Written on December 16, 2009 at 9:48 pm by Rhea Dee

Fringe: Grey Matters

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By Rhea Dee

Well, Mr. Detached Head is back. And he’s digging into crazy people’s brains and taking out a small piece of their brain, which then makes them un-crazy. And why is Mr. Detached Head doing all this? Because those pieces of brain that he’s taking out of other people’s brains were once part of Walter’s brain–and those pieces were hidden in other people’s brains because they hold the secret to opening a portal between universes. And if you connect those bits of brains with Walter’s brain Mr. Detached Head gets even more ahead of Team Fringe.

That’s a lot of brains.

Brain stuff aside, this episode continued exploring the complexities of Walter Bishop. We finally find out why Walter is a bit loopy (it’s because there were actually pieces of his brain missing) and we even get a really quick peek into what Walter was like when he had all of his brain (when Mr. Detached Head hooks up the brain pieces to Walter’s brain).

Turns out, Walter was a little bit of an a-hole. Once everything’s connected, he loses that dreamy lilt in his voice, and becomes immediately bitchy and demeaning, cruelly asking Mr. Detached Head how things are on “his side.” It’s a frightening look into the “old” Walter, and it sheds some light on how he was able to conduct harmful experiments on people for the cause of Fringe science.

Also, my Season One theory that Walter was driven halfway mad by the death of his son was sort of confirmed with this episode. William Spock Bell and Walter’s mutual agreement to have Walter’s brain cells removed was directly caused by Peter’s death, since the whole reason Walter opened that portal was to steal himself another Peter. Walter’s epic act of love put him on the path to the Walter he is now, which is a better Walter.

This episode also gives us a nice look at our Big Bad this season, Mr. Detached Head (aka Thomas Newton). What we get is an interesting mix of somebody who does what he wants with no Terminator-like killing of innocent bystanders (he doesn’t actually harm any of the crazy folks, and even though he poisons Walter, he does give the antidote when Olivia makes a deal with him) and someone who is very clever and very manipulative.

For example, after Mr. Detached Head got the portal info from Walter’s head, he injected Walter with poison as a safeguard against Super Olivia, who he predicted might catch up with him. And since Olivia is Super Olivia, she did catch up with him–and even took out two of the other super soldiers (and by the way, Olivia is a great shot–she shot a guy in a moving van. She shot him in the head!). Then, when Olivia chooses to save Walter over capturing Mr. Detached Head, he throws in a nasty line about how she just revealed her weakness, which made Olivia give the coldest look ever–like true Schwarzenegger 80’s action hero cold look–that made me realize that Mr. Detached Head is probably going to die a nasty 80’s action film death at the hands of Olivia. Oh yeah. It was awesome.

And finally, there’s Peter. Peter may not show too much outward affection towards his father, but he sure can give a nice a death glare that properly conveys his anger that some jerkwads kidnapped his dad. Of course, that death glare was to Olivia, but Olivia got the meaning: Peter was pissed off. Not at Olivia, but pissed that his Dad was in danger. It was a death glare of love.

And then, the way Peter was hugging Walter so tight when he turned out to be okay? Broke my heart. It was also nice to see the depth of Peter’s affection for his father; it meshed well with all the little affectionate hints we’ve been getting from Peter this season. Peter’s reaction to Walter in serious danger was almost frightening to watch because of his intensity, and it showed that if something bad happened to Walter, Peter would be broken the way his father was when the original Peter died.

Next Time On Fringe: Christmas Break!

Last Thoughts: I just know that something awful is going to happen when Peter finds out who he really is. Fringe, I don’t know if I’m ready!

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.