FRINGE - “The Cure”
Season 1 - Episode 6
A drugged woman is dumped outside of a diner. People start bleeding, dying, and it culminates with her head exploding. It’s like Scanners meets The Night Owl Massacre.
Some boring TV cop procedural investigation turns up a connection to another (newly) missing girl and a disease they (and others) were getting hush-hush treatments for by INtREPUS, one of Massive Dynamic’s competitors in the biochem industry. INtREPUS was actually using the patients as tests subjects to turn people into all-natural, microwave-style, suicide bombers. Peter goes behind Olivia to Massive Dynamic for info on INtREPUS, leading to a comically heroic raid on their lab, just in time for Olivia to give the second girl the antidote Walter cooked up without reanimating even a single guest star.
After an earlier attempt to bully the INtREPUS boss for info blew up in her face when he flexed his lawyers at her, Olivia is given the satisfaction of marching him out for the press in handcuffs, tanking the company’s stock, and giving Nina Sharp something to smirk about because everything is always going exactly according to plan over at Massive Dynamic.
PLUS: FEELINGS! In the margins, Olivia’s been cranky all day because it’s her birthday, which is when—as a nine year old—she shot her abusive step-father. He survived and disappeared, sending her birthday cards every year to let us know they haven’t cast him yet but when he finally does show up in some cliffhanger some day, we should care because it’s a big deal guys. In a scene that is totally unearned at this point in the show, Broyle calls Olivia out on letting her emotions control her (which he’s basically right about) and she stands by them as what makes her worth being our protagonist so good at stuff. In principle I’ll accept that as a conceit to drama, but in practice the writing hasn’t backed up her claim yet.
Pretty uninspiring. No real developments for anyone else. Moving on.
