Os (S03E16)
Airdate: 4 March 2011
Written by: Josh Singer & Graham Roland Directed by: Brad Anderson
Running Time: 44 minutes
The twenty-plus-episode season format, a relic of twentieth-century American broadcast television, has done more harm to the medium than executives care to admit. For every series that manages to sustain momentum across such an expansive run, dozens falter under the weight of their own ambition. Lost stands as perhaps the most notorious example—a show that became too vast for its own good, tangled in narrative knots it couldn't fully untie by the time the credits rolled on its finale. Fringe, whilst never quite reaching the same cultural saturation point, arguably suffered similar growing pains, particularly during its third season when one couldn't shake the feeling that the writers were beginning to exhaust their supply of narrative tricks. Os, the sixteenth episode of that season, exemplifies these trends: it's perfectly solid television, competently assembled and professionally delivered, yet it never quite transcends into the remarkable. It is, in essence, an episode that exists because the schedule demands it rather than because the story absolutely requires telling.
The instalment adopts the familiar structure of a procedural "mystery of the week," opening with what initially appears to be a straightforward nighttime heist gone spectacularly wrong. Two thieves infiltrate the MA Metal Depository under cover of darkness, their intentions seemingly clear until an armed security guard stumbles upon them. In the ensuing panic, the guard fires, killing one of the intruders who he believes is reaching for a weapon. What happens next defies immediate explanation: the dead man's body begins to rise from the floor, floating in mid-air as though gravity itself has been switched off. His accomplice manages to escape, absconding with an unknown quantity of osmium—one of the densest naturally occurring elements, a metal so heavy that the very idea of it enabling levitation seems preposterous.
Fringe Division is duly summoned to investigate the phenomenon. The floating body is carefully brought down and delivered to Walter Bishop for autopsy, where the scientist uncovers two mysteries that stubbornly refuse to align. The victim's muscles have undergone severe atrophy, suggesting some manner of degenerative condition or external interference. More perplexing still, Walter discovers substantial quantities of osmium circulating through the man's bloodstream—a biological impossibility that leaves him genuinely stumped. How could the densest element known to science possibly render a human being lighter than air? The contradiction gnaws at him, representing precisely the sort of anomaly that keeps him awake at night.
The investigation gains traction when the team tracks a security card left behind by the fleeing accomplice, leading them to a warehouse where they discover a second body. This victim, identified as Bill (Michael Teigen), succumbed to the devastating side effects of an experimental compound administered by Dr. Krick (Alan Ruck). The narrative soon reveals Krick's motivation: his son Michael (Tom Stevens), a young man confined to a wheelchair by muscular dystrophy, represents the driving force behind these increasingly dangerous experiments. During a sports event, Krick spots Vince (Greyston Holt), another wheelchair-bound young man, and sees not merely a potential test subject but perhaps his last hope. After injecting Vince with the same mysterious compound, Krick recruits him for another heist.
Walter's laboratory work eventually yields the crucial breakthrough: the compound is not pure osmium but rather an alloy combining the dense metal with lutetium, a rare earth element scarcely encountered in conventional applications. More disturbing than the alloy's composition, however, are Walter's experiments demonstrating that the substance appears to violate fundamental laws of physics, causing them to operate in reverse. This discovery triggers genuine alarm. Walter becomes convinced that the same reality-warping anomalies that devastated the Redverse are now beginning to manifest in the Prime universe, threatening everything he holds dear. His thoughts turn inevitably to his deceased friend and former collaborator, William Bell. Desperate for guidance from beyond the grave, Walter becomes fixated on the concept of "soul magnets"—esoteric devices he believes might enable communication with the dead. His colleagues regard this obsession with understandable scepticism.
Fringe Division correctly deduces that Krick will require additional lutetium to continue his experiments, identifying an aerospace museum housing meteorite samples containing the rare element as his likely target. The prediction proves accurate: both Vince and Dr. Krick are apprehended during the attempted raid. Under interrogation by Walter, Krick—revealed to be an aerospace engineer by trade—explains that he stumbled upon the compound entirely by accident whilst developing alloys for military aircraft. The experiment, he confirms, genuinely defied established physical laws, though he seems less concerned with the theoretical implications than with the practical application of curing his son.
Meanwhile, Walter's determination to contact Bell reaches fever pitch. He notices a bell bequeathed to Nina Sharp and rings it with desperate hope, expecting Bell's consciousness to manifest using Nina's body as a vessel. The attempt fails; Nina remains entirely herself, unaffected by whatever metaphysical mechanism Walter anticipated. Yet the resolution arrives through unexpected channels. Peter, who has recently committed himself to complete transparency with Olivia regarding his various clandestine activities, presents her with data disks extracted from the shapeshifters he previously executed. During this moment of vulnerability, Olivia’s demeanour abruptly shifts. She begins speaking with a different voice, an unfamiliar accent, revealing that William Bell has successfully returned—not through Nina, but by possessing Olivia.
Os functions perfectly well as mid-season entertainment, though whether it qualifies as genuinely excellent depends largely upon the viewer's tolerance for certain metaphysical concepts. The episode asks its audience to accept notions of life after death, ghostly apparitions, and spiritual possession—ideas that stretch credulity even within Fringe's already elastic boundaries. The cliffhanger resolution feels somewhat too neat, too conveniently arranged, suggesting multiple episodes ahead of Anna Torv portraying yet another non-Olivia character. At this stage in the series, such identity-swapping risks descending into soap-opera territory, undermining the emotional authenticity the show has carefully cultivated.
Conversely, the procedural storyline benefits from elegant simplicity. Dr. Krick hardly qualifies as a traditional villain; his criminal actions stem not from malice or greed but from the universal parental desire to heal a suffering child. This motivation mirrors Walter's own morally questionable decisions regarding Peter, creating a thematic resonance that elevates the material beyond standard crime-of-the-week fare. The parallel is unmistakable and intentionally uncomfortable.
Longtime devotees of Lost will find particular pleasure in a brief cameo featuring Jorge Garcia, the actor beloved for his portrayal of Hurley. Appearing uncredited as Kevin, a Massive Dynamic employee engaged in conversation with Walter as his superior, Garcia's presence serves as a winking acknowledgment of the show's place within the Bad Robot television universe—a small reward for viewers who have followed these interconnected productions across multiple series.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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