Season 1 Episode 7 “In Which We Meet Mr. Jones” – Review
Score: 81/100
“Little Hill”
That has been going through my head all night until the writing of this review. “In Which We Meet Mr. Jones,” starts off with FBI agents busting a truck full of plush panda bears. Agent Mitchell Loeb (Chance Kelly) and Broyles go over what could have went awry when Loeb falls to the floor with intermittent cardiac arrest. He’s rushed to the hospital and as the doctors begin to operate, they discover a parasite around the heart of Agent Loeb’s that looks frighteningly similar to Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. So our crew is put in charge of saving Agent Loeb. Walter and Astrid find a pattern in the DNA of what is our Fringe science of the day, “Synthetic Parasite,” and Olivia realizes that it links back to one of Agent Scott’s old case files in Frankfurt. So off to Germany Agent Dunhum goes after she fights off resistance from Broyles and she meets with a friendly face as she arrives by the name Lucas Vogal (Billy Burke). Lucas has connections to the prison where David Robert Jones, the person who Olivia thinks hold the cure for Agent Loeb, is being held. Lucas also has old connections with Olivia from the past. Olivia has arranged a meeting with Mr. Jones as long as Jones could ask one question to Joseph Smith, but she has to wait until the next morning as per warden’s orders. In the states, however, Agent Francis tips off Broyles that a one Joseph Smith is linked to the DNA of the parasite. Broyles leads a swat team to apprehend Smith. Smith resists arrest and is taken down by a bullet to the brain. This obviously puts a wrench in Agent Dunham’s plan, but a bullet to the head never stopped the good doctor from getting what he wants. Walter hooks Peter up to the deceased Smith as Olivia is in the meeting with Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones wants an answer to his question before giving the antidote for the parasite. Olivia is stalling while Walter works out the kinks and just as Olivia’s visit time runs out, Peter gets the answer and all is good. However, there is something fishy going on with Agent Loeb, his wife, and “Little Hill.”
Fringe now has too many characters to keep up with. Agent Loeb is now on an already long list of plot characters we don’t have resolve to. Through seven episodes there is, Agent Scott, Agent Loeb (ep. 7), The Observer (ep. 4), Mr. Jones (ep.7), Nina Brown, Jacob Fischer (ep. 5), the people behind the ghost network (ep. 3), and Dr. Penrose (ep. 2). It’s hard to keep track of all of these people and if they are still relevant to the story or not. Also, I don’t like all of Olivia’s love sagas. I think it takes away from her strength and independence as a young woman agent and no matter how much the focus is on it, her love for any other character seems fake and unbelievable. It’s not Anna Torv’s fault as much as I think the writers are at fault. It seems like Olivia’s love interests are just the key to open the door to the next chapter of the show. I also think that Peter’s and Walter’s characters are too inconsistent. Philip Broyles is the most consistent of all the characters on the show and that’s because he is written to have no emotion. It seems as if the writers have a problem with the different emotions of the characters and how that plays into the personalities of those characters I mentioned earlier. I also had a problem with Agent Loeb and his master plan. It is a bit far fetched that Loeb would do what he did and the risk it involved just to get “Little Hill.” This episode had one saving grace and that was Mr. Jones.
Star of the show: Mr. Jones
A fictitious 14 minutes is all we got of Mr. Jones, but he is the most interesting character in the show outside Walter and the Observer. I want to know what he knows about the pattern, who he worked for, and how he ended up in a German prison. And yes, I would like some fava beans and a nice chianti.
