So far, this fall, the second season of ‘Fringe’ was offering mostly time travel arcs, the trademark J. J. Abrams guru figure, and a lot of gross-out sci-fi stand alone episodes–not exactly my thing. Though I really loved season one of ‘Fringe,’ I was beginning to doubt my commitment to continue watching the show.
But after taking a break for the holidays ‘Fringe’ returned with two strong episodes, both of which aired the same week. My favorite: the exorcism episode!
Episode 11, ‘Unearthed,’ starts with a young girl’s death–a Catholic priest is performing Last Rites (the anointing of the sick) before the mother lets the doctors take her daughter off life support. She “dies”–or so we think–but soon after being pronounced dead, she “resurrects” but speaking and sounding like another person (an older man) before returning to herself. Her mother thinks it’s a miracle.
Soon, however, we learn that the young girl is possessed by a man recently murdered, who takes over her body and voice in quite the Exorcist-movie sort of way. It’s fantastic! Enter Walter, thrilled to pieces about performing his own, wacky scientific version of an exorcism, not to mention a throw down with the Catholic priest over whether or not possession and exorcisms are real or “a bunch of superstition.”
‘Unearthed’ is ‘Fringe’ at its and I hope for more of the same as season two continues. The entirety of ‘Unearthed’ is streaming online at hulu.com.