Last night's Fringe cemented three important facts: One, John Noble (still) deserves some Emmy love. Two, Bolivia might not be sympathetic, but Anna Torv is definitely flexing her scary-as-hell muscles (and they are fierce). And three, the "over there" isn't always more compelling than the "over here" -- especially when you're talking about a Walter-heavy myth-arc episode. Read on for the mad-science breakdown of Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep!
Scenario: Now that William Bell is dead, Walter has taken over Massive Dynamic.
Plausibility: 3 of 10. Hilarity: 10 of 10. Could a man who has alarmingly frequent acid flashbacks and is fresh off a very long tenure in a mental institution inherit a multibillion-dollar company without contest? Probably not. But after seeing his zealous speech to department heads about the complexity and power of the human brain ("The mind is God!"), I don't really care. And, as Peter reminds us, "With a basement lab at Harvard, Walter was able to open a wormhole into another dimension that essentially shredded all the laws of science. I can't wait to see what he's capable of doing with a multibillion-dollar corporation."
Scenario: To get data from a damaged shapeshifter (who took over a fringe-savvy senator), Walter, in his sweet new Massive Dynamic lab, uses emotionally charged images to map neural pathways and find where the shapeshifter's memory storage unit is. They're making a treasure map, Walter says excitedly. They bring in the man's wife and see increased response in his lower spine. Walter is disheartened until he realizes that William Bell, the creator, had a big thing for stegosauruses -- and they have two brains.
Plausibility: 7 of 10. The only thing troubling here is that it doesn't quite mesh with the last time we got answers about the shapeshifters, but perhaps they also insert that extra brain in their spine when they do the three-hole punch in the roof of their mouth? Otherwise, I loved that the shapeshifter's emotional responses were mirrored by the policeman shapeshifter, who had assimilated nicely with a borrowed wife and child while he waited for Newton to contact him. (Kind of like Ryan in V. Oh no I didn't!) And that paralleled nicely with Bolivia's heightening involvement with Peter.
Scenario: Assisted suicide is an aphrodisiac for Bolivia.
Plausibility: 8 of 10. The episode culminates with the Fringe unit catching Newton, and Bolivia stashing the shapeshifter's memory unit and slipping Newton a razor blade in his jail cell. She then invites Peter over for some hanky-panky, further demonstrating that she is a pretty evil bitch. However...
Scenario: Anna Torv's hair looks disturbingly good in any color. And especially, I think the bangs are doing it for me.
Plausibility: 4 of 10. Shapeshifters use the extra brain at the base of their spine to unravel the mystery of Anna Torv's lovely, voluminous hair. That's really what they're dreaming about.
Seriously, is anyone appreciating Bolivia for anything other than her duplicity and her hair? Because I'm still not finding her sympathetic.