Novation (Fringe)
Encyclopedia
"Novation" is the fifth episode of the fourth season
of the Fox
science fiction
drama
television series
Fringe
, and the series' 70th episode overall. In the episode, the Fringe team of the alternate timeline deal with the ramifications of Peter Bishop
's return.
The episode was written by consulting producer J.R. Orci
and co-producer Graham Roland
, while Paul Holahan
served as the director. It first aired on November 4, 2011 in the United States to an estimated 3.28 million viewers.
) and the others of Fringe division attempt to determine the origin of Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson
), who purports himself to be Walter's (John Noble
) son who had died as a young boy in the original timeline. Peter refuses to speak to anyone but Walter, yet Walter is very reluctant to accept Peter's story. Peter is held at Fringe headquarters in secure facilities.
The Fringe division is brought to investigate the violent murders of a woman and her live-in boyfriend in her home. They find that she was earlier married to Dr. Malcolm Truss (Arye Gross
), a former Massive Dynamic biochemical researcher, and believe her murder was an attempt to access his aborted research on cell cloning by one of the new shapeshifters
, Nadine (Michelle Krusiec
), previously seen in "Neither Here Nor There
". While at Massive Dynamic, it is revealed that Nina Sharp (Blair Brown
) raised Olivia and her sister Rachel after Olivia killed her stepfather and ran away from Walter's Cortexiphan trials; Walter resents Nina for both this and for her interference that led to young Peter's death. Fringe is unable to locate Truss before Nadine does, and begins a manhunt to track him down. Meanwhile, Nadine has tried to convince Truss that she is a patient in need of his cloning research, and coerces him to take her to a secret laboratory to synthesize the cure. It's revealed she has a daughter, Haley.
As Fringe division attempts to work out Truss's location, Peter, from inside his cell, uses the intercom electronics to try to convince Olivia and the others that he knows about shapeshifter technology. Under guard, Peter is able to use one of the memory discs previously recovered by Fringe to identify a tracking signal, allowing Fringe to set off to Truss's laboratory. Truss has come to discover Nadine's truth after she temporarily loses control and takes the form of his former wife, but under threat of death, continues to synthesize the cure.
Truss finishes the cure just as the FBI and Fringe agents surround the warehouse containing the lab. After being given the cure, Nadine attempts to fight off the agents, but appears to have dived into the water below. After recovering a body from the water, they realize that Nadine had taken the place of a fallen agent and has escaped their grasp. Nadine uses a Hermes 3000 typewriter
stored in a locker at a Boston train station to type a report informing them of the success of Truss's cure; moments later, the typewriter, on its own, types out further instructions for her.
Walter, after trying to resolve his issues with Peter, returns to Fringe to inform Peter that because he had two chances to save his son and let him down both times, he will not try to help again for fear of doing more harm. Meanwhile, Olivia experiences an unexplained time fluctuation.
and co-producer Graham Roland
, while Paul Holahan
marked his second directing credit for the series (his first being the second season
episode "Snakehead
").
"Novation" marked the first episode of the season to feature Peter Bishop
's (played by main cast member Joshua Jackson
) return. The actor joked that the first three season episodes "gave me an extra month and half off. But I thought it was necessary. You need to give space to explore the effect Peter’s choice had. Otherwise, you make last season cliffhanger finale – which I thought was big, ballsy thing to do – not all that important."
