In another universe , much like our own , last nighttime ’s instalment of Fringe probably serve as the series finale , given how nigh the show come to cancellation . And in many ways , this would have been a meet final stage to the series .
“ The Day We pass away ” was a great sum of Fringe at its absolute best as well as its absolute defective , and it matte like a series finale in many way . After all , it resolved many , if not most , of the show ’s dangling plotlines , and served up some baffling answers . Most of all , it felt like a with child summing up of the show ’s great enigma , Dr. Walter Bishop . Both of him .
Spoilers ahead …
So before anybody get the wrong idea , I ’m still extremely glad that Fringe is come back in the downfall — this show has stumbled a fair number latterly , but it ’s still one of the best show on television , and it may well have the serious plaster bandage on television , blockade none . But I ’ve had the queasy spirit that Fringe was miss its sensation of direction for a while now , and last night ’s sequence only intensified that worry .
In a nutshell , “ The Day We Died ” was Fringe at its practiced — absolutely perfect character - based storytelling about its three gist character , especially Walter . And it was Fringe at its worst — nonsensical plot twist , payload of gawky expo , and a storyline that appeared to be lifted wholesale from several episodes of Star Trek : Voyager .
So , first the good part . John Noble has hand us Walter Bishop , his alternate universe counterpart , and both version circa 1985 . And now , Noble ’s called up on to give us two more versions of Walter , both base in the yr 2026 . What little makeup the show uses to senesce both Walters seemed fairly subtle , but it hardly mattered because Noble create two whole new versions of the lineament — to the point where , when we eventually saw the present - day Walters at the end of the episode , I was a bit startled by the passage .
In 2026 , “ our ” Walter has been blamed for the sweeping ravaging that chance upon our universe after Peter used the machine to wipe out the other universe . It turns out the two universes were unite inextricably , so destroying one doomed the other . After everything started to ravel out , Walter was put on test , and sent to a A-one maximum security prison house , where he turns into a mirror trope of the dissheveled Unabombery mess we met in the show ’s pilot light . ( There was a certain “ full rotary ” feeling to the whole thing . )
Walter is still Walter — still playful and unrelentingly weird — but he ’s much more broken and guilt - ridden than in our day . It ’s almost impossible to sum up in word the amount of remorse and grief and stubborn zest for life that John Noble puts into his portrait of Future Walter . Just the lachrymose wonder with which Walter unwraps a package of Red Vines . Or rejoices in swivel chair . Or the way he ruefully allege that his past self would have found something absorbing , or catches himself admiring the cagey figure of a WMD . And the way he talks about the long - exit Gene the Cow . Or the means he pity Walternate for look like the most hated man in the universe .
This Walter has long since given up on the musical theme of being forgiven , or finding salvation . He ’s long since give up any aspiration of finding mitigate setting for his crimes . He ’s Present Walter ’s worst nightmare of how he ’ll end up , helpless and unforgiven .
Meanwhile , Walternate has only gotten more vitriolic , now that his whole population has gone . He ’s turned into a beggarly , spiteful old man whose only end in life is retaliation . He ’s secretly behind the quasi - religious terrorist group , the Army of Brad Dourif , who are consecrated to wreak about the end of the world , Brad Dourif - style . And he ’s such a dirty by-blow that even when he sees his own Logos , whose disappearing he mourn for so many years , his only reaction is holographic threats , and a back version of Khan ’s “ I bid to go on hurt you ” speech . And not surprisingly , John Noble , television receiver ’s MVP , brings it .
But the ease of the cast is awe-inspiring as well — especially Joshua Jackson , who does n’t always get his prop . Peter and Olivia have gotten marital , and deliberate whether to have kids on and off , and meanwhile , they ’ve both promote within the grow Fringe organisation . ( Whatever else Future Walter may have done , he sure enough ensured lifetime full utilisation for his friends and family member . ) And Peter now has his own share of the macrocosm - destruct guilt , since he was the one who went into the machine and doomed both universes . ( Although I gauge they were both doom anyway . )
The most compelling stuff about all the future versions of the other characters , though , is their relationship to Walter — nothing ’s really change , except that everything ’s switch . Their friend is now universally reviled as the cause of world-wide distress and demise , and they ’ve discover way too much of the effects of Walter ’s madness . And just to express philia for Walter feel like a transgressive act . He ’s a part of their family , more than ever — Olivia has wed into the Bishop clan , Peter lastly admits that Walter is his real dad — but he ’s become radioactive .
