Television Review: The Transformation (Fringe, S1x13, 2009)
The Transformation (S01E13)
Airdate: 3 February 2009
Written by: Zak Wheddon & J. R. Orci
Directed by: Brad Anderson
Running Time: 50 minutes
The thirteenth episode of Fringe, entitled The Transformation, initially presents itself as yet another Mystery of the Week instalment, and, like many of those, it is technically well-crafted yet unable to transcend the formula that the series had already established by this point in its first season. Despite affording some attention to the broader mythology arc and attempting to close certain lingering storylines, the episode is not particularly memorable. It functions as a competent placeholder – a bridge between the show’s procedural roots and its growing serialised ambitions – but it lacks the narrative spark that would elevate it above the competent but forgettable entries that populate the middle stretch of the season.
As is often the case with such episodes, The Transformation begins with a high-quality cold open that the remainder of the instalment cannot quite match. The scene opens aboard Vertusair Flight 781, a commercial airliner whose passenger (Neal Huff) is making notes before noticing a nosebleed. He retreats to the lavatory, conducts a quick test, and, horrified by the result, contacts the crew. He demands that they provide him with as many sedatives from the other passengers as possible, barricades himself inside the toilet, and instructs the flight attendants not to let him out. Later, a grotesquely spiked creature emerges from the cubicle and begins attacking the crew and other passengers. The plane crashes near Scarsdale, New York, killing everyone on board. The sequence is taut, claustrophobic, and genuinely unsettling, deploying the classic horror trope of transformation within an enclosed space to maximum effect. The creature design is suitably nightmarish, and the pacing of the reveal – glimpsed only in fragments before the full horror is unveiled among the wreckage – demonstrates a confident directorial hand.
Once the creature’s body is discovered among the victims, Fringe Division is called in. Walter quickly deduces what has happened: the creature was actually human before transforming. While examining photographs of the passengers, Olivia, thanks to John Scott’s implanted memories, recognises the transformed man as Marshall Bowman, and his DNA matches that of the creature. John’s memory flashes also reveal that he had past dealings not only with Bowman but with a man named Daniel Hicks (Felix Solis). This connection provides the episode with its investigative thrust, though it relies heavily on the audience’s willingness to accept the increasingly convenient nature of Olivia’s psychic link to her deceased partner.
Hicks is brought in for questioning, but before he can provide further information – beyond mentioning the name “Conrad” – he becomes ill, displaying the same symptoms that afflicted Bowman on the fatal flight. His transformation is temporarily halted by Walter, who administers sedatives in time and places him in an induced coma. It emerges that both Bowman and Hicks were dosed with a designer virus, and that this is somehow connected to a bioweapons sale. The plot mechanics are serviceable, but the exposition feels rushed, and the virus itself remains a vague MacGuffin rather than a properly developed threat.
After receiving intelligence from French authorities about an illegal arms trader named Conrad arriving in Chicago to conduct business, Olivia insists on returning to the sensory deprivation tank to extract further information from John’s memory. This second trip leads to an almost inexplicable contact with John within the dreamscape, but also reveals that John, Bowman, and Hicks were actually part of an NSA top-secret black ops cell tasked with eliminating Conrad, and that John was never a traitor at all. He provides just enough information for Olivia, aided by Peter, to take part in a sting operation that ultimately leads to Conrad Moreau (Al Sapienza) being arrested. The episode concludes with Walter informing Olivia that John’s memories are beginning to fade from her, prompting her to make one final trip to the tank to say goodbye.
The opening scene mirrors, in many respects, the cold open of the Pilot episode, which also depicted a horrific fringe science incident occurring aboard a passenger jet. Here, the scene is slightly more effective, thanks to improved special effects and the decision to show only a small glimpse of the creature, revealing its full horror only later among the corpses. It is a textbook example of how restraint can amplify terror. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode does not match that intensity, although the sting operation provides some extra suspense and does so in a more realistic fashion, making Fringe at this moment resemble a regular police drama rather than a science-fiction series. The shift in tone is not unwelcome, but it highlights the show’s occasional identity crisis.
The formidable character actor Al Sapienza is woefully underused in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role as the evil, Frankenstein-like scientist Conrad Moreau. His surname is a direct reference to the slightly similar character in H.G. Wells’ classic science-fiction novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, a nod that will please literary-minded viewers but does little to compensate for the character’s lack of screen time. Sapienza brings a menacing gravitas to the role, but he is given almost nothing to work with, and the confrontation with Conrad feels anticlimactic.
The departure of Mark Valley from the series marks the end of John Scott’s appearances. His farewell to Olivia is one of the more emotional scenes of the season, made more poignant by the fact that Valley and Torv were secretly married during production, thus adding an extra real-life dimension to the relationship between their characters. It is a quiet, melancholic moment that lingers longer than the episode’s more bombastic set pieces, and it serves as a fitting, if bittersweet, conclusion to a storyline that had, until this point, felt somewhat unresolved. In the end, The Transformation is a functional but unremarkable episode – a necessary step in the season’s arc, but one that will likely be remembered only for its strong opening and its emotional coda.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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