Os (Fringe)
Encyclopedia
"Os" is the 16th episode of the third season
of the American science fiction
drama
television series
Fringe
, and the 59th episode overall. The episode centered around the Fringe team's investigation into a series of robberies of the element
osmium
, which they connect to a scientist (Alan Ruck
) who is able to defy the laws of physics.
"Os" was written by Josh Singer
and Graham Roland
, while Brad Anderson served as director. Along with Ruck, the episode also guest starred Jorge Garcia
in a brief cameo as a security guard.
On its first broadcast in the United States on March 11, 2011, an estimated 3.76 million viewers tuned in, giving it a 1.5/5 ratings share for those between the ages 18–49. Critical reception to the episode was generally positive, as multiple critics noted that Ruck was well-cast as a scientist just trying to help his son.
, one of the heaviest elements, and an autopsy later reveals that the dead thief's body is filled with the metal. Tracking a security card on the body, they enter a warehouse where they find the second culprit, dead, along with the bodies of several more people, all of them paraplegic. Walter (John Noble
) notes that the physical properties of osmium (both gravitational and thermal) have been reversed, and by melting the osmium collected from the first victim using liquid nitrogen, they detect the presence of the rarer element lutetium, typically only present in meteorites.
Recognizing that the local science museum has a display of meteorites, the Fringe team is able to secure Dr. Crick (Alan Ruck
), the man behind the osmium injections, and another paraplegic who has taken Dr. Crick's injections as they attempt to steal the display. With Dr. Crick in custody, Walter learns that the man had worked in aerospace to find an alloy for fighter craft. He happened upon the combination of the osmium-lutetium alloy that generated a material lighter than air, and sought to refine a permanent solution to give his own paraplegic son the ability to walk, having promised the same to those that had died from earlier, lethal doses of the alloy.
Walter, who has lamented to Nina Sharp (Blair Brown
) his need to have William Bell (Leonard Nimoy
) back to make himself whole, realizes that the only reason the osmium-lutetium alloy became lighter than air was due to his own transgression into the parallel universe
that has started to break down the laws of reality. To reverse those effects, Walter intends to use the idea of "soul magnets", microscopic devices that can be ingested by a person to call forth the soul of another. Walter believes Bell had arranged for someone in the prime universe to be his vessel, and rings the bell that Bell had bequeathed to Nina, believing it to be the instrument that will activate the soul magnets and call forth Bell.
Simultaneously, Peter (Joshua Jackson
) has decided to open up to Olivia (Anna Torv
) and shows her the five data discs from the shapeshifters
he killed after the doomsday device
weaponized him. As he discusses it with her, Olivia hears the sound of the bell. She turns to face Peter, revealing herself to now be possessed by Bell.
and executive story editor Graham Roland
wrote "Os", while filmmaker and Fringe producer Brad Anderson directed it. Anderson worked on the episode in mid-February 2011.
The return of the William Bell character to the series was inspired by Leonard Nimoy
from earlier seasons. In his first appearance on Fringe in the first season finale, "There's More Than One of Everything
", Nimoy requested that a bell be placed on his desk so that his character would be able to ring it as a play on the character's name. When the writers considered how to bring Bell back for the third season, they recalled this mannerism, and wrote it into the larger mythos, being the means by which Bell's mind emerged from Olivia's at the end of this episode.
On March 3, Entertainment Weekly
reported that actor Jorge Garcia
would be making a cameo appearance in an upcoming Fringe episode. Garcia, who previously starred as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes from J.J. Abrams' Lost
, appears as a Massive Dynamic guard that is smoking a bong with Walter at the start of the episode. Alan Ruck
guests as Dr. Crick, the person behind the floating bodies. Ruck was approached by the show's producers having envisioned him for the role. Ruck described the character, "He is no dummy... and he stumbled on to something and he is trying to figure out a way to use it. Ultimately he would like to use it for good, but in so doing he causes a lot of damage. So I guess you can say he's obsessed. And this particular point in time where the episode of Fringe starts, time is fleeting and he's just... under the gun." On his character's possible reappearance, Ruck commented, "I think not... Technically yes [he could come back], but probably not."
