The School Newspaper of Cherry Hill High School East

Eastside

The School Newspaper of Cherry Hill High School East

Eastside

The School Newspaper of Cherry Hill High School East

Eastside

Fringe – “The Ghost Network”

fringe.jpgSynopsis:  Agent Dunham is told to investigate an apparent terrorist attack on a local city bus. The terrorist exposed the passengers on the bus to a deadly toxin that strangely froze all victims in place with some sort of gooey substance completely surrounding their bodies. Following some investigation with Peter, hey discover that most (if not all) of “the trend” can be attributed to past experiments conducted by Walter prior to his institutionalization.

Thoughts:

Following last week’s “Grand Theft Pituitary Gland” and the rapidly aging baby, I wasn’t so sure this show could get much wackier. But, then a man decided to start his own personal game of freeze tag on a city bus, in which all losers were forced to remain frozen. Oh, and then there was the human walkie-talkie catching other people brain signals and conversations. Pique your interest?

The aforementioned “freeze-tag” man boarded the city bus with every intention of exposing all its inhabitants to some sort of gas/toxin. As he entered the bus he kept a watchful eye on a certain woman and her backpack. He forgot to pack his lunch for work today so he had every intention of stealing this ladies lunch money (bully!). Actually, that woman evidently had something he needed/wanted so he proceeded to apply a gas mask to his face and rolled what appeared to be a smoke bomb down the isle. Considering all the strange events occurring so far on this show, I easily made the prediction that this was no terrorist attack (or ordinary smoke bomb for that matter). After Agent Dunham was called in, they discovered that every single passenger was frozen in place by some sort of gooey substance.

Story continues below advertisement

At the opening of the episode, a very uneasy man was in confessions at St. Cathedral’s Church, and was concerned about how he was “seeing things” and claims the devil was telling him things. As he walks out of the church, he drops a drawing that we later find out to be a picture of what was going to happen on the bus, before it did. This show has taught me not to believe the original perception of what was going on, and that mostly everything to do with “the trend” can be traced back to experiments Walter conducted prior to being institutionalized.

Throughout all of these occurrences, Walter is back at the lab coming up with something crazier everytime he speaks. It is discovered that he is self-medicating himself (creating his own medication) with psychotics. Which would attribute to his wacky demeanor and questionable comments. While Peter and Walter are at a diner, Peter notices a man who appears to have been following him all day and taking photographs. After some discussion with the man, it is becoming more and more likely that Peter’s past (gambling?) problems he ran away from are getting back to him.

Anyway, it is discovered that this man who thinks he can see the future is actually just a product of one of Walter’s experiments in the past. After nearly causing the man’s head to explode during a brain scan, it is found that his blood is filled with metal. This reminds Walter that this man was not hearing the devil’s voices, but was picking up conversations and plans via a “ghost network”, so this man is essentially a human walkie talkie. Using this “radio” Dunham is able to track down the man who froze all the bus passengers in place. Following an entertaining chase scene between Dunham and the man, the retrieve his suitcase and attempt to arrest him. But, as they ready him for arrest he steps back into the street and was hit by a bus. It was a pretty shocking sequence as it appeared that the man knew the bus was coming way before it got there.

At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Agent Reddick has an ulterior motive, in collaboration with the red-haired Massive Dynamic woman who I assume to be a major cause of the majority of recent occurrences, based on the fact that the toxin released on the city bus was a product of Massive Dynamic. Anyway, Reddick delivers the item retrieved from the briefcase to her, and they reveal that they have plans for Agent Dunham. The question still remains after this episode, Why was Dunham chosen for this investigation?

 

Grade: 

 

A+: Episode is nearly perfect. It doesn’t get any better then this 

A, A-: Excellent Episode with only minor flaws or imperfections, a must-watch episode for anyone who enjoys TV 

B+, B: Good but not great episode, has flaws in a few key areas but still a great television experience 

B-, C+, C: Enjoyable show that has some obvious flaws, but has certain aspects that make it a decent show 

C-, D+, D: Episode with more weaknesses than strengths, barely watch able. But, worth a look if one is a fan of the genre 

F: Episodes receiving this grade are not worth the time. These have numerous shortcomings and flaws. Minimal to zero entertainment value 

Leave a Comment

Comments (0)

All Eastside Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *