Fringe: In Which We Meet Mr. Jones   Rewatch 
July 2, 2014 10:50 PM - Season 1, Episode 7 - Subscribe

A lot more than two to tango - Science background - Never seen anything like it - Gum? Mints? - Admiring the design - True calling - All of humanity - Hail Caesar - Any other options? - Awk-ward - SCIENTIFIC PRISON - Cocktails down the shore - 14 minutes - Seriously - Of course you can - Kickstarter - The End - More valuable than freedom - What if? - Other means - A million and one new questions

"There is much you have not been made aware of regarding the Pattern."
This is the first mention of ZFT. The Observer, I believe the one we come to know as September, is in the airport in Frankfurt.

I usually only include one quote that relates to the arc of the show, but I couldn't resist.
"You've got superpowers you aren't telling me about?"
posted by the man of twists and turns (8 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I so love Jared Harris in this role, since I was watching him in Mad Men at the same time and the contrast was divine.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 9:50 AM on July 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


More Olivia/Peter love interest groundwork being laid here. Classic coitus interruptus cock-blocking with the phone call during the makeout session with Mr. Old Flame In A Suit.

Peter also has a tough pill to swallow with the revelation that his very own father subjected him to painful electro-shock experiments when he was a child. Further down the line when it comes to light that Walter was mucking about in Olivia's brain when she was a kid too it gives she and him something to really connect on. Interesting that he keeps it to himself for now.
posted by carsonb at 9:24 PM on July 3, 2014


I thought the plot in this ep was really weak. I get that as viewers we're supposed to be led to believe that there is some grand plans in action, but infecting yourself with some kind of overgrown novel parasite so you can get a location from some random guy seems a tad ill-conceived.

The speech Broyles gives Olivia about not getting answers seems to be directed at the audience as a nod towards the shows ambiguity.

Looking forward to when they stop saying "The Pattern!"
posted by P.o.B. at 3:00 PM on July 4, 2014


In which we wonder why someone as posh as Jared Harris has got a name like Jared?

So it's the old annoyance, the go-to of American TV and movies, British being shorthand for villain. Thank goodness Harris does something interesting with it. For me the introduction of Davy Jones leads me to look at Walter again and think "Hmmm"

Mad scientist through filter of wacky = sympathetic character
Mad scientist through filter of creepy = unsympathetic character

The plot is set up in Walter's favour of course but how he gets away with having such questionable ethics without losing us is a curious trick of both writing and acting.

We also laughed out loud at the "Superpowers" line, and the on the nose "Wissenschaft Prison".

Has anyone noticed what a snappy dresser Peter is by now? I think his and Walter's wardrobe are ripe for the Tom and Lorenzo treatment. When we get to it there's much to say about Olivia' s uniformly boringness compared with Fauxlivia. And Walter stuck in a 70s Woody Allen movie vs Walternate's Jokeresque double breasted suits.

Today's glyphs spells CDs in reference to Peter's investment portfolio which he now needs as he is no longer an international handyman of mystery.

And I'm not gonna say it, you all know what I'm (anxiously) waiting for and on that matter: .
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 4:10 AM on July 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I noticed the whole bad guy with British accent too. Yawn. I wonder if Walter would have been as sympathetic if John Noble used his own accent, which is a bit plummy rather than working class Strayan. Speaking of which, do you USians think he sounds odd? I keep catching little odd exaggerations of American but I don't know how obvious they are.
posted by Athanassiel at 5:31 AM on October 9, 2014


Noble does make Walter sound odd, but I think it could be an in-character decision to give him a daffy professor affect that's a bit stiff and verbose, like he expects every word he utters to be peer-reviewed. It could also be Aussie-Noble-doing-Boston bad accent territory, but I'm OK believing he sounds funny because Walter sounds funny.
posted by carsonb at 11:48 AM on October 9, 2014


Hmm, interesting. But does he sound plausibly American? It's funny, one of the things he does is to sometimes exaggerate final Rs - one of the things Bostonians don't do (if my childhood memories of pahk the cah in the yahd are right). Don't get me wrong, he's a great actor and I love what he does with Walter. I'm just fascinated with accents.
posted by Athanassiel at 2:22 PM on October 9, 2014


(Mid-Atlantic affectation. Totally plausible, I'd thought, for someone of that age.)
posted by nobody at 11:46 AM on January 23, 2022


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