Fringe (TV Series) Grey Matters (2009) User Reviews

A Rational Decision

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 5 February 2017]

When a patient of a mental institution is submitted to an intriguing brain surgery and is left behind with his brain exposed, he surprisingly regains sanity. The Fringe Division is assigned to investigate the case and while Olivia and Peter check the surveillance footage, Olivia recognizes one of the men. She check the FBI file and finds his name as Thomas Jerome Newton, the leader of the shapeshifters that have stolen the frozen heads. They discover that the patient's doctor is Dr. Paris and there are two other patients sent to other mental institutions by the physician fourteen years ago. Soon they learn that the two patients have mysteriously recovered and the Fringe Division discovers they have been also submitted to brain surgeries. When Walter is submitted to a CT-scan, they find that three pieces of his brain were removed and implanted in the three patients. What is the intention of Thomas?

"Grey Matters" is one of the most intriguing episodes of "Fringe". In this episode, it is explained the behavior of Dr. Walter Bishop and the feelings of Olivia and Peter with him. The evil Thomas Jerome Newton will certainly be the great villain of this season. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Grey Matters"

Pivotal Episode: From MOTW to Mytharc in 3 easy "pieces"

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 4 June 2012]

In a dark room in a Psychiatric Hospital, a man is asking a patient about the color Red. There are other men in the room, they are doing a medical procedure on the Patient - Something is being removed from his head: But a Hospital Orderly/Guard walks up the hallway and announces "Intruder Alert!" and is shot. The men hurriedly exit the premises, and as they leave through a computer-locked door, the man looks behind him. The Patient is shown with part of his skull removed and his brains in Plain View! Begin *Fringe Title Sequence*.

The patient was apparently "Driven Sane" by this procedure. Enter Fringe Division, this is the 3rd such case this week! Olivia watches the security footage and the Main Intruder's face is clear in one frame: Olivia recognizes the face as belonging to a man whose *head* was in cryogenic freeze! They now have a name for the leader of "The First Wave": Thomas Jerome Newton - "The Man who Fell to Earth."

Why is this man running around removing things out of these people's brains, driving them sane?

What begins as a typical Fringe MOTW starts becoming a more insidious part of the Fringe Mytharc: Walter realizes, if these patients were being given a drug intended for transplant patients, then what it is that the men were removing from the heads of the patients: What better place to store Human Brain Tissue which needs to be kept alive, but in another person's brain?

But the question is, WHOSE Brain was being stored in these patient's heads?

The answer to this will shock you, if you have not guessed it by Mid- Episode. As will the reason why this was done in the first place.

There is mention of a "Dr Simon Paris" - Which you may recognize as the name of the character in "Mission Impossible" played by Leonard Nimoy.

Pieces of Memory

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 31 October 2023]

When some people who have been institutionalized for years in mental facilities start to be completely rid of their afflictions, the Fringe gang spring into action. It would seem that the perpetrators have been careless and left a patient unfinished. Walter, it turns out, had been a part of this process in the early days. The purpose is to install brain tissue and remove it later when it contains memories and significant information. Walter is quite valuable because of his specific knowledge about the parallel universes and Dr. Bell. Olivia must make a dramatic decision which could jeopardize the entire world in order to save a friend. It does, of course, set up future events.

Never happen

[Jackbv123 · 9 June 2019]

As important to the show as Walter is, Olivia could never chose him over capturing the most wanted bad guy. FBI agents have to be trained for situations like that and no matter how often it turns out this way on TV, an FBI agent would know that there would be NO CHANCE that the bad guy would live up to the bargain. Hence no bargain. Bye Bye Walter. As much as I was hoping Olivia wouldn't let him get the drop on her while trying to cuff him, that would have been better writing that making it so she had to agree to such a bargain.