. The Fox network
produced a video using Fringe episode clips to mock the week delay. "Novation" had 3.28 million viewers, up a tenth with adults 18-49 to a 1.3 rating from the previous episode
. Among the night's three science fiction
genre shows, Fringe place second in the 18-49 demographic behind NBC
's Grimm
but ahead of The CW
's Supernatural
.
writer Jeff Jensen praised Noble and Jackson's performances, explaining "The reunion of the Bishop boys was a great, well acted scene. Walter, unable to even look at Peter; Peter, his face full of warmth and grace for his damaged father. Poignant. I am amazed by how this cast is always able to find the emotion in the material they’re given, no matter how gonzo-heady." Jensen continued, "I also like how Peter represents us, the fan, in the show itself. He embodies our conflicted feelings about the new timeline; he keeps the memory of the old continuity alive." A.V. Club's Noel Murray graded the episode with a B+; he wrote, "'Novation' isn’t exactly a powerhouse; it’s more explanatory and less sensational, designed to explore the immediate ramifications of Peter’s inconvenient reappearance, and to set up some of what’s to come... [The episode] is more sinew and bone than muscle... But it’s well-structured sinew and bone, I’d say." IGN
contributor Ramsey Isler rated "Novation" 8.0/10, explaining "With Joshua Jackson back in the forefront of Fringe, it feels like the show is finally whole again... suddenly the show once again has solid direction." He continued, "'Novation' is a solid episode. It may not be the game-changing, mind-exploding episode many fans were hoping for but it's entertaining nonetheless, and it moves things forward nicely."
Jensen was also slightly critical of the episode, believing that the Nadine Park/Malcolm Truss relationship was not "all that compelling." Murray agreed, writing that "The scenes between Malcolm and Nadine are much quieter and more complex than the typical Fringe freak interactions. (They’re also a little wooden, unfortunately, due to the performance of the actress playing Nadine.)" Isler was also critical of guest actress Michelle Krusiec's delivery; he noted the performance was "really bland in many spots and she never really achieve a convincing 'femme fatale' vibe." Isler had other critiques of the episode, explaining "Some of the writing/direction is a little bit off too, and I saw the shapeshifter switcharoo coming a mile away. These aren't major flaws, but they do detract a tiny bit from the story."
Fringe (season 4)
The fourth season of the American science fiction television series Fringe premiered on Fox on September 23, 2011, and will consist of 22 episodes. The series is produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television...
of the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Fringe
Fringe (TV series)
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
, and the series' 70th episode overall. In the episode, the Fringe team of the alternate timeline deal with the ramifications of Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by Joshua Jackson.-Fictional character biography:...
's return.
The episode was written by consulting producer J.R. Orci
J.R. Orci
J. R. Orci is a television and film writer and producer.He was born in Mexico City and raised in Canada, Texas, and Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin...
and co-producer Graham Roland
Graham Roland
Graham Roland is an American television writer.- Career :Roland is best known as a writer on the FOX series Prison Break and for the final season of the ABC mystery series Lost...
, while Paul Holahan
Paul Holahan
Paul Holahan is an American film/television director, cinematographer, producer, and photographer.He has directed episodes of Witchblade, Numb3rs, Las Vegas, Shark, Ugly Betty, Burn Notice, The Mentalist, and Fringe. As well as producing and directing episodes of Without a Trace, The Ex List and...
served as the director. It first aired on November 4, 2011 in the United States to an estimated 3.28 million viewers.
Plot
Olivia (Anna TorvAnna Torv
Anna Torv is an Australian actress known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the Fox television series Fringe.-Early life:...
) and the others of Fringe division attempt to determine the origin of Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson
Joshua Jackson
Joshua Carter Jackson is a Canadian American actor. He has appeared in primetime television and in over 32 film roles. He is best known for playing Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks film series, Pacey Witter in the television series Dawson's Creek and Peter Bishop in the television series...
), who purports himself to be Walter's (John Noble
John Noble
John Noble is an Australian film and television actor, and theater director of more than 80 plays. He was born in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia and is currently starring as scientist Walter Bishop in the J. J. Abrams television series Fringe.He made occasional appearances on the...
) son who had died as a young boy in the original timeline. Peter refuses to speak to anyone but Walter, yet Walter is very reluctant to accept Peter's story. Peter is held at Fringe headquarters in secure facilities.
The Fringe division is brought to investigate the violent murders of a woman and her live-in boyfriend in her home. They find that she was earlier married to Dr. Malcolm Truss (Arye Gross
Arye Gross
-Biography:Gross was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Sheri and Joseph Gross, who was an aerospace engineer and later worked in business....
