Find Fringe – for all things Fringe by JJ Abrams on Fox

Score 87/100

Fringe is back from it’s winter hiatus beginning where it left off. Agent Dunham is captive and a strange masked man gives her a spinal tap. Olivia notices a white spot on the masked man’s show after the spinal tap. It is later revealed that this man is none other than our favorite double agent Loeb. Agent Dunham is able to escape the facility single handedly using brute force that we have not seen from her up to this point. Before she leaves, she grabs test tubes and then buries them before her rescue raid comes and good thing because the agents sent on the raid apprehend Olivia. Meanwhile, we learn that a man named Sanford Harris (Michael Gaston), who has a past history with Agent Dunham, is assigned to investigate Fringe Division. Olivia is released from hospital care and is put right back to work to investigate this week’s Fringe science, “a super-sized Picornavirus.” The slug like object killed Dr. Miles Kinberg, an immunologist. As Walter, Peter and Astrid experiment on the slug, Olivia secures a possible target of another “slug attack,”  Dr. Russell Simon after learning from Kinberg’s teaching assistant that Kinberg took a job at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Olivia takes Dr. Simon to headquarters. She starts to ask him about his involvement with the (CDC) when she is called out of the room. While she is talking to Peter about what the substance in the samples she grabbed were, Agent Loeb poors a yellow substance from the same sample vile in Dr. Simon’s water and dies in seconds. Everyone is somber in the office. Agent Loeb drops the magic 8-ball that Olivia’s niece gave her and as Olivia picks it up she notices the white spot on his shoes. Olivia now knows that Loeb is a double agent and investigates his residents. While she is trying to pick the lock, Agent Loeb’s wife Samantha comes up. She invites her in for some tea. Olivia lets her know that she knows about Agent Loeb being a double agent as to bait Samantha to giving her some sort of hard evidence that Loeb is a double agent. Olivia excuses herself to the bathroom and Samantha calls her husband to alert him of Olivia’s snooping. Little does she know, Peter has tapped the phone and just catches that Agent Loeb orders his wife to kill Agent Dunham. Peter calls Olivia has just found more evidence against Loeb and warns her about Samantha. Samantha grabs a gun out of the closet and looks for Olivia. Olivia gets the jump on her but Samantha is able to knock the gun out her hands. A tussle in sues that leads to both Samantha and Olivia fire shots. Samantha’s shot hits inches away from Olivia and Olivia’s shot hits Samantha in the forehead. Now the department is after Loeb who had just left the office. Loeb, not knowing his wife is dead, gets a text from his wife to meet him at a phone booth where the agents are waiting to apprehend him. Agent Dunham interrogates Loeb but Loeb isn’t saying a word except that he wasn’t to see his wife. Dunham shows him picks of his dead wife and tells him she did it to intimidate Loeb. Loeb breaks and tell Olivia that she has ruined the plan and that were going to let her go and save her. Olivia is perplexed by this and Peter tries to convince Olivia that he is playing head games with her.

I like the action in this episode. Olivia finally showed why she is a super agent worthy of praise, although I would have like to see more team play. After the explosive beginning, the episode became very cliche. I would have liked to see a full continuation to the previous episode. Although Agent Loeb was the main villain it didn’t seem like there was any correlation to the previous episode. I’m not sure I I feel about Sanford. His character doesn’t bother me, but if he is just there to bother Olivia and has not ties to Massive Dynamic or Mr. Jones, he will be a wasted character. I do want to know what was injected in Olivia and what side of the equation Agent Loeb and Mr. Jones are on.

Star of the Show: Olivia Dunham

Olivia strutted her stuff finally. She show how vicious and cold she could be in a physical manner and she flexed muscles I didn’t know she had. Here is to more of this Olivia. Kudos.