Johari Window (Fringe)
Encyclopedia
"Johari Window" is the 12th episode of the second season of the American science fiction
drama
television series
Fringe
. The episode was written by co-executive producer Josh Singer
, and directed by filmmaker Joe Chappelle
. The episode is set in a fictional upstate New York
town, and begins with the discovery of a seemingly deformed child by a state trooper. The Fringe investigative team of Olivia Dunham
, Walter Bishop
, and Peter Bishop
arrive on the scene, only to discover a secret government experiment gone awry, with signs from Walter's past.
Originally called "Edina City Limits," the title was changed soon before the episode aired. It first aired in the United States on January 14, 2010 on Fox
to 6.529 million viewers and a 2.6 share 18–49. The episode received average reviews, as many critics compared it either negatively or positively to a B-movie
, though most agreed that it seemed to be rehashed from older The X-Files
episodes. Several of the main actors however thoroughly enjoyed the episode, with Noble believing it to be one of his favorite Fringe episodes. Critics also noted the popular culture references to The Wizard of Oz
, Deliverance
, and Joseph Merrick
.
, a child is picked up on the road by a state trooper. While en route, the child suddenly morphs into a deformed creature. At the station, the troopers try to decide what to do with him, and one takes his picture. Two other deformed people enter the station, kill the troopers and take the boy.
The Fringe team comes on the scene to investigate, and find the boy's photograph along with recorded sightings of deformed people going back thirty years. They arrive in Edina, the city these sightings occurred near, and Olivia Dunham
(Anna Torv
) hears a buzz called the "Edina hum". The sheriff explains it is coming from a nearby military base, and offers to show them case files of past sightings. While driving, the SUV containing Olivia, Peter
(Joshua Jackson
), and Walter
(John Noble
) is run off the road by another vehicle, whose driver then starts shooting at them before getting shot and leaving. The FBI find the abandoned vehicle, and follow a blood trail to the shooter. Peter is visibly disturbed after killing his first person, and Olivia tries to comfort him.
Agent Broyles discovers that the army did classified experiments in Edina called "Project Elephant," but that most of the records are gone. The team bring the body, along with a butterfly Walter found in the town and thought Astrid would like, back to the lab in Boston. They discover that both have transformed into deformed versions of themselves. Peter and Olivia go back to Edina to talk with the sheriff and try to locate the owner of the truck. Meanwhile back in the lab, Walter tries to remember why the case feels so familiar. Throughout the episode Walter had been humming some strange melody, and he and Astrid realize he might previously have worked on the project with the army. The melody was a memory trick Walter used to remind him where he stored the experiment files so many years ago. The experiment was done by the army in the late 1970s to test how electromagnetic pulses can camouflage soldiers, and was conducted on the townspeople; the army was unaware of the long term effects of the study until it was too late, and the people were stuck in a deformed state. The pulse hides their deformities from the human eye through a massive electromagnetic pulse that runs through the town, and once they leave and are out of the pulse's reach, their true deformities show.
Walter and Astrid find the source of the electromagnetic pulse, and begin investigating the house the pulse was built on. At the same time, Peter and Olivia go to a rural meeting place where the sheriff said they would find the truck's owner, only to be shot at by some townspeople when they get there. Walter manages to turn off the pulse, and all of the townsfolk go back to their deformed appearance. The daughter of one of the army scientists saves Olivia and Peter from getting shot, and explains that her father stayed in Edina to perfect the pulse. After Walter pleads to Broyles to let the townspeople keep their secret, the Fringe team decides to not report the case so that the remaining residents can live a normal life.
, and was the third directed by co-executive producer Joe Chappelle
. It was originally titled "Edina City Limits" in press and promotional items, until Fox Broadcasting Company
changed it to "Johari Window" without explanation on January 5, a week before it broadcast. A johari window
is a cognitive psychological tool that is used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships, and may have been chosen as the episode's title because it corresponded to the transformative nature of the plot.
The sound mixing department's inspiration for the "Edina hum" (the frequency hiding the deformities of the townsfolk) came from executive producer Jeff Pinkner
. Supervising sound editor Paul Curtis later recalled Pinkner asking for it to sound like "100-year locusts back east," consequently what the crew "basically...ended up with were bugs". They also layered in a variety of machine sounds. Sound effects editor Bruce Tanis remarked that because the background sound lasted the entire episode, it had to be handled "thoughtfully".
Actor Joshua Jackson
later remarked that "Johari Window" was a "stand-alone" episode in an interview: "There is nothing from that thing that broadens the story, except at the heart of it, is a story about love and acceptance and family... Which of course, for these two guys, is the entire theme of the show for them. So I think we've done that really well". Actor John Noble
added, "Tolerance. Acceptance. I loved 'Johari Window'. I thought it was one of my favourite stories".
