Fringe Review: An Enemy of Fate ~ Fringe Television - Fan Site for the FOX TV Series Fringe

Fringe Review: An Enemy of Fate

      Email Post       1/19/2013 02:33:00 AM      


“Because it’s cool.”

I suppose there could be a group of people who found this finale unsatisfying. And I can’t fault them for that, since they likely take issue with it for the same reason I found Season Four troubling. But I hope that most—even all—people felt as I did: that this show ended well, ended with dignity, and it did so with more optimism than I expected, and more beauty than I’d hoped.


Throughout the episode, I was reminded of just how respectful the Fringe writers are of us, the audience. They trust us to understand various scenes and their relationship to scenes from years long past. And we, in turn, appreciate that trust. The return of December, and the brief illumination offered by Donald’s explanation of their “emotive development,” was both touching and a wonderful callback to previous seasons. So were the great Fringe cases unleashed by Peter and Olivia onto the Observers and the Loyalists. (I was most excited to see the slashy butterflies of death.)

The white tulip, last mentioned in “The Boy Must Live,” is another example of Fringe trusting us to see connections between plots, themes, and concepts. The choice to end the series on the stylized image of a flower representing redemption and hope, sent from a paradoxical future, was a lovely final shot. Walter’s exit is more understandable to us than to Peter, but we trust Peter to understand eventually that something has happened (he certainly has the life experience to make that conclusion). And it is perfect that both Walter and Donald got to sacrifice something for their very different reasons.

We understand the tulip, because we have “lived” the events of Season Five, even though Peter, Astrid, Olivia, Broyles, and the rest of the world (except Walter) have not. I have no problem with the possibility of paradox, and Fringe, via Walter, has previously expressed comfort with the paradoxes of time-travel. I don’t think they’re taking the easy way out, either: numerous SF texts swim into the depths of paradox, from Heinlein’s The Door Into Summer to the Terminator franchise, which defies any attempt at logic.

That’s right. If, for some odd reason, you are reading this review without having seen the episode, I will spell it out: Fringe once again re-set the world. This time, all of Season Five has been erased, except in the minds of Walter and Michael, now living in the world of 2167 and beyond. But how could we have wanted anything more? Did anyone expect a different ending? I’d worried more would die, that Peter and Olivia would worry that paradox would prevent them from seeing Etta and sacrifice themselves to the world, but I had hoped this terrible future would go away. And, blessedly, it has.

This season opened with a scene of Peter, Olivia, and young Etta at the park. Tonight, we got to see the conclusion of that scene, with a mundane return home for baths and dinner. The Dunham-Bishop family in 2015 has no idea of the fate that has been avoided thanks to Michael, Donald, and Walter. They will continue to live their (hopefully) rather boring lives in peace and happiness. And that is a beautiful message for us to take with us after five years of this show: love and appreciate what you have, especially the simple things. A happy family life may not make for exciting TV, but hopefully it will make for fulfilling lives for our heroes.


Tumor-Inducing Cellphones:

• Peter: “How do we get them to 2167?”
Donald: “That’s what we need the magnet for.” This made me laugh; magnets always make me laugh, especially when someone says, as they always do…

• Donald: “If we recalibrate it, we can reverse the polarity…”

• I’m happy Walter got to say goodbye to Gene, and to talk about strawberry milkshakes with Astrid.

• And another shout-out to Michael Giacchino, whose scores are always perfect.

Four out of four happy endings.


Josie Kafka reviews The Vampire Diaries and Game of Thrones for www.douxreviews.com. She will miss Fringe.

61 Comments:

Unknown said...

This episode was the best Fringe episode ever! I cried! Hands down.;(

Unknown said...

This episode didn't reset season 5, it removed the observers from existence. The scope of this act is far greater than season 5.

But of course this begs the question: if the observers no longer exist, who pulls Walter and Peter from the lake?

Borass said...

