Fringe: Earthling

By Rhea Dee
So we’ve got a weird shadow man that turns victims into ash once he encounters them. Oh, and Walter’s going to need a Dust Devil to vacuum up the remains. Maybe two Dust Devils. And even better than the totally weird monster of the week? This episode is Broyles-centric.

The episode kicks off with a husband who’s preparing an anniversary surprise for his wife at their home. Unfortunately, a super creepy shadow man is in the house with the husband, doing wonky things to the electronics and the lights. When the wife arrives home, the husband seems okay–until she touches him and he dissolves into ash.

We cut away to Broyles who’s having lunch by himself. A boy sitting at the table across from him starts to mimics Broyles actions, and Broyles follows along, genuinely amused, which was a super ‘aww’ worthy moment. He immediately goes back to stony Broyles once his phone rings.

At the victim’s house, Broyles reveals to Olivia that he’s seen this particular phenomenon before. He takes Peter and Olivia to a storage locker and fishes out the file on the ash cases from D.C. four years ago. He reveals that there were five deaths then, and that all the deaths occurred to people who worked or had recently visited a hospital. Broyles tells them that after the 3rd death he was contacted by an Eastern European man who knew quite a bit about the deaths. The man said he would turn himself in if Broyles could figure out a formula. Unfortunately, Broyles was unable to do so. The killings mysteriously stopped, until now.

Olivia discovers that the husband did visit a hospital before his death. And sure enough, the shadow man is sulking around said hospital and turns another victim into ash. Walter figures out that the formula is a new type of organism and that the husband’s ashes don’t contain any radiation whatsoever–strange considering that most beings contain some sort of radiation. Broyles reveals to Olivia that the Eastern European man who contacted him during the first round of murders sounded desperate, like he also wanted the murders to end. We also discover that the reason Broyles is so attached to the case is because his dedication to it caused his marriage to fall apart.

Olivia and Broyles discover that the Eastern European man worked at the hospital and his name is Tomas Koslov. When they raid his home however, he’s long gone. The do find a fingerprint but once they run it through the computer, the CIA swoops in, snatching the case away from Broyles. Turns out Tomas stole some “property” from the Russian Government and now the case is over Broyles’ head.

Broyles isn’t so quick to let go though. He tells Olivia that they’re still going to work the case, albeit secretly. Olivia being the awesome woman that she is agrees, with minor reservations (although in her awesome state she seems more worried for Broyles than herself).

Lucky from Broyles, he has a Senator friend! Senator VanHorn gives Broyles information about the case and Team Fringe discover that the property Tomas stole from the Russian government was his brother, a cosmonaut in a coma who encountered something in space. Meanwhile, Walter figures out that the shadow entity kills its victims by absorbing all the radiation in their bodies, leaving only ash. All of the previous victims in D.C. were undergoing radiation treatment and the husband who died at the beginning of the episode picked up some nice sunlight radiation from the window seat of his flight back to Boston before visiting his mother in the hospital (the shadow man liked him so much he followed him home).

Tomas returns to the hospital and steals his brother away, taking him to a hotel room where he’s fashioned a life support system. The shadow tried to leave the cosmonaut’s body and Tomas is forced to electro shock his brother in order to keep the shadow in line. And it’s not getting easier–the shadow is getting stronger.

Walter figures out the formula, but unfortunately discovers that the organism the cosmonaut picked up in space has bonded to his body. Broyles calls up Tomas to tell him that they will do all they can to help his brother but before Tomas can make a decision, he’s killed by the shadow monster. Luckily Team Fringe was tracing his call–they head to the hotel and discover that the shadow man is still lurking around somewhere. Walter tries to figure out Tomas’s equipment to try and draw the shadow back but once the Team hears a little girl scream Broyles takes charge and just shoots the cosmonaut in the head, which also destroys the shadow monster.

Broyles visits his ex-wife (who has remarried) and tells he that he solved the case from all those years ago. As he’s leaving he’s stopped by a fed who reveals that the cosmonaut isn’t dead, despite being shot in the head, and implies that they sent him back into space.

Fringe’s backstory episode of Broyles was quite nice, especially since “backstory” episodes of Fringe are more like “backstory peeks” than anything else. It works out well for the series, and it worked out very nicely for Broyles. I was particularly moved by Broyles visiting his wife and the slow reveal they did to show how she was remarried (and for quite some time, given Broyles casual nature about it). It’s evident that Broyles does harbor some regrets about his marriage falling apart, regrets that he tied to the case. And now that the case is over, it’s like Broyles can finally put that part of him away and move forward with saving people. His desire to save lives was portrayed nicely when he just up and shot the cosmonaut in the head once he heard the little girl scream–the rest of the team seemed surprised at how far he was willing to go to save innocent people’s lives.

I also couldn’t help but get excited about this episode because it was about a space creature! Space! I love space, and I hope they do more with space monsters, especially since this particular one couldn’t be destroyed.

Next Time on Fringe: Mind control! Peter looking gorgeous while doing things he doesn’t want to do!

Last Thoughts: You know, now that Broyles has gotten his backstory episode we reaaaally need one for Astrid. C’mon Fringe people! I wanna know about Astrid!

Rhea Dee spends her time collecting vintage junk, daydreaming about Eli Roth, and pondering the genius of John Carpenter soundtracks.  She really likes horror films.

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