Fringe Rewatch

We're concluding the season five rewatch today. Thank you to everyone who participated. Thanks especially to sprocket, who stepped in to give me a hand when no one else could or would. Season five is unpopular, and justifiably so, but we forged ahead and finished it up. Hurrah!

The writers structured the fifth season as a sort of archaeological dig: the discovery of and lasering out of Walter's beta tapes of his plan to save the world from his ambered Harvard lab. They combined this with a treasure hunt: the search for the items needed to fulfill the plan. So when the Fringe writers decided that the best way to conclude the series was to have the damned plan not work because they were missing a piece of tech, I was pretty steamed. I was prepared for it this time so I'm less angry, but seriously folks, this stank.

Other than a failure of imagination, there was no reason to take up 13 episodes with this plot. Walter could have recorded the entire plan on one tape. The team could have watched it, made a shopping list, etc. The other problem I have with this episode is that with bullets flying everywhere, why didn't the writers just kill off all of the characters except Walter and Michael? They're trying to destroy the timeline so in effect, these particular versions of the characters are going to disappear. Why not have everyone be shot and die as heroes, one by one, as Walter and Michael walk into the future? That would have been dramatic and tragic! Most viewers would have hated it.

If you want to see a great episode about a group of heroes saving humanity from an advanced civilization that plans to exterminate it, watch Stargate SG-1's 2010. (When I'm done with this review, I might just go ahead and do that.)

Okay, let's move on to the good things. Yes, there were a few. The image of Walter and Michael walking into humanity's future was haunting and poignant. Micheal playing the little music box as Donald died, ditto, even if it was pretty dumb, since they were being shot at. The magic trick that Micheal performed was effective, even if it made no sense. Peter's last goodbye to his father broke my heart again. John Noble in that scene was magnificent, as always. Their relationship was always at the center of the Fringe universe for me. The writers successfully completed the arc for their characters, at least.

The final images, first of Etta running toward her parents, with pride and joy on their faces instead of sheer terror, and of Peter opening up the letter from his father with the white tulip, were moving. They brought the series back around to the beginning of the season, just with a different ending. "An Enemy of Fate" didn't salvage this disastrous season, but it was overall a satisfying series finale.



Writer: J.H. Wyman
Director: J.H. Wyman
Originally aired: January 18, 2013

Synopsis:
The original plan fails and so they come up with another plan. It works. The end.

Most Memorable Quote:
PETER: So in order to maintain a future without the Observers... you and Michael have to live out the rest of your lives in the future.

WALTER: I know in my soul this is what I am supposed to do. I want you to give Olivia your daughter back. I want to give you your life back. As a father, how could I not do that for you? What I said on the tape about stealing time with you, I meant it. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You are my favorite thing, Peter. My very favorite thing.

Links:
Transcript
A.V. Club
IGN
HitFix
Many more review links at Wikipedia: [x]

Fanfiction:
I don't know. I didn't read much fic for season five. To be honest, I was too depressed about the whole thing. If you've written something, or have recs, leave them in the comments.

Two stinkers in a row! The B plot in this episode, where they all go off and find the Observer Child, is fairly compelling. I don't think we ever get an explanation for why he's mute and in a state of arrested development.

The A plot is stupid and pointless. Walter turning into his old self is such a non-issue. The whole idea that one could remove a part of someone's brain and then put it back decades later is beyond ridiculous.

Carla Warren doesn't belong in season five, period. Blair Brown is a lovely woman but she is not convincing playing her younger self. They should have come up with another idea. Additionally, I am certain that the writer for this episode has never dropped acid in their life.


Air Date: 14 Dec 12
Written by: Kristin Cantrell
Directed by: Tommy Gormley

Summary: Walter takes a tab or two of Black Blotter and hallucinates a whole lot of nonsense because the writer can't think of anything better. Oh yeah. They find the Observer child, who is another missing piece of Walter's plan to save humanity.

Most Memorable Quote:
WALTER: There's only room for one God in this lab, and it's not yours.

