"Fringe" Episode of February 18, 2011 Focuses on Ghosts (My Specialty!)

Fox, Friday, February 18, 2011, 9 PM (ET) "Fringe" had an episode about ghosts...or what passed for ghosts...this night. Six people plunged to their deaths from apartment 7C in Park Slope, Brooklyn, going right through a solid floor to the street below. The investigation of the circumstances of their fall to the pavement below the patio they were partying on caused Walter Bishop to say, "Our world is starting to come apart at the seams and the tear is starting right here."

GHOSTS?

The elderly lady, Mrs. Merchant, in the Rosencrantz Building, a widow who lost her husband after 40 years of marriage, is seeing images of her dead husband Derrick...or is she? As the plot develops, we come to realize that the man who looks like her husband is actually located in the parallel universe of Walternate. The "soft spot" or, as the plot put it, "a hole that could potentially lead to a vortex" must be closed, and it eventually is. At the end of the episode, Faux Olivia and her assistant leave Derrick's apartment saying, "If there was a rift in the universe, it's closed now."

Mrs. Merchant, who was married to her husband for 40 years, from age 20 on, says, "He was gone and all I felt was despair. He was part of me, and then he was gone." Therefore, she was receptive to the appearance of the Derrick from the alternate universe, who makes the mistake of mentioning to her, during one of his appearances, that "the girls miss you, too." Mrs. Merchant immediately says, "We didn't have any children" and subsequently acknowledges, with Olivia and Peter present, that, "I'm not your wife. You're not my husband." With that said, the rift is healed and the hole to the other Universe ceases to exist.

Walter Bishop says, "There's no such thing as ghosts" but does discuss "soul magnets" and "being contacted from the Great Beyond." I've written three books about ghost stories along Route 66 ("Ghostly Tales of Route 66," Vols. I, II and III). I can tell you one thing: people are fascinated by the very concept of ghosts. People of all ages really love ghost stories, which made this an interesting episode.

OLIVIA & PETER

Writers Glen Whitman and Robert Chappetti (Thomas Yatski directed) also give some time to the impaired relationship between Peter Bishop and Olivia Dunham, influenced by Peter's having slept with "Faux Olivia" when she entered our world. Peter is not willing to give up on the two of them as a couple and says, "I've seen what the two of us together look like and it's beautiful." He then asks Olivia, "Who's the one stopping us now?"

Olivia acknowledges that, "I'm terrified that I can't fix this. That this is just who I am."

An interesting episode. I feel singularly qualified to comment on it, which makes it hard for me to understand why my original piece was rejected, but here's a recap of the plot, with my apologies for its tardy appearance..