'The Transformation' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Thirteen

'The Transformation' -9.0

I've grown weary of the blue tinge. MY KINGDOM FOR SOME WARM COLOURS!

I do slightly remember watching this episode from the first time, and I remember thinking how stupid the idea of a man turning into the porcupine thing was. How then was I so impressed this time around? My best guess is that I didn't actually remember how I really felt about 'the Transformation', since the start of the episode bears so little resemblance to how it goes out.

It is always logical to start a review with the start of the movie, or episode. Whatever. In this case, the cold open was... interesting. Some guy for some reason or another, decides to freak out an airplane of crew and passengers by asking for weapons and sedatives, you know, pretty standard airplane protocol. Next thing you know, he's a giant porcupine.

What did I think? Well, as I said in the introduction, it's a bit stupid. Nonetheless, the creature's reveal was very well handled - a brief lull in the hushed conversation between two stewards heralds his eruption from the lavatory, followed by a hazy rampage through the passengers. It was a bit like something out of a creature feature, the old cheap ones that couldn't afford to show us the beast because he looked like a man in a costume. The last three or so seconds of the opener are what make it worthwhile, as well as the short scene after the title sequence which shows the plane careening down over a soccer pitch and landing in a fiery explosion behind a nearby forest. For a brief moment, all we could see was the reflection of the doomed jet in the tinted glass of some soccer mum's SUV, and it was terrific.

Somehow, this plane crash turns into a bioweapons sale in Chicago; something about the man's transformation being caused by a synthetic compound which has been weaponised. Maybe? Anyway, that doesn't really matter, what matters is that by some weird John Scott-related means they discover another man who is on the cusp of his own crazy metamorphosis and Walter is able to slow the transition down. But who cares about that?

John Scott? Yes, his memories are still stuck in Olivia's pretty head, and they mean she knows that John knew the man who transformed on the plane, and thus so does she. Being Olivia and completely selfless, she goes back into the tank she enters in the Pilot and 'the Dreamscape', endangering herself to the horrible side effects associated. So far all these sequences have been fantastic, very atmospheric and foreign, and at first this one seems comparatively more rushed and erratic. By its end, however, things get weirder than they have in the others. John Scott full on talks to Olivia while Peter and Walter start to worry about her signs. Before we now it, John Scott is actually aiding his former partner in finding 'Conrad', the mastermind looking to see the porcupine-serum. Turns out Scott isn't as evil as we thought, and that in reality he is an undercover NSA agent who's task was to take out Conrad while infiltrating the FBI for some reason. Who knows, right?

With the help of some other NSA guy John Scott's memories led them to, we find out where the sale of the weapon is going down, and we are presented with one of the finest pieces of television I have watched; Olivia and Peter head in on a sting operation to find the weapon and apprehend all involved, perhaps even Conrad. It is so well written and so well acted, one of the tensest and most captivating things I've seen in a long time, and credit should be given to the writing staff and to Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson. Everyone did an amazing job crafting one sequence that makes the entire episode worth watching. I can't stress enough how perfect it was.

I enjoyed the ending as well, since it seemed to be built as the final time we will see John Scott, which is a great thought. Walter revealed to Olivia that her brain was ridding itself of Scott, and that soon her mind will purge itself completely of him. Olivia being Olivia, she turns it into a reason to go back in the tank. I think it's her favourite place now, she always ends up there somehow. The location for their final meeting was well scouted, it was truly a beautiful stagnant lake - and no, that isn't sarcasm, it was really pretty. As much as I hate Mark Valley, the scene - which was essentially a marriage proposal - was heartbreaking for Olivia, as the second he said those clichéd words he vanished, and she was free of him forever, even though that's not what she wanted anymore. Ah, I thought it was well done, despite it being about Scott.