Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 18 Season 4 The Consultant
Posted by Karl Withakay on April 16, 2012
A Gold/Yellow Episode
Sorry for the delay, I was out of town on vacation with friends this weekend.
As always, an episode synopsis will be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent
I Knew it Wasn’t Mass Effect, but…
I did note that what happened to the jerk business guy looked a lot like he got hit by the slam power wielded by a biotic from Mass Effect.
Good Vibrations
I have neither the time nor patience to go into much detail regarding exactly how absurd the whole idea of everything in our universe vibrating with a C note and everything in the Alterverse vibrating with a G note was, but it was really bad in many ways. To point out just a couple of quick points, everything in the universe doe not resonate with the same frequency, and matter is generally not vibrating with frequencies in the audible range.
Do their Planes Not Crash That Often?
I don’t see how having satellites that intercept and record all commutations to and from airplanes eliminates the usefulness of black boxes in airplanes. The two different types of black boxes serve several important functions. The cockpit voice recorder records everything that is said by anyone in the cockpit (what the crew are saying to each other), not just communications with the outside would. The flight data recorder records instrument readings and control inputs of the aircraft (what’s going on with the aircraft). Together the information from the black boxes is vitally important to be able to determine the cause of accidents and understand what was going on in the cockpit and with the craft in the time leading up to and during an accident. I’m pretty sure that we also record all communication between aircraft and the towers, but that information is likely less useful that the black box data in most accident investigations.
Another note: I guess if a plane in the Alterverse looses its radio before crashing, they just chalk it up to an unsolvable mystery and move on.
Nice Twist
It was a nice twist that Colonel Broyles turned out to not be a shapeshifter and there was a different explanation for his actions.
Stranger Danger
So the wife of the head of Fringe Division just welcomes into the house any stranger who claims to be friends with her husband, and lets them hang out unsupervised with her son? WTF?
Doing the Right Thing
I wonder, did Colonel Broyles turn himself in at least in part because when Jones ordered him to plant the device on the bridge (the device saving his world), he realized that there would be no point in saving his son’ life if his world was destroyed?
Alternative Football League Notes
In the Alterverse, the New York Jets NFL football team are still called the New York Titans, which means that there can’t be a Tennessee Titans NFL team. If the Houston Oilers did move to Tennessee, either they retained their name, or they chose one of the other names they considered using: Bobcats, Stallions, Toros, and Apollos. If the Oilers did not move to Tennessee in the Alterverse, then perhaps a different city (Los Angeles or Toronto) got an NFL expansion team in 2002.
Oops, It probably Won’t Matter, but…
Fauxlivia forgot to turn the camera back on in Meana’s cell
Now With More Drama!
Instead of immediately putting out a warrant for Colonel Broyle’s arrest and flagging his Show Me, the Fringe team takes the time to travel to Liberty island to apprehend Colonel Broyles in person, why?
Cordial Deconstruction 
Polite Dissent » Fringe — Episode 18 (Season 4): “The Consultant” said
[…] This week’s Fringe cipher was: SIMON. A list of all previous Fringe reviews is available here. Karl, as always, has more to add. […]
Thomas said
Not sure if anyone noticed this. This episode was (I think) the first mention of airplanes in the Red universe. All flight we saw was by dirigible.
Francisco (FC) said
“So the wife of the head of Fringe Division just welcomes into the house any stranger who claims to be friends with her husband, and lets them hang out unsupervised with her son? WTF?”
To be fair, we know this has been going on for some time. It’s possible that Jones has already met and earned the trust of his wife. Granted we are not told this, but its not a terrible assumption. Not EVERYTHING has to be explained on screen. If something off-screen can presumably explain a strange situation I think it’s safe to do so. Then again, I don’t recall the details of this scene very well and it could well be that this was not done well…
The non-science of Fringe: The Consultant « weak interactions said
[…] episode is debunked at Polite Dissent and Cordial Deconstruction, and you can read more about it at Fox, IMDb and the A.V. […]