episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Greek term ''epeisodion'' (), meaning ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed ...

Fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts * Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe" * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * The Fringe, the ...

Anna Torv Anna Torv (born 7 June 1979) is an Australian actress. She is best known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the Fox science-fiction series ''Fringe'' (2008–2013), for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award ...

Sanford Harris This article lists the major and recurring fictional characters on the science fiction television series, ''Fringe'', created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best ...

Alex Kurtzman Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the ''Star Trek'' franchise since 2009, co-writing the scripts to ''Transformers'' (2007), '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' and ...

Roberto Orci Roberto Gaston Orcí (born July 20, 1973) is a Mexican-American film and television screenwriter and producer. He began his longtime collaboration with Alex Kurtzman while at school in California. Together they have been employed on television ...

Jeff Pinkner Jeff Pinkner (born November 16, 1964) is an American television and movie writer and producer. Life and career Born to a Jewish family,Frederick E. O. Toye served as the episode's director, and sought to create a "creepy and weird" atmosphere for Olivia's kidnapping scene to help emphasize her "terrible circumstances." First director Gary Rake believed Olivia's action scenes took her to a "higher level", and Torv herself enjoyed filming them. In addition, the episode was the first to feature

Ari Graynor Ariel Geltman Graynor (born April 27, 1983) is an American actress, known for her roles in TV series such as '' I'm Dying Up Here'', ''The Sopranos'' and ''Fringe'', in stage productions such as '' Brooklyn Boy'' and '' The Little Dog Laughed'', ...

as Olivia's sister, Rachel. Other guest actors included Chance Kelly,

Michael Gaston Michael Gaston is an American film and television actor. He played agent Quinn on the show ''Prison Break'', Gray Anderson on the CBS drama series '' Jericho'', and appeared in the first episode of ''The Sopranos'' as Alex Mahaffey, a compulsive g ...

, Lily Pilyblad, Sara Wilson, Stephen Schnetzer, and Peter Jay Fernandez. The episode first aired on January 20, 2009 on the

Fox network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations a ...

, and was watched by an estimated 11.96 million viewers. "Bound" received generally positive reviews from television critics, as many viewed it as an improvement over previous episodes. Actor

Joshua Jackson Joshua Carter Jackson (born June 11, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor. He is known for his starring role as Charlie Conway in ''Mighty Ducks'', as Pacey Witter in The WB teen drama series ''Dawson's Creek'' (1998–2003), Peter Bishop in the ...

noted the importance of "Bound" developmentally for the series. At the

61st Primetime Emmy Awards The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 20, 2009. CBS broadcast the Primetime event and E! broadcast the Creative Arts event; both took place at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The nominations were announced on ...

, the episode was submitted in the "Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series" and "Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series" categories. Both were unsuccessful in securing nominations.

Plot

Following

Olivia Dunham Olivia Dunham is a fictional character and the main protagonist from the science fiction television series ''Fringe'', which aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States from 2008 to 2013. The character was created by series' co-cre ...

's (

Anna Torv Anna Torv (born 7 June 1979) is an Australian actress. She is best known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the Fox science-fiction series ''Fringe'' (2008–2013), for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award ...

) kidnapping from the previous episode, "

Safe A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure Lock (security device), lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form ...

", Fringe Division works to find her location. Unbeknownst to her, one of Olivia's captors is Fringe agent

Mitchell Loeb This article lists the major and recurring fictional characters on the science fiction television series, '' Fringe'', created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci. In the overarching storyline for the five seasons of the show, sev ...

( Chance Kelly). He gives her a spinal tap and returns to help with the investigation. Olivia fights off the remaining men and escapes, taking several medical samples with her. She hides the samples right before being arrested by

Sanford Harris This article lists the major and recurring fictional characters on the science fiction television series, ''Fringe'', created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best ...

(

Michael Gaston Michael Gaston is an American film and television actor. He played agent Quinn on the show ''Prison Break'', Gray Anderson on the CBS drama series '' Jericho'', and appeared in the first episode of ''The Sopranos'' as Alex Mahaffey, a compulsive g ...

), a former adversary who was hired to audit Fringe Division. Years before, Olivia exposed and prosecuted Harris for sexually assaulting three female Marine privates, and he now wants revenge. Now recovering in Boston Hospital, Olivia's judgment is questioned by Harris for working with the mentally unstable scientist Walter Bishop (

John Noble John Noble (born 20 August 1948) is an Australian actor. He is known for his roles as Denethor in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Dr. Walter Bishop on the science fiction series '' Fringe'', Henry Parrish on the action-horror series ...

) and his law-breaking son

Peter Bishop Peter Bishop is a fictional character of the Fox television series ''Fringe''. He is portrayed by Joshua Jackson. Fictional character biography Peter Bishop was born in 1978, in the alternate universe, to parents Walter Bishop, also known as "W ...

