Terrific Thursday

The day my little Fringe counter had been ticking away to has come and gone, and what a doozy of a return episode that was! Before I get to that I should mention the other two shows I set Thursdays aside for: Project Runway and Bones.

I have a love hate relationship with PR. Most of the time I think the judges are out of it when they pick winners and whichever of the unlucky losers to go home. My loyalties to the contestants usually fluctuates if their work steadily produces head scratching creations. This week Maya pulled herself out of the game, in a move no one saw coming. My guess would be that the judges continually overlooked her strongest efforts and never gave her a win up to this point. Boo, I really liked her aesthetic, and hoped she'd end up in the top three at Bryant Park. This led production to bring Anthony and his barrel of quotes back. The challenge was a major step down from last week's innovative "create your own textile" look. It was yet another red carpet look, for Heidi. Blah blah blah, booring. And most of the dresses were, okay, all of them could have used a bit more "oomph." Emilio and Anthony got a double win, somehow...the judges are getting lazy! But it was well warranted, because out of all of the dresses on the catwalk, those two were the only ones I could feasibly see being worn by Heidi (and guest judge, Jessica Alba) on the red carpet. Jay made a pretty white mini that dissolved into a diaper at the skirt, Seth Aaron's dress looked like a Middle Aged undergarment, Mila's was colorblocked and blah, and poor ousted Jonathan didn't get a charmer on his third try, he ended up with a sad drapey sack. The edits are clear foreshadowers of who's going home, and Jonathan's constant reworking left him without a necessary amount of workable fabric, and hardly a smidge of confidence to put together an awesome dress. Next week the challenge had better be something outrageous, or I'm just going to tune in at the 40 minute mark to see the runway.

I feel terrible (okay, not really) about admitting this, but my enthusiasm for Bones has waned some since TNT plays the same damn repeats over and over. There are at least five seasons to choose from, how is it that the same twenty episodes get airtime?! (/rant) Anyway, my fondness for Angela and her twenty first sexuality sensibilities have diminished considerably since she dropped Hodges and was confronted by Sweets about her relationship and commitment issues. It boils down to this: Hodges and his misanthropy are endearing (yes, really), and I'm tired of seeing him mope around every time the focus shifts to Angie and whatever new fling she's got. Anyway, I was surprised I wasn't more stoked for this episode. It was essentially, just a time filler till Fringe started. This week had Sweets confronting issues about mortality and the importance of living life to the fullest while in capacity to do so. This arose and messed with his psychaitrist self after seeing a man with a promising future ahead of him die in a subway car when a water main broke. He freaked Daisy out, causing her to grate on the nerves of the Jeffersonian's best with her endless chatter, and ultimately proposed to her with his mother's ring. I did NOT see that coming. I thought he was going to go all Gordon Gordon and either embrace his former goth metal roots and join a band, or become a chef.

Back to the murder mystery. The upending of the subway washed the decomposed corpse of a blind man into the tunnel, leading Bones and the gang to test rat feces, delve into the victim's life as a professional letter writer (interesting), and dig into a messy love triangle involving a security officer, her boyfriend, and this other guy who wanted to garner her affections. Bones also had a Japanese reporter shadow her and pepper her with questions about the steamy relationship between her characters and their similarities to people in Brennan's real life. Despite Bones' attempts to shift the focus back to the forensics aspect of her novels, no one, especially not the reporter seemed to buy it. The lady cop ended up being the murderer, the reporter gathered enough information for her article (and hinted that it's SO CLEARLY obvious that B&B are meant to be...haha), and I can't believe I remember this much for an episode that wasn't as gripping as Bones often delivers. Next week we get to see how Booth and Brennan met and became partners. I know one of the driving points of this show is the "will they or won't they" chemistry that the double B's have going on, but as awesome as they are together, I don't want to see it happen until the final episode. Or unless Booth has another freak tumor and dream about the "alternate" life he and Temperance live.

Speaking of alternates, Fringe delivered the BEST episode to date, delving into Walter's past and giving a hell of a story in an episode aptly titled, "Peter." I have been waiting two months for this (sad, I know) and after all of the clues, Walter's desperation any time Peter comes close to death, and Olivia's realization that Peter is from the alternate universe, the truth is finally revealed. Through Walter's retelling, and flashbacks to 1985, we learn of the window Walter has built to view his alternate self (Walternate, hah) at work and Peter's illness and death. The death of his son drives Walter to take action when Walternate fails to harness the proper solution to cure alt-Peter's illness. The interruption of one of the Observers causes Walternate to turn his back, and in a moment, he loses the vital solution in its perfect state. Walter's desperation to see alt-Peter survive into adulthood drives him to break through the barrier and administer the solution he'd copied to his son himself, in spite of opposition from Nina Sharp and his assistant, Carla. When he returns from the alternate universe, Walter becomes overwhelmed at the thought of losing Peter again, and he and Elizabeth decide to keep the child.

Before Fringe, John Noble was Denethor, Steward of Gondor in my mind. He lost both his sons in Lord of the Rings as well, one to a lust for the One Ring and a seriously scary Uruk-Hai, and the other because he failed to acknowledge his existance and nearly tried to kill him. I didn't like Denethor in the slightest, and loathed his inability to see past his grief. Ironically, I adore Walter in spite of that same quality and the havoc it subsequently wreaks. Noble does an excellent job with both Denethor and Walter in conveying their grief, with different approaches. The look on his face when Peter goes limp is single-handedly the biggest tearjerker of a scene I've seen since the marriage montage in Up! It's easy to be swayed by Walter's absent minded charm and eccentricites, which make his more lucid moments and clear acts of deceit all the more jarring. I find myself forgetting that Walter Bishop was once a shrewd and brilliant mind, and through his act of selfishness and anguish, he wrought a massive imbalance on the two universes.

Also loved the 80s ish intro to this episode, massive geek-gasm! Check it out:

Thanks to Fringe Television and Youtube.