Fringe is a science fiction television series co-created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series premiered in the United States on September 9, 2008, on the Fox network, as well in Canada on The 'A' Television Network System. A version of the show (edited for time) premiered on the Nine Network in Australia on September 17, 2008. It premiered in the United Kingdom on Sunday, October 5, 2008, on Sky1, in Sweden on Thursday, October 2 on Kanal 5 and on October 1, 2008, on TV3 in Ireland.
Along with Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, Fringe was part of an attempted Fox initiative known as "Remote-Free TV", which attempted to reduce "channel flipping" by producing episodes that were longer than standard dramas on network television. Episodes aired with half the commercials and promo spots, adding about 6 minutes to each episode's run time. This experiment was not repeated for Season 2.
The series deals with a research scientist named Walter Bishop (described as "Frankenstein mixed with Albert Einstein" and portrayed by John Noble), his son Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), and an FBI agent, Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) who brings them back together. The show was promoted as a cross between The X-Files (Fox's most recent successful science fiction series), the 1980s film Altered States, The Twilight Zone and Dark Angel.
On October 1, 2008, Fringe received a full 22 episode season, this was later cut to 20 episodes, however, 21 were produced. The 21st episode Unearthed was left unbroadcast for reasons never fully explained but was aired instead (edited down for time) during the show's second season.
Season Summary[]
Fringe follows the exploits of Olivia Dunham, Walter Bishop, and his son Peter as they investigate aspects of Fringe Science (reanimation, teletransportation, etc). All over the world, a series of apparent experiments collectively referred to as "the Pattern" (e.g., a newborn baby who rapidly ages and dies within a few hours, a bus full of passengers trapped in a strange substance like mosquitoes in amber) are occurring for reasons unknown. Olivia, Peter, and Walter are in charge of investigating these strange events to determine their source. Connected to the Pattern is a company called Massive Dynamic, which is a leading global research company that holds the patents for a number of new and important technologies. Throughout the first half of the first season, Mitchell Loeb, a rogue FBI agent, orchestrates some of these events as part of a larger plan to break a man out of prison and kidnap Olivia.
Cast[]
Main Characters[]
- Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham (20/20 episodes)
- Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop (20/20 episodes)
- John Noble as Walter Bishop (20/20 episodes)
- Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles (20/20 episodes)
- Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth (20/20 episodes)
- Kirk Acevedo as Charlie Francis (20/20 episodes)
- Blair Brown as Nina Sharp (10/20 episodes)
- Mark Valley as John Scott (7/20 episodes)
Recurring Characters[]
- Ari Graynor as Rachel Dunham (6/20 episodes)
- Chance Kelly as Mitchell Loeb (5/20 episodes)
- Jared Harris as David Robert Jones (5/20 episodes)
- Michael Gaston as Sanford Harris (4/20 episodes)
- Leonard Nimoy as William Bell (1/20 episodes, cameo appearance)
- Michael Cerveris as The Observer (20/20 episodes, 3 episodes credited)
Episode List[]
| Season 1 Episodes |
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1.- "Pilot" (September 9, 2008) An international flight lands in Boston's Logan International Airport, its crew and passengers dead from a mysterious flesh-dissolving toxin. When Special Agent Olivia Dunham's partner, John Scott, is infected by the same toxin, she recruits Dr. Walter Bishop, a mentally unstable researcher in fringe science, and his estranged son, Peter Bishop, to help her to save John's life. Read more…
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2.- "The Same Old Story" (September 16, 2008) Olivia Dunham, along with Peter Bishop and Walter Bishop, reopens a cold case involving a serial killer who extracted the pituitary glands from his victims after investigating the strange death of a woman who had an even stranger child. The woman was pregnant for only hours, yet the baby she birthed was fully developed - then aged eighty years in the span of a few minutes. Read more…
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3.- "The Ghost Network" (September 23, 2008) A man seems to be having visions of Pattern-related terror attacks before they occur. The team, led by Dr. Walter Bishop, discovers that he is receiving signals from the Ghost Network, an otherwise undetectable frequency range on which the masterminds are communicating. With his help, they are able to intercept a strange crystalline disk, which is given to Nina Sharp for analysis. Read more…
