Alone in the World (Fringe)
Encyclopedia
"Alone in the World" is the third episode of the fourth season
of the Fox
science fiction
drama
television series
Fringe
, and the series' 68th episode overall.
) is struggling with the hallucinations of Peter (Joshua Jackson
), but refuses to talk about it to the Fringe team or to his psychologist (William Sadler
), fearing they will consider him insane and put him back in the mental institution.
The Fringe team is alerted to the discovery of the bodies of two teenage boys in a service tunnel; though only missing for less than a day, their bodies show signs of long-term decomposition and fungal infection. As the bodies are moved to Walter's laboratory and the nearby morgue, the team discovers evidence of a third boy, Aaron (Evan Bird), who may have been present at the time the other two were infected, and he is taken to Walter's lab. Walter, while examining Aaron, finds that the boy lives with his neighbors, his father having passed away and his mother being away on business travel in Europe. Aaron, however, appears unaffected by the fungus. Walter allows him to stay with him in the lab, bonding with him and explaining how he lost his own son Peter as well as the Peter from the parallel universe.
Walter observes that the fungus on the corpse in his lab continues to grow rapidly, but he is able to contain it just before it expels a deadly cloud of spores. The same happens to the body in the morgue, but they are unable to evacuate the facility in time, and two hospital staff are killed by the expelled fungal spores. The spores leave a network of tendrils that cover the morgue, and which continue growing towards the drains in the room. The Fringe team is able to kill the spores using ultraviolet
light. They subsequently discover a much larger fungal network in the service tunnel. When they try to expose this network to ultraviolet light and high temperatures, Walter observes Aaron suffering from a high fever. Walter quickly surmises that the fungal network (which he refers to as "Gus") is actually part of a single organism that functions like a giant brain. "Gus" has been able to make a psychic link with Aaron, who had spent several days previously in the service tunnel, and if the organism is killed, Aaron will likely die. The Fringe team finds that the organism is growing rapidly, spreading out over several city blocks and to public places, and give Walter limited time to find a solution before they will be forced to kill the organism regardless of Aaron's health.
Walter races to find non-invasive ways to break the link between Aaron and the organism, ultimately concluding with reluctance that lobotomy
may be the only answer. However, with the organism having breached a subway station, Broyles (Lance Reddick
) orders its immediate destruction. As Olivia (Anna Torv
) and Lincoln (Seth Gabel
) prepare to destroy the fungus network by injecting a toxin (provided by Massive Dynamic) into its heart, Walter finds that Aaron has become emotional, fearing that there is no one that cares for him. Realizing that Aaron's emotions are feeding the organism, Walter comforts the boy. Aaron becomes tranquil at Walter's display of affection, and the organism starts to die out. The Fringe team is able to destroy the remaining organism without harming Aaron. Walter gives Aaron one of Peter's old toys as Aaron is taken off to a hospital.
In the epilogue, Walter determines that the only way to stop seeing visions of Peter is to perform his own lobotomy. Olivia arrives in the lab in time to prevent Walter from seriously hurting himself and learns that he has been seeing an unknown man for the last several weeks. Olivia pulls out a sketch that she drew of a man, the same person that Walter has been seeing, and Walter realizes that he is not insane. Olivia admits she does not know who the man is, as he does not appear in the FBI database. The two agree they need to figure out his identity together.
, known as a producer/writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
, and a writer of several episodes on the television series Lost
and 24
. Miguel Sapochnik, a collaborator on House
and the 2010 film Repo Men, served as the episode's director. Some television critics speculated that Walter's nickname for the fungus, "Gus", was a reference to Gustavo "Gus" Fring, a character from the television series Breaking Bad
. The following day after the broadcast, Fury posted on Twitter
to address this, explaining that Gus was simply short for fungus.
Guest actor William Sadler
reprised his role as Dr. Sumner, Walter's therapist from St. Clair's. Sadler last appeared in the season one episode, "The Equation
".
