Fringe (TV Series) Bound (2009) User Reviews

Changing my mind a bit.

[Wirefan122 · 7/10 · 28 April 2015]

I don't like to admit when I am wrong but it is starting (thankfully) to look like I was wrong. I believe in letting a show go through it's first season before I pull the plug and this one was very close to getting the ax prematurely...until now.

Show starts off with Olivia escaping from captivity (after noticing some clues about her masked abductors) and then contacting Charlie for a pickup only to be arrested (?) by unknown people. She wakes up in the hospital to find none other than the man that she arrested previously for molesting numerous women got exonerated and apparently promoted so now he's Broyles's boss and has been tasked with auditing Fringe division. I would be hard-pressed to find someone more arrogant and annoying (perhaps Peter Bishop?) than this fellow. Not sure why (even if he had been acquitted/exonerated) the higher-ups would put someone with such an obvious ax to grind in charge of auditing the Fringe division.

Long story shortened, Mitchell and his wife get found out although a plot twist is that Loeb says he 'saved' Olivia by abducting her and injecting her spine with some liquid...hmmmmmmm.

Although I still can't stand smarmy Peter Bishop I will/must admit the show is starting to pique my interest!

Engaging and Full of Action

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 20 December 2016]

Olivia awakes tied-up to a stretcher and a masked man injects something in her spine; however she glances at his shoes. When most of the abductors leave the place, Olivia lures the men that have stayed and succeeds to escape, taking samples of their research with her. However she is arrested by the men of her Sanford Harris that holds a grudge against her and is investigating the Fringe Division. Meanwhile the immunologist Professor Miles Kinberg expels a slug through his mouth during a lecture and Dr. Bishop researches and learns that the parasite is the same he found in the samples that Olivia took from her abductors. Olivia brings another famous immunologist, Dr. Simon, to the FBI office for protection; however Mitchell Loeb brings water with the parasite and kills him. But soon Olivia recognizes his shoes and finds that he is the double agent. Now she plots a scheme to find evidences against Loeb. Will Olivia succeed in her intent?

"Bound" is maybe the most engaging and full of action episode of "Fringe". Olivia Dunham shows her skills in the most different situations, inclusive with her sister and nephew and this is indeed her episode. The conclusion, with the confession of the mole Mitchell Loeb is intriguing. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Bound"

A compelling continuation, and a warm welcome back for Fringe.

[Darwinskid · 8/10 · 20 January 2009]

Early in the morning at Harvard University Dr. Bishop experiments with a caterpillar, changing it's color, Peter's obviously grossed out then receives a call about Olviia's disappearance. Contiuing where we left off with our last episode Olivia finds her self in this strange lab where she is being experimented by a group of mysterious men. With a plea for water Olivia takes action and wipes out the doctors experimenting on her as well as a few guards. She grabs a weapon, some evidence, a jacket and a cell phone and calls Broyles who is informing all of the agents within headquarters to go on search party for her. Olivia runs outside and tells here she is. Olivia quickly digs small hole nearby and places her new found evidence in and buries it. The FBI arrives but she is taken in for custody. Olivia wakes up on a hospital bed where she encounters a ghost from her past-Harris. Years ago Olivia had him convicted for the molesting of two young girls. Now that he's back in black Harris has been put with the privilege to evaluate operation Fringe with such a panicked Pentagon on his head. Olivia and Harris do not see eye to eye whatsoever and he will not treat her with much respect regardless if she did her job well or even tried her best. Back at headquarters Olivia sees more familiar face,s her sister and her daughter who have come to stay at her house for a while till they get their stuff together. Olivia meets up with Peter and Walter and shows them her evidence, meanwhile at a local university a college professor has a stroke and collapses onto he floor where some sort of slug creature comes out of his body. The Fringe team investigates, traditionally giving the evidence to Walter and Peter to study, mostly Walter and Olivia to find who is behind it. For some apparent reason she believes that the people behind this have to do with the people who abducted her. Problems could get worse for Olivia when one of her kidnappers, Mitch starts to show up at headquarters all fine and dandy. Now Olivia suspects him of being apart of the organization who took her. Her clues take her to another professor but after Peter tells her the facts they know of the creature and how it takes it's hosts, she is already too late for that one man. Olivia then takes herself to Mitch's house where she has some breakfast with his wife, and does some sleuthing on her own. Little does she know his wife calls him and he tells her to grab his nearest gun and kill Olivia. Agen Francis and Peter collaborate and track the phone connection between Olivia, and Mitch and his wife and find out about the whole thing. A standoff then occurs between Olivia and Mitch's wife, it ends with her killing her. Mitch drive under a bridge somewhere a few hours later and he is arrested, later he is interrogated by Olivia. Mitch refuses to talk till he sees his wife, Olivia shows him a photo of his wife, what's left of her. Micth freaks out and breaks out into tears and tells Olivia about "the plan" but not so much, here we have our "He and his people are doing evil deeds for good reasons" moment and gives Olivia the talk that she can't trust who she's with. Mitch is taken away and Olivia questions his words, but Peter tells her he's just a crazy lunatic...

At first, I felt this episode had too much going for it, but in the end it all seemed to work out together solidly.

The story structure was fine.

The thought provoking message worked, though we've kind of seen it before in earlier episode,s though not quite as better as it handled here to say the least.

The conflicts and the suspense was fantastically well handled.

The acting was good but I felt Anan Torv tried too hard this time with her American accent.

