Fringe: Unearthed

I'm pretty sure Fringe just insulted my intelligence.  Maybe I'm missing something, I don't make a point to watch Fringe with a fine tooth comb like I would with Lost, but seriously they just insulted my intelligence right?

The actress they got to the the bad guy that just won't die was OK, the plot was passable if predictable, and the forward movement on the Olivia/Peter relationship front was acceptable.  

But, let's not even discuss the fact that the episode was mediocre.  What I will focus on is the one gaping plot hole that is currently threatening to swallow Fringe like a blue whale with a pine puppet.

What the hell was Charlie doing on the first episode aired in 2010?  Charlie is dead.  The Charlie doppleganger is dead.  Olivia has morned Charlie.  The gang has moved on.  Yet there was Charlie, all helpful, happy faced, and not the least bit zombified.  Which begs the question, "What the frak is Fringe/Fox trying to pull here?" 

The good news is that I have come up with two theories that could logically explain the problem.  Theory one is called, "Frak, my bad" (FMB) and theory two is known as the "Dude, let's Dawn them! (DLDT)"

"Frak, my bad" is pretty simple.  The network aired the episode out of order in an effort to boost ratings.  Fringe is not performing as strong as it did in its freshman year so the network decided to air what it thought was a strong episode on a special night in an effort to attract viewers.  "Unearthed" was fairly self contained so not a lot of information was needed going in or out of the episode.  The network's response to the complaining Fringe fan in this instance would simply be, "Frak, my bad, we'll make sure to air the rest in the order the show runners intended, unless that proves difficult, hey did you know American Idol is back on the air?"

"Dude, let's Dawn them" is a more attractive option.  In the DLDT scenario, the show runners have actually placed Charlie into this episode in this order on purpose.  They would be taking their inspiration from a little show known as Buffy the Vampire Slayer which in season five introduced Buffy's little sister, Dawn, who obviously did not exist in the series before but suddenly showed up completely unexplained.  It took many episodes until the true nature of Dawn was revealed, in what I thought was the best season of Buffy (though some would argue that point).  DLDT would then be a way to throw the audience off balance right before punching them in the face with something awesome.

Obviously the DLDT is preferable to the FMB.  Kirk Acevedo, the actor who plays Charlie, did have some weird Twitter posts about getting fired over the summer that led some to speculate about a possible curve ball for his character this season.  I'd argue that pitch was thrown when Charlie was "cloned" by the three pronged mouth breather, but I digress.  I guess we just need to wait until the next episode of Fringe airs and observe whether or not Charlie shows up all hunky dory again!