, he mentions he is "learning to appreciate cowardice" and that "the lion had a point," a reference, he explains to Peter, about the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz
. Walter also mentions flying monkeys and talking lions later in the episode, both also a homage
to the movie. Later, Walter excitedly says he remembers someone who played the banjo
and looked like the kidnapped, deformed boy, and starts humming a tune. Peter completes the tune, and explains it is from the movie Deliverance
, which depicts murderous, inbred, and deformed people living in rural Georgia. The army experiment was entitled "Project Elephant," a possible reference to Joseph Merrick
, a deformed person known as the "Elephant Man".
thought there was not much original or well-done about the episode, and negatively compared it to previous episodes of The X-Files
. He wrote the "slow...story [lacked] the intrigue and excitement that other episodes in the series had," but praised its conclusion as a "pay off". John McCracken of TV Guide
also compared it to The X-Files, and thought the episode was "tedious" and "largely felt like a by-the-numbers B-movie
affair". Jane Boursaw of TV Squad enjoyed the "B-movie" aspects of the plot however, calling them "fun". She thought the episode felt like "a thriller movie," and praised Noble's acting as "brilliantly". Noel Murray of The A.V. Club
gave the episode a C, explaining that "despite some good makeup effects and a few emotional moments, "Johari Window" [was] distressingly average". Andrew Hanson of the LA Times enjoyed how the "Edina hum" remained in the background of every town scene, but missed the "investigation exposition"-supplying presence of Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo
). Television Without Pity graded the episode a B-.
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 co-executive producer Josh Singer
Josh Singer
Josh Singer is a WGA-award nominated television Writer and Producer, whose most noticeable work includes writing and producing episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, the critically acclaimed series The West Wing, the crime series Bones, and the FOX science-fiction series Fringe.- Fringe...
, and directed by filmmaker Joe Chappelle
Joe Chappelle
Joe Chappelle is an American film and television director and producer. Chappelle was a Co-executive producer and regular Director for the HBO crime drama The Wire...
. The episode is set in a fictional upstate New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
town, and begins with the discovery of a seemingly deformed child by a state trooper. The Fringe investigative team of Olivia Dunham
Olivia Dunham
FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series Fringe . Olivia first appeared in the pilot episode on September 9, 2008. She is portrayed by actress Anna Torv....
, Walter Bishop
Walter Bishop (Fringe)
Walter Bishop, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by John Noble. Noble also plays Walter's counterpart in the show's parallel universe, who is referred to in the show as Walternate.-Arc:...
, and Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by Joshua Jackson.-Fictional character biography:...
arrive on the scene, only to discover a secret government experiment gone awry, with signs from Walter's past.
Originally called "Edina City Limits," the title was changed soon before the episode aired. It first aired in the United States on January 14, 2010 on 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...
to 6.529 million viewers and a 2.6 share 18–49. The episode received average reviews, as many critics compared it either negatively or positively to a B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
, though most agreed that it seemed to be rehashed from older The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
episodes. Several of the main actors however thoroughly enjoyed the episode, with Noble believing it to be one of his favorite Fringe episodes. Critics also noted the popular culture references to The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
, Deliverance
Deliverance
Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman. Principal cast members include Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty in his film debut. The film is based on a 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the...
, and Joseph Merrick
Joseph Merrick
Joseph Carey Merrick , sometimes incorrectly referred to as John Merrick, was an English man with severe deformities who was exhibited as a human curiosity named the Elephant Man. He became well known in London society after he went to live at the London Hospital...
.
Plot
In upstate New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, a child is picked up on the road by a state trooper. While en route, the child suddenly morphs into a deformed creature. At the station, the troopers try to decide what to do with him, and one takes his picture. Two other deformed people enter the station, kill the troopers and take the boy.
The Fringe team comes on the scene to investigate, and find the boy's photograph along with recorded sightings of deformed people going back thirty years. They arrive in Edina, the city these sightings occurred near, and Olivia Dunham
Olivia Dunham
FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series Fringe . Olivia first appeared in the pilot episode on September 9, 2008. She is portrayed by actress Anna Torv....
(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:...
) hears a buzz called the "Edina hum". The sheriff explains it is coming from a nearby military base, and offers to show them case files of past sightings. While driving, the SUV containing Olivia, Peter
Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by Joshua Jackson.-Fictional character biography:...
(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...
), and Walter
Walter Bishop (Fringe)
Walter Bishop, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by John Noble. Noble also plays Walter's counterpart in the show's parallel universe, who is referred to in the show as Walternate.-Arc:...
(John Noble
John 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 run off the road by another vehicle, whose driver then starts shooting at them before getting shot and leaving. The FBI find the abandoned vehicle, and follow a blood trail to the shooter. Peter is visibly disturbed after killing his first person, and Olivia tries to comfort him.
Agent Broyles discovers that the army did classified experiments in Edina called "Project Elephant," but that most of the records are gone. The team bring the body, along with a butterfly Walter found in the town and thought Astrid would like, back to the lab in Boston. They discover that both have transformed into deformed versions of themselves. Peter and Olivia go back to Edina to talk with the sheriff and try to locate the owner of the truck. Meanwhile back in the lab, Walter tries to remember why the case feels so familiar. Throughout the episode Walter had been humming some strange melody, and he and Astrid realize he might previously have worked on the project with the army. The melody was a memory trick Walter used to remind him where he stored the experiment files so many years ago. The experiment was done by the army in the late 1970s to test how electromagnetic pulses can camouflage soldiers, and was conducted on the townspeople; the army was unaware of the long term effects of the study until it was too late, and the people were stuck in a deformed state. The pulse hides their deformities from the human eye through a massive electromagnetic pulse that runs through the town, and once they leave and are out of the pulse's reach, their true deformities show.
