TV-Reviewed

What appeared to be an interesting episode about ghosts turned into an episode about a wonderful love story. The science fiction elements of the series tend vastly overshadow the love story present in the series between Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson). Much like the struggle between the two universes we’re familiar with, the struggle of which aspect of the show takes center stage can be a little frustrating, as it tends to shift on an episode-to-episode basis.

There’s just something adorable about watching Walter (John Noble) try to meddle in his son’s affairs. Walter, more than anything, wants to see Peter happy and that means being in a relationship with Olivia. Olivia, however, has been extremely hesitant to go down that path. In “6B,” she finally opened up a bit more as to her feelings about it. I liked her open up, but the fact that Olivia and Peter have been back to square one is frustrating to watch. Thankfully, they got a kick in the pants when they got to see a pretty sweet love story in their work.

Walter’s fear of seeing their universe collapse appeared to be realized when unusual things began to happen in an apartment building. The ordinary rules of physics were thrown completely out of whack. People were falling through traditionally solid objects and simple coin tosses weren’t going as they usually do.

It all pointed to a soft spot in their world. For some reason, the two worlds we’ve come to know were meeting in this apartment building and it wasn’t clear why. Anytime the writers can involve Albert Einstein’s theories in Fringe is a good day in my book. Quantum entanglement was ruled to be at play, as two grieving widows from two different worlds were desperately seeking out their true love.

I absolutely loved the Alice and Derrick love story present in “6B.” I would have liked to have seen a little more Derrick, but the actress who portrayed Alice seemed genuine in her portrayal. It was beautiful. I was actually moved.

When the Walternate character was introduced, it was hinted at by either John Noble or the producers that over time, it would be clear that the Walternate character isn’t inherently evil. He’s quite practical, just looking to protect his world. After seeing the last two episodes, I can agree with them.

Walternate’s approach to protecting his world from collapse may seem very aggressive, but his world hasn’t come up with a better solution to “ambering” all of the soft spots. As Walter pointed out tonight, there’s no way this technique will work for very long. Cracks begin to form and there’s no way to contain all of the cracks and vortexes.

As you can gather by now, I really enjoyed “6B,” but it didn’t do much to fix some of the writer’s missteps with this season. I feel their approach to the season thus far has made everything slow down. Olivia seems borderline lethargic now, reminding me of how she was in season one. I’d throw Peter in there as well. Aside from the occasional chase, the writers haven’t pushed Joshua Jackson very much. They’re almost asking him to mail it in and it’s not Jackson’s fault. He’s a very capable actor. I’m just hoping the writers will find some new inspiration for the remainder of the season. The show’s future is very much up in the air with the ratings becoming more and more depressing.

Rating: 8.5