'Safe' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Ten

'Safe' - 8.5

You just know one of our heroes is going to cave this smug face in with their boot. 

So we are clearly in the thick of it now - 'Safe' is anything but its namesake, pushing Fringe out of its normal week-by-week procedural genre and into lightning-speed action drama. By episode's end a presumably formidable opponent is on the loose and our protagonist is kidnapped by a dangerous group of scientific terrorists.

Everything just happens so fast, it was easy to forget how simply it started. A bank robbery perpetrated by Agent Loeb and a bunch of mercenaries, using technology that allows them to simply phase through the bank's safe's walls goes wrong and one of the gang ends up stuck halfway between. The scene is only about three minutes long, and yet it has to be one of the most filled and absolutely enthralling cold opens the season has brought us. The presence of Loeb automatically forces us to acknowledge the episode as integral to the show's mythology, and we are not wrong to do so.

Turns out that they are stealing safety deposit boxes which Walter placed years before he was even institutionalised, and contain a device he created that would pluck someone or something from somewhere else in the space-time continuum. A time machine crossed with a portal essentially, I believe. However the second we learn this we know what is coming, since our English friend David Robert Jones had been making almost irrelevant appearances throughout the episode. Obviously the device was for him, and I found his scenes unnecessary and a bit belittling, even if they were intriguing nonetheless (he totally murders his lawyer for a suit).

Despite his clear preference for evil, I do enjoy Jones' presence. He seems to bring an air of class mixed with absolute insanity - a bit like Hannibal Lector, in a comparison I'm sure I've made before - that fits this show like a tailored glove. Since this episode is the end of the first half of the season, I'm excited to think that we may get to spend the next half hunting and defeating this big bad, as well as excited to think what he may do to avoid his inevitable fall.

It is apparent he wants something from Olivia, telling his Lawyer that he wants her 'procured' by his associates. Her kidnapping scene at the end of the episode was fine, but I did feel that it was slightly rushed. One second everything's cool, then she is chased by some black SUVs and is caught the second she tries to make it on foot. It could have been a truly action-packed sequence, but I guess a quick bang-bang approach makes the twist seem more sudden and to-the-point, which isn't that bad. Hopefully we learn more about what Jones has in store for our heroine as soon as next week, though I can't see how she'd be able to escape a hostage situation without learning a little bit about her kidnappers. Of course, this is Fringe and I can't make assumptions.

A surprisingly good moment offered by 'Safe' involved Peter performing an impromptu interrogation of one of the mercenaries, caught at one of the robberies. Seems that the process of phasing through walls is a little radioactive, and Peter is able to deftly persuade the poor man with the promise of treatment for his radiation sickness. The dialogue is clever and cruel, and the acting from all parties involved is first rate, even the guest star who performs well as desperate, but proud. I do wish that Peter would cease to be portrayed as a tough guy, cause Josh Jackson just doesn't act like the rebel Peter's supposed to be, and every time his troubled past comes up I basically tune out or get huffy. We get it writers, he was a bit of a confidence man. I just don't care anymore, so stop referring to it.

I will say at least one more thing in favour of 'Safe', it has left me wanting more Fringe; I am pretty eager to get going with the next episode so I can rediscover how Olivia can get out of this mess and defeat David Robert Jones. An extremely solid and action-packed episode by the crew and cast.