), a former Massive Dynamic biochemical researcher, and believe her murder was an attempt to access his aborted research on cell cloning by one of the new shapeshifters
Shapeshifting
Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. It is also found in epic poems, science fiction literature, fantasy literature, children's literature, Shakespearean comedy, ballet, film, television, comics, and video games...
, Nadine (Michelle Krusiec
Michelle Krusiec
Michelle J. Krusiec born October 2, 1974 in Fallon, Nevada, is an American actress of Taiwanese ancestry.Krusiec was recruited to be one of six globe-trotting travel reporters for the Discovery Channel new series called Travelers...
), previously seen in "Neither Here Nor There
Neither Here Nor There (Fringe)
"Neither Here Nor There" is the fourth season premiere of the Fox science fiction drama television series Fringe. It is the season's 1st episode and the series' 66th episode overall....
". While at Massive Dynamic, it is revealed that Nina Sharp (Blair Brown
Blair Brown
Bonnie Blair Brown is an American theater, film, and television actress. She has had a number of high profile roles, including a Tony Award-winning turn in the play Copenhagen on Broadway, as well as a run as the title character in the television comedy-drama The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,...
) raised Olivia and her sister Rachel after Olivia killed her stepfather and ran away from Walter's Cortexiphan trials; Walter resents Nina for both this and for her interference that led to young Peter's death. Fringe is unable to locate Truss before Nadine does, and begins a manhunt to track him down. Meanwhile, Nadine has tried to convince Truss that she is a patient in need of his cloning research, and coerces him to take her to a secret laboratory to synthesize the cure. It's revealed she has a daughter, Haley.
As Fringe division attempts to work out Truss's location, Peter, from inside his cell, uses the intercom electronics to try to convince Olivia and the others that he knows about shapeshifter technology. Under guard, Peter is able to use one of the memory discs previously recovered by Fringe to identify a tracking signal, allowing Fringe to set off to Truss's laboratory. Truss has come to discover Nadine's truth after she temporarily loses control and takes the form of his former wife, but under threat of death, continues to synthesize the cure.
Truss finishes the cure just as the FBI and Fringe agents surround the warehouse containing the lab. After being given the cure, Nadine attempts to fight off the agents, but appears to have dived into the water below. After recovering a body from the water, they realize that Nadine had taken the place of a fallen agent and has escaped their grasp. Nadine uses a Hermes 3000 typewriter
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
stored in a locker at a Boston train station to type a report informing them of the success of Truss's cure; moments later, the typewriter, on its own, types out further instructions for her.
Walter, after trying to resolve his issues with Peter, returns to Fringe to inform Peter that because he had two chances to save his son and let him down both times, he will not try to help again for fear of doing more harm. Meanwhile, Olivia experiences an unexplained time fluctuation.
Production
The episode was co-written by consulting producer J.R. OrciJ.R. Orci
J. R. Orci is a television and film writer and producer.He was born in Mexico City and raised in Canada, Texas, and Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin...
and co-producer Graham Roland
Graham Roland
Graham Roland is an American television writer.- Career :Roland is best known as a writer on the FOX series Prison Break and for the final season of the ABC mystery series Lost...
, while Paul Holahan
Paul Holahan
Paul Holahan is an American film/television director, cinematographer, producer, and photographer.He has directed episodes of Witchblade, Numb3rs, Las Vegas, Shark, Ugly Betty, Burn Notice, The Mentalist, and Fringe. As well as producing and directing episodes of Without a Trace, The Ex List and...
marked his second directing credit for the series (his first being the second season
Fringe (Season 2)
The second season of the American science fiction television series Fringe commenced airing on the Fox network on September 17, 2009, and concluded on May 20, 2010. The season was produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, and its showrunners...
episode "Snakehead
Snakehead (Fringe)
"Snakehead" is the ninth episode of the second season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The episode followed the Fringe team's investigation into horrible deaths caused by large parasitic worms erupting from their victims' mouths...
