The Cure (Fringe)
Encyclopedia
"The Cure" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American science fiction
drama
television series
Fringe
. It followed two women suffering from a fictional disease, who are then given radiation drugs and exploited by a pharmaceutical company to cause nearby individuals' brains to boil.
The episode was written by Felicia D. Henderson
and Brad Caleb Kane, and directed by Bill Eagles. Executive producer Jeff Pinkner
meant for the first six episodes of the first season to serve as a "prologue", while the following episodes would get "into the next chapter" of the series. "The Cure" first aired in the United States on October 21, 2008 on the Fox network
to an estimated 8.91 viewers. It received mixed to negative reviews, with many critics doubting the plausibility of the science depicted in the episode.
, men in Hazmat suit
s drop a woman (Maria Dizzia) out of a white van, who then enters a nearby diner. Suffering from memory loss, the woman becomes irritated under a cop's questioning and causes the other patrons' brains to boil and then explode; she dies soon after in the same fashion.
The Fringe team consisting of Olivia Dunham
(Anna Torv
), Walter Bishop
(John Noble
), and Peter Bishop
(Joshua Jackson
) arrive, and Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick
) briefs them that the woman, Emily Kramer, disappeared two weeks previously, and that her corpse exhibits three times the radiation as the other victims. Upon further investigation of her body, Walter concludes she was suffering from a rare and incurable disease, "Bellini's lymphocemia," but was mysteriously cured. Further tests reveal Kramer was held against her will, and given nootropic
drugs intravenously that makes her brain emit a microwave burst, then set loose by her experimenters as a test.
Another woman with the same disease, Claire Williams (Marjan Neshat), is reported missing soon after. Before her disappearance, Claire's husband tells them she also was recently cured. Her captors are shown, commenting that "the last one was a test, this one counts". While rifling through Emily's house, Olivia and Peter learn Emily and Claire were friends, and that Emily's husband also knew her despite denying it earlier. He tells them they and other victims of the disease undertook private research and discovered a cure with the help of a physician, Dr. Sanjay Patel (Alok Tewari). Before committing suicide, the doctor tells them David Esterbrook (Chris Eigeman
), the chief scientist of a competitor of Massive Dynamic, is the one responsible. Olivia confronts Esterbrook at a restaurant to discover his motivations, only to be threatened by him; Broyles admonishes her for intimidating such a high profile individual in a public setting.
To get to the high profile Esterbrook, Peter makes a deal with Nina Sharp (Blair Brown
), who tells him where to find Claire before she can be turned into a radioactive bomb. The FBI storms the building, and Olivia is able to give Claire the cure before her head explodes. Estebrook arrogantly tells Olivia his lawyers will spring him out of any trouble, and she publicly arrests him to ensure the press finds out, causing his company's stock to dramatically decrease in value. After Broyles lectures her, Olivia tells him her emotions (which she had exhibited strongly all episode) make her a better agent.
In a sideplot, Olivia reveals that she shot her abusive stepfather when she was nine years old, but he survived and disappeared soon after. The strong emotions Olivia exhibited in the episode were because the events take place on her birthday, and her stepfather sends her a card every year to let her know "he's still out there". The final scene shows Olivia opening a birthday card from her stepfather.
and co-producer Brad Caleb Kane, while filmmaker Bill Eagles directed it. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times
, executive producer Jeff Pinkner
stated that the first six episodes of the first season were a "prologue" that ended with "The Cure," and that the following episodes, beginning with "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones
", were "getting into the next chapter" of the series.
Pinkner also told the Los Angeles Times that "Bellini's lymphocemia", the disease depicted in the episode, was invented by the writers, but its characteristics are real. He elaborated "We just didn't want to imply that individuals working on their own could cure it. We didn't want to be irresponsible to people with the real disease". Some critics have noted that "Bellini's lymphocemia" may have been a reference to Italian physician
and anatomist Lorenzo Bellini
.
It featured one-time guest appearances by actors Chris Eigeman
, Maria Dizzia, Marjan Neshat, William Hill, Lisa Emery
, Robert Eli, and Alok Tewari. Eigeman's David Esterbrook's assistant was named after Elizabeth Sarnoff
, a television writer and producer. Some of her work includes Lost
, another series created by J. J. Abrams
.
