the show, and it'll probably come out alright. The main flaw in this episode was that they never really did anything about the case. She started off on her own, and she solved her problem on her own, and they didn't have much to do with any of it, even with the help of the lovely Lincoln Lee. There were no answers. Now, if Bell decides that he likes being a girl and they can reanimate this extra-sturdy body that doesn't have its own driving force anymore, that's something I can work with. They spent the middle of the episode trying to find a nice comatose body for him and didn't find one, so I expected them to settle on her... and then she was just dead. It's unstisfactory. It doesn't fulfill the promise of the first half, and that's annoying.
Here's the thing, though. Fringe almost always cleans up its messy endings. Storylines come back. Things that looked lame on first glance turn out to be more complex and important later on. Week to week, there's still variation, and not every episode is as fantastic as I would like, but overall, the show is still pretty amazing, still taking chances, still being unexpected. And they renewed it for a fourth year, surprisingly, so they can continue to weave these big, complex storylines. And that's good news.
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Video: Fringe, "Stowaway"
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Soul magnets, sweet !