Fringe (TV Series) A Better Human Being (2012) User Reviews

The Telepaths

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 30 March 2017]

Peter convinces Olivia to be examined by Walter since she is retrieving memories from his Olivia, but Walter does not find anything wrong. He believes Peter is influencing Olivia with his memories. The Fringe Division is assigned to investigate a teenager, Sean, in a mental institution that described a murder in real time to his nurse. Olivia and Lincoln bring Sean to Walter and after examination, he discovers that the teenager is telepathically connect to the criminal and they have the same DNA. Olivia and Lincoln visit Sean's mother and find an important lead.

"A Better Human Being" is another conventional episode of "Fringe", with the story of a group of test tube babies that has grown-up and are telepathically connected like bees in a hive. But the great subplot is the relationship of Peter, Olivia and Nina Sharp. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Better Human Being"

Creativity booster, authentic acting, fascinating topics, freaky guest, Lord of the Bees, thrilling but flawed ending

[igoatabase · 9/10 · 20 March 2012]

The people who viewed this episode and the previous one, Welcome to Westfield, when they aired are lucky because they had a whole week to think about Olivia's kiss and dream of the infinite outcomes. Peter slapped her ? How dare you, parallel freak ! Peter turned into a poison dart frog ? Then she died ! Olivia became a giant, destroyed the whole building she lives in and had to drink some wine to get back to her normal size ? I told you she was a freak ! Of course the real outcome wasn't as silly but it proves how much Fringe can be stimulating.

So, they talked. If the past installment hadn't prepared us for Olivia's transformation what she said would have seemed badly calculated. Instead Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson's chat felt authentic and their chemistry seemed stronger. I mean two episodes ago Peter was still a stranger to Olivia's eyes but now she looks at him like the cosmic love of her life ! Her performance was so moving that it made me chill of happiness. And as usual the episodic story brilliantly served the main one. Her mind evolved as the investigation progressed. The closer they were to solve the case, the more she knew about him and her alt-self. Was the writers intention to compare Olivia to a bee ? When the scientist mentioned his sons were acting like a living organism, a collective intelligence, I instantly considered the possibility that Olivia could be a queen. I'm probably influenced by novels like Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) and Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein) but pure science can't be ignored when it comes to sci-fi and it's specially true for Fringe. But my theory of one Ωlivia to bind them all didn't work even if during the whole season 3 she was able to travel between both worlds using her psychic ability. Even Walter mentioned how special she was as a child and his speech about empathy was quite interesting. Indeed our growth is influenced by our interaction with other people, our environment in general, so doing everything to be loved isn't absurd at all. In fact it could actually be the best solution to become A Better Human Being !

It leads us to the other topic covered in this episode, genetic engineering. I don't even have to cross it out from my title sequence checklist because I'm sure it's in. Moreover it couldn't be more actual considering the number of articles published about boosting the brain or manipulating organisms. Of course it's fascinating but also quite frightening because in this case the scientist didn't feel guilty. These was also nothing Frankensteinesque about him. However the young actor was one hell of a freaky guest ! At first I thought he was able to mind control other people like in a RTS video game because he was acting like someone using a virtual reality device. That's why I was disappointed he was only hearing voices but at least what Astrid said about loneliness was smart. We can't escape reality by listening loud music or reviewing TV shows. One day or an other we have to dance with the other honeybees in order to achieve our goals in life. Yes because Walter only talking about pheromones made me skeptical considering these social insects are also known for dancing in the air in order to indicate the approximate position of a field of flowers for example. You go, bees !

As for the last minutes I was absolutely thrilled by them but also noticed a few questionable elements. The first would be the obvious kidnapping. I mean the last time a girl told me she had to pee I never saw her again ! More seriously the event could have been better staged to make it more dramatic. When Peter entered the shop I already knew she was gone and in fact I found the sequence and others anecdotic. But of course it's easy to criticize when my reviews are probably flooded by spelling mistakes and boring remarks like this one. Still an other con was Lincoln. I have never been a fan of Seth Gabel even if he had his moments but he wasn't a match for Blair Brown, specially knowing Nina Sharp was actually a shapeshifter probably capable of running on walls like Trinity and high jumping like Morpheus. However it didn't ruin the visit he paid her with Walter. From the white room futuristic design to the red-orange fluid and her black outfit that magnificently contrasted with it that part was epic ! And Walter "teasting" the medicine seemed absolutely natural. Only John Noble can mix geeky humor with hardcore sci-fi ! The mind of a genius and the curiosity of a baby.

Note : This review was first posted on Kritikenstein, my weblog.

Baby is Three

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 18 February 2012]

Sometimes, you just have to spill all the beans out of the bag to move things along. I suspected this Episode for about 3 weeks.

I just wasn't expecting this turn of events, not at all, not in the least.

I was confirmed in my suspicions as to why certain things were happening. Why Olivia was suddenly remembering being Olivia. Cortexiphan always needs a trigger, and Olivia's Trigger is always Fear. That happened, last week.

The "Monster of the Week" portion of the Ep was soundly Fringed out by Walter, who also unravels why Olivia is unraveling. Fringe is better at mixing the Procedural part of the story with the larger ongoing story arc. In this Ep they blend in perfectly.

A classic Golden Age Science Fiction story comes to mind: "More than Human" aka "Baby is Three" by Theodore Sturgeon. What The Fringe Team has here, is a "Gestalt Organism"- Although this is never mentioned.

Now the other questions: Who are these shapeshifters (and why)? What the Blazes is David Jones getting at? What the hell does he WANT? Can he be appeased, or is he just a total maniac?

Just like The X Files, we learn these answers just to have more questions. NOW What?!

This has been the best of Fringe Episodes. I actually had to stand up to watch most of it. Season four of Fringe was not really a bunch of separate "monster of the week" episodes, there was actually a mythos that was being assembled, we got parts of it in every episode even if the "A" story did not really have anything obvious to do with the main theme of season four. They always took a few minutes to explain something in relation to the "bridge universe".

There is not much else I can say about this Ep. WELL DONE! Very Well Done. I just could not sit down to watch it.

Week after Week, the Production Quality of Fringe stands up the the first Five Seasons of that show about "The Former X Designation".

at last!

[AiolosPly · 10/10 · 18 February 2012]

at last this season is now getting interesting and has a lot to expect from. the season has been really dull for me so far, mainly due to the repetitive nature of the episodes, which are not what the series' fanatics expect, but gives the opportunity to new audience to get an idea of what's happening... anyway I am glad that the story is building up, and it creates numerous questions and many issues unanswered until the next episode...these are the characteristics I like about Fringe, and I hope to see more of it. Watching the first ten episodes made me feel that actual fans are not taken into consideration by the filmmakers, because the story remained "flat" for a long time in my opinion.

Hive Mentality

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 15 November 2023]

We hone in on a young man who hears voices. But it's more than that. Those voices and his complicity (without any real knowledge) lead to a hive of "bees" that, like the workers, need to protect themselves. They do this by killing what they feel has become a threat to their existence. The key is finding a connection. Once again, we have a scientist who felt he could play god and modify the human genetic makeup to make a "better human being." Olivia becomes aware of them and draws the hive to her. Meanwhile, she and Peter are trying to figure things out as to what sort of relationship they have. We are made aware that there has been a mole at work and at the end, we are left with an astonishing vision.