‘The Cure’ is probably the strongest story yet, and surprisingly its focus is Olivia, with able support from Peter and Walter Bishop. This doesn’t appear to be a pattern event, as there is no bald man attending, but it’s curious enough for Agent Dunham and her gang of misfits to become involved. It soon becomes apparent that a pharmaceutical company has developed a means of weaponising people with their own organic microwave blast, and the first woman to explode was a field test. But time is against the gang as another women is missing and being primed for remote detonation. I’m surprised to write this, but this story succeeds almost because they’re restrained with their use of Walter (who I’ve eulogised about in preview weeks), as entertaining as his interludes are. He still, however, gets some magic moments explaining the science behind what they’re encountering. I especially loved his demonstration with Mr Papaya. My only concern about Agent Dunham is that they seem to be concocting a romance between her and Peter, which I’m not sure about. They’re entirely mismatched, like Walter and everyone else on the planet. Where they plan to take this, and how far, has yet to be seen, but I’m unconvinced by it as a central plot development. A more fruitful direction is the hints we’ve already had that Dunham and her team are more of a containment exercise than real investigators. Is Charlie their controller, leader or minder? I really hope they stick with this, because I’m really warming to its quirkiness. Check out our review of episode 5 here.