> But of course this begs the question: if the
> observers no longer exist, who pulls Walter and
> Peter from the lake?

If observers didn't exist September wouldn't have disturbed Walternate to find a cure so Alter-Peter would have lived and Walter wouldn't have to go to alternate universe.

But digging more deeply, how Peter would have ended up in our universe with Olivia, because he must have been dead from the disease in his childhood...

45 said...

Let me just say that Olivia is a damn hypocrite. She tells Peter to not kill windmark when he had that tech in his head but this little wench is allowed to use a DRUG to kill windmark?

And people worry about sexism against women?

marty said...

HEy guy who predicted that walter himself will sacrifice to stay in the future so that the observers dont exist you are the true nsotradamus (wherever you are)

ariS said...

The Observers didnt cease to exist...they just evolve into empaths rather than cold-hearted rational beings...so they still observed...they just didnt invade...the writers were very careful with that...in "The Boy Must Live", Peter said: "they would never invade"... So Peter is safe everything is safe... Walter redeemed himself by securing the world as it is...

Ray said...

Very entertaining tied everything up no loose ends. I will miss the show. Best Fringe ever! Thank you actor's and writers for giving us 5 years of excellent entertainment.

Mariló García said...

Review en español:
http://yonomeaburro.blogspot.com.es/2013/01/fringe-5x13-enemy-of-fate-finale.html

Anonymous said...

So far I’ve been watching all the episodes with my co-workers at DISH on our lunch break, and we thought that we missed something along the way. It seemed to me that if the Observers were stopped by sending September's boy to the future... September wouldn't interfere with Walter's cure for Peter. Peter would live, no alternate universe crossover, no fringe division, no Etta. What did I miss? I’ve been recording all the episodes on my Hopper DVR from DISH, so that I can watch all the episodes again with my wife when I get home from work. The Hopper also has a cool feature called PrimeTime Anytime that minimizes DVR conflicts by recording up to 6 shows at once during Primetime, so I’ll never miss any of my primetime shows. I have to tell people constantly that the best thing on TV right now is Fringe and I’m going to miss it now that it’s gone.

Anonymous said...

"Let me just say that Olivia is a damn hypocrite. She tells Peter to not kill windmark when he had that tech in his head but this little wench is allowed to use a DRUG to kill windmark?"

Michael killed Windmark. That's why he put is finger to his mouth, asking Olivia not to say anything. He did the same thing just prior to Astrid having the epiphany of using the Observers wormhole to execute the Plan.

Surun Tunne said...

to me it seemed obvious that olivia killed windmark with the power of cortexiphan (for example, all the lights went off)

and I want to say something about peter and olivia:

becuase noone distacted walternate when he found the cure, peter grew up in the redverse, walter and bell still did the cortexiphan trials (it has been adresses in the show that they planned to cross over even before peter got sick)
so, peter and olivia would somehow still eet each other.
my point is, that it was just not necessary to explain this exactly in the last episode.
so, I am extremely happy and satisfied with how fringe ended.

SheHateMeBro said...

I believe Olivia did kill Windmark. That was her cortexiphan induced Carrie moment. When MIchael put his finger to his lips, he was just saying "shut up and watch what happens next". He know what was going to happen next because he could see and show multiple time lines and outcomes, way beyond the observers.

Also, how ironic that much of the season was spent gathering items to build a time machine that ended up being a bust. They still needed the cones and the big picture, but the constant struggle to follow the plan only to have to improvise the result on the fly was really a good bit of writing to throw us around and build to the end.

Anonymous said...

Profoundly disappointing. That was how I felt about the end of the Fringe series. The story arc reached its, ironically, logical conclusion with a sappy, emotion-laden story about the emotionally superior humans triumphing over the intellectually superior Observers. Sadly, it was another triumph of Hollywood, Sci-Fi soap opera over thoughtful, science-based SF.

