In Which We Meet Mr. Jones
Encyclopedia
"In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American 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...

. The episode was written by J. J. Abrams
J. J. Abrams
Jeffrey Jacob "J. J." Abrams is an American film and television producer, screenwriter, director, actor, and composer. He wrote and produced feature films before co-creating the television series Felicity...

 and Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner is an American television writer and producer. He graduated from Pikesville High School in Baltimore Maryland in 1983. He is known for his work on Alias where he served as executive producer. In 2006 and 2007, he worked as an executive producer and writer for the mystery series Lost...

, and directed by Brad Anderson. The story begins when a FBI agent collapses from a parasite constricting his heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...

, and Olivia must meet with biochemist David Robert Jones (Jared Harris
Jared Harris
Jared Francis Harris is a British character actor, well known for playing the obnoxious Mac McGrath in the Adam Sandler film Mr. Deeds, and for his portrayal of Lane Pryce on the AMC series Mad Men.- Personal life :...

) in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

 in order to find a cure. It featured the first appearance by Harris.

The episode first aired in the United States on November 11, 2008 on the Fox network
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...

 to an estimated 8.61 million viewers. Reviews of the episode were mostly mixed.

Plot

Agent Mitchell Loeb (Chance Kelly), a friend of 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...

), is on a group mission in Weymouth, Massachusetts
Weymouth, Massachusetts
The Town of Weymouth is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, Weymouth had a total population of 53,743. Despite its city status, it is formally known as the Town of Weymouth...

 but fails to find evidence of wrongdoing in a truck they targeted. Loeb and Broyles are in a meeting afterwards when Loeb collapses, seemingly of a heart attack or seizure
Seizure
An epileptic seizure, occasionally referred to as a fit, is defined as a transient symptom of "abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain". The outward effect can be as dramatic as a wild thrashing movement or as mild as a brief loss of awareness...

. He is rushed to the hospital, where the medical staff cut open his chest, only to find his heart is being constricted by an engineered parasite. The Fringe division of Olivia, Walter, and Peter are briefed by Broyles, who then shows them the hospitalized Loeb.

At Harvard, the Bishops run tests on Loeb while Olivia talks with Loeb's wife Samantha (Trini Alvarado
Trini Alvarado
Trinidad "Trini" Alvarado is an American actress best known for her performances as Margaret "Meg" March in the 1994 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women and Lucy Lynskey in the comedy/horror film The Frighteners...

). Not recognizing the parasite, Walter pokes it with a blade in an attempt to remove it, and it constricts tighter around Loeb's heart, further endangering his life. Walter is able to get a tissue sample, while Peter administers some medicine to calm Loeb's heart. After a DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 analysis, Walter discovers a pattern "too organized to be accidental, too perfect to be natural." Astrid thinks it is a Caesar cipher
Caesar cipher
In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as a Caesar's cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar's code or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number...

, and she and Olivia decipher the acronym "ZFT". After talking with Broyles, Olivia is directed to talk to David Robert Jones (Jared Harris
Jared Harris
Jared Francis Harris is a British character actor, well known for playing the obnoxious Mac McGrath in the Adam Sandler film Mr. Deeds, and for his portrayal of Lane Pryce on the AMC series Mad Men.- Personal life :...

), a biochemist being held incommunicado in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Broyles explains to her that ZFT are privately funded cells in 83 recorded countries that traffic in scientific progress, not weapons or drugs. Some fringe events in previous episodes may have been orchestrated by this group. He says little else is known.

Meanwhile Peter and Walter discover the parasite has slowly worked its roots into Loeb's circulatory system and extended through the IV into the IV drip
Intravenous therapy
Intravenous therapy or IV therapy is the infusion of liquid substances directly into a vein. The word intravenous simply means "within a vein". Therapies administered intravenously are often called specialty pharmaceuticals...

; they estimate Loeb has a day to live. After meeting with old friend Lucas Vogel (Billy Burke
Billy Burke (actor)
William Albert "Billy" Burke is an American actor. He is known for his role as Charlie Swan in Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and the 2010 film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. He is also known for his role as Gary Matheson in the second season of 24.-Life and career:Burke was born in...

), Olivia is able to secure a meeting with Jones, who may know a cure to the parasite slowly killing Loeb. Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo
Kirk Acevedo
Kirk Acevedo is an American actor. He is primarily known for his portrayals of Miguel Alvarez in the HBO series Oz, Joe Toye in Band of Brothers and FBI Agent Charlie Francis in the science-fiction series Fringe....