As with other Fringe episodes, Fox released a science lesson plan in collaboration with Science Olympiad
for grade school children, focusing on the science seen in "Os", with the intention of having "students learn about meteorites and ways of finding them."
.
praised guest actor Alan Ruck's "sustained, understated" performance, and also called Olivia being revealed as Bell's vessel "a clever development," especially praising actress Anna Torv's imitation of Nimoy's voice rather than "doing the obvious thing and hav[ing] her lip-synch Nimoy reading the lines." A.V. Club's Todd VanDerWerff graded the episode with a B-, explaining that unlike Tucker, he thought the idea of "soul magnets" was "just so goofy that it's almost too much for me to handle". VanDerWerff also felt there wasn't much of a connection between the episode and the ongoing storyline "until the show tries to force one in a way that doesn't feel as elegant as the show usually makes this stuff feel". He did however praise Ruck as "well-cast," and wrote the episode "very nearly managed" to parallel Walter's "desperate measures to the desperate measures of other men also trying to save themselves or their children through science," which the reviewer considers the strongest asset of the show.
Writing for the Los Angeles Times
, critic Andrew Hanson referred to audiences' Friday night plans away from television when he commented the episode was "better than any movie you're going to see in the theater right now". Hanson thought the mystery produced "surprises around every corner". IGN
's Ramsey Isler rated the episode 8.0/10, explaining he enjoyed the "classic Fringe" opening scene, the "decent [acting] job" by Ruck, and John Noble's performance; he also thought the script was "very clever [as] it reveals surprising story elements with innovative tricks". Isler wasn't sure what to make of the Bell-Olivia plot twist however, commenting that "this new William Bell thing is either going to end up as the best plot device of the season, or the cheesiest thing in recent sci-fi history".
Billy Grifter from Den of Geek was slightly disappointed with the "mad scientist" storyline as he felt it had been done before, but found several redeeming qualities: Alan Ruck's performance and the last five minutes featuring Noble and Blair Brown, and Torv with Joshua Jackson. Grifter thought the Noble-Brown scene was "actually very funny," praising the two actors' performances, and added that this humor made the following Torv-Jackson scene's impact "even greater". Referring to Torv's "passable" Nimoy impression, Grifter concluded that "the strength of Fringe is that it can take a rather light and fluffy premise, like the one in "Os", and embellish it with wonderful character moments and a genuine surprise or two".
Fringe (season 3)
The third season of the American science fiction television series Fringe premiered on Fox on September 23, 2010, and concluded on May 6, 2011, consisting of 22 episodes. The series is produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros...
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...
, and the 59th episode overall. The episode centered around the Fringe team's investigation into a series of robberies of the element
Chemical element
A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...
osmium
Osmium
Osmium is a chemical element with the symbol Os and atomic number 76. Osmium is a hard, brittle, blue-gray or blue-blacktransition metal in the platinum family, and is the densest natural element. Osmium is twice as dense as lead. The density of osmium is , slightly greater than that of iridium,...
, which they connect to a scientist (Alan Ruck
Alan Ruck
Alan Ruck is an American film, stage and television actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Stuart Bondek on Spin City.-Early life:...
) who is able to defy the laws of physics.
"Os" was written by 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 Graham Roland
Graham Roland
Graham Roland is an American television writer.- Career :Roland is best known as a writer on the FOX series Prison Break and for the final season of the ABC mystery series Lost...
, while Brad Anderson served as director. Along with Ruck, the episode also guest starred Jorge Garcia
Jorge Garcia
Jorge García is a U.S. actor and comedian. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the television show Becker and later for his portrayal of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the television series Lost. Garcia also performs as a stand-up comedian.-Early life:García was born...
in a brief cameo as a security guard.
On its first broadcast in the United States on March 11, 2011, an estimated 3.76 million viewers tuned in, giving it a 1.5/5 ratings share for those between the ages 18–49. Critical reception to the episode was generally positive, as multiple critics noted that Ruck was well-cast as a scientist just trying to help his son.