It ’s the paradox of Walter , taken to its furthest conclusion — he ’s the origin of all evils , but he ’s also at the center of his family . And his boundless gleeful curiosity has caused almost unimaginable suffering , but it ’s still rather sweet and lovable . With this sequence , we eventually see a creation where everybody be intimate about Walter ’s crimes , but only a few hoi polloi know what a blue-blooded soul he is .
Meanwhile , everybody ’s moved on and change , in the majestic tradition of the “ glimpsing a dystopian time to come ” instalment . Broyles is a senator with one messed - up eye . Astrid is a full - fledged agent at last , although people mess up with her desk because she ’s too nice . Olivia ’s niece has just joined Fringe Division , and Gene the Cow has probably become president or something .
In the end , Walternate let out a catastrophic wormhole in Central Park and remove Olivia , leading tothe 2d “ future version of a character getting a Viking boat funeral ” scenein the preceding calendar month . Peter and Walter are both heartbroken , but then Walter finally sees a way that he can grasp at the salvation he ’s given up on , thanks to that wormhole .
https://gizmodo.com/quite-possibly-the-best-doctor-who-season-opener-of-all-5795011
So now for the unfit . I ’ve rewatched glob of the episode a couple times after my first showing , and I still do n’t remember it makes much sense , or is a very logical patch . This come on the heels of some other confutative plotting of late , from the “ Whichever Olivia Peter loves will get to save her existence ” thing to the “ Bellivia ” thing . I ’ve started to sense as though Fringe does role - based storytelling much , much good than it ever does plot - based storytelling .
So , following in the proud tradition of “ inflict a awful future ” stories , you pretty much have it off in the first five arcminute that none of this hooey is move to come to pass . Fringe shows admirable constraint by not possess Walternate gun down Broyles , Astrid , Olivia ’s niece and Gene the Cow as well , since none of the future deaths are drop dead to cohere . ( Although cave in the amount of clock time the show spend build up this dark futurity , it ’s possible we ’ll revisit it next time of year . ) Walter picture out a path to send Peter ’s knowingness back in time using the Central Park wormhole , so he can make a different alternative 15 year ago . ( Or bring Peter ’s consciousness ahead in time from 15 years ago , I guess . )
And suddenly , Walter offers a somewhat nonsensical explanation for the whole First People affair that the show has been dangling all season . The Godhead of the mysterious universe - juicing motorcar , the First People , turn out to be none other than Future Walter , who will build the auto so that only his boy can mesh it , and then send the piece of music back in fourth dimension millions of year . ( And how do the pieces curve up scattered all over the cosmos ? My guess : dinosaur soccer . ) Somehow , Future Walter also makes trusted that the knowledge of the machine ’s scattered pieces will get inter in the past , so that several generation of men name Sam Weiss will uncover it and publish a near - incomprehensible book in most of the humans ’s languages , then sit around in a bowling alleyway waiting for someone to descend in seeking help with a limp .
Why does Walter build the motorcar and broadcast the composition back in time ? Because he ’s already done it , and thus he ’s fated to do it . It seems like an singular thing for Walter , who ’s always been skeptical about mysticism and a exponent of free will , to importune that he has no choice about follow the path of action that he ’s already exact . Especially as he insists , in the very next breath , that they can alter history in a dissimilar way . When Peter look at Walter and says , “ it does n’t make sense , ” it feel like the writers are just fox up their hands and admitting it .