For the opening scene, a "special kind of blood" was placed in and around the actors' eyes to simulate their brains boiling. For the scene in which the actress is pushed up against a glass door, the special effects department created a device wearing a brown wig with an explosive charge designed to imitate the actress' head exploding. Director Bill Eagles described the scene as "imagin[ing] an egg in your microwave spinning around and around at high voltage. What happens? Bang! It just explodes."
's ninth most watched show of the week.
thought the fringe cases each week were "an odd way to build a mythology: the Big Secret seems to be that people in positions of power are evil and do evil things, often for money. But if Peter's right, and all these stand-alones are also detailing a series of steps taken by the Big Bads in preparation for something... well, that's an exciting idea." She gave it "two out of four Expendable Gerbils." io9
's Annalee Newitz praised the episode, declaring it made her "officially a watcher of Fringe, rather than a sampler". She continued, "It was the first time that the show really gelled... I think Fringe hit its stride last night because it finally showed us our main characters' true strengths... More importantly, Fringe has finally gotten into its main groove: human experimentation. That's what links all the scooby gang's investigations together into the Pattern, and that's what makes this show particularly timely in an age when people are scared of how biotechnology will change humanity."
Further reviews tended to be negative. IGN
's Travis Fickett rated the episode 6.0/10, explaining "It's starting to feel as if Walter's loony logic is starting to influence the actual writing of Fringe." Fickett criticized Walter's science and "silly ranting[s]", Olivia's stepfather storyline, and believed certain lines of dialogue to be "dangerously close to self-parody." Sarah Stegall from SFScope
was skeptical of the episode's science, and explained "I really don't want any more of this. I'm tired of this formulaic series. I'm tired of Anna Torv's earnest, sad expressions—can we get this woman to laugh once or twice? Joshua Jackson and Kirk Acevedo are good supports and foils for Olivia, but there's no there there when it comes to Agent Dunham." Patrick Kevin Day from the Los Angeles Times
liked the opening sequence, but was distracted from fully enjoying the episode because he thought the science was "wonky." The A.V. Club
columnist Noel Murray graded the episode with a B, explaining he liked Chris Eigeman
's presence and the efforts at further developing the characters, but questioned the Pattern storyline, despite admitting that he does not require rational scientific explanations in science fiction. Tim Grierson of New York Magazine disliked the focus on Olivia, calling it "a long hour of television." Referring to Olivia's "feminist" speech to Broyles, Grierson continued, "It's sort of cute how Fringe occasionally pretends that it's more than just a freak show. But if they're going to focus on a character, it should be Walter — though we shudder to think how his flatulence will factor into the plot."
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...
. It followed two women suffering from a fictional disease, who are then given radiation drugs and exploited by a pharmaceutical company to cause nearby individuals' brains to boil.
The episode was written by Felicia D. Henderson
Felicia D. Henderson
Felicia D. Henderson is an American television producer, screenwriter, comic books writer and a director of music videos and television episodes. She has worked on Moesha, Sister, Sister, Soul Food, and Fringe....
and Brad Caleb Kane, and directed by Bill Eagles. 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...
meant for the first six episodes of the first season to serve as a "prologue", while the following episodes would get "into the next chapter" of the series. "The Cure" first aired in the United States on October 21, 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 8.91 viewers. It received mixed to negative reviews, with many critics doubting the plausibility of the science depicted in the episode.
Plot
In Milford, MassachusettsMilford, Massachusetts
Milford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It had a population of 27,999 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Milford, constituting the center of the town, please see the article Milford ,...
, men in Hazmat suit
Hazmat suit
A hazmat suit is a garment worn as protection from hazardous materials or substances. A hazmat suit is generally combined with breathing apparatus for protection and may be used by firefighters, emergency personnel responding to toxic spills, researchers, specialists cleaning up contaminated...
s drop a woman (Maria Dizzia) out of a white van, who then enters a nearby diner. Suffering from memory loss, the woman becomes irritated under a cop's questioning and causes the other patrons' brains to boil and then explode; she dies soon after in the same fashion.
The Fringe team consisting 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....
(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:...
), 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:...
