Fringe - 3.11 - Reciprocity Review by A.D.Harris

Fringe is now two weeks into it's new home on FOX friday, and it's looking relatively stable for a return next season, two solid ratings which have led its timeslot are positive despite the lack of competition from CSI: New York & Supernatural which both return next week. That being said, if Fringe can maintain a strong challenge for CSI: New York I see it making it into a fourth season within the next month. However if the returning shows push the ratings down then it'll be a nail biter...
In terms of the eleventh episode of the season, Reciprocity, I have very mixed emotions. Since I watched it yesterday I've been swaying from loving it to thinking it was a little weak; Fringe has always been so strong in maintaining characters and I have to announce that Peter took a hit yesterday. I still feel I need more understanding on this 'Weaponisation' that Peter went through with the Doomsday Machine before I can calm the fluttering nerves that they may just be damaging Bishop Jr. a bit too much this season.
Starting from the beginning we found a much better pre-credits sequence to kick us off after last weeks incredibly slow and dull opening minutes. First off it was great to have Massive Dynamic & Nina Sharp back in such prevalence. When Fringe began I found Nina a bit of a lower par character, but over the course of the show she has really grown into a character I love to see, often also helped by excellent supporting character Brandon. Disappointingly her appearances have began to drop, this was her first appearanc for six episodes!

Brandon however, was not present to start with as the writers set up Dr. James Falcon, the most important episodic character of the week. Of course we later find out that he is in fact a Shapeshifter and had infiltrated Massive Dynamic; the question that rises is what was he trying to find out? What exactly was his mission? Clearly Walternate already knows that Peter sets the machine into motion; so perhaps now his son chose out world over the other he was trying to use Peter for his cause in our machine instead of his own. It's something that unfortunately the episode chose not to focus on, instead turning to the more pressing matter of just who is killing the shapeshifters...
OBSERVER ALERT:

...when bodies begin to pile up.
The machine looks very menacing, big and scary, just what was required for such an important device as we head into the back end of the season, and Peters nosebleed was very effective in building the tension; That being said it also felt very LOST, we had electromagnetism, nosebleeds and objects getting pulled towards something we don't understand... and a computer. Quite why they needed the unnecessary scene with two lab technicians doing their best 'Oh Shit' face I will never know, finding more comedy than drama in their shock but all in all when the credits rolled I felt much more up for a good forty minutes entertainment than last week.

Cutting to the chase, I'll turn my focus directly on Peter as he is clearly the biggest talking point of the episode. From the first moment he begins acting quite unusual, arriving home late at night and lying to Walter, yet then appearing quite normal when he explains to Olivia that he is the fool from the whole Fauxlivia situation rather than her. It was all great stuff, yet also designed to cover up the fact that Peter was having a bat-crazy episode. To be honest, I don't think it needed covering up as I also don't think it was an effective tool to have Peter suddenly turn Shapeshifter hitman. It didn't feel natural, and as I mentioned before I'm still not totally buying the whole 'Weaponising' that Walter talked about, and I am not totally on board with this new and menacing Bishop. I'm still open to change though, but I need more information; perhaps the writers feared this and that is why they chose to name the episode after the reciprocal connection that Peter formed with the machine. It does feel a little more assuring to know that the writers valued this factor enough to throw it into the title rather than just moving on and hoping we didn't notice.

Other questions that were raised that felt a little weak were the fact that Peter wasn't supposed to have access to Fauxlivia's files with all of the names that he found yet somehow he did, but more disappointingly brushed over was that there was no way he would have known that Fauxlivia or Olivia used the 'Olive-Code' to hide secrets. It felt a little "meh" when Olivia fist told Astrid about it so to think that Peter knew this and accepted it and used it brought out a similar emotion. A more exciting idea is that the machine, whilst weaponising Peter also shares information with him such as the locations of the shapeshifters. Can reciprocity also form an informational connection? Heck, I don't have a clue, but this could be an interesting theory and explanation. That being said it is unlikely that Walternate would want his soldiers eliminated, but perhaps he knows less about the Doomsday Machine than he appears to. At present, we're still clutching onto whatever meat the writers give us, and I feel there is much more that is unknown to help us fill in the blanks.
If I was to look outside of the currently shaky plotline that threaded the episode, it made for some great tense and exciting moments, the culmination being us seeing Peter chop off a shapeshifters fingers with a cleaver then execute him in cold blood. One of the most shocking moments in Fringe history? Yes, I can happily admit that even after knowing Peter had gone a little crazy, I had not expected him to do that; I believe I uttered the word "woah."

Olivia was given little to do in the episode outside of her strong scenes with Peter where you began to feel that she was learning to forgive his actions over the first half of the season. She ended up being the cop chasing the killer and falling short; a necessary tool to allow Peter to go undetected.
An interesting thing to watch out for is going to be the Walter, Peter relationship as Walter has to try and find understanding in Peters actions; I also loved the moment when he found his son out, whippy cream all over his shirt and face.
The episode will also be remembered for two of the shows funnier moments, the point where Walter yawns like a Monkey after taking the wrong medicine in attempt to find his missing memories being the first. This storyline concerning his memories is one that's being played on the backburner for now, slowly developing over each episode. As a result, I'm really enjoying it.

The other comedy gold, which reminds me just how great Brandon is and how he was sorely missed when the duller Alt-Brandon had centre stage earlier in the season is when he is suspected of being the killer whilst mid-sandwich and asks if he can finish eating before being arrested. It had me chuckling away, and I really feel that we need to see more of this guy; get him in the lab with Walter!

The best aspect of Fringe this season has been it's interweaving of ongoing story-lines, happily allowing shapeshifters, murders, doomsday machines and missing brain story-lines to overlap each other in a singular episode and it is one aspect that as a whole has seen season three push itself ahead of it's two former season in terms of overall quality.
That being said, I feel that in order to let some dust settle and avoid over-pushing itself the story is in desperate need of a slower, monster of the week episode. I will not lie when I state that both of Fringe's 2011 episodes thus far have had much more problems with storyline and plot than the pre-Christmas run and I hope we get some time to let things develop in a character perspective for a couple of weeks before we throw ourselves back into the thick of it. Over complication and too fast story progression is not always a good thing all the time, and I'm beginning to feel the drag and loose narrative cracking through.
Hopefully the writers remember that Peter has a pen he was given by the Sheriff in 'Northwest Passage' last season, and look at the writing on it, "Find the Crack," think about it and take appropriate action.
I'm not worried just yet though... and even if I was, I'd rather be worrying about this than the ratings. I'm sure you agree.

7.5/10

Adam

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For my other Fringe Season Three Reviews:
3.01 Olivia
3.02 The Box
3.03 The Plateau
3.04 Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep?
3.05 Amber 31422
3.06 6995 kHz
3.07 The Abducted
3.08 Entrada
3.09 Marionette
3.10 The Firefly
3.11 Reciprocity