It was in one of the Fourth Season bonus features that Abrams made abundantly clear the core theme of the entire Fringe series. He stated that what made us human was our unique ability to form emotional bonds. During the Fifth Season it came out in an episode between Windmark and Nina Sharp. Nina noted that the habitual Observer head-tilt was reptilian, essentially non-emotional, and a clear indication of the inferiority of Observers relative to humans.

While positing that emotional humans are unique and superior to all other life forms is appealing to some people, it has a slight problem. The trouble is that the premise is completely wrong.

Stating that only humans form emotional bonds flies in the face of common sense and the everyday experience of millions of animal owners. It is irrefutable that dogs, cats and humans have been forming rich and deep emotional bonds for thousands of years. The same is true of horses, elephants and big cats, whose owners and handlers share emotion-laden experiences daily. And if cross-species emotional bonds are not enough for you, there is mounting evidence of strong, life-long, emotional bonds between individuals within many diverse species.

Indeed, when we examine the science, and not just our feelings, we see that life on Earth evolved emotional responses very early. The reptilian brain is the foundation of human emotion. It served early reptiles well with emotions like fear (a survival trait) and anger (the best defense is a good offense). When mammals emerged, the modern brain structures of emotion emerged as well. Today, all mammals share the same structures. Only the shallow depth of our research, limits our understanding of animal emotional life.

What made Fringe so disappointing was the gradual rise in emphasis of the double-plus untrue emotional theme, and the increasing frequency of absurd, unscientific principles in each episode. At first, the novelty of the crimes and consequences made the weak science more palatable. But as the series ground on, we saw it turn into the single art form that Hollywood has evolved to create: the soap opera.

I, for one, am weary of this Hollywood nonsense wrapped in the science fiction flag. Abrams is the top purveyor of this schlock. His 'Revolution' series is even more ridiculous than Fringe became. Consider the pendant that at first had only the power to locally inhibit the flow of electrons. Now it magically and wirelessly delivers AC or DC power, in a wide range of voltages, with no working generators or distribution networks anywhere on the planet.

The fault lies with the producers. I have no bones to pick with the actors. I thought they did great jobs in Fringe, delivering appealing and sympathetic, or repulsive and loathsome characters, as needed. As fans, we even share some of the blame. After all, we watch this stuff.

It is time to demand better. Vote with your remote. Switch off Revolution and similar Sci-Fi garbage. Read a good SF book, instead. Then spread the word to your friends and through social media (not really friends, but useful, nonetheless). By our actions, we just might be able to swing the pendulum away from emotional soap operas, and back to a more balanced form of science fiction in which laws of physics actually apply.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Google, for not including my name: Ray

Schizizzle said...

So... 1: The race of Observers begin with genetic discovery. 2: In 2600's they advance to point of time travel capability, Travel back to time of Walter crossing over to bring back Peter-nate which causes fringe events. 3: Peter-nate enters machine from some past civilization and repairs rift between universes, resetting timeline because he (Peter-nate) dies in the pond accident this time around. 4: For some non scientific reason (True love?) Peter can not be erased from time and returns with full knowledge of his time line and his love some how causes Olivia to remember her past life as well. 5: Observers (from the 2600's) invade and ruin everything, Fringe team ambers themselves with plan for resetting time at point of genetic discovery that eventually leads to evolution of Observers and provide researchers with Michael (a more perfect Observer) so as to prevent bad Observers from ever evolving in the first place. Is every body with me so far? because here's where it gets ticklish. If Walt & Mike are successful, the bad Observers never happen. Then the time line is reset at the point of Observer invasion and we have the scene in the park with everyone living happily ever after. But then time progresses to point of the scientist who makes the break thru genetic discovery that leads to the evolution of the Observers who, sometime in the 27th century will decide to invade the past! So fear not loyal Fringelings, A time loop is upon us and all this will/is/has happened again and again. I can't wait to see what J.J. Abrams has in store for us next in this weird timelines future. ;-)

OrangePatrol said...