(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...
), 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:...
(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...
) arrive, and Agent Phillip 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...
) briefs them that the woman, Emily Kramer, disappeared two weeks previously, and that her corpse exhibits three times the radiation as the other victims. Upon further investigation of her body, Walter concludes she was suffering from a rare and incurable disease, "Bellini's lymphocemia," but was mysteriously cured. Further tests reveal Kramer was held against her will, and given nootropic
Nootropic
Nootropics , also referred to as smart drugs, brain steroids, memory enhancers, cognitive enhancers, and intelligence enhancers, are drugs, supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional foods that improve mental functions such as cognition, memory, intelligence, motivation, attention, and concentration...
drugs intravenously that makes her brain emit a microwave burst, then set loose by her experimenters as a test.
Another woman with the same disease, Claire Williams (Marjan Neshat), is reported missing soon after. Before her disappearance, Claire's husband tells them she also was recently cured. Her captors are shown, commenting that "the last one was a test, this one counts". While rifling through Emily's house, Olivia and Peter learn Emily and Claire were friends, and that Emily's husband also knew her despite denying it earlier. He tells them they and other victims of the disease undertook private research and discovered a cure with the help of a physician, Dr. Sanjay Patel (Alok Tewari). Before committing suicide, the doctor tells them David Esterbrook (Chris Eigeman
Chris Eigeman
Chris Eigeman is an American actor best known for roles in the Whit Stillman films Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco....
), the chief scientist of a competitor of Massive Dynamic, is the one responsible. Olivia confronts Esterbrook at a restaurant to discover his motivations, only to be threatened by him; Broyles admonishes her for intimidating such a high profile individual in a public setting.
To get to the high profile Esterbrook, Peter makes a deal with 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,...
), who tells him where to find Claire before she can be turned into a radioactive bomb. The FBI storms the building, and Olivia is able to give Claire the cure before her head explodes. Estebrook arrogantly tells Olivia his lawyers will spring him out of any trouble, and she publicly arrests him to ensure the press finds out, causing his company's stock to dramatically decrease in value. After Broyles lectures her, Olivia tells him her emotions (which she had exhibited strongly all episode) make her a better agent.
In a sideplot, Olivia reveals that she shot her abusive stepfather when she was nine years old, but he survived and disappeared soon after. The strong emotions Olivia exhibited in the episode were because the events take place on her birthday, and her stepfather sends her a card every year to let her know "he's still out there". The final scene shows Olivia opening a birthday card from her stepfather.
Production
"The Cure" was written by co-executive producer Felicia D. HendersonFelicia D. Henderson
Felicia D. Henderson is an American television producer, screenwriter, comic books writer and a director of music videos and television episodes. She has worked on Moesha, Sister, Sister, Soul Food, and Fringe....
and co-producer Brad Caleb Kane, while filmmaker Bill Eagles directed it. In an interview with 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....
, 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...
stated that the first six episodes of the first season were a "prologue" that ended with "The Cure," and that the following episodes, beginning with "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones
In Which We Meet Mr. Jones
"In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The episode was written by J. J. Abrams and Jeff Pinkner, and directed by Brad Anderson...
", were "getting into the next chapter" of the series.
Pinkner also told the Los Angeles Times that "Bellini's lymphocemia", the disease depicted in the episode, was invented by the writers, but its characteristics are real. He elaborated "We just didn't want to imply that individuals working on their own could cure it. We didn't want to be irresponsible to people with the real disease". Some critics have noted that "Bellini's lymphocemia" may have been a reference to Italian physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and anatomist Lorenzo Bellini
Lorenzo Bellini
Lorenzo Bellini , Italian physician and anatomist, was born at Florence on the September 3, 1643. At the age of twenty, when he had already begun his researches on the structure of the kidneys and had described the papillary ducts , as published in his book Exercitatio Anatomica de Structura Usu...
.
It featured one-time guest appearances by actors Chris Eigeman
Chris Eigeman
Chris Eigeman is an American actor best known for roles in the Whit Stillman films Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco....
, Maria Dizzia, Marjan Neshat, William Hill, Lisa Emery
Lisa Emery
Lisa Emery is an American stage, film, and television actress.Emery was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of an aspiring actress from Charlottesville, Virginia and an advertising executive who worked in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania...
