Fringe (TV Series) Inner Child (2009) User Reviews

The Mysterious Boy

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 3 January 2017]

While checking whether a building is empty for an implosion, two workers find a boy locked in a sealed tunnel in the underground. The boy is hospitalized and the Fringe Division is assigned to visit him since the tunnel had been sealed for 70 years. Meanwhile Olivia is unsuccessfully trying to find a serial called The Artist, who kills woman and improves their appearance. Soon the boy that does not speak gives clues about The Artist to Olivia and Dr. Bishop discovers that the boy is mentally connected to Olivia. Soon Olivia learns that the CIA is interested in the boy and she is powerless to change the situation. Who might be the boy?

"Inner Child" is an intriguing episode of "Fringe" divided in two great segments: one about a mysterious bald boy that does not speak and has powerful ability and the other about a serial-killer called The Artist. The conclusion of the storyline of the boy is totally unexpected. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Inner Child"

Well Conceived Plot

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 27 October 2023]

A boy is found in an ante-room in a condemned building, a place where light can't penetrate. We have no idea how long he has been there. He has no pigmentation, but for the most part he is healthy.

With certain quirks due to his condition. He does have the gift of empathy which comes into play when a man known as "the Artist" is killing women and posing them artistically. The boy senses when he is doing his evil deeds. Of course, a deadline is thrown in the way of the gang due to efforts to analyze the boy--red tape again. The whole plot is nicely developed as they attempt to understand what he is thinking since he doesn't speak.

Mini-Observer-Me

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 3 May 2012]

This was an unusual Episode. We get the eerie impression of an extra presence when the two demolition men are walking away from the building they had intended to blow to smithereens, they have to turn back. It is as if they were called back.

To find a little bald kid who doesn't talk.

Who must have been in that cesspit since the 1940's?

So initially we just assumed, that this kid had a shiny head and looked young and breathed less oxygen due to living for years and decades in a bomb shelter, eating rats and centipedes: Which Walter asserts "taste good." Would a child living in those conditions, appear to be 9 years old but really be much older? Would those conditions slow the aging process?

Those are the things that went through my mind when I first saw this, I began watching Mid-Season, so I missed "The Arrival" which introduced "The Observer/s" - It did not connect at the time there was any relation to that strange Bald Guy with the Hat that I would see walking past in Frame during episodes.

But Agent Francis has to deal with the return of a serial killer who likes to dress up his victims and display them, "The Artist" - And he has a new show coming to town! Olivia wants to help Francis deal with this - But Broyles wants her with The Bishops with the Kid.

Alicia Goranson from "Roseanne" is the first hapless Victim of The Artist, a Biker "Chick" with great tattoos (if in fact they were real), followed by a normal Woman walking a Dog (Anime voice-over artist Carrie Keranen), and finally by your basic "Nice Old Lady" (stuntwoman Carolyn Feldschuh). Three interesting Women almost prototypical, who scumbag (Theatre Actor Jeremy Shamos) murders, so that he can "improve their looks" (I didn't think the first one needed any improvement).

Scumbag was pretending to be a guy in a wheelchair, which kind of Homages "Silence of The Lambs" - But his approach is different for each woman. And so, there is a great shot of him in the back of his Van after the first woman, with a bloody apron on, drill in hand, and we can only imagine with great disgust what he is doing-But we get to see "The Result"-Biker Chick is given Black Goth Hair and Propped Up like a Dimestore Barbie in a Churchyard. But Scumbag erased her Tattoos, tsk tsk.

The bald Kid takes a liking to Olivia, and tries to give her Clues that will solve "The Artist" case. He provides case-specific details, but Olivia has trouble deciphering them in time to save the first two women.

And to make matters worse a creepy cretin, from the "Child Services" tries to take the Kid, and the Kid freaks - It's because the guy (Erik Palladino) is really CIA-But he's got an Agenda. He knows the Kid is a Mini-Observer, and wants to take him to abuse and treat him like a Lab Rat. He is probably working with Colonel Raymond Gordon (Stephen McHattie-"Fracture").

So Olivia takes him to The Lab so Walter can try to Read his Mind - But at the moment Walter starts getting Results the CIAcreep shows up with Broyles in tow and tries to take the Kid shoving everyone around with CIAuthority. Broyles stalls CIAcreep by Promising delivery later.

But the Kid, mad at Olivia for not protecting him from CIAman, has clammed up. But once Olivia makes the kid understand that she'll protect him, he calms down.

That the "child" is of the Observer's race, is well hidden until the very end, after Olivia has secured a safe place far away from CIAland - They drive past "September" on the way to White Picket Fences- And the two connect from a distance.

And the Oscar for the worst makeup goes to...

[nemesis-88 · 3/10 · 7 January 2020]

HORRIBLE make-up on that poor kid. Red eyes made with pink blush, "bald" head where you can see hair under the latex cap. Even for a show on a shoe-string, this is WAY too sloppy.