's song "Quinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)", covered by Manfred Mann
, plays in the background while Walter examines Aaron. Because covers of the song have been "slightly altered and reinterpreted" for years, Entertainment Weekly
writer Lanford Beard noted its use "seemed [a] particularly on-point metaphor for the cult show’s current season."
episode.
expressed uneasiness that the victims were children, and was skeptical that Olivia and Lincoln would have removed their hazmat suits when encountering the center of the fungus. The A.V. Club
s Noel Murray gave the episode a B-, explaining that while the writers did a "solid job", it was "a big step down from last week’s magnificent 'One Night in October
'". He continued, "The problem is that the way the episode plays out requires Walter to save the day by talking Aaron out of the mental/emotional clutches of Gus, which isn’t exactly the most visually dynamic climax to an action-adventure show. (Plus, the “talk down” has become kind of a cliché in genre fiction... I liked the moment between Walter and Aaron earlier in the episode where he got the kid to admit that he intentionally led the bullies to Gus, but the big final moment between the two was less affecting." Murray concluded that he was surprised little was mentioned about the parallel universes. IGN
writer Ramsey Isler rated "Alone in the World" 7.0/10; he praised John Noble's performance and the special effects, but explained "the first 90% of this episode is basically 20 minutes of material stretched out over the majority of the episode. This story could have been told in a half-hour show, with much more exciting pacing." Isler did however enjoy the final minutes of the episode, calling it "an uplifting note to a rather depressing story, and for the first time this season it leaves our characters with an explicit purpose and direction."
Fringe (season 4)
The fourth season of the American science fiction television series Fringe premiered on Fox on September 23, 2011, and will consist of 22 episodes. The series is produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television...
of the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Fringe
Fringe (TV series)
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
, and the series' 68th episode overall.
Plot
Walter (John NobleJohn Noble
John Noble is an Australian film and television actor, and theater director of more than 80 plays. He was born in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia and is currently starring as scientist Walter Bishop in the J. J. Abrams television series Fringe.He made occasional appearances on the...
) is struggling with the hallucinations of Peter (Joshua Jackson
Joshua Jackson
Joshua Carter Jackson is a Canadian American actor. He has appeared in primetime television and in over 32 film roles. He is best known for playing Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks film series, Pacey Witter in the television series Dawson's Creek and Peter Bishop in the television series...
), but refuses to talk about it to the Fringe team or to his psychologist (William Sadler
William Sadler (actor)
William Thomas Sadler is an American actor who works in film and television. His television and motion picture roles have included Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller in The Pacific, Luther Sloan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sheriff Jim Valenti in Roswell, convict Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption,...
), fearing they will consider him insane and put him back in the mental institution.
The Fringe team is alerted to the discovery of the bodies of two teenage boys in a service tunnel; though only missing for less than a day, their bodies show signs of long-term decomposition and fungal infection. As the bodies are moved to Walter's laboratory and the nearby morgue, the team discovers evidence of a third boy, Aaron (Evan Bird), who may have been present at the time the other two were infected, and he is taken to Walter's lab. Walter, while examining Aaron, finds that the boy lives with his neighbors, his father having passed away and his mother being away on business travel in Europe. Aaron, however, appears unaffected by the fungus. Walter allows him to stay with him in the lab, bonding with him and explaining how he lost his own son Peter as well as the Peter from the parallel universe.
Walter observes that the fungus on the corpse in his lab continues to grow rapidly, but he is able to contain it just before it expels a deadly cloud of spores. The same happens to the body in the morgue, but they are unable to evacuate the facility in time, and two hospital staff are killed by the expelled fungal spores. The spores leave a network of tendrils that cover the morgue, and which continue growing towards the drains in the room. The Fringe team is able to kill the spores using ultraviolet
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
light. They subsequently discover a much larger fungal network in the service tunnel. When they try to expose this network to ultraviolet light and high temperatures, Walter observes Aaron suffering from a high fever. Walter quickly surmises that the fungal network (which he refers to as "Gus") is actually part of a single organism that functions like a giant brain. "Gus" has been able to make a psychic link with Aaron, who had spent several days previously in the service tunnel, and if the organism is killed, Aaron will likely die. The Fringe team finds that the organism is growing rapidly, spreading out over several city blocks and to public places, and give Walter limited time to find a solution before they will be forced to kill the organism regardless of Aaron's health.
Walter races to find non-invasive ways to break the link between Aaron and the organism, ultimately concluding with reluctance that lobotomy
Lobotomy
Lobotomy "; τομή – tomē: "cut/slice") is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy . It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain...
may be the only answer. However, with the organism having breached a subway station, Broyles (Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick is an American theater, film and TV actor and musician born in Baltimore, Maryland. He starred in The Wire as Cedric Daniels, appeared in Oz as Detective Johnny Basil and appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of Lost. He now has a prominent role in Fringe...
) orders its immediate destruction. As Olivia (Anna Torv
Anna Torv
Anna Torv is an Australian actress known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the Fox television series Fringe.-Early life:...
