No Science For Old Men

I'm being glib in that subhead, of course! Men are interesting! I mean, they're fine. Look, I married one, so whatever, I shouldn't have to prove my man-appreciating bona fides to anyone, and if I wasn't interested in men at all, then most of TV would be outside my notice and maybe I could finally finish (start) The Goldfinch. But a lot of times, don't you find that TV shows think men's problems are FUCKING FASCINATING when your reaction to them is closer to ¯\(°_o)/¯? "Waaaaah, my job isn't satisfying!" "I'm drunk!" "This lady only speaks Hungarian!" Shut up, you dumb babies. But Fringe changes the equation by giving us Walter, a man grappling daily with the loss of his power along with his youth.

And yes, I know that Walter's also lost his freedom, and his mind, and decades of potential productivity. But now I've decided that the show -- his part in it, at least -- is an allegory about aging. There was a time when Walter could write his own ticket in the (crazy) science world; he was sought after by corporations and governments; from what we can tell from the fallout of his work, he used his human subjects like Kleenex and now, when he sees that some of the ones he thought he'd flushed away didn't actually stay flushed, seems less contrite than irritated by the inconvenience. Now, as a much older man, Walter has the same curiosity about the world that he always has, but he doesn't control what he gets to work on, or how. He's been installed in the same old lab, a constant reminder of how far he's come down in the world since then. He gets called on to consult on a variety of horrors -- most of which he had some part in causing -- but he can tell his faculties aren't as sharp as they once were, and he needs his mostly disappointing son to act as translator between himself and the younger FBI agents whose default impatience with what's left of his scattered marbles makes them seem resentful of having to deal with him at all. Walter's lived -- if you can call that living -- long enough to be able to experience the indignity of his loss of status. Too long, maybe.

The saddest and therefore best episode in this week's run of episodes (S01E06-E10) is "The Equation," in which Walter has to try to solve the abduction of a kid musical prodigy by eliciting information from a Dr. Dashiell Kim. Fortunately, Walter knows Dr. Kim well. Unfortunately, it's because they were patients together at St. Claire's, so Walter -- against his preference -- is asked to re-enter the hospital, and the mean director still doesn't think Walter ever should have gotten out, and finds a pretext to re-admit Walter, and the whole thing turns into a living nightmare for Walter as his worst fears are realized and he has no reason to think he'll ever be freed. WALTER. Poor Pacey tries to be as compelling, but even getting hints dropped about the shadowy criminal element that's after him and seeing him threaten his ex's abusive current partner are yawnzors compared to the torment Walter lives with daily.

Bishops aside, these episodes started to get a bit samey: I feel like I saw a lot of people strapped to beds while creepy medical shit happened near/to them and they gasped some version of "What are you doing to me?" But I feel like I stopped at a turning point: Mr. Jones has not just busted out of his German prison but teleported to America; Nina has some kind of special interest in Olivia that may extend beyond Olivia's connection to John; and Walter is starting to remember some of the...stuff I actually knew about Peter's backstory from reading snippets about the show when it was on. So this next week's worth of episodes should be fun, or at least different.

And people better start being gentler with Walter.

Most Horrifying Indignity Visited Upon A Human Body Part: Tie: it's got to be either the heart-squeezing parasite of S01E07...

...or the homicidal (imaginary) butterflies of S01E09 that cut the shit out of a Massive Dynamic guy and drive him to jump through a VERY high window.

Favourite Character Actor Who Went On To Fame And Glory: With all due respect to a pre-Lane Pryce Jared Harris and to my IRL friend Susan Misner (friend of a friend if we're being honest), I have to give a shout-out to Maria Dizzia in S01E06, because even before I could really see her face, I could tell from this profile shot...

...that it was good old Orange Is The New Black Polly. And then I couldn't really pay that much attention to the rest of the episode because I was so busy high-fiving myself.

Heartbreakingest Walter Moment: When Walter wakes up in St. Claire's again, terrified and alone.