Walter and Astrid find the source of the electromagnetic pulse, and begin investigating the house the pulse was built on. At the same time, Peter and Olivia go to a rural meeting place where the sheriff said they would find the truck's owner, only to be shot at by some townspeople when they get there. Walter manages to turn off the pulse, and all of the townsfolk go back to their deformed appearance. The daughter of one of the army scientists saves Olivia and Peter from getting shot, and explains that her father stayed in Edina to perfect the pulse. After Walter pleads to Broyles to let the townspeople keep their secret, the Fringe team decides to not report the case so that the remaining residents can live a normal life.
Production
The episode was the second written by co-executive producer and writer Josh SingerJosh Singer
Josh Singer is a WGA-award nominated television Writer and Producer, whose most noticeable work includes writing and producing episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, the critically acclaimed series The West Wing, the crime series Bones, and the FOX science-fiction series Fringe.- Fringe...
, and was the third directed by co-executive producer Joe Chappelle
Joe Chappelle
Joe Chappelle is an American film and television director and producer. Chappelle was a Co-executive producer and regular Director for the HBO crime drama The Wire...
. It was originally titled "Edina City Limits" in press and promotional items, until Fox Broadcasting Company
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...
changed it to "Johari Window" without explanation on January 5, a week before it broadcast. A johari window
Johari window
The Johari window is a technique created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 in the United States, used to help people better understand their mental instability...
is a cognitive psychological tool that is used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships, and may have been chosen as the episode's title because it corresponded to the transformative nature of the plot.
The sound mixing department's inspiration for the "Edina hum" (the frequency hiding the deformities of the townsfolk) came from 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...
. Supervising sound editor Paul Curtis later recalled Pinkner asking for it to sound like "100-year locusts back east," consequently what the crew "basically...ended up with were bugs". They also layered in a variety of machine sounds. Sound effects editor Bruce Tanis remarked that because the background sound lasted the entire episode, it had to be handled "thoughtfully".
Actor 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...
later remarked that "Johari Window" was a "stand-alone" episode in an interview: "There is nothing from that thing that broadens the story, except at the heart of it, is a story about love and acceptance and family... Which of course, for these two guys, is the entire theme of the show for them. So I think we've done that really well". Actor John Noble
John 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...
added, "Tolerance. Acceptance. I loved 'Johari Window'. I thought it was one of my favourite stories".
Cultural references
When Walter refuses to get out of the car into a supermarketSupermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
, he mentions he is "learning to appreciate cowardice" and that "the lion had a point," a reference, he explains to Peter, about the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
. Walter also mentions flying monkeys and talking lions later in the episode, both also a homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to the movie. Later, Walter excitedly says he remembers someone who played the banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
and looked like the kidnapped, deformed boy, and starts humming a tune. Peter completes the tune, and explains it is from the movie Deliverance
Deliverance
Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman. Principal cast members include Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty in his film debut. The film is based on a 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the...
, which depicts murderous, inbred, and deformed people living in rural Georgia. The army experiment was entitled "Project Elephant," a possible reference to Joseph Merrick
Joseph Merrick
Joseph Carey Merrick , sometimes incorrectly referred to as John Merrick, was an English man with severe deformities who was exhibited as a human curiosity named the Elephant Man. He became well known in London society after he went to live at the London Hospital...
, a deformed person known as the "Elephant Man".
Ratings
"Johari Window" was watched by more than 6.529 million viewers, achieving a 2.6 share of viewers aged 18–49. It rose thirteen percent from the previous week's episode, and was the highest rated night of Fringe since the season premiere.Reviews
Ramsey Isler of IGNIGN
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...
thought there was not much original or well-done about the episode, and negatively compared it to previous episodes of The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. He wrote the "slow...story [lacked] the intrigue and excitement that other episodes in the series had," but praised its conclusion as a "pay off". John McCracken of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
also compared it to The X-Files, and thought the episode was "tedious" and "largely felt like a by-the-numbers B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
affair". Jane Boursaw of TV Squad enjoyed the "B-movie" aspects of the plot however, calling them "fun". She thought the episode felt like "a thriller movie," and praised Noble's acting as "brilliantly". Noel Murray of 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...
gave the episode a C, explaining that "despite some good makeup effects and a few emotional moments, "Johari Window" [was] distressingly average". Andrew Hanson of the LA Times enjoyed how the "Edina hum" remained in the background of every town scene, but missed the "investigation exposition"-supplying presence of 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....
). Television Without Pity graded the episode a B-.
External links
- "Johari Window" at FoxFox 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...