) and Lincoln (Seth Gabel
Seth Gabel
Seth Gabel is an American actor. Gabel plays the role of agent Lincoln Lee on Fox's television series Fringe.-Career:...
) prepare to destroy the fungus network by injecting a toxin (provided by Massive Dynamic) into its heart, Walter finds that Aaron has become emotional, fearing that there is no one that cares for him. Realizing that Aaron's emotions are feeding the organism, Walter comforts the boy. Aaron becomes tranquil at Walter's display of affection, and the organism starts to die out. The Fringe team is able to destroy the remaining organism without harming Aaron. Walter gives Aaron one of Peter's old toys as Aaron is taken off to a hospital.
In the epilogue, Walter determines that the only way to stop seeing visions of Peter is to perform his own lobotomy. Olivia arrives in the lab in time to prevent Walter from seriously hurting himself and learns that he has been seeing an unknown man for the last several weeks. Olivia pulls out a sketch that she drew of a man, the same person that Walter has been seeing, and Walter realizes that he is not insane. Olivia admits she does not know who the man is, as he does not appear in the FBI database. The two agree they need to figure out his identity together.
Production
"Alone in the World" was the first Fringe episode written by David FuryDavid Fury
David Fury is an American television Screenwriter and Producer, best known for his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Lost, 24, and Fringe.Fury was a Co-executive producer and Writer for the first season of Lost...
, known as a producer/writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
, and a writer of several episodes on the television series Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
and 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
. Miguel Sapochnik, a collaborator on House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
and the 2010 film Repo Men, served as the episode's director. Some television critics speculated that Walter's nickname for the fungus, "Gus", was a reference to Gustavo "Gus" Fring, a character from the television series Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...
. The following day after the broadcast, Fury posted on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
to address this, explaining that Gus was simply short for fungus.
Guest actor William Sadler
William Sadler (actor)
William Thomas Sadler is an American actor who works in film and television. His television and motion picture roles have included Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller in The Pacific, Luther Sloan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sheriff Jim Valenti in Roswell, convict Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption,...
reprised his role as Dr. Sumner, Walter's therapist from St. Clair's. Sadler last appeared in the season one episode, "The Equation
The Equation
"The Equation" is the eighth episode of the first season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The episode followed the Fringe team's investigation into a kidnapping of a young musical prodigy who had become obsessed with finishing one piece of music.The episode was...
".
Cultural references and music
Folk singer Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's song "Quinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)", covered by Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann was a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboardist, Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band...
, plays in the background while Walter examines Aaron. Because covers of the song have been "slightly altered and reinterpreted" for years, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
writer Lanford Beard noted its use "seemed [a] particularly on-point metaphor for the cult show’s current season."
Ratings
"Alone in the World" was watched by 3.2 million viewers, earning a 1.3 rating for the adults 18-49 range. This was an increase of 8% from the previous episode, even with a decline in the preceding Kitchen NightmaresKitchen Nightmares
Kitchen Nightmares is an American reality television series broadcast on the Fox network, in which Chef Gordon Ramsay spends a week with a failing restaurant in an attempt to revive the business. It is based on the British show Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. The show is produced by ITV Studios...
episode.
Reviews
Andrew Hanson from the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
expressed uneasiness that the victims were children, and was skeptical that Olivia and Lincoln would have removed their hazmat suits when encountering the center of the fungus. The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
s Noel Murray gave the episode a B-, explaining that while the writers did a "solid job", it was "a big step down from last week’s magnificent 'One Night in October
One Night in October
"One Night in October" is the second episode of the fourth season of the Fox science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the series' 67th episode overall.-Plot:...
'". He continued, "The problem is that the way the episode plays out requires Walter to save the day by talking Aaron out of the mental/emotional clutches of Gus, which isn’t exactly the most visually dynamic climax to an action-adventure show. (Plus, the “talk down” has become kind of a cliché in genre fiction... I liked the moment between Walter and Aaron earlier in the episode where he got the kid to admit that he intentionally led the bullies to Gus, but the big final moment between the two was less affecting." Murray concluded that he was surprised little was mentioned about the parallel universes. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
writer Ramsey Isler rated "Alone in the World" 7.0/10; he praised John Noble's performance and the special effects, but explained "the first 90% of this episode is basically 20 minutes of material stretched out over the majority of the episode. This story could have been told in a half-hour show, with much more exciting pacing." Isler did however enjoy the final minutes of the episode, calling it "an uplifting note to a rather depressing story, and for the first time this season it leaves our characters with an explicit purpose and direction."
External links
- "Alone in the World" at Fox.comFox Broadcasting CompanyFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...