With Chest Parasites Like These . . .

I watched episode seven of Fringe last night, written by JJ Abrams and Jeff Pinkner. I had no idea JJ Abrams could be so clever, not that I'm a hater of his Star Trek and Star Wars movies. But this episode of Fringe feels oddly more like a classic Star Trek episode than his Star Trek movies ever did.

An FBI agent seems to suffer a heart attack and he does, though not in the traditional sense, as Broyles says. It turns out there's some kind of toothy parasite clammed down on his heart which is graphically portrayed when a surgeon cuts a gaping hole in his chest. That's pleasantly wild stuff, and then I like how it unfolds as an alien medical detective story. It all culminates in an absurd but gripping climax in which Olivia has to get an answer from a detained spy in Germany who will only talk to her if Walter can temporarily revive the brain of a dead man. It's quite the three ring circus.

Fringe is available on Max.