, Robert Eli, and Alok Tewari. Eigeman's David Esterbrook's assistant was named after Elizabeth Sarnoff
Elizabeth Sarnoff
Elizabeth "Liz" Sarnoff is an American television writer and producer. She has written episodes of NYPD Blue, Crossing Jordan, Deadwood and Lost.-Career:...
, a television writer and producer. Some of her work includes 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...
, another series created 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...
.
For the opening scene, a "special kind of blood" was placed in and around the actors' eyes to simulate their brains boiling. For the scene in which the actress is pushed up against a glass door, the special effects department created a device wearing a brown wig with an explosive charge designed to imitate the actress' head exploding. Director Bill Eagles described the scene as "imagin[ing] an egg in your microwave spinning around and around at high voltage. What happens? Bang! It just explodes."
Ratings
On its initial broadcast on October 21, 2008, "The Cure" was watched by an estimated 8.91 million viewers in the United States. It garnered a 5.5/8 ratings share for all households, and was FoxFox 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...
's ninth most watched show of the week.
Reviews
Reviews for the episode ranged from mixed to negative. TV Squad writer Jane Boursaw noted that Broyles "is surely one of the most intense guys on TV", and also enjoyed Walter's scenes. Josie Kafka from Open SalonOpen Salon
Open Salon is a hybrid blogging platform and social network site started by the Salon Media Group, Inc. According to Salon Editor-in-Chief Joan Walsh "Open Salon gets rid of traditional gatekeepers, and makes our smart, creative audience full partners in Salon's publishing future." After...
thought the fringe cases each week were "an odd way to build a mythology: the Big Secret seems to be that people in positions of power are evil and do evil things, often for money. But if Peter's right, and all these stand-alones are also detailing a series of steps taken by the Big Bads in preparation for something... well, that's an exciting idea." She gave it "two out of four Expendable Gerbils." io9
Io9
io9 is a blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The blog focuses on the subjects of science fiction, futurism, and advancements in the fields of science and technology....
's Annalee Newitz praised the episode, declaring it made her "officially a watcher of Fringe, rather than a sampler". She continued, "It was the first time that the show really gelled... I think Fringe hit its stride last night because it finally showed us our main characters' true strengths... More importantly, Fringe has finally gotten into its main groove: human experimentation. That's what links all the scooby gang's investigations together into the Pattern, and that's what makes this show particularly timely in an age when people are scared of how biotechnology will change humanity."
Further reviews tended to be negative. 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 Travis Fickett rated the episode 6.0/10, explaining "It's starting to feel as if Walter's loony logic is starting to influence the actual writing of Fringe." Fickett criticized Walter's science and "silly ranting[s]", Olivia's stepfather storyline, and believed certain lines of dialogue to be "dangerously close to self-parody." Sarah Stegall from SFScope
SFScope
SFScope is an online trade journal devoted to entertainment news concerning speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It was founded by Ian Randal Strock in early 2007....
was skeptical of the episode's science, and explained "I really don't want any more of this. I'm tired of this formulaic series. I'm tired of Anna Torv's earnest, sad expressions—can we get this woman to laugh once or twice? Joshua Jackson and Kirk Acevedo are good supports and foils for Olivia, but there's no there there when it comes to Agent Dunham." Patrick Kevin Day from 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....
liked the opening sequence, but was distracted from fully enjoying the episode because he thought the science was "wonky." 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...
columnist Noel Murray graded the episode with a B, explaining he liked Chris Eigeman
Chris Eigeman
Chris Eigeman is an American actor best known for roles in the Whit Stillman films Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco....
's presence and the efforts at further developing the characters, but questioned the Pattern storyline, despite admitting that he does not require rational scientific explanations in science fiction. Tim Grierson of New York Magazine disliked the focus on Olivia, calling it "a long hour of television." Referring to Olivia's "feminist" speech to Broyles, Grierson continued, "It's sort of cute how Fringe occasionally pretends that it's more than just a freak show. But if they're going to focus on a character, it should be Walter — though we shudder to think how his flatulence will factor into the plot."
External links
- "The Cure" 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...