Parasites are nasty little things that attach themselves to a larger being and leach off their newfound host to benefit themselves. The only thing worse than having a little one of these attach themselves to you, is having one that grows four feet long and kills you on the way out.

The only two things you really need to know about the second season of “Fringe” thus far are told perfectly in “Snakehead.” The first is the formula, something strange happens, Fringe Division then gets called in, and they figured it out with no mention of “The Pattern” or William Bell or the ZFT leaving you disappointed at the end. The second is that John Noble deserves an Emmy.

As per usual with “Fringe,” at least lately, “Snakehead” has nothing to do with anything other than filling out the 20 or so episodes Fox ordered this season. Not to sound like a broken record, but once again if you’re a sci-fi fan and enjoy seeing people investigate strange happenings, then sure, it was a somewhat enjoyable hour to watch. Outside of that though, there’s little excitement in watching a giant parasite come out of some poor guy’s mouth.

The episodes starts off with some guy wandering around Chinatown looking for a certain store because he is not feeling well. He finds where he needs to be, cryptically asks “Did any of the others make it?” In which the store owner/doctor(?) replies “You are the first.” The sickly man then responds, saying “They’re all dead.” The store owner then shows his hospitality by letting the other man spend the night. The two go down into the basement, the sick man lies down, screams he’s in pain, the store owner puts on rubber gloves, and then finally a squid like thing comes out of the other guy’s mouth. Seems like every episode start like this in one way or another.

Why is there a giant squid in this guy’s stomach? Why does the store owner know there is a giant squid in the guy’s stomach? How did it get there? Why should anyone care? Does it relate to Massive Dynamic, the ZFT, or William Bell? No, no it does not. So again why should you care?

Anyway, they find a wrecked shipped with a bunch of people washed up on shore dead with the giant parasites in their mouths. Olivia, Peter and Walter are called in and they find a survivor who didn’t have the parasite, as well as bunch of the parasites for Walter to experiment on. Like any formulaic police procedural, Olivia and Peter track down some leads, there’s some danger, and nothing particularly thrilling happens at the end.

Now, getting back to the whole “John Noble deserves an Emmy,” thing. That is truly the saving grace for “Snakehead.” After being committed to a mental institution for so many years, Walter has finally decided that he wants to be independent, that he shouldn’t have to depend on his son as a chaperone. The problem is how easily distracted he is, how Walter is fascinated by the world around him. Walter is a scientific genius, but his mind works like that of a child, he cannot remember his phone number, he wanders off when something catches his eye. Walter is certainly the most sympathetic character on the show, and also the funniest, and John Noble plays all aspects of Walter Bishop perfectly. The development of Walter’s character, as well as the evolution of his relation ship with Astrid, who has gone from the assistant’s whose name Walter never could remember to his friend, and his son, make this episode worthwhile.

As 2009 comes to a close, there is a noticeable difference in how the first season ended and how the second has begun. The thrilling mysterious nature of last year is all but gone as the questions we all really want to know about are discarded in favor of self-contained stories. At least last year when there was a standalone episode, there was a sense that there was some connection to all the strange events that were occurring. This year, almost all the episodes have no sense of urgency, that some catastrophic event may occur. “Fringe” has become too much of a formulaic show when it could so easily be much more. It’s hard to believe this is the vision J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci had when they ended last season with Olivia in another universe, standing atop the World Trade Center.

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