(

Joshua Jackson Joshua Carter Jackson (born June 11, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor. He is known for his starring role as Charlie Conway in ''Mighty Ducks'', as Pacey Witter in The WB teen drama series ''Dawson's Creek'' (1998–2003), Peter Bishop in the ...

). Harris tells her she cannot investigate her own abduction. Back at Fringe Division, Olivia learns that the building she was kept at is empty and contains no traces of her captors. Olivia, along with Walter and Peter, recovers the hidden samples. They soon hear of the murder of epidemiologist Miles Kinberg, who was killed by a chemical which created a giant, slug-like single cell of

acute viral nasopharyngitis The common cold or the cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract that primarily affects the respiratory mucosa of the nose, throat, sinuses, and larynx. Signs and symptoms may appear fewer than two days after exp ...

in his stomach. Olivia learns that Kinberg was about to start a job at the

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georg ...

, and that another scientist, Dr. Russell Simon, is also set to begin working there. She connects Kinberg's killers with her own captors based on the similarities of her stolen samples. Fringe Division brings Simon in for protection but he is killed soon after when Loeb gives him the same chemical agent. Meanwhile, Olivia's sister

Rachel Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her a ...

(

Ari Graynor Ariel Geltman Graynor (born April 27, 1983) is an American actress, known for her roles in TV series such as '' I'm Dying Up Here'', ''The Sopranos'' and ''Fringe'', in stage productions such as '' Brooklyn Boy'' and '' The Little Dog Laughed'', ...

) and niece

Ella Ella may refer to: * Ella (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Places United States * Ella, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Ella, Oregon, an unincorporated community * Ella, Pennsylvania, an unincorporat ...

(Lily Pilblad) come to visit. Olivia succeeds in connecting the murder to Loeb by recognizing his shoes from when she was a captive. She goes to search his house but accidentally runs into his wife and accomplice, Samantha (Trini Alvarado). Loeb tells his wife to kill Olivia, and after a struggle, Olivia fatally shoots Samantha. Olivia obtains the necessary evidence to capture Loeb and questions him about her abduction. She gets little information until she shows him pictures of his dead wife, as he was unaware she was killed. Loeb angrily tells Olivia about "two sides" and that he was trying to save her.

Production

"Bound" was written by co-creators J. J. Abrams,

Alex Kurtzman Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the ''Star Trek'' franchise since 2009, co-writing the scripts to ''Transformers'' (2007), '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' and ...

, and

Roberto Orci Roberto Gaston Orcí (born July 20, 1973) is a Mexican-American film and television screenwriter and producer. He began his longtime collaboration with Alex Kurtzman while at school in California. Together they have been employed on television ...

, and executive producer

Jeff Pinkner Jeff Pinkner (born November 16, 1964) is an American television and movie writer and producer. Life and career Born to a Jewish family,Frederick E. O. Toye worked as the director. For Olivia's spinal tap scene, Toye attempted to create a "creepy and weird" atmosphere. He explained, "She's strapped down, she's in a gurney. They're going to pull fluid out of her spine. It's creepy and weird. That's what we're going for, to try and set it up as a really awkward, horrible environment to be trapped in." Toye and the crew wanted to make it "as visually interesting and dramatic as possible," and added in dripping water and "creepy" lighting to emphasize Olivia's "terrible circumstances." First assistant director Gary Rake noted that the episode "took the character Olivia to a higher level... She's a lot more active, which is very exciting for us." Ari Graynor

According to Orci, the idea behind the episode's fringe case originated with the show's "amazing scientific consultants," who suggested "super-sizing a common virus" when the writers were trying to brainstorm episode cases. Andrew Orloff, the Creative Director and Visual Effects Supervisor of

Zoic Studios Zoic Studios is an American visual effects company based in Culver City, California. They specialize in visual effects for feature films, episodic television, commercials, video games, advertising design, and interactive online media. History ...

, considered it one of the most challenging effects his company made for the season. Up to the point the episode aired, Anna Torv considered it her favorite episode, explaining, "In ‘Bound,’ when Olivia gets kidnapped, they’re giving her a spinal tap and she wakes up and breaks out – it was just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. I found it really easy to follow and kind of energetic, and I really loved filming that." In reference to Trini Alvarado, the other actress in their fight scene, Torv also mentioned when shooting it "We had so much fun! That's probably my favorite sequence in the show thus far." Actor Joshua Jackson believed the episode was important developmentally for the series, explaining it was "creatively when the show really hit its stride in the first season." Jackson continued, "I think right around the midway point of

he first He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

season the show decided what it wanted to be. From about the midway, point it got on a pretty good streak of episodes. I can’t remember the exact number, but the two-part episode where Dunham gets kidnapped. After that, it was pretty clear; we introduced the bad guys for the season and there was a much clearer narrative drive through the rest of the season." In December 2008, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

'' reported that actress Ari Graynor would be joining the cast as a guest star for a minimum of three episodes, beginning in January. Her character, Olivia's younger sister Rachel, would be visiting Olivia for a few weeks because "she's dealing with some man trouble back home", as described by an insider. "Bound" marked the first episode to feature the new character. Other guest actors included Chance Kelly,

Michael Gaston Michael Gaston is an American film and television actor. He played agent Quinn on the show ''Prison Break'', Gray Anderson on the CBS drama series '' Jericho'', and appeared in the first episode of ''The Sopranos'' as Alex Mahaffey, a compulsive g ...

