Fringe at Monday 9pm timeslot got 7.79M viewers compared to Heroes at its new (original) timeslot got 4.71M viewers.  Sadly for Heroes as it was its series lowest.  CBS and ABC, however, tops against Fox with Two and a Half Men with 17.3M viewers and The Bachelors with 11.15M viewers.

Despite of Fringe winning against another sci-fi show, I still not thrilled with the numbers that Fringe delivered.  House, at 8pm timeslot, got a 12.24M viewers.  To have a lead-in with such big numbers, you expect Fringe to be up more than what it has.  However, I think Fringe got its own following.  I’m not particularly sure people who are watching House will stick with it to watch an unaired episode of Fringe.  This is also reflected with Fringe in Thursday timeslot.  Bones got enormous numbers averaging about 9-10M viewers, yet it did not help much Fringe in its 9pm timeslot.

Good news for Fringe fans though that at least, the show managed to make it a bigger number in a different timeslot.  An average of 5M viewers to 7M viewers is a good sign.  I wonder how will Fox judge this?  The “Unearthed” episode at 7M viewers, however, is not that great if you compare it with the average ratings that Lie to Me is getting (7-8M viewers).

Anyway, I just hope Fringe this Thursday will have a bigger number compared to the first 10 episodes of Season 2.

On January 11, 2010, Fringe will come back to battle NBC’s Heroes at Monday timeslot, 9pm. After that, it will go back to its original timeslot, Thursday 9pm.

The episode to be aired on Monday night is entitled “Unearthed”. This is the episode, which is supposedly aired on the first season. The reason for Fox not airing this out last season is unknown, but fans are glad that we’ll see the missing episode. I got an information that there are actually two missing episodes from last season, so I am not very surprised if there’s another one that would surface in the future.

Another good thing about this episode is we can see Charlie Francis again.  Of course, we all know he was killed off early in the second season of Fringe, blame that on those alternate universe shapeshifter soldiers.  Speaking of alternate universe, are we going to take this episode set at alternate universe?  Hmm… that’s interesting.  Although, quite frankly I highly doubt, since we only have alter-Peter in our world.  And if he does exist in this episode, then that will be a big inconsistency.

In the episode “Unearthed”, a teenage girl is pronounced dead; however, when her life support is about to remove, she wakes up and speaks Russian with classified information that only top-ranking soldiers would know.  The Fringe team tries to unravel the mystery, with of course, the help of Walter Bishop’s old lab videos.

It was mentioned that this episode is going to be a stand-alone.  However, I find it very interesting that it might not be the case.  This will be the second time that Fringe will get involved with Russians.  I don’t think that is coincidence, I’m pretty sure that the writers had planned this ahead.  Also, curiously, the title of the episode is “Unearthed” and Broyles-centric episode is entitled “Earthling”.  What’s with “Earth” and “Russians”?  Will this episode actually hint on the existence of the Earthling episode?  How does Russians play in this whole mysterious Fringe sciences?

1. Who is Thomas Jerome Newton?

His name seems to be taken from a sci-fi film called The Man Who Fell to Earth.  Thomas Newton, in the film, is a humanoid alien who came to Earth to bring water back to his home planet, which is experiencing a drought.  Could the drought be The Blight in the Fringe world?  I wonder if Fringe’s Netwon would be needing to get something from our planet to send over to the other world.  But it seems to me that is not the case, as the shapeshifters could just easily get what they needed and request an extraction from the alterworld through the typewriter used in the earlier episodes.  The only reason left is that Newton wants to open the portal in order to allow the rest of the aliens come in and invade the Earth.

Now, the question is… how did Newton and his gang came here?  Did their leader send them over a long time ago?  Or did Walter’s opening of the door to the alterworld allow them to travel to our world?

2. William Bell as Dr. Simon Paris

The name Dr. Simon Paris seems to come from Leonard Nimoy’s second name, which is Simon, and his role in Mission Impossible as “The Great Paris“.  In Mission Impossible, Nimoy’s character is a magician and dubbed as “master of disguise”.  It makes me wonder if this tells something about Dr. Simon Paris.  Is Dr. Paris disguising as William Bell or William Bell disguising as Dr. Paris?  Until now, it doesn’t make sense to me as to why William Bell is using a different name.  What is Bell hiding?  Or are we being tricked by the writers?  Or Simon Paris is different from the Bell we know?

3.  William Bell and Newton connection

The first time I watched the episode, I find a resemblance between Newton and Bell.  I find them both dressed the same way and even thought at the end, Newton will shapeshift into Bell.  Of course, that is not the case.  It makes me wonder how did Newton find out where Bell hide the brain tissues… and even more surprising is that how did Newton found out the old house of Walter? It seems that this episode suggest memory transfer, this made me think that Newton could have got Bell’s memory…

It is also odd that Newton and Bell seems to have a “watch switch”.  Newton is wearing a Massive Dynamic watch while Bell seems to be wearing an AU watch.   It may only indicate that Newton could be staying in our world while Bell is in the other world.  Or Newton is connected to Massive Dynamic?  Is that how he got the info about Bishop?

4.  The Blight

There are some clues to indicate the Blight.  First is the logo of Hennington Mental Health Institute… and the painting in the mental institute.

5. The HP Lovecraft connection

I got to say that I love how the writers play around with the characters name.

- Dunwich Hospital: Dunwich is a fictional town of Massachussetts, which is used in Dunwich Horror written by Lovecraft.

- Joseph Slater: the first patient. This seems to be a nod to Joe Slater, who is the main character of Lovecraft’s Beyond the Wall of Sleep.

