1x02: The Same Old Story

[kerithwyn]

Today's episode: 1x02, "The Same Old Story."


Oh, you say the sweetest things.
Only to you, Charlie.
(Dialogue not from above scene)

Writer: J. J. Abrams, Jeff Pinkner, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci
Director: Paul Edwards
Originally aired: September 16, 2008

Synopsis:
A woman conceives, carries to full-term and births a baby in the span of minutes, dying in the process; the baby dies after aging 80 years in three hours. This leads the investigators on a search for a serial killer harvesting brain parts for his own survival and raises questions about biotech cloning of 'cultivated soldiers'. (from Fringepedia)

Hey, everyone, it's the pregnancy horror episode! Good to get this theme out of the way quickly...at least until season 3. (Callbacks: "The Abducted" and "Bloodline"; Penrose's name comes up in "Of Human Action.")

Most Memorable Quote:
BROYLES: Thank you all for convening at this late hour. Forty-three minutes ago, we were alerted to an incident at the Wallace Bromley Medical Center. While the details are still coming in, it appears to be another anomaly whose mysteries and origins remains the sole purpose of this committee. I called you together tonight to introduce you to my new team, who will now be responsible for investigating all these events. Hopefully, they will have more success than our last.

...where is all the fic about the previous team, I ask you.


Links:
Episode transcript
Seriable rewatch, commentary including links to previous rewatches
Polite Dissent, medical/science reviews.

Comments

[casually_cruel]

Re-watching this episode, I'm still a bit confused my Nina's motives. She's so blatantly two faced in this episode and it doesn't make much sense to me. If she's in contact with William Bell and knows about the other universe, and presumably the fact that Olivia is a Cortexiphan subject, then why wouldn't she want her working on the Pattern? To protect her? That might explain why she tries to recruit her to MD, but it still seems strange to me. There's also some power play going on between Nina and Broyles. Maybe it has to do with the (possibly dropped?) not trusting Broyles plotline. He really does seem to pull a 180 from the pilot.

Anyway this episode has some great Peter stuff: his reluctance to be there, calling Walter out when he claims that Peter was "always impatient," which is a really valid point, taking the brunt of Olivia's anger. Yet his reluctance to work with his father doesn't go so far that he won't indulge Walter intellectually. I think that's one of my favorite things about season 1 Peter, that he'll call out craziness and acts as a sort of skeptic, but that doesn't make him any less likely to play the game.

Olivia's snark in this episode is great ("I told her you're giving me a raise"). We seem to get less of that as the show goes on.

[wendelah1]

Re-watching this episode, I'm still a bit confused my Nina's motives. She's so blatantly two faced in this episode and it doesn't make much sense to me. If she's in contact with William Bell and knows about the other universe, and presumably the fact that Olivia is a Cortexiphan subject, then why wouldn't she want her working on the Pattern? To protect her? That might explain why she tries to recruit her to MD, but it still seems strange to me. There's also some power play going on between Nina and Broyles. Maybe it has to do with the (possibly dropped?) not trusting Broyles plotline. He really does seem to pull a 180 from the pilot.

I don't understand Nina's character during season 1,2 and 3. Seasons 4 and 5 Nina Sharp seems different to me. We'll have to watch to see if the trusting Broyles plotline really is dropped or not.

I think that's one of my favorite things about season 1 Peter, that he'll call out craziness and acts as a sort of skeptic, but that doesn't make him any less likely to play the game.

I like that about him too.

Olivia's snark in this episode is great ("I told her you're giving me a raise"). We seem to get less of that as the show goes on.

That was a great line.

[seekingferret]

Olivia's snark in this episode is great ("I told her you're giving me a raise"). We seem to get less of that as the show goes on.

I usually find the Olivia snark in these early episodes doesn't quite land right for me. It seemed like a part of the character that Anna Torv wasn't quite feeling, and gradually the writers stopped trying to make her do it. Which is why I find it strange that I love AltLivia's snark.