Links: Transcript
The A.V. Club
Den of Geek
HitFix
IGN
Entertainment Weekly

Fanfic: Maybe?

We're past the half-way point and I have to say, even the second time through, this is still a disappointment. Who these Observers are, compared to who they were, or least who they appeared to be, still doesn't add up for me. I feel like there must have been some intermediate steps that got missed/left out because of the abbreviated season and end of the series. Despite having a limited number of episodes, the storytelling is flabby. There are too many scenes of people having important emotions and talking about their feelings, and not enough action, which is true for the entire season, imho. The world-building is more about how it looks for the camera than about creating a coherent post-apocalyptic world. So far, Olivia hasn't been given much of anything to do except stand around and react to things. I don't like that. I don't like any of it.



Writer: Graham Roland
Director: Eagle Eglisson
Originally aired: 16 Nov 12

Synopsis: Walter worries that he's going to turn back into his old self because the missing pieces of his brain were restored. In his quest to avenge Etta, Peter is becoming that which he means to destroy: an Observer. Olivia worries that she's losing Peter again. Peter is losing his hair! Meanwhile, the team continues to assemble the pieces to Walter's plan to save humanity.

Most Memorable Quote:
WALTER: My Bowie... he stole it. It's not enough that he institutionalized me, betrayed our friendship, but he pilfered my record collection as well!

Links:
Transcript
A.V. Club
IGN
Den of Geek
Entertainment Weekly

Fanfiction: None that I could find. Leave suggestions in the comments.

It's no secret that I didn't care for Fringe season five. Before this, I'd watched it once--while it was airing. Until now, I hadn't purchased season five and I'm a completeist. But a rewatch is a rewatch. I'm going to do my best to stay objective and not let this devolve into a hate-watch. For all I know, there are fans out there who thought this was the best season yet.
After Fringe was renewed, TV Guide interviewed the executive producers, Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman, asking them what the fans should expect from this abbreviated final season.

"They are coming!" Can we assume that the "they" is the Observers, and you're lining up with what we saw in 2036?
J.H. Wyman: Yes.
Are you going to stay in the current timeline, or will we see some flashing forward and backward next season?
Wyman: Well, let's say that basically 2036 is extremely important to Season 5. It's crucial, but having said that, everything that you have seen in Fringe from Season 1 all the way to 4 is really, really, really, really important to what's going on in Season 5, and 2036 is part of that. It's a 13-episode sprint; there's no filler episodes. It answers some very bold questions. It culminates with a very satisfying type of crescendo that really is so important for the fans, that's the biggest thing. That's the only thing that's really important is to make sure that they feel absolutely satiated.

Emphasis is mine. That word, "satiated," bothers me. And what a strange criteria to choose when planning your final season. Here's one more quote.

Now that you know this will be your final season, what are you guys doing differently in your approach?
Wyman: The main concern is in no way shape or form are our fans going to be let down. That makes us feel really good that they're going to be able to see a conclusion that is emotional, that is epic, that is going to make sense, that they can emote with and go through our characters and watch them on their final journey and put this show away in a manner that is worthy to all the hours they've invested in our characters. The only thing it does is make the pencil be a little bit more sharp, that's all.

"Make the pencil be a little bit more sharp." So, they plan to make the writing crisper? More thoughtful? Better planned perhaps, since this is it. There will be no more. Well, let's see how they did, shall we?

Writer: J.H. Wyman
Director: Jeannot Szwarc, Miguel Sapochnik
Originally aired: September 28, 2012

Synopsis: Just as Olivia is liberated from her Amber prison, they are betrayed and Walter is taken prisoner by the Observers. They manage to free him but not before he is harshly treated and had his mind probed by Captain Windmark. When Walter puts on the Transilience Thought Unifier, the tech that Olivia had ambered herself to protect, they discover that his recent memories have been wiped, along with the plan for defeating the Observers. Etta suspects that her grandfather's memories were destroyed during his ordeal, and that they will never be retrieved.

