Marionette

"Marionette," last week's episode of "Fringe," is one of the most well-plotted and magnificently disturbing stories I've seen since "The X-Files" was in its prime.

It's got everything: Enthusiastic but tasteful gore; a perfectly-paced unwinding of the mystery; allusions to classic horror, some of them blunt, some extremely sly; seriously unresolved sexual tension; and, above all, a couple of rich and creepy master metaphors -- there's a surprisingly long set-piece scene that brings the title home in the most visceral way (un)imaginable.

Even when the villain, fleeing his pursuers at the end, runs like the British Upper-Class Twit of the Year, it's funny, but it also somehow makes things just a little more horrible.

Must-see.