The Worst Episodes of Fringe
Every episode of Fringe ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Fringe!
FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, brilliant but formerly institutionalized scientist Walter Bishop and his scheming, reluctant son Peter uncover a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable events and realize they may be a part of a larger, more disturbing pattern that blurs the line between science fiction and technology.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Fringe" is "Brown Betty", rated 6.8/10 from 3143 user votes. It was directed by Seith Mann and written by Jeff Pinkner, Akiva Goldsman, J.H. Wyman. "Brown Betty" aired on 4/29/2010 and is rated 0.2 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "Unearthed".
6.8/10 3,143 votes#1 - Brown Betty
Season 2 Episode 20 - Aired 4/29/2010
When Peter disappears, Walter seeks solace in marijuana. In that state of mind, he and Astrid babysit Olivia's niece Ella, and Walter tells her a fairy tale of a gentle inventor, a stolen glass heart, a detective looking for true love, and a mysterious group of bald men known as the Watchers.
Director: Seith Mann
Writer: Jeff Pinkner, Akiva Goldsman, J.H. Wyman
7.0/10 2,373 votes#2 - Unearthed
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 1/11/2010
A teenage girl pronounced brain dead wakes up in the middle of the operation to remove her organs... speaking numbers in Russian. When the Navy confirms that the numbers are nuclear launch codes and a missing officer named Rusk knows them, the search is on for the missing man.
Director: Fred Toye
Writer: David H. Goodman, Andrew Kreisberg
7.4/10 2,926 votes#3 - Power Hungry
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/14/2008
The team investigate the case of a man who can project electricity... and is at the center of a series of strange deaths involving electricity.
Director: Christopher Misiano
Writer: Julia Cho, Jason Cahill
7.5/10 2,580 votes#4 - The No-Brainer
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 1/27/2009
Olivia, Walter and Peter are called in to investigate the death of a car salesman who was found in a pool of "goo," exactly like another man across the country. When Walter discovers that the "goo" is brain matter, the trio tries to figure out how the killer can liquefy human brains. As the deaths pile up, the investigation reveals a common thread linking the victims together in an unthinkable manner. Meanwhile, Olivia is horrified when the case places a loved one in harm's way
Director: Brad Anderson, John Polson
Writer: David H. Goodman, Brad Kane
7.6/10 3,613 votes#5 - The Same Old Story
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/2008
Olivia, along with Peter and Walter Bishop, investigates the strange death of a woman who had an even stranger child. The woman was pregnant for only hours, yet the baby she birthed was fully developed - and also aged eighty years in the span of a few minutes. Olivia asks Nina Sharp of Massive Dynamic for help.
Director: Paul A. Edwards
Writer: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, J.J. Abrams, Jeff Pinkner
7.6/10 2,823 votes#6 - The Cure
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/21/2008
The team investigates a woman that re-appears after weeks of being missing with a rare disease. She also inexplicably causes pain and death to the people she meets. During the investigation, dangerous level of radiation are detected. Walter obsesses about cotton candy; Peter strikes a deal with Nina Sharp; and a truth about Olivia is discovered.
Director: Bill Eagles
Writer: Felicia D. Henderson, Brad Kane
7.6/10 2,562 votes#7 - Unleashed
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 4/14/2009
As animal rights activists ransack a laboratory, they get more than they bargained for when one of the caged "animals" unleashes a ferocious appetite. Leaving grotesquely mutilated dead bodies in its wake, the scientifically engineered beast with the body of a lion, claws of an eagle, fangs of a viper, skin of a rhinoceros and tail of a serpent attacks Charlie. With Charlie’s life on the line, Walter must come face-to-face with both his past and the beast.
Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: J.R. Orci, Zack Whedon
7.6/10 2,393 votes#8 - Night of Desirable Objects
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/2009
A highway construction worker is the seventh in a series of mysterious disappearances in Lansdale, PA. The team come to investigate and finds traces of a mysterious paralytic. Meanwhile, Walter tries to send frogs to an alternate reality and Olivia realizes her recent trip has altered her in ways she can barely understand.
Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman
7.6/10 2,268 votes#9 - Dream Logic
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/15/2009
A man in Seattle goes berserk, attacking his boss and claiming his victim is a demon. After the killer dies of what appears to be exhaustion, the Fringe Division discover it's only the first in a series of killings where the persons initiating the attacks were in a dreaming state while awake
Director: Paul A. Edwards
Writer: Josh Singer
7.6/10 2,274 votes#10 - Earthling
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 11/5/2009
Human beings are reduced to ash statues and Broyles realizes that the same person responsible murdered five other persons four years ago... a case that he never solved.
Director: Jon Cassar
Writer: J.H. Wyman, Jeff Vlaming
7.6/10 2,271 votes#11 - Johari Window
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 1/14/2010
A state trooper picks up a runaway boy, but when he undergoes a strange transformation, three murders result. The Fringe team is called in to investigate and discover that a small town harbors a horrible secret.
Director: Joe Chappelle
Writer: Josh Singer
7.6/10 1,894 votes#12 - Wallflower
Season 4 Episode 7 - Aired 11/18/2011
When a man mysteriously dies by an invisible force, his body rapidly begins turning ghostly white. The Fringe team learns that this is not an isolated incident, and there’s evidence that links the predator to someone who passed away with an unknown genetic disorder. Meanwhile, Olivia suffers from migraines.
