Fringe

Fringe

Episode 18: The Consultant

By: Carlos Uribe

Fringe is a show about a division in the FBI tasked with solving fringe science cases.

Spoilers Ahoy!

What would you do to save your son's life? I'm not a parent, so I can't really answer that question. I have no idea what I would do if I had a son. This is a theme with Fringe. The entire rift of the universe was caused by Walter trying to save his son. There's a moment in the show when Alt-Broyles asks if Walter would repeat his mistake. His answer is an honest one and it simply shows a lot about what it means to have a good father-son relationship. He answers that if he had been asked just a few months ago, before Peter had reappeared into the universe, he would have said no. He had lost his son, it was a failed excursion, and it was clearly a mistake. His answer in the present day is different. He knows his adult son and he has gotten to love him like a father. The answer is that he does think that he would repeat his mistake because it would be worth it. Walter is a man with many tragic flaws, but is his love with a son one of them? It may have set the motions forth in the series, but it was done with one of the purest motives out there.

Alt-Boyles doesn't just ask this question for the sake of it. He has a very good reason to ask that question since he is facing a similar dilemma. I had assumed that because Alt-Broyles was working for Jones, that he must be a shapeshifter. There was no other way I could see in which he could actually be bad. It turns out there is another way. His son has always been sickly. He's been in pain, he was losing his sight, and he has been dying from a disease. Alt-Broyles would do anything for his son. One could say that his love for his son was a weakness that any enemy could turn to his advantage. It may be a weakness, but it is what makes Broyles human. He may be doing evil, but he is doing it with one of the purest motives out there. Alt-Broyles agrees to collaborate with Jones because Jones offers some medicine that will help his son live a normal life. The son's disease isn't completely cured, but it is managed. This ensures that Alt-Broyles has to keep working with Jones because he would lose the access to this medicine.

There was only so much that Alt-Broyles was willing to do for Jones. It's his work for Jones that caused Agent Lincoln to die. It was his work for Jones that has caused numerous other collateral damage. He may have been a mole working for the sake of his son, but he still had a conscience and it was clearly catching up with him. When Jones asks for Alt-Broyles to attach some sort of device into the Machine, Alt-Broyles is given a choice. He can either risk his son's health deteriorating or he can attach a mysterious device into the Machine. He realizes that whatever the device does, it can't be good. It might even be connected to what Jones is doing this episode. He decides that the best solution is to turn himself in. He has to turn himself in to someone who can understand what he is going through. That means going to another father, our Broyles. He turns himself into to himself. He's last seen going to the same prison that evil Nina is in. While Alt-Olivia may be mad at his betrayal, she's told by an understanding Walter that we shouldn't judge those who are merely acting to save a loved one. It may not make the consequences of his actions any easier, but we must at least understand why he did his actions in the first place.

What has Jones been doing this week? He's been testing linking the universes. For some odd reason, both universes both have a unique frequency. This means that objects from one universe have the same frequency with each other, but a different frequency from the other universe. Jones is making it so that both universes end up with the same frequency. This linking causes some deaths that cause our characters to investigate his actions, but it's what Jones is trying to do that is important. He's not just trying to create a singular universe. Bishop reveals that is Jones had succeeded in attaching his device to the machine, then he could have collapsed both universes. It's unknown what Jones is trying to do and why, but if I know this show there is one obvious answer. I'm being led to believe that Jones is acting out of love or out of loss of love.

Fringe had a fantastic episode this week. It managed to explain just why Broyles had turned while at the same time making the viewer more understanding of his actions. His actions might have been wrong, but at least the audience can even sympathize with this mole. It's a very difficult thing for any show to develop an antagonist and yet make us sad when he ends up getting caught. It's not sad because he was a cool villain that we loved. It's sad because we know that Broyles is sacrificing his son's life for the sake of both universes. It's something that not even Walter would necessarily be able to do if given the option.