Most Memorable Quote:
CAPTAIN WINDMARK: But there is no hope... for you. Nothing grows from scorched Earth. You seem much more interesting as a human being - than as a vegetable. But, quite frankly, all things being equal, I don't mind which one you end up. The choice is yours.

Links:
Transcript
A.V. Club
IGN review
HitFix.
Photo Recap at Pop Culture Nexus
Future Shock Blues - EW. That EW title is my review in three words.

Fanfiction:
Strangely, I'm working on something. But it's not done.

Please leave your suggestions in the comments.

Before the rewatch began last year, I'd wondered if I'd still hate all of the things I hated about season four the first time around or if the passage of time would ease the feeling of betrayal. Long story short, it didn't, and I do. Hate all of the same things.

"That's just the way you are, babe," said idunnoh, my husband and fellow Fringe fan.

"Brave New World" gives us one more Mad Scientist episode to finish out the season. At least they're consistent? William Bell's explanation that Walter might have been playing God, but that Bell himself is God--that's pretty much a textbook definition for insanity.

In a two-part episode filled with Big Moments, the biggest reveal was that William Bell was behind everything. I have to admit, I really did not see that one coming, though in my defense, Bell was supposed to be dead. What is this, The X-Files? Walter's explanation for how he knew that William Bell, rather than David Robert Jones, was the architect of the nanites is beyond my comprehension.

Other things: Olivia and Peter are pregnant. That was telegraphed a few episodes back, and then again when Olivia mentions in part one that she wants their new house to have a nursery.

ASTRID GOT SHOT! I was scared. I was so afraid they'd decided to kill her off instead of renewing her contract.

And then there's the ending:
WALTER: I don't suppose you're here for a sandwich.
THE OBSERVER: We have to warn the others. They are coming.
WALTER: Who's coming?

Especially now that Leonard Nimoy is gone, it's nice to have his last performance as William Bell to look back on. He's a convincing megalomaniac.



Writer: Jeff Pinkner, Akiva Goldsman, Joel Wyman
Director: Joe Chapelle
Originally aired: 11 May 2012

Synopsis: Olivia has been turned into a universe-collapsing machine by a combination of cortexiphan saturation and emotional overload. Weirdly, she looks exactly the same on the outside even while she is busy destroying the universe with her special powers. It's all because William Bell has lost his mind and decided he's God. Walter saves the day by killing Olivia, which makes everything go back to what passes for normal in the Fringe universe. Walter then brings her back to life by removing the bullet from her brain, which then heals itself because of the cortexiphan. It doesn't make sense. None of it, not one word.
Most Memorable Quote:
WILLIAM BELL: Walter, this was all your idea. Peter died -- twice. You hated God. "What kind of God would cause so much suffering?" That's what you said. So much pain. You decided to create a universe that would operate by your rules. And then, when you realized that you were smart enough to do it, you got scared. You asked me to cut out a portion of your brain.
WALTER: No.
WILLIAM BELL: Yes, Walter. We cut those ideas out of your head to literally put 'the Genie' back into the bottle. Then I grew older. I grew cynical. I grew cancer. Then I realized that dosing myself with Cortexiphan would slow it down. But slowing is not stopping. For me, it's just a matter of time. The clock is ticking. Tick, tick, tick, tick. And that's when it occurred to me. You were right, Walter. Walter, you were right, right, right. Every rant you ever went on made perfect sense. Suddenly, I understood not just you - but everything. (profound reflection) God made us in his image. If that is so, if we are capable of being Gods, then it is our destiny to do so.

Links:
Transcript: Part 1 | Part 2
EW: Part 1 | Part 2
Pop Culture Nexus
Polite Dissent

Fanfiction: Yes, quite a bit--for this fandom. Here's a not-quite-random sampling. Please let me know if you have a rec or a self-rec to add to the list.
World of Never-Ending Happiness by tilden
Summary:Peter's off balance, figuratively and literally.
Loose Tonight by beautyofsorrow
Summary: post-Brave New World and demons haunt the air. There's lots to sort out.
Grace by Monanotlisa
Summary: "Or maybe it's not only his doing alone, although following a chain of causality means leaving the realms of logic to enter the realms of ethics. And there, Walter is a stranger and always has been."

