Shades of X-Files on Fringe: Johari Window

I had intended to start this review with a quick definition of a Johari Window but the concept is a little too deep for that. You can read all about it on Wikipedia, but suffice to say it’s an experiment that has to do with the difference between how we see ourselves and how others see us. If you saw the episode, then the connection is fairly obvious.

The entire episode has a very tight X-Files feel about it some of which came from the location. Unlike most Fringe episodes, this one took place in a small town tucked away behind a large and lonely (and foggy) forest.  Exactly the kind of place where urban legends are born and the town of Edina has a real doozy.

According to legend, a number of people have been spotted who go from perfectly normal to monstrously grotesque in the blink of an eye. The county mounties think it’s just a story until one of them picks up a young boy along the road. He takes him to the police station outside the city limits and the boy transforms. And then the unexpected happens (cause transforming into a mutant isn’t exactly a surprise on Fringe), a group of men come in and murder all of the deputies in order to rescue the boy.

This is one of three points that bothered me in this otherwise excellent episode. Even after we learned the truth about Edina, the brutality of the murders doesn’t make any sense. Surely they could have come in, guns drawn, and demanded the return of the boy and evidence. Without either, who was really likely to believe that they saw what they saw? But by shooting three officers of the law, now you have big trouble and that includes the arrival of the FBI.

They could have explained this brutality away with the idea that the mutation also causes irrational thinking and violent outbursts but I didn’t get that from the story.

Walter’s overwhelming fear of being kidnapped and his new fascination – confusion with the movies was very effective in this episode. More than ever, I felt for him and Peter and for the first time I was worried that maybe what was left of Walter’s sanity was slipping away. Sad for him, but even harder for Peter who is just now learning to love the father he never really knew.

The scene where they are run off the road was also very startling. I didn’t expect a gunman and I cheered when Peter took him on! His reaction to the shooting later on was also interesting. Olivia gave him her speech about how hard it was the first time she killed someone and I swear I could see Peter thinking – wasn’t my first time. I think Peter has gone through some very dark, very rough times. What do you think?

Back in Edina, Walter starts singing a jaunty, nonsensical tune that sounds very familiar to me. I want to sing it different though, “be not a borrower or a lender be! Do not forget, stay out of debt!” Turns out it’s a code to help Walter remember where he hid some files and that’s strike two in the episode. Can’t they solve a case without Walter having had some hand in it in the past? It’s too much of a coincidence, particularly in this scenario.

Enter the head of the Secret Service, aka Michael O’Neill, and he acts like he’s all happy to cooperate, but we know how these small towns work. He’s in on it! But what? I thought the hum was using some kind of harmonic frequency to keep a disease in check. Go to far from the hum and you start looking like Leo G Carroll in Tarantula. I was almost right. Walter and his butterfly figure out that it’s not the people who are changing it’s merely your perception of them and that’s where my third complaint comes in.

They say that problems are the result of a military experiment in invisibility or at least camouflage to make a person not visible to the eye. The mutations were an unexpected side effect of the testing and I get that. What I don’t get is the idea that a frequency can make everyone look “normal.” Think about this. I can buy the fact that a disruption of the particles in front of my eyes might cause my brain to say NO one is in front of me, but how can I be tricked into seeing kids, adults, women, men, red-heads, brunettes — how could you fix everyone in different ways? Yes, I know it’s Fringe and we have to take a lot on faith, but they’re usually pretty good about getting us into a believable ballpark with their theories. I just couldn’t buy into this idea.

Still, none of those problems kept me from enjoying the episode. It was much better than this week’s earlier outing and it was refreshing to stand down from the heavy mythology for a bit. There were some great Walter and Peter moments, the movie references were wonderful, flying monkeys and all.

Bottom line — I’m glad to have Fringe back and next week’s episode already has me chewing my nails.

Here’s the promo for Fringe: What Lies Below

Photo: Fox