TV Review: FRINGE 4.5, "Novation"

By Emile Lewis / November 5, 2011

rating: 3.5

It€™s official. I care very little for baseball. One country in particular seems to love it, so much so that they take out two goddamn weeks of programming just to showcase it. In the land of 500 channels can they really not fit two things in the schedule together? It€™s not even that good of a sport. Anyway€ before I isolate any more baseball fans, it€™s finally time to get stuck back into Fringe and the long awaited return of Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson). A word of warning, this review is all over those spoilers so read on at your own risk. The Fringe team brings Peter back to headquarters after he refuses to talk to any one but Walter (John Noble). In classic Walter style, Olivia (Anna Torv) finds him asleep on a dose of sodium thiopental, the first of three drugs commonly administered in lethal injections. As she correctly protests it, €œsounds dangerous.€ Walter agrees to attend the interview and the first time he reluctantly looks up at Peter you can see for a brief moment that glimmer in his eyes and the hint of a smile, but only briefly. Like everyone else, Walter still doesn€™t remember a life with Peter in it after both versions of the boy died in this timeline. Later on he explains to Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) in the lab that whilst he acknowledges that the man may indeed be his son Peter, he doesn€™t deserve the restitution. The interview doesn€™t go so well for Peter, who learns that in this timeline, the Observer didn€™t save him from drowning when he and Walter crossed over, which raises the question that if he was meant to die, why has he been brought back? It also reveals another little fact about the new timeline; that the Fringe team is unaware of the existence of the Observers. Walter refuses to help him and Peter is left in the cell at Fringe headquarters. Elsewhere, shapeshifter Nadine (Michelle Krusiec) who appeared in the Season 4 Premier €œNeither Here Nor There€ returns this week on a mission to locate ex-Massive Dynamic biochemical researcher Malcolm Truss (Ayre Gross). Nadine needs Truss to synthesise a cure to stabilise her shapeshifter/human hybrid form. Truss was once a top researcher in cellular replication at Massive Dynamic until his project was shut down abruptly and somewhat inexplicably by C.E.O. William Bell. Nadine infiltrates the home of Truss€™ ex-wife, killing her and her new partner and taking her form. This puts the Fringe team onto her path. Olivia goes to Nina to learn about Truss and we also learn some more about their relationship in this timeline. It is revealed that Nina fostered Olivia and her sister after the death of their mother. Presumably, Nina took interest in Olivia because of her involvement in the Cortexiphan trials. Back in his cell, Peter manipulates the intercom into a microphone so that he can eavesdrop on the Fringe team. He offers to analyse a retrieved shapeshifter memory disc for them in exchange for another meeting with Walter. The results imply that these new shapeshifter can retain all of their previous forms (as we have already seen demonstrated by Nadine), and that they can also be tracked much like luxury cars. The downside is, once a new shapeshifter has replicated another€™s form, they are virtually indistinguishable, right down to their DNA. The agents track Nadine to the makeshift lab where she is holding Truss. She escapes them once again but not before she grabs a vile of the synthesised cure. At a storage locker in a Boston terminal, she uses a Hermes 3000 typewriter to contact what I€™m guessing is the other side. We don€™t know for sure if it is the other side that she works for but we know that the typewriters are used to communicate between universes. It€™s possible, as Walter theorised, that there might even be a third universe we aren€™t yet aware of. The returning message confirms that more shapeshifters are on their way. Walter meets with Peter once again and acknowledges that he may be who he says he is, but that he refuses to accept him as his son or even to give him the help he requires. Peter is left alone in his cell once again. My problem with this episode is the balance between Peter€™s story and the story of Nadine/Truss. It felt to me like they devoted too much screen time to Nadine and Truss and not enough to Peter. I thought a lot of their scenes could have been cut down or removed entirely and more of the initial scenes of Peter at the hospital should have been included. At the end of the last episode, Peter and Olivia meet in the hospital and the cliffhanger ends on Olivia being unable to recognise Peter. Where was the scene after that? I was really looking forward to their first exchange but instead this episode skips over it and goes straight to Peter and Walter. I can understand that the shapeshifter element is once again going to be a major part of the series arc, but my immediate interest was in Peter and how frustrating it would be that nobody remembered who he was. That aspect was also a little disappointing. Joshua Jackson€™s performance wasn€™t exactly stellar. He€™s usually quite a wooden actor but up until now I€™ve accepted that as part of Peter€™s laid-back demeanour. This was a chance to get some real frustration out of him but sadly instead of acting like nobody remembers who he is, he acts like they just forgot his birthday. Walter€™s personal crisis was also ground that we€™ve covered before. I€™ve got nothing against the performance, I feel John Noble can do little wrong with this character; it€™s more to do with the fact that they are catering this season for the new viewers. For those of us who have been with the show since the beginning, it€™s really maddening when they haul up all the old issues that we€™ve gone over thoroughly already for the benefit of new viewers. Walter€™s guilt over having a second chance with Peter is old news. New timeline aside, it€™s like they couldn€™t think of a new direction for the show, so they are just tricking us into watching slightly altered repeats. Hopefully, they will quickly get over €˜re-introducing€™ the series, and get back to the meat of the story €“ resolving Peter€™s reappearance and the other characters lack of memory of him, and dealing with the tenuous alliance with the other side. I€™d love to hear your thoughts on this episode and the new season so far. Do you agree with the new direction of the show, or are you frustrated like me that they keep going over old themes? Perhaps there are some new viewers who can weigh in? Also, would anyone care to take a stab at what happened to Olivia towards the end when she had a moment of timey-wimey déjà-vu?