) finds a sheet of code in Loeb's briefcase listing agents from their field office. They suspect another mole with access to high level security clearances and tie it to a Joseph Smith, previously mentioned by Loeb as a suspected mole after the truck mission failure. Although she is not able to talk with Jones at first, he arranges for Olivia to be given a piece of paper with instructions demanding he first speak to Smith, a colleague of his, before he helps her. Smith is unfortunately killed soon after in a raid set up by Broyles. Walter, however, devises a way to wire Peter into the dead man's brain, enabling Peter to speak on his behalf without Jones knowing Smith is dead. Smith's "response" is "little hill," which is an answer Jones seems pleased to hear. Jones duly tells Olivia a formula for the parasite, and the subsequent procedure is successful. The parasite is removed, but the team does not realize that the entire incident was orchestrated by Loeb and his wife to get the information Peter extracted from Smith. The final scene shows Samantha Loeb whispering "little hill" into her husband's ear at the hospital.

Production

Co-creator J.J. Abrams and executive producer Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner is an American television writer and producer. He graduated from Pikesville High School in Baltimore Maryland in 1983. He is known for his work on Alias where he served as executive producer. In 2006 and 2007, he worked as an executive producer and writer for the mystery series Lost...

 wrote the episode, and Brad Anderson directed it. Pinkner has stated that the first six episodes of season one served as a prologue
Prologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...

, and that the following episodes, beginning with "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones", would be the "next chapter" in the story. Pinkner further described the episode as "foundational," as it will set up "a lot of things will be set up which will come to pay off over the next several weeks".

The character David Robert Jones is a reference to English musician David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

, who was born with that name. "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" was the first appearance of the character. When actor Jared Harris
Jared Harris
Jared Francis Harris is a British character actor, well known for playing the obnoxious Mac McGrath in the Adam Sandler film Mr. Deeds, and for his portrayal of Lane Pryce on the AMC series Mad Men.- Personal life :...

 was first cast for the part, he was told Jones was "possibly a major, important character", as indicated by the episode's title. Whether his character would make a reappearance later in the season depended on how well received Jones was by the show's audience, Harris' performance, and if the writers felt they had more to tell about the character. Harris later described Jones in a May 2009 interview, "I think you could sense that there was a great bit of ambiguity about the character which was useful. He's a bad guy that might be on the right side. He just might be fighting for the good guys. Those guys are always great parts because you leave the audience guessing about what side he's really on. He's one of those guys that if he's fighting for the right cause, he's a tremendous ally. But if he's fighting on the wrong cause, he's a formidable opponent. He's an anti-hero who is fighting for the just cause". Harris asserted in a February 2009 interview that he did not sign a recurring contract, meaning that the character was not meant to be permanent. He affirmed this by believing the character's personality rendered Jones incapable of joining the regular cast, "You'd have to keep [Jones] chained like a dog. You couldn't let him loose. You certainly couldn't let him use his hands. You know what the f--k he'd do".

The crew first considered making the parasite look like "an alien," but shifted away from that in favor of depicting it like an amoeba
Amoeba
Amoeba is a genus of Protozoa.History=The amoeba was first discovered by August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof in 1757. Early naturalists referred to Amoeba as the Proteus animalcule after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his shape...

 to be more familiar to the audience. CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...

 modeling followed, along with a physical model, which was then used by the CGI department to simulate it being wrapped around Loeb's heart. To create the actual, physical parasite, the crew used a prosthetic chest and CGI to create the parasite, and a pig torso was used when the doctors made the initial incision at the hospital.

During the scene where Broyles is talking with Mitchell Loeb, Mitchell mentions the words "Page 47". The number 47 bears a huge significance to another J.J. Abrams show, Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...

.

Ratings

The premiere of "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" was watched by an estimated 8.61 million viewers in the United States. It received a 5.2/8 rating among all households.

Reviews

Travis Fickett of 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...

 disliked the episode, criticizing it as "sloppy," the science as "repeating itself," and the fringe element [the parasite] as "especially goofy"; he rated the episode 6.0/10. Writing for Mania.com, critic Stephen Lackey thought Anna Torv's performance "felt forced", but heaped praise on John Noble. Lackey believes Torv and Joshua Jackson have good chemistry, and consequently partly disliked the episode because they had few scenes together. He also thought the case of the week was "fairly entertaining," but the storyline was "just...passable", as he wanted the show "to be done with all of the introductions and get more into the mystery of the pattern". He concluded his review, "Hopefully, next week the story will be just a little more concise, Olivia and Peter back working together and maybe at some point Astrid will actually have something important to do". The Los Angeles Times
Los 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....

thought the episode was "solid if unexceptional", as he liked Walter but disliked the "vacuum of personality" that is Astrid. UGO Networks writer Jon Lachonis stated, "If you were on the fence before, [the episode] will drag you kicking and screaming into the dark world of Fringe science wielding bogeymen. "In Which we Meet Mr. Jones" is what Fringe promised it would be from the beginning, a suspense driven procedural that probes deep into our technological phobias. With this new formulation of Fringe, we get the challenge of a sophisticated crime drama mixed with sad sack characters that tempt the everyman into the game, while blowing us away with a level of wordplay and pseudo science that CSI or Alias could only have dreamed of." A.V. Club's Noel Murray enjoyed the episode, giving it a B+, while Television Without Pity gave the episode a B-.

External links

  • "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" at 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...

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