Warning: Contains Spoilers
Last night’s episode of FOX’s Fringe concerned a seemingly ageless member of the Nazi party who was able to target his victims with DNA 
remnants and a formula originated by Dr. Walter Bishop’s (John Noble) father (who was working for the allied forces).
After being targeted for death by the Nazi, Walter decides to take matters into his own hands and snuff out the man with his own DNA. Afterwards, Bishop walks right up to FBI agent Philip Broyles (Lance Reddick) to proclaim he feels no remorse in what he did and that whatever Broyles decides to do to him is acceptable. Broyles, inexplicably, and with only about ten seconds of thought, lets Bishop go.
Now, Fringe is one of the few network shows that really rises above the fray. And, usually, the writers manage to escape the rather cliched elements of what is seen on the networks. But letting a major character off the hook for purposefully killing someone is a decidedly odd road to have gone down. Perhaps if there was some moral discussion back and forth or an “out” for Bishop to have done it, the action could have been easier to accept. But there is nothing of the sort. Bishop kills the Nazi simply because he had tried to kill him first.
What is obvious is that the writers have been slowly bringing what is presumed to be the “Old Walter Bishop”. A calculating man who throws caution to the wind and does what HE feels to be right. I applaud the advancement in Bishop’s character, as it makes him less of a sad sack/source of goofy amusement. And even Walter’s killing of the Nazi isn’t the actual problem I have with last night’s episode. Rather, it’s in the way it was so easily dismissed.
