Fringe: Midnight Rewatch

August 24, 2014 9:58 PM - Season 1, Episode 18

My kind of girl - Two singels, together - The menu of life - Satisfaction - Reputable science - Eighty-One - Also a cow - Hypotheticals - Redemption? - Underground - Are you hot? - The frustrated Romantic

"For the record, one mad scientist is my limit."
"A little memory loss is often kind to the soul."
"How far would you go, for someone you love?"

posted by the man of twists and turns (8 comments total)

OK: I'll bite. Not my favourite Fringe episode this one, even by season one standards. Again, the attempt to integrate the "mad scientist of the week" into the larger ZFT narrative seems forced. I just don't believe this guy is responsible for the season's earlier bioterror attacks, no matter what he says. And how did he get the improbably hot wife? It just doesn't make sense. Maybe biomedicine has the kudos and pulling power of international finance in the Fringe universe?

But what really bugs me here is his claim to have attended "Kings College, Aberdeen, Scotland." There's no such place! JJ, with his university fetish, is usually careful to name check actually existing stateside universities in Fringe. Why not pick an actually existing British university? There are at least 130 of them; plenty to choose from, I'd have thought. Why not University College London? That has an excellent biomedicine pedigree. Alright, it has one more syllable than the silly made up place, but: VERISIMILITUDE, PEOPLE! Is it really so hard? Grr. It's like that bit in Lost where they couldn't be bothered finding out how Mackay, Queensland, was pronounced. Hell, they could've just asked Emily De Ravin, but no. Too hard, apparently.

Anyway. Rant over. Till next time.
posted by Sonny Jim at 9:38 AM on August 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Mackie!" Its up there with the way British people pronounce Maryland (rhymes with Hairyland).
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 9:47 AM on August 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

I, like many others apparently (or at least so far this week), have little to say about this episode. Except it is getting close to the end of season one and my vigil for Red Vines grows ever more anxious.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 9:50 AM on August 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

OK: to clarify. Yes, Kings College, Aberdeen once existed as an independent entity (though it always referred to itself as the University of Aberdeen). It's now simply a constituent part of the University of Aberdeen. You wouldn't claim to have gone there: you'd say, "University of Aberdeen, Scotland." And the Kings College campus isn't even where the medical school is. That's at the Foresterhill Campus! INACCURACY! Not good enough!
posted by Sonny Jim at 9:52 AM on August 31, 2014

Personally Sonny Jim I think that was implicit in the script. I think you need to relax more, lower your defenses more and let the show in and be the reifying experience that it really is.


Why, won't you think of all the sciencey-mathy things you know now.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 10:04 AM on August 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

You're right. I know so much more about science and can do more math now thanks to watching Fringe. It's true. I should just be grateful for those benefits.
posted by Sonny Jim at 10:06 AM on August 31, 2014

Walter can say "Agent Farnsworth" with no hesitation when asking for a rat, but later on when they're administering the cure to same rat he goes with "Aspirin."
posted by carsonb at 12:14 PM on September 3, 2014

I agree that it's not the strongest episode though I don't dislike it as much as the rest of you. I think the main point of it is to foreshadow what we'll learn of Walter. The conflicts between the joy of theory and experimentation with all its pesky effects. How to reconcile the bad things you've done with your intentions. Whether the soul and/or some kind of higher morality than the mere pursuit of truth exist. How far would you go - endangering not just your life or soul, but the lives of others and possibly even the world, just to save someone you love. Obviously doing these things justice takes longer than a single episode, as we'll see with Walter's journey. But this sets the stage for these themes.

Or have I just gone all lit crit on it?
posted by Athanassiel at 4:06 AM on October 15, 2014