").
"Novation" marked the first episode of the season to feature Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by Joshua Jackson.-Fictional character biography:...
's (played by main cast member Joshua Jackson
Joshua Jackson
Joshua Carter Jackson is a Canadian American actor. He has appeared in primetime television and in over 32 film roles. He is best known for playing Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks film series, Pacey Witter in the television series Dawson's Creek and Peter Bishop in the television series...
) return. The actor joked that the first three season episodes "gave me an extra month and half off. But I thought it was necessary. You need to give space to explore the effect Peter’s choice had. Otherwise, you make last season cliffhanger finale – which I thought was big, ballsy thing to do – not all that important."
Ratings
The Fringe episode was initially meant to air on October 28, 2011, but was delayed until November 4 due to Game 7 of the 2011 World Series2011 World Series
The 2011 World Series was the 107th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series. The best-of-seven playoff was played between the American League champion Texas Rangers and the National League champion St...
. The Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
produced a video using Fringe episode clips to mock the week delay. "Novation" had 3.28 million viewers, up a tenth with adults 18-49 to a 1.3 rating from the previous episode
Subject 9
"Subject 9" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of the Fox science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the series 69th episode overall.-Plot:...
. Among the night's three science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
genre shows, Fringe place second in the 18-49 demographic behind NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Grimm
Grimm (TV series)
Grimm is an American fantasy/mystery/crime drama series that made its debut on NBC on October 28, 2011. It airs Fridays at 9:00 pm ET/8:00 pm CT. The show has been described as "a cop drama—with a twist.....
but ahead of The CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
's Supernatural
Supernatural (TV series)
Supernatural is an American supernatural and horror television series created by Eric Kripke, which debuted on September 13, 2005 on The WB, and is now part of The CW's lineup. Starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, the series follows the brothers as they...
.
Reviews
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
writer Jeff Jensen praised Noble and Jackson's performances, explaining "The reunion of the Bishop boys was a great, well acted scene. Walter, unable to even look at Peter; Peter, his face full of warmth and grace for his damaged father. Poignant. I am amazed by how this cast is always able to find the emotion in the material they’re given, no matter how gonzo-heady." Jensen continued, "I also like how Peter represents us, the fan, in the show itself. He embodies our conflicted feelings about the new timeline; he keeps the memory of the old continuity alive." A.V. Club's Noel Murray graded the episode with a B+; he wrote, "'Novation' isn’t exactly a powerhouse; it’s more explanatory and less sensational, designed to explore the immediate ramifications of Peter’s inconvenient reappearance, and to set up some of what’s to come... [The episode] is more sinew and bone than muscle... But it’s well-structured sinew and bone, I’d say." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
contributor Ramsey Isler rated "Novation" 8.0/10, explaining "With Joshua Jackson back in the forefront of Fringe, it feels like the show is finally whole again... suddenly the show once again has solid direction." He continued, "'Novation' is a solid episode. It may not be the game-changing, mind-exploding episode many fans were hoping for but it's entertaining nonetheless, and it moves things forward nicely."
Jensen was also slightly critical of the episode, believing that the Nadine Park/Malcolm Truss relationship was not "all that compelling." Murray agreed, writing that "The scenes between Malcolm and Nadine are much quieter and more complex than the typical Fringe freak interactions. (They’re also a little wooden, unfortunately, due to the performance of the actress playing Nadine.)" Isler was also critical of guest actress Michelle Krusiec's delivery; he noted the performance was "really bland in many spots and she never really achieve a convincing 'femme fatale' vibe." Isler had other critiques of the episode, explaining "Some of the writing/direction is a little bit off too, and I saw the shapeshifter switcharoo coming a mile away. These aren't major flaws, but they do detract a tiny bit from the story."
External links
- "Novation" at Fox.comFox Broadcasting CompanyFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...