A very enjoyable and compelling returning hour for Fringe, can't wait till next week...

8/10.

The Sanfordizing of Dunham

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 3 May 2012]

In the Pilot Ep, Olivia mentions that she had prosecuted Broyle's best friend who had sexually assaulted some young Marine Privates and had him Jailed for it. Here we get to meet that scumbag in the form of Sanford Harris.

By now, we should have known that not one idle word is ever spoken in any Fringe episode, that won't be fleshed out in full later.

Before the Christmas Break, Olivia had been kidnapped by agents of David Robert Jones. This episode continues with that abduction - Which Walter and Peter do not know has happened yet.

It is apparently the next morning after the Little Hill Field incident, the last anyone had seen of Olivia was that she was on her way to Little Hill Field to try to stop what had gone on in S1E10. Peter arrives at the lab just as Walter is giving LSD to a hapless caterpillar, which changes colours in protest to Walter's chemical intrusion. For the first time in Fringe, Peter is not weirded out by Walter doing this.

We had learned a lot of things before the break, such as Peter had been Ill as a child and Walter had made a special Machine which could possibly transport people in space and time. We are about to learn a whole lot of new things.

As Olivia is bound in a makeshift laboratory, she is tilted upside-down and she sees a remarkable pair of shoes: File for Future reference. Her abductors then take Spinal Fluid.

But she escapes and steals one of the Black SUVs that were used in her abduction, and as she leaves the Lab, she grabs a bunch of Vials of some unknown substance, which she buries.

She calls this in and Broyles begins a full fledged operation: at that moment he gets a call from his "buddy" Sanford Harris: The very same pest that Olivia had put in Jail for sexual assault: who suddenly is not only free from Jail, but in now a high ranker in the Department of Homeland Security and mysteriously also in Charge of Auditing Fringe Division.

Thus begins a pain in Fringe Division's Side that continues until the season finale of this incredible first season of Fringe. Harris instantly cancels Broyles investigation of Olivia's Abduction and to top it off, she is collected by some guys in Black-The next we see, she is in a Hospital, handcuffed to a bed while Harris gloats about the "power he has been given."

Enter Rachel, Olivia's Sister and her daughter Ella, Olivia's Niece, who meet Olivia in the Hospital. After Olivia deals with the Red Tape Harris has set up in the FBI office, she contacts Walter and Peter and they meet her at the place where she hid the Vials of Unknown Gunk, which Walter identifies right away using a mobile laboratory.

This episode then segues into a MOTW - A Man is giving a lecture to a room full of Students, and he starts choking — after which a huge slimy worm-thing forces it's way out of his mouth, and scurries out into the crowd of Students, scaring their pants off.

Fringe Division is called in right away and Walter catches the thing under a trash can with the comment "Stuff like this used to happen all the time."

In his Lab, Walter identifies the thing as a huge Common Cold Virus.

This all turns out to be activity by ZFT, the stuff Olivia had hidden was used to create the huge version of Cold Virus. Olivia figures out that the Teacher, and another man, are epidemiologists who had been invited to join the CDC and nobody had known about that. Olivia tries to bring in the second scientist for protection but he is dosed with the Mega-Virus and this gives Walter one he can Dissect.

IN the middle of all of this, Olivia sees the remarkable Loafers that her abductor was wearing: On Mitchell Loeb's Feet! With Loeb identified as her Abductor she goes to his house to find clues, but is forced to face off with Samantha Loeb, again played by Trini Alvarado who she has to kill in Self-Defense. But now she has Proof that Loeb is a double-agent for ZFT and manages to drag a confession out of him despite interference from Harris.

Loeb, shocked by the death of his wife at Olivia's hands - Breaks down - And asks Olivia, "Do you not understand what we're up against? We saved you, we saved you!" - But what Mitchell will not tell Olivia, is WHY.

The seriousness with which Loeb says this gives Olivia Pause - Peter just assumes Loeb was trying to get back at Olivia, but it seems that Olivia has never bought this explanation.

Why is Jones so Interested in Olivia? If Loeb was not just trying to get back at Olivia, then the question becomes: Why? Why Olivia? Why take a Spinal Tap? Why Kidnap her? Why turn huge rabbit-sized Viruses loose? Why Kill People?

The Loeb character is revealed as a tragic character: in his mind he was not doing wrong, and if he was protecting Olivia then why tell his wife to Kill her?

The shadows of right and wrong are clearly mixed up from this point on - And things are not as simple as they once seemed in the Blue Universe. From this point on, the story being told starts becoming so much larger than anyone had ever imagined.

A Bit Confusing

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 26 October 2023]

Olivia is abducted and manages to escape her captors, hiding some vials in some dirt at a construction site. When her abduction site is searched nothing is found. The one thing she noticed when she was being held and injected with stuff, is the shoes of the perpetrator, who is wearing a Halloween mask. It turns out that those shoes become very important because she recognizes the person later. She has been betrayed again from within. This is a pretty intense, even a bit more realistic episode, although they do go a bit for the grotesque when a substance is put in a glass of water, growing into a disgusting creature who causes death and then escapes through the mouth.

Terrible writing as always

[imdb-451-718995 · 3/10 · 23 February 2022]

This show is absolutely terrible, and I watch it when I want to see something that requires only 2 brain cells. However, even those two cells know that a virus is not a cell, a mistake the show makes over and over in this episode, one which is even more egregious than a "scientist" calling hypotheses "theories."