And so now Fringe joins Outer Limits and Twilight Zone. What beautiful company.

Schizizzle said...

FYI, Not fans of Revolution. Only watched 3 episodes

Frog said...

The paradox created required the events of the Observers existing. THUS... its not that the Observers NEVER existed. Its that they ceased to exist. Time Paradoxes are tricky things.

IF the Observer has never existed then the BOY would have never existed because he was created by the Observers. I'm certain that Peter, Olivia and the others remember the Observers. The very existence of the paradox requires this.

I have to say I loved the finale. I just "liked" it to start with but having watched it a few times now.... I think they did a great job.

The tape to Peter from Walter is really imaginative.

Watch the last scene in which Peter gets the letter and then backup and watch the scene in which Peter finds the tape and watches it with Peter. Its great.

Its obvious that the boy knew that September would die and I haven't figured out why he didn't intervene. I must assume it was because he knew Walter had to go with him or maybe Walter would have changed the timeline that was left after the Paradox was created.

I like how they left that part unknown. Maybe a movie is in the future?

fringefan100 said...

The Peter in season five is an anomaly. In that time line both young Peter's died. He appeared because of "love" as September explained. He was not bound to the past events.

Lccf said...

@Frog :
Yes, Michael's motivations are ...puzzling, to say the least. Why did he let himself get caught in the first place ? ( To give us an excuse to say goodbye to Fauxlivia and Lincoln, but that's another story ). My opinion : Michael didn't really want the plan to succeed, since he knew it required September's death, with whom he shared some connection ( ... and probably being treated like a guinea pig in 2167 ). But Olivia says he seemed to relieved to see her come to the rescue ( that's not what I saw, by the way ) , so I don't know ...

Unknown said...

Excuse me, but when does the Fringe team go back in time, become the First People, and build/bury the machine Peter used to heal the universes?

Mr Witz said...

I too have watched all the episodes. Before I went home on Friday I told a co-worker who also watches how I thought it would end. I was exactly correct. I do believe that was the only way it could end. I do not want to get into all the technical paradoxes. I really like the ending.

Too bad some of the other SyFy series that FOX had did not last. I liked the Sarah Connor chronicles, Tera Nova and Alcatraz. Perhaps FOX can get some more good programming. I will watch the Following and see if it holds my interest.

My all time favorite of course was Sliders.

Anonymous said...

If the observers had never been sent back to present day earth to scout, September would have never interrupted Walternate from curing Peter in his own world. Walter, in turn, would have had not reason to steal him. Hence, the "end" from the finale would not have been possible.

Bad job writers!!

Ben Tobin said...

I loved the finale. I think Wyman and company pulled out all the stops in giving longtime fans the ending they deserve. I soundly reject the notion that this series has ever been a soap opera. I suppose it takes certain tropes here and there but if it does it always recontextualizes them and takes them in different directions. Soap Opera to me implies bad production quality and bad acting with plots propelled by sudden and constant twists. Fringe has none of these qualities. The twists to me, when they come, are consistent with the narrative the writers established. I would say there are a handful of case of the week episodes like Johari Window that fell flat for me, but the overarching narrative grew and evolved in such an imaginative and surreal fashion that it hardly mattered. When it comes to the science in science fiction it's not always about being scientifically accurate it's about the story. It's about what the scientific principles can mean metaphorically. If science fiction were limited to how scientists actually work it would be very limiting indeed. Aside from just my love of this show there's the sad truth that there are hardly any good shows out there not infested with Lena Dunhams and Ryan Seacrests anymore. When something high quality and imagiantive comes along, like Fringe, I embrace it because 1) it's the kind of storytelling I like and 2) odds are we aren't going to see anything like it for a LONG time. I want Olivia Dunham...not Kim Kardashian!


I think Michael allowed himself to get caught so Olivia would be able to regain her cortexiphan abilities so could kill Windmark. If she hadn't been juiced up she wouldn't have been able to hit him with the bus and he would have taken Michael.

