5.3 The Recordist The episode was full of many things that really had no bearing on the bigger story, even if the entire purpose of everyone entering the woods was to find the next clue. Where it fell down was the skewed logic that allowed people to live in the woods with amazing archiving technology but the Observers to remain totally unaware of them. That also served to make Walter’s choice to put his clues on easily damageable video tapes seem even dumber, and watching them drop out when they start to make any sense was just plain annoying. The only thing that’s really perking my interest at present is that I’m reasonably convinced the person on the tapes isn’t actually Walter, which explains why he doesn’t recall any of what is on them. If it’s Walternate that would be a nice link, but some connections seem to be absent. The make-up for the strange growths, manifestly inspired by well-publicised cases of epidermodysplasia verruciformis, was interesting, but served only to make the forest dwellers seem like alien-of-the-week on an old The Next Generation story. The ultimate sacrifice was touching, but it appeared to have little or no impact on the Fringe team, who just take their precious rocks and leave for adventures new with a smile on their faces. There’s an underlying tension in regard to Olivia and Peter, which given their circumstances is remarkably poorly timed. If she has an issue she should out it, because at the moment she’s being sulky with no obvious motivation. Next week’s episode is called The Bullet That Saved The World, and I’m really hoping it’s better constructed than this one. Read Billy’s review of the previous episode, In Absentia, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
