Safe (Fringe)

Plot

At Philadelphia Mutual Savings Bank, a group led by Agent Mitchell Loeb uses a machine that allows them to walk through the bank's wall. They steal a safe deposit box numbered 610, but one man becomes trapped inside the wall as it solidifies; Loeb shoots him to prevent him from talking. Olivia Dunham, Agent Broyles, Peter Bishop, and Dr. Walter Bishop investigate. Broyles notes this is the third robbery of a large safe deposit box.

Olivia recognizes the victim as Raul Lugo from their time in the Marines. Peter and Walter buy an electric saw to cut the man out of the wall. In Frankfurt, imprisoned biochemist David Robert Jones is visited by his lawyer Mr. Kohl, who confirms the Philadelphia job was successful. Jones instructs Kohl to wire Loeb another $100,000 and provides a list of items for his next visit.

Olivia visits Raul's wife Susan Lugo, who does not remember meeting her. Susan reveals that only Raul, Susan, and John Scott were at a meeting Olivia describes, leading Olivia to realize she still has Scott's memories inside her head. At Massive Dynamic, Nina Sharp's attempts to access Scott's memories hit a dead end; crucial pieces are missing, and they discover the needed memories are in Olivia's mind.

Production

The episode "Safe" was directed by Michael Zinberg, whose only work on Fringe this was, despite having directed over eighty other television series. David H. Goodman and Jason Cahill wrote the script, marking Goodman’s third episode for the show and Cahill’s second. The story resolved key threads involving Mitchell Loeb, played by Chance Kelly, and how his group planned to apply the equation, continuing from "The Equation." Guest actors included James Frain as Salman Kohl, Jared Harris as David Robert Jones, and Michael Cerveris as the Observer.

During the early part of the first season, the series was still finding its identity, according to staff and critics. The writing team juggled ongoing story arcs with self-contained cases, while facing frequent script changes and costly reshoots. The creators saw "Safe" as a shift in direction. They made David Robert Jones a recurring presence and developed Olivia’s personal life.

Lance Reddick, who played Agent Broyles, later noted in an interview that the episode was crucial to the show’s growth. He said the team discovered their voice in the tenth episode, when Olivia was kidnapped, and stopped trying to be too many types of shows at once. While each episode still involved police-style cases, the focus became more character-driven rather than formulaic.

Reception

"Safe" aired in the U.S. on December 2, 2008, drawing an estimated 8.54 million viewers and ranking as Fox's fourth most-watched program that week. It scored a 5.3/8 household rating and a 3.6/9 among adults 18 to 49. This episode marked the final Fringe installment of 2008 and kicked off the mid-season hiatus; the next episode, "Bound," followed in January. Travis Fickett of IGN awarded it a 9.5 out of 10, praising how it "capitalized on absolutely every scrap of promise" from the first nine episodes and "heightens and improves every episode that has come before."

Total Sci-Fi Online gave it a 7 out of 10, wishing it had served as the pilot, noting its central premise "has more pull" and that it "draws together various plot strands going back to the pilot." Erin Dougherty of CinemaBlend found the episode "well thought out, well written, and not confusing at all," adding that "the characters seemed to be complete."