Ben Tobin said...

The only thing I wanted to see was William Bell. I'm still curious about his involvement in the events of 2015 and how he knew about the Observers. I suppose he'll always remain a mysterious figure but a little more clarity would have been nice, even if it was just a piece of dialogue explaining how he knew.

Regarding the paradox I would assume the study of Michael would lead to Observers who would be able to go back and influence the events so the timeline worked. There are a lot of possibilities. We also didn't get enough of a glimpse into the reimagined 2015 to know for sure what changed. maybe Walter still crossed over despite the cure. The fact is it seems to be his destiny to do that. Watching your son existing within reach has got to be terrible temptation.

Another possibility is that everything played out as the first four seasons showed and Walter simply closed the loop starting with the moment of the invasion. I don't think it affected the entire timeline.

Count Screwloose said...

This is what I thought, as well.

Anonymous said...

William bell is the scientist that created the observers...that is who walter and micheal were going to meet in the future

134sc said...

First of all, I absolutely loved this finale. The emotional beats, the characterization, the acting, the directing, and the writing was all exteremly well done.

Now to the main issue. Since the observers dont exist, the entire series should therefore be erased. On its face, this makes perfect sense. However, within the Fringe universe there are so many ways that this can be explained not to be true.

The way I see it, September/Donald erasing the possible future of the Observers, acts to 2015 (for Walter and the boy) as the machine did to Peter at the end of season 3. Both siezed to exist to those people at those moments in time (end of season 3 and 2015), however they do actually exist (Peter outside of time and Walter in the future). These clearly are both a paradox. Seasons 1-3 (with Peter) had to happen, in order for season 4 to happen, but in order for season 4 to happen seasons 1-3 had to be re-written. Walter and the boy going to the future had to happen in order to prevent the observers possible future, but in order for that possible future to be erased, the Observers future had to at somepoint in time be a possibility (therfore seasons 1-5 still happened as shown). Walter and the boy in the future are the remanents of this observer paradox.

Now technically speaking the Observers still do not exist, so again the series should be erased. However, the paradox created with the Observers that I mentioned above, could only have been made if the Observers still had the possibility to exist, leading up to the invasion in 2015. Once they invaded, they changed the future. They knew this would happen so they had a plan in place to make sure that as they said “their future would have a 99.999% chance of success” what they did not account for was the child observer. He was the anomoly. He was that 0.001% that made the difference.

So in the end, because of the observer paradox everything leading to the reset did in fact happen. But just like season 4, things were re-written, but remenants of the amber/blue timelines remained. This idea is shown through the White Tulip somehow finding its way to Peter. However this occurred (which I am still a little confused about), it was a left over from the amber/blue timline; this coupled with Peters reaction upon recieving the Tulip, tells me that Peter’s memories (as well as Olivia’s) will be restored, just as both Walter and Olivia got their blue timeline memories back, while in the amber timeline.

Just to explain further. I always viewed the season 4 re-write as if everything still happened, but because Peter was removed from the equation, nobody remembered him and new "memories" were implemented to account for this. Same as this re-write. Everything happened the same way, but because Walter was removed from the equation nobody remembered him and new memories were implemented to account for this. However, the White Tulip Peter recieved (most likely) casued him to remember, which is also why the other side was not effected at all, and will continue to progress as if they are in the blue/amber timleine

Larissa said...

Guys, as fringefan100 said:
The Peter in season five is an anomaly. It's a different timeline, in this timeline both Peters were dead by the time the cure was developed.
So everything that matters is what happened after Peter was brought back because of love.
But now Walter was also deleted of this timeline, so Peter and Olivia (and also Etta) don’t remember him.

Anonymous said...

The reason things end as they did is the original 12 observers weren't erased. Walter and Michael were sent to a time after the original 12 were sent on their expediton but before the evil observers were created. As such, everything that happened before the visit to the park still happened.

Anonymous said...

