Fans were biting their nails because of the great rating drop Fringe had been having since Reciprocity and onwards; I stood positive, but a bit nervous, about the future of the show and this week was quite a relief. The fact that the audience grew up from 3.74 million watchers to 4.10 million means that Fringe is recovering from the Super bowl, the festivities and the Supernatural competition, and it's thanks to the amazing writing, especially for this very episode that kept hook, and even drew 40.000 viewers on the second half, that I think Fringe is to be renew for a 4th season, leading the nights with what I think will be an average of 4.58 million watchers, holding to its initial 1.9 rating share. Now, let's talk about the real issue, the aspects that made this episode so great. Some details are spoiler free, I'll mention when the spoilers comes.
Visual and special effects: 10/10. Through the whole episode we get a very good use of special effects and different settings, which is different from last week's "Immortality", the Fringe team is not captive on many scenes in the lab, but they are seen on many scenes on Peter's house, Massive Dynamics, the bar, the building, etc... Which is a refreshing setting, there's more world than just the lab. The special effects were marvelous, it was like a new version of the ghost busters mixed with the X files and achieved in such an incredible degree, from simple sequences were windows explodes or the creation of the amber to the vision and cracks from the other side.
(SPOILER) Plot: Case of the week: 9.8/10. The thing is that the case is moving and it's really interesting, we get to see that our universe is suffering as "over there" and it's bending because of the grief and sorrow of two people who loved each other madly and lost each other, which is nice, we are not facing a monster of the week, we are victims of a love tragedy that occurred both over here and there, it was nicely developed, although I think it wasn't completely explained, which is why I gave it a 9.8 overall, but it was truly amazing.
Olivia's and Peter's relationship development: 10/10. It was 100% believable, the characters seem to finally leave things behind, but at the same time they are recognizing the causes of why it is so hard. And I'm not giving it a 10 because I wanted to see them kissing again (which was a plus), but because Olivia finally showed us that she is brave enough to overcome her fear, along with Peter being able to tell who he is really in love with, and making Olivia see that she was the one actually stopping them at that time. The way it was developed was cute, nice and smart.
Walter's fear: 1000/10. There's just no way to describe how amazing and Emmy worthy is John Noble. The fear and the burden of his acts are a huge weight that he carries on the back, we can see all that through Walter's eyes, through his movement, and it goes completely along with his character profile and background story. Kudos to John Noble.
(SPOILER FREE)
Overall acting from starring and guest starring: 10/10. As always, our main cast for this season is crushing it, they are doing better than ever. Through the eye contact to the way they speak we see our main cast doing as good as always and even better, mentioning John Noble who was able to pull off a terrified and sorrow Walter Bishop who fills our eyes with pity for his poor character, I bet we all wanted to hug Walter and tell him that it would be OK, which I actually wanted to see from Jasika Nicole, but that's for another episode. Our guest starring was standard good to impressive, though we might not care for those characters that only appear in one scene, they are necessary and they did their job as every week, fairly good and convincing. The old lady (excuse me, I forgot her name) showed us some experience and good acting.
Overall: 10/10. This episode is to be listed as one of Fringe's best, 43 minutes of entertaining romance, occasionally good humor and character development. It's not an episode to lose and I hope more Fringe fans tune on their TVs next Friday, my gamble is 4.26 million viewers, 1.6 rating share.
Visual and special effects: 10/10. Through the whole episode we get a very good use of special effects and different settings, which is different from last week's "Immortality", the Fringe team is not captive on many scenes in the lab, but they are seen on many scenes on Peter's house, Massive Dynamics, the bar, the building, etc... Which is a refreshing setting, there's more world than just the lab. The special effects were marvelous, it was like a new version of the ghost busters mixed with the X files and achieved in such an incredible degree, from simple sequences were windows explodes or the creation of the amber to the vision and cracks from the other side.
(SPOILER) Plot: Case of the week: 9.8/10. The thing is that the case is moving and it's really interesting, we get to see that our universe is suffering as "over there" and it's bending because of the grief and sorrow of two people who loved each other madly and lost each other, which is nice, we are not facing a monster of the week, we are victims of a love tragedy that occurred both over here and there, it was nicely developed, although I think it wasn't completely explained, which is why I gave it a 9.8 overall, but it was truly amazing.
Olivia's and Peter's relationship development: 10/10. It was 100% believable, the characters seem to finally leave things behind, but at the same time they are recognizing the causes of why it is so hard. And I'm not giving it a 10 because I wanted to see them kissing again (which was a plus), but because Olivia finally showed us that she is brave enough to overcome her fear, along with Peter being able to tell who he is really in love with, and making Olivia see that she was the one actually stopping them at that time. The way it was developed was cute, nice and smart.
Walter's fear: 1000/10. There's just no way to describe how amazing and Emmy worthy is John Noble. The fear and the burden of his acts are a huge weight that he carries on the back, we can see all that through Walter's eyes, through his movement, and it goes completely along with his character profile and background story. Kudos to John Noble.
(SPOILER FREE)
Overall acting from starring and guest starring: 10/10. As always, our main cast for this season is crushing it, they are doing better than ever. Through the eye contact to the way they speak we see our main cast doing as good as always and even better, mentioning John Noble who was able to pull off a terrified and sorrow Walter Bishop who fills our eyes with pity for his poor character, I bet we all wanted to hug Walter and tell him that it would be OK, which I actually wanted to see from Jasika Nicole, but that's for another episode. Our guest starring was standard good to impressive, though we might not care for those characters that only appear in one scene, they are necessary and they did their job as every week, fairly good and convincing. The old lady (excuse me, I forgot her name) showed us some experience and good acting.
Overall: 10/10. This episode is to be listed as one of Fringe's best, 43 minutes of entertaining romance, occasionally good humor and character development. It's not an episode to lose and I hope more Fringe fans tune on their TVs next Friday, my gamble is 4.26 million viewers, 1.6 rating share.