It took a while for me to get used to Fringe. After several mediocre episodes around the middle ("The Equation," and "The Dreamscape," for instance), Fringe returned from the Christmas break with a bang, with the episodes "Bound" and "The No-Brainer" being among the best of the season. "The Transformation" was no exception, although it wasn't quite up to par with the speedy plot of last week.
"The Transformation" started in a familiar way: something went wrong on a plane. I wasn't too upset about that, because really, where else can you stage something like that? A claustrophobic tube hurtling through the air is simply the best place for things to go wrong. However, I think that this should probably be the last we see of plane-related incidents for this season, because variety's the spice of life.
The ending of the cold open left me staring in stupefaction at my television screen. I got Cloverfield chills when I saw the transformed character push his way out of the bathroom. It was a perfect open, and the dark silence it suddenly left us in only added to that fantastic sensation of wondering what the hell just happened.
The overused tank has hopefully been closed for good, having been already visited four times this season. I've grown quite sick of its murky depths, and I'm glad that perhaps we'll get to move on to bigger and better things than going back and exploring John Scott's memories, which I found quite boring. Also, Walter telling Olivia that it's "impossible" for John to be talking to her quite stubborn for such a generally open-minded man, and somewhat out of character. I would have expected Walter to rub his hands together and try to figure out what was going on.
The revelation that John was a good guy leaves hope for his character, who I originally liked, but sort of doesn't make much sense, considering his murder of Richard Steig in the pilot episode. Even if he had been undercover, murdering a witness is not the only option he had.
It was good to see Mina Sharp again after several episodes, though her personality caused my TV to ice over for a moment. But when watching, I expected her to reveal to Olivia who exactly those two men that we saw at the end of "The Same Old Story" were. At least they gave us some closure to the ending of episode three, as well as a callback to that episode. And now we have an idea of the time frame that has happened. It's been months since the series began, not weeks like I had thought.
Overall, this episode was brilliantly written and executed, though a few parts were a little dense. Next week looks amazing, though, and I'm sure I'm going to tune in.
Final Grade: 85% / B
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