@e671723a-6282-11e2-99cc-000bcdca4d7a:
No, they were sent to a time Observers didn't even exist. I believe, like someone above, that either 1) Observers were created, but empath, Michael-like ones, or 2) Observers weren't created, but time-travel was. Then they decided to came back in time to make sure their timeline was stable.

Zepp said...

I had the privilege to follow in the present time as contemporary, this authentic masterpiece of cinematography television, called Fringe. There were five years of pure emotion that I, an ordinary citizen; I had this rare opportunity to follow step by step the course of this great work. In view of this, I thank all the creators, producers, writers and directors of Fringe, as well as the highly qualified cast of actors and technical support teams involved in this superb realization. As for production companies, filmmakers and distributors who are FOX, Warner, and Bad Robot, among others. Thank you to everyone for their great efforts in producing it, placing, and maintaining the air, Fringe, for five memorable seasons. You were simply fantastic.

This final Fringe for me was wonderful, beyond my expectations, highly emotional, and very well suited to everything we were told in those five years, I think. That wonderful sunny park with Olivia, Peter and the little girl, Etta, was all I wanted, to be the final of Fringe. Especially, I have to tell for you Mr. Joel Wyman, who I personally feel highly gifted with this beautiful end, that you and your peers have given me, thanks! That luminosity, that tranquility, and especially one that normality that afternoon, of that warm park, represented me like a kind of icon, a symbol of the great final victory, the brave Fringe team. It was a masterful final, with the ultimate victory of love, family and hope.

I must say here that that final scene, in which Peter opens an envelope and pulls out a sheet inside her with a drawing of a white tulip, had two meanings for me. First, of course, that time restarted and that is another story and Walter no longer exists in this timeline, but second, it seemed to me also that Fringe may have somehow a continuation. Something stirred my imagination, whatever. One white tulip design, and that faint smile of Peter ... Yes I know, it's an total assumption on my part, but why not? Fringe is not, first of all, a symbol of the hope?

Count Screwloose said...

I wonder if the writers weren't giving John Noble one of the Emmys he deserved by sending him to Norway. What do they give out there? The Nobel ('Noble') Prize...

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

The best show on television. Thanks to the Team of writers and every one involved to bring such a wonderful show to us. My Fridays are going to suck now :)

Spock said...

Hmmm. So assuming that there are no more Fringe events in the new timeline, are Oliva and Peter out of work now?

T mags said...

I thought when Michael put his finger over his mouth he was saying "Wait for it..."
And as has been said repeatedly, in this reality Peter died as a child. Adult Peter appeared from yet another reality. Lack of Observers changes nothing.
Also we needed more floating Observers. Cuz it's cool.

Unknown said...

Thank you thank you for your clear explanation :-)

Unknown said...

Bravo! Excellently explained

Zepp said...

In my view, the boy Michael, was not taken by Walter, for the future, but he returned for the future. And when Michael, put your finger on your lips, it (to me) was saying: "... not talk, or ... be quiet!" Seemed to me something like: "let the destiny be fulfilled ... ".

LOL AWESOME JAIME! said...

I think the White Tulip gives Peter a clue that Walter is in the Future, he can just open the case file, he just needs to investigate the year and go get walter.

Unknown said...

Like this theory Zepp! Have enjoyed reading your comments and angancing my fringe experience!

Unknown said...

Sorry enhancing :-(

134sc said...

I posted a very long winded theory invloving an observer paradox, which makes the reset to 2015 make sense. However, I was mistaken in believing that Walter did not ever exist, in the same way Peter did in season 4.

Walter did in fact exist, but ceased to exist when he travelled to the 2167. So everything leading up to 2015 remains the same, except like Walter said on the tape, he will be there one second then gone the next. Peter and Olivia were never made aware of his plan in 2015, so after the reset they will be surprised that there was an invasion and where Walter went. Now what the White Tulip and Peter's subsequent reaction after recieving it means to me is that every thing post invasion was being restored to him (and Olivia - if FRINGE has taught us anything its that this is plausable), thus he now understands why Walter is no longer there etc.