And here ’s where I acknowledge to a diagonal : I detest close up - end metre locomotion plot . Absolutely loathe them . This is a bias that I am willing to thieve to , and I recognize that not everybody shares it . I consider that every event must have a cause , and every choice must come from somewhere . And the mere fact of time change of location does not annul cause and effect . ( Apart from anything else , make and effect are where effective storytelling come in from , and any time you say “ stimulate and effect no longer thing , ” then you ’re really say “ Storytelling is not important . ” We want to see multitude make selection , and we require to see those choices have consequences . )
In a nutshell : I love metre locomotion , but I hate closed - loop time travel . Except for The Man Who Folded Himself , which gets a free pass because of all the other crazy stuff in it . ( See alsomy recap of the Warehouse 13 episode where they try something similar . ) Again . I am one-sided , and maybe you do n’t detest this variety of affair as much as I do .
https://gizmodo.com/whats-the-point-of-time-travel-if-you-cant-change-anyth-5633325
So in this instance , there has to be a suit that makes Walter build the motorcar and send the role back in fourth dimension , and it ca n’t just be a loop with no beginning or terminate . Otherwise , it ’s not clever , it ’s just lazy . Here end my ranting .
With the First People and the simple machine ’s origin explained , a lot of storytelling potential feel like it ’s been tossed into a wormhole — unless Future Walter is amiss , or there ’s more to the exposure than we ’ve gotten so far . In either casing , Peter wind up back in the present , where it looks for a moment as though he ’s still doom to put down both macrocosm . Then Peter does something surprising instead : He merges both universes , but only in that one elbow room . ( He “ plug holes ” so that the two universe can meet on Liberty Island . )
And what follows is a very serial publication finish - ish picture , where the two Walters and the two Olivias meet up , and Peter finally get under one’s skin everybody to realise that either both universes will exist , or neither will . The two universes are inextricably linked , which is a divine revelation that ’s sort of dropped via exposition earlier in the episode . And so or else of plotting to lay aside their several universes , the two Walters require to work together to set up the damage in both universes . You feel a group clinch come on , as the show ultimately reaches pan - universal musical harmony .
And then Peter fizzles out of universe , as a helpful assemblage of Observers explains that “ Peter never existed ” and thus nobody remembers him . But it ’s okay , because “ Peter served his purpose . ”
I ’m guessing the “ fly Peter ” thing wo n’t stick next season , but meanwhile , what does this signify ? A few theory :
1 ) Peter ’s Quantum Leap - ing way changed the timeline so much that he was never contain . ( Maybe Future Walter send a mail boat of rubber back to his 1970s ego ? )
2 ) Somehow Peter change things enough that Walter never pass over over to rescue him from the other universe of discourse , and thus he died of that disease in 1985 . ( But that would n’t explain why Walter and Walternate are still at lunkhead . Or indeed , why Walternate still incriminate Walter of breaking his universe of discourse , after Peter ’s vanished . This is also a trouble with theory#1 . )
3 ) The machine does clobber we do n’t bonk about , and one of its subprogram is to efface its operator from the timeline for his own protection .
4 ) The Observers did it — the way in which they say “ Peter served his purpose ” makes you wonder if they ’ve been keeping Peter in existence all along , using their Observer powers , and now they no longer need him .
Update : The producersanswered this query over at TVLine . It ’s basically option#1 .
In any case , it ’s another paradox : Peter never existed , and yet all of the stuff that happened because of Peter still happened , including Walter ’s original crossroad - over and the activation of the machine . ( And I marvel if Fauxlivia still has a babe . )
Bottom line : this was a corking episode and a severe installment at the same fourth dimension . It mat like a superb summing up of all the show ’s paper and a wondrous exploration of the thick contradictions at the spirit of Walter Bishop . And it also feel as though the show ’s attempts to fare up with ever more startling secret plan twist are becoming increasingly ego - defeating . Whenever Fringe reveals something new about its main characters , it ’s a thing of wonder . Whenever the show reveals a newfangled plot of ground twist , it ’s a root of bafflement .
But I freely hold I may be too harsh , and perhaps I ’ll come around to loving this instalment finally . What did you bozo think ?
image via Fox andFringeFiles.com
Akiva GoldsmanJohn NobleTelevision
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