I just can’t help myself.

Last year, when I closed the book on my ‘Lost’ recaps – I swore “Never again”. While I enjoyed following the show and offering up my first-blush reactions to each episode; building a supportive community in the process, I felt like it would be impossible to replicate that experience. Plus – a show like Lost seems to come around once in a decade. It’s an experience.

Well – I stand corrected.

There was a time when I held The X-Files up as my favorite show of all time. Sure, there have been challengers to the throne – with Lost and Buffy and a few others making a serious push to knock Mulder and Scully down a peg; but ultimately The X-Files ruled the roost. It’s the only show in my personal history that’s rated appointment viewing on a Friday night. That it aired before the world would know the wonders of a DVR made that an imperative. If I skipped it, I was at the mercy of a crotchedy old VCR who had it in for me.

So, I settled in almost every single Friday night – during my Twenties when the allure of the great wide world was almost blinding in its brilliance – and I made sure to follow my intrepid pair down whatever dark corridors they pointed those gleaming halogen lights that marked their calling card. I could always go out afterwords.

Unfortunately, The X-Files never stuck the landing. Somewhere around Season 6 or 7, David Duchovny tired of the role and sought his great escape. The show floundered from there – losing momentum and sight of its overall mythology. This was a show that made ‘grand sweeping conspiracy’ a norm in contemporary entertainment, and yet they would cast and recast what it was all about so many times as the network suits granted them additional season. It’s not worth investing in a show’s story if the stakes are ever-changing to fit the bottom line.

While the show may have soured, Mulder and Scully are forever. They’re probably my favorite partnership of all time. But they deserved a better fate.

Along comes JJ Abrams’ Fringe – a show that was originally hatched as a cross of CSI-esque procedurals and X-Files creepy-crawlies. While that may have been how it all began – and slightly stumbled out of the gate – once the show grew confident that they could lay out their own mythology, it grew more confident and compelling. And it learned its lessons well from those who came before it.

This show is the pupil that grew infinitely stronger than its master. Fringe is now a better show than The X-Files ever was… and when production has wrapped on its final season (hopefully, in some far flung future) – I will have to give careful consideration when I compile my Top 5 Favorite Shows of All Time. It’s just that damned good.

So, as Justin Bieber would tall ya’, Never Say Never.

With this post, I’m going to begin providing recaps of Fringe episodes. The show airs on Friday evenings so I’ll aim to have each post up by the following Monday – if not sooner. As with the Lost recaps, I hope to grow a fine community here. That’s what the Comments are for below. I just jot down a few words and then we let this thing grow with your added commentary. So, I encourage anyone who is a fan of this show, to add their own tiles to the mosaic.

Well, that’s enough rambling preamble for one day.

Let’s explore the ‘Fringe‘.

1.   As I’m starting this recurring feature at Episode 15 of the Third Season – there is so much that has led to these current moments. I doubt I’ll ever go back (too much work to plow those fields) but I will throw a shout-out whenever I spy something that has led to a current event. One thing that Fringe does consistently well is to always have the mythology moving forward – even in the supposed “stand alone” episodes. The X-Files used to save the big story beats for Sweeps Weeks but Fringe always has something simmering on the burner. That’s the strength of their story-telling.

2.   Subject 13 opened with a haunting shot of a young Peter, running across a frozen lake, with a cinder block tied to his waste. The is the same stretch of ice where Peter first made his appearance in this world – kidnapped by Walter in a bid to heal the boy’s illness; and Walter’s own heavy heart.

3.   His “Mom” realizes he’s missing and makes a desperate trek through the snowy woods, where she confronts her new found son. With his brain scattered by the trauma of being stolen from his home, dragged across universes and planted in a home of dopplegangers – he is hoping to break through the ice and find an exit from this bad dream; believing the frigid waters hold the way back home.

4.   This is the second time we’ve had an episode kick-off with that groovy alternate Eighties title sequence. Among the new science they would have explored in that realm are ‘Laser Surgery’ and ‘Personal Computing’.   :  )

5.   I really dig these flashback episodes; but I think one per season is perfect. They serve as a great big brain dump of back story and both this episode, and last season’s ‘Peter‘, were expertly executed. These episodes show Fringe firing on all cylinders; deftly balancing the far-out science-fiction with soul-searching heart and pathos. That’s another reason Fringe bests The X-Files. This show is as focused on the tricky mechanics of relationship-building as it is on the freaky-deaky mythology.

6.   I also think the Behind-the-Scenes move from New York City to British Columbia serves the production well. The Vancouver locale really gave The X-Files its unique look (with its rare ability to double as almost any geographic locale) and it’s provided Fringe with some compelling backdrops. That opening sequence; on a frosty lake surrounded by trees of white, was chilling, ominous and foreboding. Real cinematic stuff.

7.   With Peter’s crisis in full bloom, Walter is suddenly distracted from his experimentation in Jacksonville – where we know he had a young Olivia Dunham in his charge. It’s surprising to see Peter’s and Olivia’s orbits collide; and also a bit poignant too. If anything, this early interaction is crucial to both of them – as it quiets Peter’s neural angst. He finds an anchor in Olivia.

8.   These flashbacks also serve to remind us that Walter wasn’t always the amusing, eccentric mad scientist we’ve grown to love. Before ordering William Bell to remove parts of his brain, our Walter was driven by scientific discovery with little care for collateral damage. He was a real bastard. We know from the recent bug episode that his double, Walternate, drew the line at child experimentation – but that’s a line our Walter is only so eager to obliterate.

9.   And we see exactly what he’s willing to do in one bravura sequence – which follows Walter’s efforts to trigger a response in Olivia. These drastic measures are ignited when Walter intuits that Olivia has crossed universes – albeit for the briefest of moments – as an escape from her abusive stepfather. Like Oppenheimer, Walter is intrigued and looks to harness this “bomb”.

10.   The testing sequence – which we’ve seen hints of in those grainy Betamax recordings – runs Olivia through a litany of psycological tests – with Walter becoming more and more aggressive. There was a nice shout-out to Project Christmas (from JJ Abram’s Alias) as Olivia struggles to put together the puzzle that Sidney Bristow once solved with ease. Walter’s trials finally culminate in a shock-cut, as the lights go out on an increasingly fearful Olivia. When they come up, one of her classmates is seen on the ground – his throat slit. She freaks and unleashes a psychic maelstrom. The power is impressive but not what Walter is looking for. He seeks the key to open the door between universes.

11.   That episode leads to two fateful meetings. The first occurs in that otherworldly field of white tulips. It’s a direct reference to ‘White Tulip‘; that excellent episode from last season that cast Peter Weller as a time-traveling scientist determined to reacquaint with his wife before she perished. The ‘White Tulip’ was an olive branch passed along to Walter – urging him to come clean with Peter. In addition, its presence in this episode underscores Peter’s predicament. He is something special planted in a world where he doesn’t belong. And yet – it’s in that field of flowers where Olivia finds safe harbor; and that’s where Peter and Olivia have their first heart-to-heart.

12.   But it’s Olivia’s confession to Walter, of the abuses suffered at the hands of her wicked stepdad – that prove most pivotal. In a stunning twist, we learn that Olivia had crossed universes and confessed to Walternate – leaving behind a little calling card that tells him exactly where he can find his lost boy. It’s a pivotal minor moment that holds major importance for both universes.

That’s all for this week. Tune in, in two weeks, for Episode 3.16 ‘Os’.