So that's it for season four. I guess we'll start up again with season five (which is looking better by comparison). As soon as we figure out a schedule, I'll post it.

In "Letters of Transit," Fringe gives fair warning about its final season, a warning I chose to ignore at the time. But now we know that it sets up the events of season five, and belongs more to that season than the season it aired in. I have no idea why the writers do these things.

We meet Peter and Olivia's daughter, we find out what the Observers are really up to, and we find out why Walter Bishop had those bits of his brain excised. What an arrogant asshole he must have been back in the day!

The title is a reference to the movie Casablanca. We get it, writers. The Observers are the bad guys now. The giant floating text scrolling by at the very beginning giving us the background info is a reference to Star Wars Episode Four. Damn it. WE KNOW! The Observers=The Evil Empire. Good grief.



Writer: Akiva Goldsman, J.H. Wyman, Jeff Pinkner
Director: Joe Chappelle
Originally aired: April 20, 2012

Synopsis: It's 2036. The Observers have taken over the world. Though nominally working for Philip Broyles who heads the police force charged with containing the native population, Agent Etta Bishop is secretly a member of the Resistance. For years, she has been searching for the original Fringe team and as the episode opens, she finds Walter Bishop and with the help of Simon,another member of the resistance, manages to free him from the Amber. Before her source can lead her to the other members, he's killed. Walter is brain damaged and can't help. Etta and her colleague Simon decide to travel into the city and break into the old headquarters of Massive Dynamic to retrieve the missing pieces of Walter's brain in the hope that replacing it will regenerate his damaged brain tissue. It works. He gets really smart again, and really mean. Eventually, we find Astrid, Peter, Walter and Etta reunited, and Simon sacrificed for the cause. But where's Olivia? Oh, and Etta has a special power: she can shield her mind from being read by the Observers.

Most Memorable Quote:
"They weren't all bad, you know. One of them even tried to help us. He was called September. What happened to him was... well, unexpected. He told me that, in the year 2609 A.D., they finally ruined the planet. They poisoned it -- the air, the water. And when it was fundamentally uninhabitable, then they traveled back through time, and took our planet from us." - Walter (to Henrietta and Simon, providing pivotal knowledge that explains the invasion strategy)

Links:
Transcript
Entertainment Weekly
The A.V. Club
Polite Dissent

Fanfiction:
Anyone? I didn't read much fanfic for this, or Season Five for that matter.
EDITED TO ADD: Into Your Hideout by CorwinofAmber.

Time does not heal all wounds. I'm the moderator and I couldn't make myself rewatch this turd—that's how much I hated this episode. I couldn't even make myself look at the goddamned screen caps. I despise the title, with its implicit meaning--that they'd created my favorite character and made me love him, all along intending to kill him off so they could pair up the remaining characters.

Fuckers.

I've never felt the same about this show since this episode aired. Just thinking about it puts me in a bad space and I can't have that right now. Sorry for the lateness and the personal melodrama. I wish I could have done better.

.
Fucktards responsible for this piece of crap:
Written by: J.R. Orci (story & teleplay); Matthew Pitts (story); David Fury (teleplay)
Directed by: David Moxness
Original air date: 06 Apr 12

Summary: I don't remember anything except that Captain Lee is killed in the line of duty, which clears the way for Agent Lee to stay on the other side for awhile to "help out." I don't want to begrudge the man his chance for happiness--but I kind of do anyway. Does the episode tie in with the rest of the season or clear up any loose plot threads or do anything useful? You'll have to tell me.

Links:
Transcript
IGN review
Den of Geek
HitFix
Entertainment Weekly
io9

Fanfiction:
Understandably, there was some very fine fanfic written for this episode, by all of the usual suspects.
Most recent fic that I've read: Run This Town by Sprocket was written for last year's fringe_exchange. It's a very well-conceived and well-written casefile.