Fringe (TV Series) Alone in the World (2011) User Reviews

The Haunting Man

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 26 March 2017]

Walter is interviewed by a psychiatrist that wants to send him back to the mental institution but he does not disclose that he is haunted by a mysterious man. Meanwhile the young boy Aaron flees from two bullying boys and hide himself in a tunnel in a park. However the boys find him but are surprisingly decomposed in seconds buy a fungus. The Fringe Division is assigned to investigate and the boy is sent to Walter's laboratory to see whether he is also infected. Soon Walter finds that the fungus are part of a single organism that he calls Gus and they are interconnected with the boy.

"Alone in the Dark" is another conventional episode of "Fringe" in the style of "X-Files". The best part is the conclusion, when Walter learns that Olivia is also dreaming on the man that is haunting him. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Alone in the World"

Like Always John Noble save this show

[nicofreezer · 8/10 · 15 June 2021]

Imagine Fringe without John Noble and without The Walter Bishop character... It would be a 5/10 show , but John Noble by himself make Fringe a 8/10 quality show. In " Alone in the World" he carry the all episode alone, i was not carring about the scenes with Olivia but man what an emotional performance , thank you John Noble you save this show from beeing mediocre.

A Fungus Among Gus!

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 13 November 2023]

A frightened little boy is being chased by bullies. They follow him to an underground place. As they threaten him, something begins to form on their faces. Soon there is nothing left of them, but the boy goes free. The bodies go to the research facility. Walter is acting nuttier and nuttier because he sees someone and hears someone. We all know it is Peter, but he supposedly died. He appears to be caught in some sort of vortex. The problem is that the more they punish that (it turns out to be a brain) the more danger it puts the little boy in. There aree some very serious decisions to be made.

A Fungus named Gus

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 23 October 2011]

I can see that this ep got a thrashing from other reviewers, well I do not agree. This episode delved into material not written about since Frank Herbert speculated about it in his book "The Green Brain", which was also stolen for parts of "Avatar". I don't understand this shellaquing Fringe has been getting recently, which has all the earmarks of targeted activity like I have seen on certain movies, where several reviews seem to have identical complaints almost verbatim. This is a critical story arc, and each episode ultimately has something important to offer the Fringe main storyline. We have yet to see how this episode fits in.

As Walter becomes increasingly despondent, Fringe Division deals with a subject that Frank Herbert used to always write about: In books like "The Jesus Incident/Lazarus Effect", one of the most common things Herbert would use in his stories would be plant intelligence and what form that would take. James Cameron borrowed some of those ideas in "Avatar" - And the way it is presented here, is wholly different than that, whereas the Avatar trees store a whole race's memories, "Gus" is basically an extension of one small child, and is an extension of that person.

This episode takes a portion of that premise, and again sets it on it's ear, while explaining more about the differences between this Peter-less Multiverse and the one we have spent that last three years with.

As with the first three seasons of Fringe: The John Scott story arc that was introduced in the Pilot ep was not dealt with until halfway through the 1st season; the 2nd season had Olivia's trip to the Other Side and also the "There is more than one of everything" aspect, the 3rd season explored the "Walternate Universe" among other things.

I am simply enjoying the way the story is unraveling - I wanted to see it through, and I like seeing episodes using ideas that I read about in Science Fiction books when I was a kid, nobody has ever used material like this in a Prime Time television series, and other recent series, like The (New) Outer Limits, that may have hit on these things, was a syndicated show. That these stories are being told in Prime Time, is like bringing all of the great Hugo and Nebula award winning books I have read right into everyone's living room. This is why Fringe can do no wrong for me, each week I am reminded of some classic Sci-Fi I read when I was 8 to 12 years old.

That is basically what Fringe does, and why I support this story arc, wholeheartedly. I am as anxious as anyone to see the timeline revert back (if it will revert back, this change appears to be permanent) to what we just spent 3 years watching, but until it does, this is what is happening.

The only thing about this episode that kind of bothered me, is that Walter spent a lot of this episode forming a bond with the kid, "Aaron Snedding". A lot like the bond Aaron made with the Fungus named Gus. When Walter says goodbye to the kid, he implicates that the kid ought to visit or that he ought to visit Aaron. We should have seen Aaron show up in season four from time to time especially after Peter returned to the lab. We can assume that this might have happened but we just never saw it.

Another thing that comes to mind is I spoke about "plant intelligence", but when Frank Herbert wrote about intelligence based upon plants, they were green plants.

Fungus are not exactly the same kind of plant, if they are a plant at all. It's kind of like the difference between anaerobic bacteria and the bacteria that became life, our life. They require a different environments to survive. Where anaerobic bacteria requires a volcanic state with low amounts of oxygen and high amounts of sulfur and ammonia, regular bacteria and humans and plants for that matter require oxygen rich atmosphere.

Which changes this a little bit, it makes the entity "Gus" something unlike anything we have ever heard about or read about or seen in any science fiction book film or TV series.