Director: Anthony Hemingway
Writer: Matt Pitts, Justin Doble
7.7/10 3,265 votes#13 - The Ghost Network
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/23/2008
The team investigates a bus full of dead commuters that appear to be fossilized and uncover a man who has visions of pattern-related disturbances before they happen; Dr. Bishop requests a piano in the lab to help him process data.
Director: Alex Graves, Fred Toye
Writer: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, J.J. Abrams, David H. Goodman, J.R. Orci
7.7/10 2,223 votes#14 - Snakehead
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 12/3/2009
A Chinese Triad is using illegal aliens to breed parasitic worms that eventually kill their hosts. When a ship runs aground, Fringe Division learns of the operation and tries to locate a second ship before the passengers on it suffer a slow, agonizing death.
Director: Paul Holahan
Writer: David Wilcox
7.7/10 1,950 votes#15 - Alone in the World
Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 10/7/2011
Two young bullies are found dead and in just a few hours they rot to an advanced state of decomposition. The Fringe team investigates and uncovers an amorphous figure claiming more victims. Walter becomes increasingly distracted with his mental state.
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Writer: David Fury
7.7/10 1,894 votes#16 - The Recordist
Season 5 Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/2012
As the rogue Fringe team continues to fight off the oppressive Observers’ invasion, unforeseen events lead them into a forest where they encounter a strange subculture of people devoted to recording human history.
Director: Jeff T. Thomas
Writer: Graham Roland
7.8/10 2,747 votes#17 - The Equation
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/18/2008
Walter thinks the abduction of a young music prodigy is linked back to his old bunkmate at St. Claire's Hospital. When he kidnaps the child he sees a sequence of flashing lights. Olivia wants Walter to return to the mental institution much to Peter's outcry, but Walter's determination to help ends up having chilling ramifications.
Director: Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Writer: David H. Goodman, J.R. Orci
7.8/10 2,635 votes#18 - The Dreamscape
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/25/2008
The team is called in to investigate why a man jumps out a window because he thinks he's being attacked by butterflies. Olivia gets some breaks in solving the case from her former partner and that she is so desperate to rid herself of him that she demands to go back into the tank. Meanwhile, some former friends and current foes of Peter find out that he's back in Boston.
Director: Fred Toye
Writer: Zack Whedon, Julia Cho
7.8/10 2,481 votes#19 - Midnight
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 4/28/2009
The Fringe Division is on the case when severely mutilated bodies drained of spinal cord fluid begin to pile up. After their investigation leads them to a scientist with possible ties to the Z.F.T. bioterrorist cell, they are shocked to discover the identity and motive of the killer. When the kills occur with increasing frequency, Olivia, Peter and Walter go to desperate lengths to stop them.
Director: Bobby Roth
Writer: Andrew Kreisberg, J.H. Wyman
7.8/10 2,337 votes#20 - Fracture
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/2009
When an American officer who served in Iraq blows up in a Philadelphia train station, the Fringe Division investigates and determines that something turned the man into a living bomb. Peter and Olivia travel to Iraq to determine if Peter's contacts can shed some light on the situation.
Director: Bryan Spicer
Writer: David Wilcox
7.8/10 2,256 votes#21 - Of Human Action
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/12/2009
Two men kidnap a teenage boy using mind control abilities. The boy's father works for Massive Dynamic but Nina insists that the company hasn't been developing mind control, and has no idea who the two kidnappers are. The truth or falsehood of her statements are soon confirmed when Peter encounters the person responsible for the boy's abduction.
Director: Joe Chappelle
Writer: Robert Chiappetta, Glen Whitman
7.8/10 2,044 votes#22 - Immortality
Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 2/11/2011
As the story shifts back to life “over there,” the absence of Colonel Broyles changes the dynamic of the Fringe Team as they investigate a bioterrorist armed with an insect that has a taste for human flesh. Meanwhile, alternate Olivia is reunited with her beau, and Walternate remains determined to save his world but discovers there are certain lines he will not cross.
Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: David Wilcox, Ethan Gross
7.8/10 1,908 votes#23 - Nothing As It Seems
Season 4 Episode 16 - Aired 3/30/2012
The Fringe team faces a case that appears familiar to Peter. Strangely, it takes place in this timeline.
Director: Fred Toye
Writer: Jeff Pinkner, Akiva Goldsman
7.9/10 2,843 votes#24 - In Which We Meet Mr. Jones
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/2008
When a strange parasite attaches itself to the internal organs of a dying FBI agent, Olivia suspects a connection to the Pattern; Peter and Walter tap into a dead man's brain waves.
Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: J.J. Abrams, Jeff Pinkner
7.9/10 2,249 votes#25 - Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver.
Season 2 Episode 17 - Aired 4/8/2010
A healthy woman dies of rapid-onset cancer in a matter of minutes, and the Fringe team is called in to investigate. The killer has connections to Jacksonville... and Olivia is a potential victim. Meanwhile, Olivia tries to come to terms with her knowledge of Peter's origins.
Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: Matt Pitts