1x03: The Ghost Network

[wendelah1]

When we were doing last year's re-watch, my husband and I agreed season one had the most gruesome imagery of the five, and this episode continues the trend. "The Ghost Network" provides yet another connection to Dr. Bishop's old research, and to The Pattern.



Writer: David H. Goodman, J. R. Orci
Director: Frederick E. O. Toye
Originally aired: September 23, 2008

Synopsis:
Following an apparent terrorist attack on a city bus, the Fringe team investigates a man who was able to visualize and create a drawing of the disaster--before it happened.

Most Memorable Quote:
"I wasn't going to tell you this, but he said he loved me too." - Charlie Francis, to Olivia about John Scott.

Links:
Transcript
Podcast by Two Geek Minimum for episodes 2 and 3. He nitpicks the episodes to death, so a man after my own heart. However, he rates episodes in cortexiphan syringes. Yes.
Review by Sarah Stegall.
Recap at iO9. Wacky writing. "Also, special notice to Fringe team: Pianos do not add anything to this show. Please stop with the piano thing." Okay then.
Polite Dissent review: Science nitpicks for Fringe episodes! I think, I think I'm in love. Thank you, 'rith!

5. Cleanliness is next to Godliness
If a mad scientist ever drills in my brain, I would hope that — unlike Dr Bishop — he (or she) would at least use sterile technique.

YES!

Fanfiction:
Well, I've been looking hard. If you have post-ep recs, please put them in comments and I will edit them in.

Comments

[kerithwyn]

The above quote is my favorite. :D

Quick random notes:

It's odd that the Amber really a minor note in this episode, given its importance later. (Of course, these are early days and it's entirely possible that was simply picked up later as a plot element.)

Peter's random run-in with the mafia guy is just so pointless.

The whole scene at the house is great. "This is barely even a crime." and "I wanted to be a brontosaurus."

I like that Peter considers it his responsibility to protect others from Walter's impulses/bad habits.

Roy survived! Yay! And presumably went on to live his life Pattern-free...unless he didn't. Could be useful for follow up.


NINA: Well, I think maybe you have it backwards. Massive Dynamic is... well, so massive that just about everything in the world of science and technology has a tie back to us. Of course, I could say something of the same to you, couldn't I? You've been investigating these cases for a very short while now. At least three of them have occurred right in your own backyard. I might suspect that you, yourself were somehow responsible.

...yeah, that's fairly pointed, in retrospect.

[wendelah1]

NINA: Well, I think maybe you have it backwards. Massive Dynamic is... well, so massive that just about everything in the world of science and technology has a tie back to us. Of course, I could say something of the same to you, couldn't I? You've been investigating these cases for a very short while now. At least three of them have occurred right in your own backyard. I might suspect that you, yourself were somehow responsible.

...yeah, that's fairly pointed, in retrospect.

I think Nina has a lot of nerve actually, accusing Olivia of doing anything wrong because she lives in Boston. I like season four Nina. This one, not so much. But she as much admits that Massive Dynamic is implicated in everything.

[kerithwyn]

I thought the implication was that Olivia was practically a Fringe event herself, and thus the center of so much else. ;) But yeah, Nina's motives are impenetrable here.

[corwinofamber]

Actually a decent early episode, only a few things seemed off. I remember thinking that Peter was actually working for another government agency when it aired - his background is good cover for clandestine work and why else would he have to "check in before coming home". Alas, it was not to be.

Olivia displays her talent for connecting the dots, the episode before it gets called out. Good writing there.

We never got any background on Broyles and Nina. Not one word, through the whole series.

[wendelah1]

I remember thinking that Peter was actually working for another government agency when it aired - his background is good cover for clandestine work and why else would he have to "check in before coming home". Alas, it was not to be.

I remember thinking that, too, now that you mention it. Did we ever find out what that all about?

We never got any background on Broyles and Nina. Not one word, through the whole series.

We find out more about Alt!Broyles than our Broyles. We find out that the cancer story Nina tells Olivia about how she lost her arm is a lie.

[casually_cruel]

The Olivia Dunham / Charlie Francis friendship is BEAUTIFUL. Their interactions are one of my favorite parts of the show. He knows just what to say to her in tough times. I really missed their friendship after his death, and the writers seem quick to forget about it in later seasons. But more on that as we go on.

I mostly agree 'Polite Dissent' re: the science. They're right that the drugs Walter takes aren't psychotics or even anti-psychotics, but most of them are anxiolytics. It kind of makes sense that he would take them, being fresh out of St. Claire's and all.
While I don't know the exact mechanism of MRI magnetism, I'd argue that metals in the blood, free floating as they are, would move and cause a reaction before anything embedded in the brain would. If we're going to allow that the MRI didn't kill Roy, then it isn't a far stretch from there to buy Walter's experiment. The visual center is right above the auditory center in the midbrain, so they wouldn't have had to move the metals far. Though that also means they probably wouldn't have gone anywhere near the sense of taste. But the brain is weird, so hand-wave away.

Are we supposed to recognize the drawing of the car that Broyles gives Olivia at the end of the episode? Because I can't place it.

[wendelah1]

The Olivia Dunham / Charlie Francis friendship is BEAUTIFUL. Their interactions are one of my favorite parts of the show. He knows just what to say to her in tough times. I really missed their friendship after his death, and the writers seem quick to forget about it in later seasons.

I love their interaction, too. I missed Charlie so much after he was killed by the shapeshifter.

The rest of my comment will have to wait until I can rewatch the episode.

[wendelah1]

We're still watching the episodes where the show feels very derivative of The X-Files. This is the episode where the Mad Scientist, played here by Walter Bishop, drills a hole in someone's head. Strangely, no one, not even Peter, bats an eye at this. Astrid even tells the poor guy not to worry! Who is she kidding? The casual attitude toward poking sharp objects into the human nervous system is mind-boggling. In TXF episode "Demons," even Mulder knows that's crazy. "You drilled a hole in my head!" he scolds, then turns around asks the quack to do it again. I can't decide which brand of crazy is worse.