The Same Old Story (S01E02)
Airdate: 16 September 2008
Written by: Jeff Pinker, J.J, Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci
Directed by: Paul A. Edwards
Running Time: 50 minutes
The television landscape is littered with pilots designed to dazzle networks and audiences alike, often featuring high-concept reveals and elaborate character introductions that serve as bait for a potential series order. However, the second episode of any fledgling series is frequently the most critical juncture in its early history. Unburdened by the pressure to establish a cool concept or provide exhaustive exposition, this episode represents the "regular" course of the show, offering a serious hint of what viewers might expect during its subsequent run. The Same Old Story serves this purpose perfectly by generally modelling itself on The X-Files, the progenitor of the genre, although it is slightly altered by a more significant emphasis on character and plot exposition in the background.
The Same Old Story follows the classic "Monster of the Week" format, a very familiar concept for fans of The X-Files. It begins with a horror-like cold open that immediately establishes the tone. We find a young man (Derek Cecil), in a motel room after having a one-night stand with a woman named Loraine Daisy (Betty Gilpin). He apparently has some further and potentially sinister plans for her, but before he can put them in action, Loraine gets very sick and he is forced to rush her to the hospital and leave her there. The doctors suddenly find her to be pregnant and about to give birth. She dies during the labour, and when they perform a Caesarean section, they are horrified by what they see. The infant, rather than being a newborn, is found to have the physical characteristics of a person decades old, succumbing rapidly to the effects of a condition akin to advanced progeria.
The incident is identified as part of "the Pattern," and Olivia is sent to investigate. This fits with the experiments Walter conducted in the 1970s for the US government, aiming to create soldiers that could be grown quickly from foetuses via the use of growth hormones. The case becomes more personal for Olivia because some of the details match the string of serial murders she has investigated with John. The victims were young women who had been drugged and had parts of their brains surgically removed. It turns out that the killer was actually extracting their pituitary glands.
Olivia also tries to get extra information from Dr. Claus Penrose (Mark Blum), Walter’s old colleague who was taking part in the same experiments but now claims that he abandoned the project for ethical reasons. In reality, Dr. Penrose is still connected to the case because the killer happens to be his son Christopher. He is apparently the product of the same experiment, but Dr. Penrose developed a way to prevent rapid aging via growth hormones from pituitary glands. Christopher kills women simply because he wants not to die, and the latest incident happened because he had sex and impregnated Loraine, with the foetus experiencing the same rapid aging process. This biological horror is compounded by the fact that the mother did not consume the necessary nutrients to sustain the rapid growth of the child, raising questions about the physical logic of the premise.
In the meantime, Christopher has picked an attractive woman named Stacy (Elizabeth Stanley=, and subjected her to the same procedure. When her body is found, it is delivered to Walter’s lab. Walter devises an unorthodox method to identify the killer by reconstructing the last image the victim saw before dying. With Massive Dynamic borrowing its high-tech equipment, the process works, and the team reconstructs the location of the victim's death. They rush there just as Christopher is to kill another victim. They rescue the woman while Christopher initially escapes only to be caught as a grotesquely old man, played by Bernie McInerney, and die of the effects of rapid aging. His father Dr. Penrose, however, disappears, leaving the mystery of their connection to the Pattern unresolved.
The Same Old Story is rather standard by-the-number procedural episode with weak, simple, and uninspired murder/fringe science mystery. It is also handled in a rather predictable way, with the last victim being conveniently rescued in the last minute, relying on a deus ex machina that neatly solves the puzzles of the episode. The episode tries to compensate script deficiencies with strong visuals, which include body horror—albeit little subdued due to broadcast network standards—and some fan service with Betty Gilpin spending much of the opening scenes in underwear. An attempt at a cheap jump scare, during which Olivia, while waiting in Massive Dynamic's office, imagines herself having a rapidly aging baby, is rather cheap compared to the visceral horror of the cold open.
On the other hand, the episode acknowledges continuity and relies a lot on excellent cast. Anna Torv very realistically portrays a strong professional woman whose private life recently became affected by an unimaginable catastrophe. John Noble continues building his delightfully eccentric character, and Joshua Jackson continues building a semi-humorous father-son dynamic. The Bishop double act is well underway already, with several good moments between the two of them in this episode, providing the necessary levity to balance the grim subject matter.
The optography—a bizarre method of solving murder—isn’t actually new, and the script and Walter attribute Jules Verne as its originator thanks to his relatively obscure 1902 novel The Kip Brothers, where it was an important part of the plot. In reality, optography was part of serious scientific debate in the late 19th century and was even seriously contemplated by Scotland Yard as one of desperate measures to catch Jack the Ripper in 1888. Here it is given a slightly more slick 21st-century look.
The epilogue of the episode has Olivia, Walter, and Peter complete their forms thus cementing their positions in the newly formed Fringe division. Olivia overhears Walter talking that her son’s medical file is blank.
The Same Old Story isn’t particularly memorable, but it’s a solid piece of television that compensates its deficiencies by fast pace, economic exposition, and strong visuals establishing the standard of the series that most science fiction aficionados would find satisfying. While the episode repeats the structure of the pilot with minor tweaks, resulting in dialogue that feels stilted and a plot that feels like a "freaky CSI" rather than a bold departure, it succeeds in setting the tone for the show's blend of procedural mystery and sci-fi horror.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog https://inleo.io/@drax.leo
Substack https://draxster.substack.com
LeoDex: https://leodex.io/?ref=drax
InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
BCH donations: qpvxw0jax79lhmvlgcldkzpqanf03r9cjv8y6gtmk9