“The No-Brainer”

“The No-Brainer” is an apt title for this episode. As in, it’s a “no-brainer” to skip this one when rewatching season 1. It’s not that it’s horrible. It’s just….there’s not a lot of substance to it.

There is a vague attempt at taking a look at father-son relationships by showcasing some Peter-Walter moments with a killer and his son. But it’s all covered by garbage.

The Fringe event is a knock off of The Ring. Person watches video (in this case a downloaded program) and the person dies. We see a young teen watching the program and then watch a hand come out of the computer much like the creepy Ring girl and the person turns into goo.

Ok, so getting past that it becomes a typical CSI detective show. All ably done, but nothing new is added to the mythos or even makes it spectacular.

We get some more melodrama with regards to Sanford Harris and his trying to stop Dunham at every turn, some suspense when the killer targets Ella as someone Dunham loves, and some action when they track the killer down.

Ho-hum.

The only thing worthy is the subplot regarding Walter. The mother of the lab assistant that died in the fire that forced Walter to the institution tracks Walter down and at first Peter gets in the way of them meeting. After some heartfelt soulsearching and talks with Dunham, the two are able to meet and we discover that the woman isn’t there to accuse Walter, merely to find out what her daughter was like in the end. It’s a nice moment and deserved to be in a better crafted episode.

C-

OBSERVER MOMENT: The Observer can be seen on a street corner when Dunham is racing home to save Ella.

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