The bats have left the bell tower.
The victims have been bled.
-Bauhaus
Early on, it looked like tonight’s episode of Fringe was going to be even more of a freak-of-the-week outing this usual—almost to the point of being un-Fringe-y. By the midpoint, it was clear that “Midnight” was deeply tied into the show’s larger mythology, though for me, the tie-ins were too few to make up for some fairly routine vampire-hunting action, and a handful of squandered opportunities.
The premise of “Midnight” is a simple one: Somewhere out on the mean streets and goth clubs of Boston, there’s a sexy blood-sucking beastie, raging with syphilitic fever and on the prowl for hipster-meat. This ersatz Vampira’s infection has been cooked up in a lab by agents of the anarchy-sowing agents of ZFT, including one unwitting scientist: Dr. Nicholas Boone, the husband of our FOTW. While Boone works alongside Walter (who may be the man behind ZFT) to cook up an antidote, Olivia and Peter are hot on the heels of the monster, looking for her elevated heat signature and creepy CG-eyes.
“Midnight” kept fumbling towards different themes without every really completing any one thought, and had the episode explored any of the ideas more fully, I’d have probably been more into it. For example, this episode could’ve been about:
-Secret Lives. From the opening scene of a man lying to his woman so that he could go tom-cattin’ to the concluding scene of Walter leaving the room while Olivia watches a videotape about ZFT (made for her by Boone), there were intimations throughout “Midnight” of exactly what happens when people stray to the dark side. But only intimations.
–D-I-V-O-R-C-E. There was a lot of marital discord this evening, most notably between Olivia’s sister and her ex, who’s filed legal papers and is now asking for custody of creepy little Ella. Some might complain about Olivia being distracted by such mundane domestic stuff while she’s in the middle of stalking a chemically-enhanced vampire-woman, but I liked the little reminders that the disruption of normal life takes multiple forms. Also, I get the feeling that this breakup is going to prove to be significant to the show’s master-plot, because I think Ella is significant to the master-plot. (One complaint about this subplot though: I wanted to hear more about the crazy “Two Singles Together” group that visits Olivia’s home.)
–The Toll. Olivia makes a little speech to Broyles about how many people have lost their lives since she started working with Fringe Division, and I thought in her frustration there was a nice reminder of the stakes she’s been playing for this whole time. At the end of the day, mind-blowing craziness or not, Olivia is a law-enforcement officer trying to keep the peace and exact some measure of justice. ZFT, Al-Qaeda, cosa nostra… the name and the tactics don’t matter as much to Olivia as the basic idea that there are bad folks out there who need to be stopped.