- Stuart Gordon: the third patient. He is a director and a big fan of Lovecraft. He made several stories of Lovecraft into film.

- Deborah Crampton: the second patient. This could be a nod to Barbara Crampton who stars in HP Lovecraft’s Re-animator, which is directed by Stuart Gordon.

- Dr. West: Herbert West, a character in Lovecraft’s Re-animator.

6. The observer

He is found across the street as the Olivia and Peter entered the men’s restroom in attempt to save Walter.

7. Red Yellow Blue

For the first time, we saw the 3 basic color together.  The Red, Blue and Yellow seems to play a big role in the show.  Each color could be a sign of something… although, I am not yet quite sure what.

8. Walt’s Brain

The implantation of brain tissues to the patients provided them information which has an embedded memory of Walter.  The three of them pointed Peter in the right direction where he can find Walter.  I find it odd though that the three victims processed the same information.  Why did at least one of them processed the information on the door?  I’m not expecting them to get the door information, but at least part of it.  Anyway, it may be just use for the plot device.

But the bigger question is… how much more vital information are kept in those three brain tissues?

9.  Bell’s visitation

It was mentioned that Simon Paris visited Walter in six separate occasions.  And yet the operation suggested that it is one-off, since Paris cannot store Walter’s brain for very long time and he gave a prescription to three patients almost in the same time.  This made me wonder, what’s the other 5 visits for?

It also begs the question on when did Bell go to other side.  Did he go after the sixth visit?  And if so, how did he accomplished the opening of the portal without Walter’s memory?  Did he go back and forth from one reality to another in between six visits?  Could that contribute to Bell’s health degradation?  Or is The Blight the reason why Bell is sniffing oxygen?

10. Observer connection?

This is just my little theory.  The observers were there to make one reality intact as possible, every crucial event should happened as it was planned.  Having said that, they are trying to prevent the creation of a new route, which could be a new alternate reality.

It is possible that Walter could have opened the portal to the alternate world, as such, could have created the alterworld.  I would say, this is the relative existentialism thought.  So, without opening the portal, the alterworld is inexistent.  Walter’s opening of the door was triggered because of the death of Peter.  Peter’s death could be due to an accident caused by the observer.  Because of that, they allowed Walter to keep Alter Peter.  In exchange, Walter needs to prevent himself from using the “door opener” again.

However, because the door between two realities had been severed.  And because the other reality could also had found this door… fringe sciences happened.  Walter and Bell discovered this and made the ZFT manifesto and did the cortexiphan trials to get ready for a possible war.  Perhaps, there are some people who are interested with Walter’s knowledge… and this could have prompted Bell to operate Bishop.

Bell could be on the other side, as a spy of our world.

You think you are good in finding the Observer in every episode?  Then try playing this new game called the Hidden Elements in the Fox official Fringe website.

The rule of the game is simple.  Just find 10 hidden elements (The observer, a rabbit, a queen card and 7 glyphs) by clicking them in your mouse.  For each element that you find you’ll be awarded with a wallpaper (actually, no, because you only have 8 wallpapers but have to find 1o hidden elements to get them all).

If you are so desperate and really need help then click THIS.  Otherwise, enjoy the game!

What have we learned from this episode?

1. Walter’s memory.  We have been wondering why Walter can’t seem to remember many things from his past.  At last, we got the answer.  His amnesia is connected in some way to the brain tissues extracted out from his brain.  Although, it is still vague on which memory does Walter actually remember and not?  I asked this question because I can sometimes never tell whether Walter actually faking the loss of memory or he just really don’t remember at all.  Also, we also learned from this episode that Walter’s obsession to food (and anything else) is his attempt to recreate a scenario to make him remember.

2. The Blight.  All along we thought that the other reality is much more advanced in science, more prosperous, and more lucky.  But it seems that it is not the case.  Thomas Newton told Walter that trees and plants died a long time ago.  This reminded me of the deja vu event of Olivia back in Season 1 when she saw the burning of the city.

3. 1995.  That was the date when Dr. Paris issued an indefinite prescription to three patients.  Since the brain tissue cannot survive long in open… does that mean Walter was operated in 1995.

4. Dr. Paris is William Bell.  And he operated Bishop.  He took out the brain tissues of Bishop to prevent the knowledge being passed on to “dangerous people”.

The After Thoughts:

1. Continuity.  As expected the tracking device came back for Peter to use, unfortunately, it is useless because it was taken out.  It makes me wonder how did the shapeshifter knew about this?  And also, Astrid finally got to hold a gun.  I think it’s quite good to see that as a subtle continuity from the attack in the lab in Snakehead episode.

2. Thomas Joseph Newton.  It makes me wonder what is the connection between Newton and Bell.  More importantly, how did Newton knew about the hidden brain tissues?  It also bugs me as to why Newton’s head was cryofrozen.  Who froze it?  If Bell has to freeze Newton’s head, why freeze it when he knew he’ll be a dangerous man?

3. The invasion.  It seems that the alter world is much more equipped in scientific advancement.  Perhaps, they have prepared well for the attack.  They needed the door to be open for them to arrive her and invade us.  It makes sense now that the invasion is more of a need of the alter world to occupy a better place.  Who wants to live in a place of dead plants and trees?

4. The shapeshifters.  I just don’t understand that how come shifter Charlie’s body is deteriorating having been in the body for 6 weeks, while the shapeshifter (who is eating pear in the Momentum Deferred episode) did not.  Should we assume that Newton is a shapeshifter?  If so, would he be needing to shapeshift in order to attain his perfect form?