TV-Reviewed

With all eyes being placed on Fringe’s fluctuating ratings, you’d think the writers would work on putting together some top-notch episodes. Instead of a greatness, we got an average filler episode at best with “Subject 13.”

Kudos to the team for bringing back the classic opening and dropping in some obvious hints at 1980s technology. The geek side of me appreciated those tidbits.

That being said, I don’t appreciate the incredibly soft picture used on the flashback segments. In this case, the entire episode was a flashback, so there was really no getting rid of the soft picture.

The flashback to learn more about the first meeting of Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop seemed entirely unnecessary. It would have been perfectly okay with me if these two had never met before their coming together to work in Fringe Division. In fact, until recently, it’s what I thought was the case.

Karley Scott Collins as Young Olivia, John Noble as Walter Bishop

So to claim that these two met over twenty years ago and that their eventual relationship was kind of planned in a sense just seems like writers going a little too far.

I suppose it was only necessary before the writers decided to take a look at the relationship between the young stolen Peter (Chandler Canterbury) and his new kidnapper parents, Walter (John Noble) and Elizabeth (Orla Brady). Their reluctant insistence that Peter’s sickness has caused him to not remember certain things.

Of those things, I loved some of the references to the Dodgers not playing in Brooklyn and that Red Lantern was never Green Lantern.

The question I have for the writers is why they felt the need to explore these relationships. For me, I never thought it was necessary. Having said that, I did come to appreciate it as the episode went along.

Peter’s questionable trust of Walter and Elizabeth led to his encouraging young Olivia (Karley Scott Collins) to tell Walter the truth about her step-father’s abuse. It was brave of both children.

While I eventually came to like “Subject 13″, I thought the tone of the episode was a bit down. There seemed to be an overwhelming amount of negative emotions. A lot of depression, frustration, and fear vastly overwhelmed the few scenes where any of the characters showed joy. I came to really like those brief moments of young Karley Scott Collins and Chandler Canterbury smiling. I hope we have a little more of an uplifting episode soon. “Subject 13″ was a real downer.

Rating: 6.5