Plot
The Fringe team is called to the scene of a robbery of a metals repository; the body of one of the thieves, shot by a security guard, inexplicably floats off the ground, while a second culprit has gotten away. They find that the thief has taken off with a supply of osmiumOsmium
Osmium is a chemical element with the symbol Os and atomic number 76. Osmium is a hard, brittle, blue-gray or blue-blacktransition metal in the platinum family, and is the densest natural element. Osmium is twice as dense as lead. The density of osmium is , slightly greater than that of iridium,...
, one of the heaviest elements, and an autopsy later reveals that the dead thief's body is filled with the metal. Tracking a security card on the body, they enter a warehouse where they find the second culprit, dead, along with the bodies of several more people, all of them paraplegic. Walter (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...
) notes that the physical properties of osmium (both gravitational and thermal) have been reversed, and by melting the osmium collected from the first victim using liquid nitrogen, they detect the presence of the rarer element lutetium, typically only present in meteorites.
Recognizing that the local science museum has a display of meteorites, the Fringe team is able to secure Dr. Crick (Alan Ruck
Alan Ruck
Alan Ruck is an American film, stage and television actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Stuart Bondek on Spin City.-Early life:...
), the man behind the osmium injections, and another paraplegic who has taken Dr. Crick's injections as they attempt to steal the display. With Dr. Crick in custody, Walter learns that the man had worked in aerospace to find an alloy for fighter craft. He happened upon the combination of the osmium-lutetium alloy that generated a material lighter than air, and sought to refine a permanent solution to give his own paraplegic son the ability to walk, having promised the same to those that had died from earlier, lethal doses of the alloy.
Walter, who has lamented to Nina Sharp (Blair Brown
Blair Brown
Bonnie Blair Brown is an American theater, film, and television actress. She has had a number of high profile roles, including a Tony Award-winning turn in the play Copenhagen on Broadway, as well as a run as the title character in the television comedy-drama The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,...
) his need to have William Bell (Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
) back to make himself whole, realizes that the only reason the osmium-lutetium alloy became lighter than air was due to his own transgression into the parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
that has started to break down the laws of reality. To reverse those effects, Walter intends to use the idea of "soul magnets", microscopic devices that can be ingested by a person to call forth the soul of another. Walter believes Bell had arranged for someone in the prime universe to be his vessel, and rings the bell that Bell had bequeathed to Nina, believing it to be the instrument that will activate the soul magnets and call forth Bell.
Simultaneously, 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...
) has decided to open up to 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 shows her the five data discs from the shapeshifters
Shapeshifting
Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. It is also found in epic poems, science fiction literature, fantasy literature, children's literature, Shakespearean comedy, ballet, film, television, comics, and video games...
he killed after the doomsday device
Doomsday device
A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction — usually a weapon, or collection of weapons — which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly the Earth, or destroy the planet itself, bringing "doomsday", a term used for the end of planet Earth...
weaponized him. As he discusses it with her, Olivia hears the sound of the bell. She turns to face Peter, revealing herself to now be possessed by Bell.
Production
Co-executive producer 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 executive story editor Graham Roland
Graham Roland
Graham Roland is an American television writer.- Career :Roland is best known as a writer on the FOX series Prison Break and for the final season of the ABC mystery series Lost...
wrote "Os", while filmmaker and Fringe producer Brad Anderson directed it. Anderson worked on the episode in mid-February 2011.
The return of the William Bell character to the series was inspired by Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
from earlier seasons. In his first appearance on Fringe in the first season finale, "There's More Than One of Everything
There's More Than One of Everything
"There's More Than One of Everything" is the finale of the first season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The finale followed David Robert Jones' attempts to open a doorway to the parallel universe, while the Fringe team tries to stop him.The episode's story was...
", Nimoy requested that a bell be placed on his desk so that his character would be able to ring it as a play on the character's name. When the writers considered how to bring Bell back for the third season, they recalled this mannerism, and wrote it into the larger mythos, being the means by which Bell's mind emerged from Olivia's at the end of this episode.
