Fringe Blog

Fringe is a tv show on Fox written by JJ. Abrams. It is a combination of X-Files and Alias. It is about an FBI team called Fringe division who job is to investigate strange scientific phenomenas. Special Agent Olivia Dunham leads the team with consultant Peter Bishop, a "jack of all trades", and his father Dr. Walter Bishop. Walter Bishop is a mad scientist who spent years in an asylum for illegal fringe science experiments. The episode that I watch last Thursday was about an attack on a sheriffs office involving rumors of disfigured people near the small town of Edina. The people have apparently been able to hide themselves from the rest of the world. They are the children of a group of test subjects from a military base where they were trying to find a way to better camouflage their soldiers. Walter eventually figures out how they are able to hide in plan sight. In one of the homes there is a machine that scrambles the optic nerves making the disfigured people appear normal. When all is said and done Agent Broyles almost reveals the the residents but Walter convinces them to let them keep their secret.

To understand the episodes nature/origins of evil and redemptions you have know the full history of Walter Bishop. He was a scientist for Harvard University where he worked out of a basement lab along side his partner William Bell. A large majority of Bishop's experiments involved human experimentation, everything from unnecessary surgeries to injections of massive quantities of hallucinogenics. All of which were used for military or corporate use. Then in 1991 he was institutionalized for manslaughter after a fire killed one of his lab assistance. Not the nicest guy in the world. However in this episode Walter experiences both remorse and pity. Remorse for the experiments he has done to others that have left them damaged, and pity for these disfigured people who would affected by the military experiment. Then to add on to that he is able to convince the lead agent, Broyles, to let them keep their secret to protect them from being further studied and humiliated.

When, if at all, is human experimentation permissible?

Walter Bishop convinces Agent Broyles to lie in his report. Any thoughts on that?