FRINGE - “In Which We Meet Mr. Jones”
Season 1 - Episode 7
We meet agent Loeb, friend of Broyles, who’s having his heart squeezed to death by an awkward special effect. Through conversations I slept through, we learn about David Jones, a guy who might know What’s Up but is held in a German prison. Loeb’s probably only got a day to live, which wouldn’t be nearly enough time to get to Germany and pull the strings needed to get access to Jones, unless you can a) fly to Germany in about an hour, b) get access to Guy Who Runs Prison, c) convince him to let you talk to the prisoner, and d) convince the prisoner to talk to you.
Lucky for Loeb, a) apparently Olivia can, b) her ex apparently runs Germany and has the brilliant plan to just “show up” at the prison, c) apparently Olivia can by simply speaking in German, and d) apparently Olivia can, but effectively off screen and without explanation.
But there’s a catch! Jones won’t really cooperate unless he gets the answer to a riddle from Smith, a mole in the agency who Loeb was pursuing in the opening, and who Broyles just got killed when they raided his place.
So we wake up Walter, who uses wires to wake up the deceased Smith’s brain, which we connect to Peter’s brain so he can explore father issues of being experimented on earlier in life and also get the answers out of dead-Smith-brain to tell Jones that “Little Hill” is “Where the gentleman lives”.
This satisfies Jones for reasons we don’t know so he gives the good guys the recipe to dissolve special effects and save Loeb, but it also turns out to be the information actually-the-bigger-mole-all-along-Loeb wanted. His wife was there to overhear it, so the good guys don’t know it, but mission accomplished for team mole.
This was good. I like Jared Harris, so his introduction as David Jones excites me at the prospect of future appearances. It’s also nice to have some more overtly big picture stuff going on, and even more satisfying that it’s not just another “Massive Dynamic is forty-seven steps ahead of you and they have a plan” ending. I mean, I’m sure Massive Dynamic is connected, but it’s nice to go an episode without being beaten over the head with it again.
Walter’s quirks are still silly, and his crazy science is still in a rut. No progress there. No hints of Peter’s greater purpose yet, and we’re still overdue for some realistic reactions to a world where once a week science is turned inside out. But it pushes enough of the right buttons to call the episode a win for me.