Santo said...

(thx 134sc & T Mags for the explanations)
I think Michael putting his finger over his mouth means "i'll make this impossible good ending real...then calm down, no...SHUT UP!!" :D. Then Michael is the situation's "deus ex machina", as a master puppeteer he'll make work out from the future exactly what Olivia was wishing...and is a plot device to justify potential incongruities
Peter receiving the white tulip was according to the plan before the rewriting. The white tulip was missing ( 11th episode), Walter questions Donald "where is it?", and Donald answers "I don't know what you did with it". NOW we know what Walter did (who knows how) it with it.
My doubt is what happens to Walter? There is a time when he existed in the final (happy) timeline and a second after he's erased? The Fringe team it existed at all(i think the answer is YES) The situation is different from Peter erasure!
I feel Olivia in the last images is gloomy...do you think is possible she reminds something??? (after all it's not the first time) at subconscious level, or she choose not to talk of it with Peter (to make him not suffer). This + Peter last gaze = Walter will not be forgotten ( + Peter resourcefulness = Walter will return )

Santo said...

@134sc you answered to my question before i did it!! THIS is a paradox!! ;D
I hope this is the answer...because without this the Fringe world we all loved ceased to exist in the last episode :\

Zepp said...

Of course, this end of Fringe, cause many inferences and interpretations, and in view of this, I can not say categorically nothing, I report only that, I felt, what I thought I understood, or that pre-supposed to have understood . What supposition is the closest, or the real message, that the writer, producer and director wanted to convey we, I simply do not know, honestly. Only a continuation of Fringe, tell us, with more correctness, I think.

Unknown said...

I was thinking today about the question of Michael's motives for getting himself caught and I believe it's because he of course knows what is going to happen and knew Donald could not be the one to take him over, that the events that ended up transpiring needed to happen for their success. The Observers might not have come after December and come to fight at the end. Michael orchestrated everything so Walter would be the one to take him over. So in a way all the characters, including Michael, made a sacrifice at the end.

Melissa said...

Walter on "Enemy Of Fate": "Oh, Christ!What I wouldn't give for a good, old-fashioned tumour-inducing cellphone!"

Oh, how I'll miss Fringe!

3cents said...

Can someone explain what were observers doing in 2036? What is their plan that they thought will succeed with 99.9999% probability? They never bothered to explain any of that. What is happening in their present 2609? What troubling is brewing over there and why was this time point 2036 important? Hmmm....

Briar said...

Since the whole Observer Invasion plot line was dreamed up while they wre making Letters of Transit, I'm not surprised they hadn't thought it through. Just as the Season 4 alternative timeline plot was an illconsidered reaction to the season 3 cliffhanger and never properly thought through, so Season 5 seemed more to be forced on them in order to be doing *something* even if they weren't quite clear what. At least they got the characters right, for which we can be grateful.

Briar said...

Ben, are you saying that Michael deliberately sacrificed his father so that Walter would have to take him over? Wouldn't just explaining why it had to be Walter have been a better (and more compassionate) plan?

SheHateMeBro said...

I think they explained the invasion as their way to circumvent the environmental damage done much later that was making the planet unlivable for them. That is why they were installing the atmosphere changing systems, They were basically terra forming, and slowly killing off the current human population. I think that is also why the Commander didn't want the timeline changed, because the future would end up differently anyway.

On another note, when they inspected the boy, they were surprised at his emotional capacity, and you could see how this would be taken as evolutionary news. We can only assume that word would have spread making them very receptive to Walter and Michael when they arrived in 2167. Him being taken set that in motion.

134sc said...

@Santo...