On March 3, 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...
reported that actor Jorge Garcia
Jorge Garcia
Jorge García is a U.S. actor and comedian. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the television show Becker and later for his portrayal of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the television series Lost. Garcia also performs as a stand-up comedian.-Early life:García was born...
would be making a cameo appearance in an upcoming Fringe episode. Garcia, who previously starred as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes from J.J. Abrams' 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...
, appears as a Massive Dynamic guard that is smoking a bong with Walter at the start of the episode. Alan Ruck
Alan Ruck
Alan Ruck is an American film, stage and television actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Stuart Bondek on Spin City.-Early life:...
guests as Dr. Crick, the person behind the floating bodies. Ruck was approached by the show's producers having envisioned him for the role. Ruck described the character, "He is no dummy... and he stumbled on to something and he is trying to figure out a way to use it. Ultimately he would like to use it for good, but in so doing he causes a lot of damage. So I guess you can say he's obsessed. And this particular point in time where the episode of Fringe starts, time is fleeting and he's just... under the gun." On his character's possible reappearance, Ruck commented, "I think not... Technically yes [he could come back], but probably not."
As with other Fringe episodes, Fox released a science lesson plan in collaboration with Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad is an American elementary, middle, or high school team competition which tests knowledge of various science topics and engineering ability. Over 6,200 teams from 49 U.S. states compete each year. Most teams compete in three levels of competition: regionals, states, and nationals...
for grade school children, focusing on the science seen in "Os", with the intention of having "students learn about meteorites and ways of finding them."
Ratings
On its first broadcast, "Os" maintained a 1.5/5 rating share for adults between the ages 18 and 49 as with several previous episodes, with an estimated 3.76 million viewers. In the 18–49 demographic, Fringe was the second most watched show in its time slot, after CSI: NYCSI: NY
CSI: NY is an American police procedural television series that premiered on September 22, 2004, on CBS. The show follows the investigations of a team of NYPD forensic scientists and police officers as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths as well as other crimes...
.
Reviews
Reviews of the episode were generally positive. Ken Tucker from Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment 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...
praised guest actor Alan Ruck's "sustained, understated" performance, and also called Olivia being revealed as Bell's vessel "a clever development," especially praising actress Anna Torv's imitation of Nimoy's voice rather than "doing the obvious thing and hav[ing] her lip-synch Nimoy reading the lines." A.V. Club's Todd VanDerWerff graded the episode with a B-, explaining that unlike Tucker, he thought the idea of "soul magnets" was "just so goofy that it's almost too much for me to handle". VanDerWerff also felt there wasn't much of a connection between the episode and the ongoing storyline "until the show tries to force one in a way that doesn't feel as elegant as the show usually makes this stuff feel". He did however praise Ruck as "well-cast," and wrote the episode "very nearly managed" to parallel Walter's "desperate measures to the desperate measures of other men also trying to save themselves or their children through science," which the reviewer considers the strongest asset of the show.
Writing for 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....
, critic Andrew Hanson referred to audiences' Friday night plans away from television when he commented the episode was "better than any movie you're going to see in the theater right now". Hanson thought the mystery produced "surprises around every corner". 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...
's Ramsey Isler rated the episode 8.0/10, explaining he enjoyed the "classic Fringe" opening scene, the "decent [acting] job" by Ruck, and John Noble's performance; he also thought the script was "very clever [as] it reveals surprising story elements with innovative tricks". Isler wasn't sure what to make of the Bell-Olivia plot twist however, commenting that "this new William Bell thing is either going to end up as the best plot device of the season, or the cheesiest thing in recent sci-fi history".
Billy Grifter from Den of Geek was slightly disappointed with the "mad scientist" storyline as he felt it had been done before, but found several redeeming qualities: Alan Ruck's performance and the last five minutes featuring Noble and Blair Brown, and Torv with Joshua Jackson. Grifter thought the Noble-Brown scene was "actually very funny," praising the two actors' performances, and added that this humor made the following Torv-Jackson scene's impact "even greater". Referring to Torv's "passable" Nimoy impression, Grifter concluded that "the strength of Fringe is that it can take a rather light and fluffy premise, like the one in "Os", and embellish it with wonderful character moments and a genuine surprise or two".
External links
- "Os" at Fox.com