FRINGE “Novation” Review

FRINGE “Novation” Review Season 4 Episode 5 - Finally the baseball playoffs are over! While the St. Louis Cardinals deserve congratulations for their hard fought World Series win over the Texas Rangers, it’s great to have FRINGE back on Fridays. The last thing we saw before the playoffs was Peter’s return as he was fished out of Reiden Lake and finding out that no one remembers him. Tonight’s episode, “Novation” was great in that it had a little bit of everything: Peter, Shifters, Nina, and Custard (oh my!).

Again the Fringe team faces the threat of the shapeshifters, though these shifters are more hands on than the previous version that used European adapter plugs to do their shifting. The team discovers a shifter that is trying to find a scientist that used to work at Massive Dynamic and killing people in its wake. Nina Sharp provides the information to the Fringe team, the scientist’s used to do research in cellular replication, which would be key for a shifter. Before the Fringe team can warn the scientist, he is kidnapped by the shifter.

While this is going on, the Fringe team (especially Broyles) is trying to figure out what to do with the newly arrived Peter, who knows an awful lot of classified Fringe information while no one knows who he is. A meeting with Walter goes badly, but Peter soon gets Broyles to let him help with the shifter investigation once he learns they’re stumped (Peter does have some first hand knowledge on what makes a shifter tick). Peter decodes a shifter’s memory disk, which provides the team a big break and the location of the shifter that kidnapped the scientist.

The shifter brought the scientist into a secret lab to help create a serum that will stabilize her shifting abilities, and thereby allow her to perfectly blend in with the other humans. As the serum is being finalized, the Fringe team storms the location and saves the scientist but lose track of the shifter. Peter and Walter have another failed attempt at reconciliation, but this time its because Walter thinks he doesn’t deserve another chance with Peter. As the episode closes, the shifter is seen taking the serum, then reporting to her masters through a typewriter (like last season with the alterverse). Their instructions? To prepare for the arrival of others they are sending through.

In my review for “Subject 9″ I mentioned how I thought that episode was a little bit of a letdown compared to the rest of the season. This week’s Fringe gets right back to firing on all cylinders, especially the nice balance in stories between the shifter and Peter storylines. There was also a nice bit of background information about whats changed in this timeline through Olivia’s story of why she knows Nina Sharp so well, and then the scene explaining the conflict between Nina and Walter. The writers really did a nice job throughout the episode and I really the scene near the end where we see that Olivia might be interested in Lee outside the office, while also getting a hint that shifters may be in the Fringe team’s midst. There’s lots of potential there for the next few episodes so I can’t wait to see where they take it.

Another nice part of the episode was the great visual effects work for the shifters. It was both extremely cool and also a bit disturbing at the same time, especially when the shifter changed in front of the scientist. I would love to understand how they do these changes and make them looks so seamless on camera!

Lastly, if you didn’t notice there were a couple of references to Lost on the show tonight, see the favorite parts section for details. It was a nice easter egg for fans of both shows and continues the tradition of tying in other J.J. Abrams universes to the Fringe-verse.

My Favorite Parts of Tonight’s Episode:

- Astrid: “Whats an Observer?” (there’s one mini-mystery solved)
- The guest appearance of Vincent, the dog from Lost. (Who didn’t see him and think the scientist was going to die right there?)
- Peter’s lunchbox with the UFO theme (I would’ve guessed Peter was more a Flash Gordon or Battlestar fan, but still a nice lunch box)
- The reference to Lost episode “316″ with the scientist’s license plate 5LT 316 (Season 5 Lost Episode 316)
- The other reference to Lost at the end of the episode, The Others are coming. (If one of them is named Mr. Friendly I might lose it)
- Peter: “So, what do shape shifters and luxury cars have in common? Well, they both have Lojack systems, apparently.”
- The backstory on how Olivia and Nina Sharp know each other so well (After Olivia’s mom passed away, Nina had adopted her and her sister.)
- Apparently Walter still finds comfort in making Peter’s favorite custard, though using lab equipment makes it seem a little fancier.

Who do you think are The Others? Where did these shapeshifters come from? What do you think of a possible Olivia & Lee relationship? Will Walter ever accept Peter? I look forward to your thoughts in the comments section.

Next week, time keeps on slipping with tragic results and the Fringe team tries to figure out whats behind it before its too late. Tune in to Fox next Friday, November 11 at 9PM to see the next episode of Fringe, “And Those We’ve Left Behind” with guest star Stephen Root.