, Lily Pilyblad, Sara Wilson, Stephen Schnetzer, and Peter Jay Fernandez.

Reception

Ratings

"Bound" was first broadcast on the

Fox network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations a ...

in the United States on January 20, 2009. It was watched by an estimated 11.96 million viewers, an improvement over the season's episode average of 8.8 million. "Bound" earned a 7.0/10 ratings share among adults aged 18 to 49. This means that it was seen by 7.0 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 10 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of broadcast.

Reviews

"Bound" has received generally positive reviews from television critics.

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...

's Ramsey Isler rated "Bound" 9.6/10, explaining that the episode is "an energetic start to second half of the season, and it's hopefully a sign of things to come." Olivia's "amazing" action sequence reminded Isler of the Fox television show '' 24'', and he equated Olivia with that series' protagonist

Jack Bauer Jack Bauer is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Fox television series '' 24''. His character has worked in various capacities on the show, often as a federal agent of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) based in Los Angeles, and wo ...

. Writing for ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cr ...

'', critic Zach Handlen also praised the "badassery" of the opening sequence as well as Olivia herself; he graded the episode with an A, calling it "a gripping, bizarre, occasionally wince-inducing hour of television; after a spotty first half of the season, Fringe is finally hitting its stride." Jane Boursaw of

TV Squad Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be ...

enjoyed the episode; like Isler, she also compared Olivia to Jack Bauer, and expressed suspicion that new characters Rachel and Ella were "part of a bigger conspiracy". Bryant L. Griffin of Airlock Alpha compared Olivia to the character Sydney Bristow from the television series '' Alias'', and opined that ''Fringe'' "continues to exhibit a satisfying stride." Griffin however was disappointed that events from the previous episode were ignored, believing it to be a mistake to continue emphasising formulaic storytelling rather than a serialized format. Andrew Hanson from the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' felt that despite the extra ten minutes, "Bound" was "more like a two-hour episode... being crammed into half the time". He thought the episode's four writers were "all busy", as there were three stories going on at once, and compared Olivia to the similarly characterized '' Lost'' character

Jack Shephard Dr. Jack Shephard is a fictional character and the protagonist of the ABC television series '' Lost'', played by Matthew Fox. ''Lost'' follows the journey of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 on a mysterious island and their attempts to sur ...

. Hanson concluded, "But how bad can it be when my biggest complaint about a show is that I want more? And now that the cold winter of reruns has passed, we should be getting just that."

Television Without Pity Television Without Pity (often abbreviated TWoP) was a website that provided detailed recaps of select television dramas, situation comedies and reality TV shows along with discussion forums. These recaps were written with sarcastic criticism and ...

graded the episode with a B. Various reviewers disliked the character Sanford Harris, calling him "stereotypical, "one-note", and "unconvincing." Jeff Jensen of ''Entertainment Weekly'' noted the episode's importance in the series' history, and named it the ninth best episode of the series, explaining "Arriving midway through ''Fringe''s shaky first season, 'Bound' was billed as a reboot that applied lessons learned from earlier episodes. (The plot mirrored the critical tune-up, with a cranky internal affairs agent conducting an audit on Fringe division.) The key focus: Making Olivia a richer, warmer, more proactive character. Mission accomplished. So began a series of rookie year corrections that helped ''Fringe'' find its voice."

Awards and nominations

At the

61st Primetime Emmy Awards The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 20, 2009. CBS broadcast the Primetime event and E! broadcast the Creative Arts event; both took place at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The nominations were announced on ...

, director Frederick E. O. Toye submitted the episode for consideration in the Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series category, but did not receive a nomination. J. J. Abrams,

Alex Kurtzman Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the ''Star Trek'' franchise since 2009, co-writing the scripts to ''Transformers'' (2007), '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' and ...

,

Roberto Orci Roberto Gaston Orcí (born July 20, 1973) is a Mexican-American film and television screenwriter and producer. He began his longtime collaboration with Alex Kurtzman while at school in California. Together they have been employed on television ...

,

Jeff Pinkner Jeff Pinkner (born November 16, 1964) is an American television and movie writer and producer. Life and career Born to a Jewish family, but received no nominations.

References

External links

"Bound"
at

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

* {{Fringe (TV series) 2009 American television episodes Fringe (season 1) episodes Television episodes written by J. J. Abrams Television episodes written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci