Fringe (TV Series) Safe (2008) User Reviews

As comfy as old socks...

[A_Different_Drummer · 9/10 · 23 October 2014]

By the tenth episode in Season 1, the writers and producers have have achieved the Zen that every successful series strives for, that is, perfect ensemble interaction.

The other reviewers have focused on the story arc and that is fine. But this reviewer will tell you that it is not the arc that makes a successful series it is the interaction between the lead actors and the viewers, and the ensuing sense of comfort and anticipation which follows.

In other words -- the paradox of a successful show -- viewers crave predictability within the confines of unpredictability.

Anna Torv continues to deliver one of the most balanced performances ever seen in a network show. What is especially unusual is that she is not only the lead, she is also the "glue" that holds the series together. If this were written by Shakespeare, for sake of hypothesis, Torv would be Puck, never threatening, almost impish, always driving the episode forward in a way that appeals to both male and female viewers.

Beautiful ensemble work. Comfy.

One of the Most Intriguing Episodes

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 18 December 2016]

Four thieves activates a device to rob the safe of a bank crossing through the solid door. However, the time to flee is over when the last thief is crossing and he is embedded into the steel door. Agent Broyles, Olivia Dunham, Dr. Walter Bishop and Peter investigate the crime scene and Olivia recognizes the criminal. They find that there have been other mysterious heists in other safes. Meanwhile Olivia visits the widow and soon she learns that the memories belongs actually to John Scott. In Frankfurt, the lawyer of David Robert Jones visits his client to report that the last job was successful. Dr. Bishop recalls that the safes belonged to him and he had stored pieces of an experimental teleportation machine capable to bring any person from any place or any time. What is the objective of the criminals and what will happen to Olivia?

"Safe" is one of the most intriguing episodes of "Fringe". The promising story increases the mystery of the series and the role of the characters, especially Olivia. David Robert Jones seems to be a very dangerous villain. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Safe"

Most "out there" episode to date and sets up well for the next chapter in the Fringe series.

[Darwinskid · 8/10 · 2 December 2008]

A group of bank robbers led by Loeb attempt to rob a bank with a teleportation device, they retrieve the money but one of their own is too late to pass through the wall, he is left and shot in the head by Loeb. Hours later the Fringe team investigates the scene of the crime. They are pretty stunned as to how that man ended up in such a predicament however there is something about him that catches Olivia's attention, she knows him and claims they were in the marines together. She has seen his wife and has been to his house before. His enemies Raoul. Olivia goes to Raoul's house to ask a few questions, apparently they have been divorced for quite some time but what surprises Olivia more is that she doesn't know who Olivia is and claims that Olivia never stepped one foot into her house before. Olivia recalls a night of celebration where the three of them were having dinner, she claims the only other person with her and Raoul was John Scott, Olivia's dead boyfriend. Olivia quickly comes to the conclusion that while John may be out of her thought process, just maybe, his memories still lurk inside of her skull, this even stuns Dr. Bishop, who hasn't a theory on this event. Speaking of John Scott, Massive Dynamic has his body, apparently, and are studying his Brain waves and his memories very carefully, somehow they discover a connection between his mind and Olivia's, as if we didn't already know. Walter does some experiments with magnetics with Peter that show a potential risk of radiation growing in the robbers in a matter of days. With John Scott's memory Olivia is able to find a bar tender in Cambridge that is connected somehow to Raoul. Olivia takes Peter with her to Cambride and go undercover as brother and sister. They have a few drinks and both she and Peter connect more as they play a few card games that show off their talents. Olivia's includes numbers, she can memorize every number she first sees, and keeps a distinctive memory about that number that even includes her locker combination in school. Coincidently it is the same number that Walter has on the boxes of tools he uses, and the same number that he seems to repeat every night to help him fall asleep. Peter quickly notices and takes Olivia to Walter. They then connect the clues and later on they figure out that the number combination has something to do with the robbery's next stop, and according to Walter it is the same number eh used to bring himself to the 1930's with his own time machine he built from scratch so that he could bring a doctor to help Peter with his kidney disease when he was but a child. Later after a failed robbery attempt one of the robbers is captured by Olivia and Charlie. The robber is taken down into an interrogation room where Peter confronts him, the robbery then starts to feel the effects of the radiation. At one point it is reveled that both Mr. Jones( From the episode "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones") and Loeb are in this together.

Okay, if you know all my previous Fringe episode reviews you'll get the idea that I'm right now going to have this "there's a nice twist at the end but I won't tell" bit at the end of my own synopsis. Well tonight I think I will share some spoilers for you, just did a few sentences above, and here's another huge spoiler...

...As Loeb and his team get dressed up and are about to head into their next heist Olivia shows up, after learning their next target area, and gets shot in the back of her leg( I think, it was anywhere but upper) by Loeb's extra pals dressed in black and traveling in black vans. They take Olivia into the back of one of the cars and after debating up his only communicating pal at the mental institution in Germany Mr. Jones uses a device that teleports him to Loeb's destination. Now their plan is in action. Mad and determined, Broyles calls up Nina Sharp of Massive Dynamic and asks of the location of Oliva Dunham, she has not a clue of Olivia's location and like Broyles shares a similar concern for her.

I liked this episode a lot, sure a lot of it was "out there" like the time machine bit and the teleportation bit but I thought it was a lot better than last week's episode, which left me in disappoint.

This episode revels more on Peter's past and Walter's care for him. Also shows the care of Nina Sharp and Agent Broyles. The character of Mitchell Lorb remains only static at the moment, nothing new about him here. Mr. Jones is also static here, but there is plot development for him.

One thing that I was disappointed with was the lack of Peter and Olivia's discussion, it could've set a lot up for some possible romantic hints for their relationship as partners( Yes, I am a Peter/Olivia ship supporter, and I don't regret it).

I'm pretty sad that there won't be a new episode till January, I need to know the continuation now.

Great episode.

8/10.

Till we meet again, "Fringies" or "Fringe fans" or whatever the nickname is for fans of Fringe...

Clearly the best episode of the first 10ep

[nicofreezer · 9/10 · 17 May 2021]

Without any doubt or any debate possible, the best episode of the first 10 ep.

Fringe seems to finally start beeing good. Like I said in previous comments, this show is great when its about the main stories, but not very good in the standalone part as for nom This one " Safe " is the first great episode of the show 8.75/10.

Twofer

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 26 October 2023]

Of course, this episode ends up in the middle of things, so it really should connect with the next one nicely. We have villains who have discovered how to disrupt molecular structure so one solid thing can move through another. Remember that apple a few episodes ago. Of course, we need to buy into the possibility that this can work in the first place. Bishop is a character who defies reality so much but without him there would be no show. Olivia manages to smash her way into danger time and time again. She flies solo way too much when another person would make such a difference. That said, it will be fun to see where this goes.

"Cutting Edge" Science

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 2 May 2012]

This starts with Mitchell Loeb and a group of Ex-Military Cutouts using the Machine that Loeb had made using "The Equation" - We saw that Loeb was able to reach through the wall of a Safe and remove an Apple before he killed Joanne Ostler as a reward for stealing the tech from Dashiell Kim and Ben Stockton for him.

On a larger scale, Loeb is directing an operation using the Ex-Military Cutouts- Actually VA guys. They are stealing something even more important from some Safety Deposit Boxes - By walking through the bank walls as if they were made of Jello! There is always room for Jello... But not enough time for a man named Raul Lugo to escape before the walls harden again. Lugo is stuck, alive in the wall and Loeb rewards him as well by shooting him in the head, which is Loeb's favourite way of rewarding those he works with.

As Fringe Division inspects the grisly Anthony E. Zuiker Style Crime Scene, Olivia realises that she knows Lugo, intricate details of his life and marriage and boot camp at Camp Pendleton. Walter has the whole bank wall moved to his lab and has Peter catch body parts for him as he chops them out. Using the Geiger Counter on Lugo's hand, Walter discovers a high level of Radiation.

Meanwhile, Massive Dynamic is still trying to download memories from John Scott's brain. There seems to be memories "missing," - They are in Olivia. And it was John Scott who knew Lugo, not Olivia.

This does not stop Olivia from using those memories to find Lugo's friends from the VA hospital, all of whom are working for Loeb now. Meanwhile, Walter Fringes Out that there is a Fibonacci sequence related to the Safety Deposit Boxes, in fact the numbers of the Safety Deposit Boxes are the very numbers Walter always chants when he is going to sleep, and even more startling is that the Boxes, which were rented years ago using a false name, are in fact Walter's. Charlie Francis finds out where the VA guys are going, and learns where the next theft will occur. This rewards Fringe Division with it's first catch of the Day: Ryan Eastwick (Paul Fitzgerald from "Guiding Light").

Eastwick, acting like a POW, will not crack until Peter notices that the guy is acting all jittery - He has been exposed to the same high amount of Radiation that Lugo had been, so Peter scares Eastwick into telling them what Loeb's VA Cutouts will be doing next: Which is at Little Hill Field, the code word the dead guy "Smith" had given to David Robert Jones "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones."

A lot of Fringe pieces fall into place in this Episode: This is where it is first mentioned that Peter had been Ill as a child with a rare disease, a disease only one man had cured in history. And the pieces Loeb has been stealing are in fact pieces of a transportation device designed to rip through Time. But Loeb is in fact using this machine to "Star Trek" Jones from Germany to Little Hill.

As all of this coalesces to a head, Jones tells his Lawyer he needs "One More Thing" - Not an It, a Who, he wants Olivia. Jones is Obsessed with Olivia.

Jones meets with his Lawyer one more time, kills him, steals his clothes, puts eyedrops in his eyes, takes some pills, then suddenly in Little Hill, Loeb turns on the Transporter and Jones vanishes from Germany and appears next in Little Hill.

But Olivia, as she drives to Little Hill Field is stopped by a Big Black SUV and is tranked and Kidnapped.

Jones, before he gets into the Decompression Chamber, asks Loeb, "Did you get that thing for me?" to which Loeb answers, "She didn't even put up a fight"

More silliness

[Wirefan122 · 4/10 · 22 April 2015]

The show has bank robberies of safe deposit boxes by going through walls with some super-vibrator thingie that makes the walls permeable enough for a human to get through. It's all related to work Walter Bishop has done previously although I won't go into detail. Fairly intriguing plot line only outdone by a few quibbles.

David Jones escapes prison by snapping his lawyer's neck and being transported out by the transporter gizmo (no quibbles there, after all it IS Sci-fi!). My quibble is that the prison cell in which he visits with his lawyer apparently has no camera in it...what?!?!?!?

Second is Peter Bishop. Could he be any more of an unlikeable, arrogant jerk than he is? Unlikely, which is too bad because the rest of the cast is quite good. He just grates on me.