Have you seen Fringe?

Fringe started last year as an edgy, sci-fi series about a FBI division that investigates bizarre, unusual happenings. The premiere for Season 2 continues the tradition with last season’s questions answered and new questions arising. The show did a good of covering old material for the new viewer while not boring the seasoned viewer.

Okay, here’s some quick background information if you’ve not seen the show:

The Fringe team consists of:

-Agent Olivia Dunham: Olivia is the female agent in the Fringe group. At the end of last season Olivia disappeared into a parallel universe/alternate reality and spoke with a scientist who had also disappeared.

-Walter Bishop: Walter is the “mad scientist” in the group. Walter was originally pulled in by the FBI Fringe Team because he participated in “fringe” science experiments years ago with another scientist named William Bell. Walter’s participation in those experiments eventually led to him being committed to an insane asylum.

-Peter Bishop: Peter is Walter’s son and the only one who can calm Walter down when he has one of his creative “fits”. Peter is a genius in his own rights and gorgeous to boot. Peter actually died when he was 7 but his father “retrieved” him from the parallel universe.

-William Bell: Bell is a missing scientist and former colleague of Walter’s. He believes the universe has “soft spots” or holes where it’s easy to cross over into a parallel universe.

-Agent Charlie Francis: Charlie is Olivia’s FBI partner in the Fringe group and also her close friend outside the office.

-Nina Sharp: the CEO of Massive Dynamics, a military-industrial corporation with strong ties to the government and lots of mysterious projects.

-Agent Phillip Broyles: The leader of the Fringe team who seems to have a connection to Nina Sharp and Massive Dynamics, making you wonder about his loyalties.

-The Shifter: we’re not sure who he is but he has the ability to assume the physical identity of others.

At the end of last season Olivia is seen in an office talking to William Bell, the missing scientist (Leonard Nimoy!). There’s a newspaper in the office covering President Obama’s victory. As the episode ends we see that William Bell’s office is inside one of the World Trade Center towers. The tower is completely intact. It’s then that we realize Olivia has disappeared into an alternate universe.

Okay, got it? Good, let’s continue.

This season’s Fringe premiere begins with a car wreck between two cars: Olivia’s car and one other. The car accident is so horrendous that the man who caused it should be dead by all accounts. Although he has a massive head wound he gets up and walks away from the wreck! The man in question is The Shifter. After the wreck he enters an apartment building, kills a man he sees in the hall and drags the man into an apartment. He then pushes a pronged device into the victim’s mouth and walks over to a mirror, where he breaks all of the bones in his own face, places the other end of the plug into his mouth and “shifts” his face until it’s identical to the face of the man on the floor. Cool huh?

Meanwhile, as Peter and his father Walter are out grocery shopping Peter receives a call about the bizarre car wreck. He’s told that Olivia’s car has been found in a wreck – but there’s no Olivia and no indication that she was even driving the car.

Peter and Walter race to the scene of the accident only to discover that the feds have been called in to investigate the car accident since it involves the car of a missing FBI agent (Olivia). The FBI agent in charge of the investigation is Mary Jessup, who has some tough questions about this bizarre accident, like how could Olivia’s car have been involved in a wreck if there was no driver? She questions Peter but he’s unwilling to provide answers.

While Agent Jessup grills Peter, Walter gets into the front seat of Olivia’s car and begins poking around. He leaves the car and soon after, out of nowhere, Olivia’s body comes flying through the windshield of the car! This was an awesome scene! Basically, she flew out of the windshield from thin air and lands dead on the ground. Only, she’s not dead.

By bringing her back – crashing into our world through the windshield of a car wreck that could not have happened – was ingenious. That is what makes this show so great. There is absolutely no way to guess what is going to happen next.

Olivia’s injuries leave her in a coma and her doctors are pretty sure she won’t recover. Walter’s certain she’s not done for but he can’t convince anyone else of that. As Peter waits diligently by her bedside for some sign of recovery Olivia suddenly wakes up speaking a strange language. In English, she tells Peter that there is something she has to do – that everyone’s life depends on her completing some mysterious task. We assume she must have learned something while in the parallel universe. This is a great set up for the rest of the season.

Now, back to The Shifter. After assuming his new identity he enters a shop and goes into a back room that contains a table with an old typewriter. He types questions into the typewriter and receives answers that are written backwards. We learn that he’s failed in his mission to kill Olivia.

The Shifter behaves like a machine; he doesn’t act human. He’s devoid of emotion, doesn’t appear to feel pain and seems to be following orders received from some other world. He reminds me of The Terminator. Could he be an android? Where did he come from?

The Shifter eventually makes his way to Olivia’s hospital room, assuming the identity of a nurse. He plans to interrogate and kill her but the Fringe group gets there in time to save her and put an end to this shape changing soldier. Or so they think . . .

Because of The Shifter’s persistence in trying to kill Olivia Peter realize that Olivia has forgotten something very important. When he repeats the strange words that she spoke when she first woke up she doesn’t remember saying them but Peter realizes they’re words his mother used to repeat to him every night before he went to sleep:

“Be a better man than your father”

With those words, we are left with a new season’s worth of mysteries to solve!

Fringe: The Complete First Season is now available on DVD!