The way I have always viewed FRINGE is that they pose questions and more often then not answer them down the road. When FRINGE does answer the questions, again more often then not, it is not a simple answer (especially when they began to introduce timelines and time travel), and it is an answer that may not make complete sense, but is plausable with the framework of the show. The difference this time around is that there is no tommorrow, there will not be a time down the road to really flesh out how the Observers cease to exist in 2015, as opposed to being erased all togther.

Walter flat out said that there will be a paradox starting in 2015. Essentially this was the quick and simple answer to a much bigger question, but Wyman and Co. wanted us to know that the first 4 seasons were unaffected.

So since there will not be a fleshed out answer to this question, I will take what Walter said about a paradox, take it and apply it to everything else the show has told me and come up with a theory that works for me. Is it fool proo? Absolutley not. As on other sites people have poked minor holes in my theory. But I have read other theories just as plausable as mine, in which I have poked holes.

Point is since FRINGE will not be able to answer this until a movie (which would be awesome) or Wyman does a post finale interview and addresses it (which to be honest I hope he doesn't, I like that we were left with a little mystery), we are left to come up with our own theories using the framework FRINGE has given us.

Unknown said...

@134sc I also like the element of mystery and agree with your theory

@Briar
Yes I think Michael did sacrifice his father, much like Peter sacrificed his. Had Donald gone through the paradox would not have been resolved given that, from the tapes, we know Walter goes into the future. It wouldn't close the loop (to borrow terminology from Looper). It's also like the episodes where Peter is manipulating futures, everything Michael did led up to the events at the end there. If the Fringe team hadn't had to go get him Broyles wouldn't be captured and the Fringe team wouldn't have had to come up with the shipping lanes plan. Michael, much like the original 12 observers probably could have explained everything if he wanted to, but our motley crew tend to try and cheat fate. In the end fate did win out. True there's the whole Fringe mantra of love overcoming destiny...but Peter's destiny of getting into the machine came to pass, Olivia's destiny to die came to pass. Emotions played a role in the success of the plans, but ultimately all the characters have to face their destinies and are bound to them. Walter's destiny was to go into the future as September's was to die. September is also a bit of an anomaly given he's an Observer living in the present. Certainly it appeared to me that Michael was expecting everything that happened. He interfered a couple of times but only because he knew what needed to happen to restore balance.

3cents said...

Who or what is Michael? From what they showed us, he has far superior mental capabilities than observers who are far superior to humans. Then how come Michael cannot travel through time? He seems to be aware of the plan hatched up by September and Walter and seems to be in agreement, then why can't he simply go there himself. Seriously, he doesn't need an old man to accompany him to introduce him. Or maybe he doesn't want to work or doesn't want to take sides and is willing to go with whoever wants his help (he doesn't prefer humans over observers). Is he in any way influencing the outcomes of the events? He clearly is showing people their future, which was not predicted by Observers, at least not at 99.999% probability. The plan doesn't really gel given what we are told about Michael. Poor season and a poor end to the season.

spy insane said...

I am super-happy with the Finale..
The only question is "Why did Michael ask Olivia to be QUIET?"
this happened twice.
I was hoping something in the end would explain he behavior.
If someone can please explain, would be grateful..
but overall a very satisfying end to a brilliant show..
cheers

Anonymous said...

I don't thinkOlivia cared if Peter killed Windmark with his power, but she was scared he would be stuck with having the tech stuck in him like she said. She didn't want to be alone that's why she was telling Peter she wanted them to go through everything together and why she explained if he made it that far and killed him he might be stuck with the tech and emotionless. I think Olivia crushed him with the van if not her facial expressions were off cause she was focusing like she did before.thats why mike let them take him cause he knew she would have to have the cortexifan put back in her to travel then that would be the way he would be able to kill him. If not they would have stole mike at the end. Just my thought

Anonymous said...

FRINGE ended? What did I miss?

Unknown said...

Michael intervened he prompted Astrid idea in the lab and finished Windmark that's my take on it

Brenda said...

Oh be quiet ! Way to go Olivia!

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