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4.- "The Arrival" (September 30, 2008) A mysterious cylinder emerges from beneath the Earth in New York City, so Phillip Broyles enlists the trio of Olivia Dunham, Walter Bishop and Peter Bishop to investigate the significance of the object. However, others also seek it, including a bald man known as the Observer who only watches events as they unfold and another willing to kill to retrieve the cylinder. Read more…
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5.- "Power Hungry" (October 14, 2008) The team discovers Joseph Meegar, a man with the uncontrolled ability to affect electrical energy, made the way he is by a scientist performing illegal experiments on humans. With the help of carrier pigeons modified to track the man's electromagnetic signature, the team manages to track him down and arrest the scientist. Read more…
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6.- "The Cure" (October 21, 2008) Emily Kramer, a woman with a rare disease, is kidnapped and given a drug that makes her brain emit a microwave burst, killing her and the patrons of a diner she stumbles into. When the team investigates, they find that another woman with the same rare disease has been kidnapped. Read more…
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7.- "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" (November 11, 2008) Agent Mitchell Loeb, a friend of Phillip Broyles' collapses on assignment, his heart being constricted by an engineered parasite which is slowly working its roots into his circulatory system. To find a cure, Olivia Dunham must talk to David Robert Jones, a biochemist held incarcerated in Frankfurt, Germany. Problems arise when Mr. Jones demands to speak to a colleague of his in exchange, who is unfortunately killed in a raid set up by Broyles. Read more…
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8.- "The Equation" (November 18, 2008) The abduction of Ben Stockton, a young musician, is highlighted by a sequence of flashing lights which causes the boy's father to be hypnotized into a suggestive state and upon 'waking up' does not have any memory of what happened while hypnotized. Similar cases have ended with the victim being returned but left insane from the trauma of the incident. As they investigate, they discover that each case dealt with a genius of some sort working on an unfinished equation. Read more…
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9.- "The Dreamscape" (November 25, 2008) Massive Dynamic employee Mark Young jumps out of a window when he believes he is being attacked by butterflies. Olivia Dunham's connection with John Scott leads her to breaks in the case, but she becomes fed up with his manifestations and decides to return to the sensory deprivation tank to rid herself of them. Meanwhile, Peter Bishop's past catches up with him when his enemies find out he's back in Boston. Read more…
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10.- "Safe" (December 2, 2008) Agent Olivia Dunham investigates a body trapped inside a wall in a bank. He turns out to be Raul Lugo, a member of Mitchell Loeb's team, who uses the technology he obtained in "The Equation" to engineer a string of bank robberies, targeting safe deposit boxes Walter Bishop used to hide a Teleportation device. He succeeds in recovering the device and uses it to teleport David Robert Jones right out of a prison in Germany.Read more…
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11.- "Bound" (January 20, 2009) Following FBI Agent Mitchell Loeb's successful plan to break David Robert Jones out of prison and kidnap Olivia Dunham, indications of a larger threat begin to emerge. One of Olivia’s former adversaries conducts a formal review of the Fringe Division, just as Olivia's sister, Rachel Dunham, pays a visit. Meanwhile, Olivia, Walter Bishop and Peter Bishop investigate the murder of an epidemiologist, which may be linked to Olivia's abduction. Read more…
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12.- "The No-Brainer" (January 27, 2009) Olivia Dunham, Walter Bishop and Peter Bishop are called in to investigate the death of a car salesman who was found in a pool of "goo," exactly like another man across the country. When Walter discovers that the "goo" is brain matter, the trio tries to figure out how the killer can liquefy human brains. As the deaths pile up, the investigation reveals a common thread linking the victims together in an unthinkable manner. Meanwhile, Olivia is horrified when the case places a loved one in harm's way. Read more…
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13.- "The Transformation" (February 3, 2009) When the Fringe Division delves into another bizarre occurrence aboard an international jumbo jet, freakish remains are discovered at the crash site. Memories tip the team toward some promising leads, but the bigger picture and mysterious threat eludes them. With limited options and insufficient intelligence, Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop go undercover. Read more…
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14.- "Ability" (February 10, 2009) German agents question Olivia Dunham about her "relationship" with David Robert Jones, an escaped prisoner questioned months earlier now living in the U.S. Meanwhile, the Fringe Division investigates a threatening case where victims die faceless from their orifices suddenly sealing. With few leads and many questions, German authorities turn to Olivia, Peter Bishop and Walter Bishop to help makes sense of the return of Mr. Jones and the foreboding mysterious occurrences. Read more…
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15.- "Inner Child" (April 7, 2009) Just seconds before a building is demolished, a mysterious mute child that has been living alone underground is discovered. Meanwhile, an especially gruesome serial killer resurfaces and showcases his "artistry" by displaying his work publicly. As the boy gradually assimilates into a new environment, Olivia Dunham and the team must race against the clock to prevent the mad man from further macabre. Read more…
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16.- "Unleashed" (April 14, 2009) As animal rights activists ransack a laboratory, they get more than they bargained for when one of the caged "animals" unleashes a ferocious appetite. Leaving grotesquely mutilated dead bodies in its wake, the scientific engineered Beast with the body of a lion, claws of an eagle, fangs of a viper, skin of a rhinoceros and tail of a serpent attacks Charlie Francis. With Charlie's life on the line, Walter Bishop must come face-to-face with both his past and the beast. Read more…
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17.- "Bad Dreams" (April 21, 2009) As a suicide incident occurs at New York City's iconic Grand Central station, Agent Olivia Dunham simultaneously witnesses the event while asleep and dreaming in Boston. Rattled by the extraordinary and coincidental circumstances, Olivia, Peter Bishop and Walter Bishop investigate further, but keep coming up empty-handed. As these violent occurrences continue and worsen, Olivia is sent into an unthinkable direction and shocking details emerge about the ZFT manuscript, the highly experimental drug Cortexiphan and Olivia's childhood. Read more…
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18.- "Midnight" (April 28, 2009) The Fringe Division is on the case when severely mutilated bodies drained of spinal cord fluid begin to pile up. After their investigation leads them to Dr. Nicholas Boone, a scientist with possible ties to the Z.F.T. bioterrorist cell, they are shocked to discover the identity and motive of the killer. When the kills occur with increasing frequency, Olivia Dunham, Peter Bishop and Walter Bishop go to desperate lengths to stop them. Read more…
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19.- "The Road Not Taken" (May 5, 2009) Olivia Dunham experiences "awake dreams," seeing elaborate visions of things not really there. While investigating a disturbing case of a woman who apparently spontaneously combusted, Olivia throws caution to the wind and explores her unexplained visions further. Meanwhile, Walter Bishop discusses key information about the Z.F.T. manifesto, and Peter Bishop reveals a secret that yields unexpected results in the case. Read more…
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20.- "There's More Than One of Everything" (May 12, 2009) Nina Sharp recovers from her attack and reveals to the Fringe Division that an energy cell was stolen from her mechanical arm by David Robert Jones, which he intends to use to open a doorway into a parallel universe to confront William Bell. Meanwhile, Peter Bishop finds Walter Bishop at a beach house where they retrieve a device that can seal such an opening. Read more…
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Unaired Episode[]
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Unearthed (January 11, 2010) An unaired episode of Season One was produced. It was later shown during the run of Season Two, between Episode 10 and 11. Although formerly considered "Season 2, Episode 11," this episode was displayed as its own separate entity on the Season 2 DVD Box Set. It is sometimes referred to as Season 1, Episode 21, although this is only a production designation, as it would not make sense chronologically if it were Episode 21. Fringe Wiki considers it to be its own entity and does not supply it with a number designation. Read more…
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