A Knife to a Gun Fight

[rwk2 · 6/10 · 22 October 2011]

Good idea but unfortunately it wasn't thought out. I have an issue, based on every cop I've ever met, every soldier, every protector of the peace, that when these people are faced with hard decisions they make hard choices. Quickly and efficiently. If its a choice between a kid being hurt and several other people dying, the kid gets hurt. Why would an FBI agent even hesitate to save the city of Boston? Yet they do in Fringe. It's a human viewpoint to be sure, but I just don't buy it. Sucks. It's a regrettable decision, but it has to be done.

A threat is growing, literally, underneath the city. They know its dangerous and yet they attempt to poison it with absolutely no protection, even though they've seen it react to harsh light and know it's capable of devouring a human within hours. No surprise then that it fights back. Aren't these agents trained? Seriously, wouldn't absolutely anyone have read this script and said, "yeah, but what about..." (insert logic)? I KNOW every scifi fan would have.

On the plus side this episode did answer what the evolvement was of the Fringe team. Questions had been vaguely floating around my mind that were answered. Peter died as a child in the frozen lake because the Stranger didn't rescue him. Everything else is more or less the same. Olivia brought Walter in from the mental institution and he's still unbalanced (that last scene was awesome). Astrid is more of an agent now than the caregiver she was before (good move) and Olivia is clearly the second-in-command instead of just one of Broyle's operatives.

But seriously, when going into a hostile environment, dress accordingly. I like to think the FBI is on top of that kind of basic training. Don't bring a knife to a gun fight.

Unbalanced writing, horrific immersive production, humanist predictable story, decent child acting, wowing John Noble, intriguing Walter, psychological ending

[igoatabase · 8 October 2011]

One step forward, one step backward. When One Night in October had redeemed the mediocre premiere this third installment reminded me why I had given up on Fringe only after watching some episodes of its first season. The third one was stellar because its episodic format was brilliantly mixed to the main plot line involving shapeshifters and of course the other side. Alone in the World had many flaws and my first impression was to consider it as a filler of the worst kind. That's why I wasn't surprised to find out that it was only written by one individual instead of the usual duo or trio. Peter ? One minute at the beginning, one at the end. I know that intertwining its arc to the story of the week would require a lot of work and a complex puzzle to design but they successfully did it for almost all season 3 episodes. Even the cliffhanger wasn't surprising because it was awkwardly thrown into the mix at the last minute. It's obvious the episode was first written and then the few Peter elements were added to make it less conventional. Objectively I have to admit that a few scenes prove me wrong, like Walter calling a boy Peter by mistake or revealing what happened to his son, but overall I was quite disappointed and almost felt betrayed because the second episode had convinced me that season 4 would blow our mind again. Now I'm very skeptical and worry that the next installment will be as deceptive, if not worst.

As for the episodic story it involved a fungus and I enjoyed how it was both frightening and disgusting. It actually reminded me of Fringe's series 3 episode 5, entertaining but lacking the emotional spirit of this one. The production was also immersive thanks to some really good special effects. My favorite sequence featured Olivia and her team entering an infested room. Their red protective suit were well designed and I liked how their heads were glowing in a blue light behind the glass of their helmets. Better the cunning use of flashlights and dark areas was reminiscent of The X-Files. A night vision sequence brought also its lot of spookiness even if it won't dramatically raise your heartbeat like a Doom 3 or Descent session. Otherwise these few sparkles couldn't hide the relative lack of substance. In fact they magnified it. I just didn't like how the boy was used nor how the story ended. Are they afraid to shock us ? We have seen so many scary and disturbing stuff on Fringe that I wouldn't mind crying or feel depressed at the end of an episode for instance.

At least the young actor did a decent job and it's quite an achievement considering he faced John Noble most of the time. Indeed he impressed us again with his tremendous skills and Walter's conversation with Phillip Broyles was quite moving and shocking. However to go back to the ending I think they made a major mistake. If you think about it what Walter decided to do didn't really make sense because it wasn't the logical continuation of what happened. It reminded me of The Walking Dead's finale, TS-19. Otherwise such a rational analysis doesn't really apply to Fringe because the human brain is also irrational and until now we didn't really know this Walter. Intuition ? Senses ? Imagination ? We can't always control our emotions so for the moment I'm ready to give Fringe the benefit of the doubt. Still I can't see how fans couldn't possibly be disappointed now when an episode doesn't feature Fauxlivia, shapeshifters or the parallel world. Still learning more about this Walter backstory was enlightening but that intriguing breadcrumb got almost lost between two scenes. I understand that it has to last for one season but so far season 4 hasn't met my expectations. They could serve us Twin Olivias every single episode and I wouldn't get tired of them ! Well maybe a little so at least they're reasonable enough not to overuse their aces. As for Walternate I already anticipate how much his return will be memorable because John Noble never disappoint.

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