In last night’s Fringe, “The Equation,” Walter Bishop had to face one of his greatest fears – returning to the mental hospital where he was locked up for 17 years. But just what was he afraid of?
Walter tries to find a clue to help find the kidnapped boy from Dashiell.
When a musical prodigy boy (Charlie Tahan) is kidnapped after his father is hypnotized with green and red lights, Walter must return to the mental hospital to visit Dashiell (Randall Duk Kim), a patient who was also abducted by the same woman.
The kidnap story about Ben was very interesting. I mean who knew that a musical composition would result in being able to allow someone to reach through solid objects, like a safe, and pull out things like an apple. An apple very much like the one we see introducing the commercial breaks.
Not to mention, who was Joanne Ostler/Ritz and the man who later shot her? Did she use hypnosis to show her abductees what they wanted most? Why did she fake her own death? And why did she still look 20 years old when she should be 30? And most importantly who were they working for?
But the real heart of the episode this week was Walter. I don’t know that if I ever spent that much time in a mental institute and then got out if I’d ever be willing to return. But Walter proved that despite is ethically questionable experiments, he really does have a heart of gold and willingly faced his fear.
But what was he afraid of? Well Dr. Summer (Bill Sadler) would definitely top my creepy scale. Anyone else wonder just how far involved he is? Did he know about the kidnappings? Or does he play a bigger role in the Pattern?
Dashiell, himself, was a bit scary too. Or rather whatever was done to him to make him that way freaked me out. Did they make him forget about the kidnapping because they were afraid someone would believe him? Or did they know that Olivia and team were getting close?
And the freakiest thing of the night – two Walters. And what’s worse is that the Walter we know and love didn’t seem surprised to see his other self. Is he hallucinating? Is he really crazy? Or is it more?
Did anyone see The Observer in this episode? I didn’t. Or at least I didn’t see him as we usually do. I think – now this is just a theory – that the other Walter is actually The Observer in disguise. Not sure yet if it was a great disguise or if The Observer actually metamorphosized his looks. But if I’m right, our weird game of Where’s Waldo just got harder.
And lastly how sweet was it how defense Peter got about his father. A few weeks ago he was ready to send him back to the institution and now he’s fighting to keep him out. And my heart just signed when Walter, after expression exasperation from trying to talk to Dashiell, asked Peter if that’s what it’s like to talk to him. Peter response was sweet.
I really can’t wait until next week. This series just keeps getting better and it looks like the stakes are getting raised again in the next episode.
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