Walter Bishop has always been one of the central characters to Fringe. This is hardly a revelatory statement. But as the series has progressed it becomes more and more apparent that he may be the central figure of the series — the one on which the mythology of the series hinges. This episode, in which the team investigates three mental patients' sudden rehabilitation, only underlines that fact as it shows how important Walter is to the enemy as well as the good guys...
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J.J. Abrams
J.J. Abrams is a former actor (he was hilarious in Six Degrees of Separation) who also happens to direct, produce, write, and dream. We can't be too sorry he's focusing on his work behind the camera. If he hadn't, we might never have been formally introduced to Alias' Sydney Bristow, Fringe's Dr. Walter Bishop or any of Lost's fascinating ensemble of enigmas. We spoke to Abrams, who is one of the influential television industry players interviewed for TVGuide.com's Best of the Decade section, about the impact his shows have made, why he creates so many strong female characters and who inspired him.
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Fringe
Fringe pulled in its highest ratings since the season premiere, according to early Nielsen estimates.
The supernatural Fox procedural pulled in 6.9 million viewers and climbed in the adults 18-to-49-demo. Its lead-in, Bones (9.9 million viewers) was also way up compared to the last several weeks.
Conversely, FlashForward's final episode before a just-announced long hiatus slipped 8 percent in the demo to a new series low and pulled in 7.3 million viewers. ABC rebounded, however, with a two-hour Private Practice, which averaged 9.5 million viewers and helped ABC tie with CBS to win the night.
CBS was led by...
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"Did you eat?"
"Yeah"
"Well, that's unfortunate."
Fringe has never shied away from the viscera and gore that the sci-fi genre so often demands, but "Snakehead" was an especially stomach-churning addition to the series. The team investigates a case involving large parasitic worms that are growing inside groups of Chinese nationals, and while this was a great freak-of-the-week, it was Walter's search for independence that gave the episode its beating heart.
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After a few weeks of less-than-stellar self-contained episodes, Fringe turned its attention to one of the most interesting aspects of its mythology: The Observer. Or as it turns out, the Observers. When a rogue Observer kidnaps a young woman, the Fringe team and the other Observers try to figure out why and Walter worries that they've come to collect a debt.
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The Office
The Office
9/8c NBC
Ryan Howard refuses to be a heavy hitter (as opposed to the other Ryan Howard, the Phillies' home-run king). Once a corporate young gun who rose to the top echelon of Dunder Mifflin, Ryan's fall from grace landed him right back to low-rung status in Scranton. Now he's bitter, lazy, biding time, and refusing to do work. This, of course, grabs the attention of cocaptain Jim, who clashes with the ace slacker. But in the main event, bigwig David Wallace (Andy Buckley) summons a jubilant Michael to attend a shareholders meeting in New York City. Tagging along on the trip: Andy, Dwight and Oscar.
Read on for previews of Terror in Mumbai, Fringe, Project Runway and Private Practice.
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The latest episode of Fringe opened on a pair of men being chased to a rooftop. They appear to have kidnapped a teen boy in their backseat. Once cornered, one of the men seems to the force one police officer to leap to his death and another to kill her partners and then herself using mind control. This being Fringe, of course, none of this is exactly what it seems. And though this particular freak-of-the-week had a cool power and there were a couple of interesting twists, this episode was largely paint-by-numbers.
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Lance Reddick
The war between "over here" and "over there" has been steadily brewing on Fringe. Lance Reddick sat down with TVGuide.com to discuss what will happen when the two universes collide. He also dishes on the good vs. evil battle, a certain background character finally stepping into the limelight and whether or not he's returning to Lost ...
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Welcome back Fringe-philes (that nickname still needs work). After a baseball enforced hiatus, we finally got back to wonderfully weird world of Fringe. This episode's freak-of-the-week had one of the cooler nefarious powers we've seen on the show, the ability to turn people into dust, while Broyles desire to solve the case reveals a little bit more about him — and gets him into some hot water.
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Ian Somerhalder (Vampire Diaries, Pauley Perrette (NCIS, Dana Delany (Desperate Housewives)
Every week, editors Mickey O'Connor and Adam Bryant answer your burning questions. Want some TV scoop? Please send all questions to mega_scoop@tvguide.com.
What's coming up on Vampire Diaries? — Monique
MICKEY: Witches and vampires aren't the only supernatural creatures in Mystic Falls. It won't be right away, but a major male character will reveal himself to be a werewolf. And don't think having read the books will help you figure this one out. In fact, the werewolf in question won't even know he's a werewolf, initially at least.
Got any scoop on Abby from NCIS? — Lyn
ADAM: How would you like to meet Abby's best friend? Well, you'll get to in this season's Christmas episode...
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