5x11 The Boy Must Live

[sprocket]

The episode continues to struggle with the challenges many S5 episodes face (and don't always overcome). "Right, we were supposed to do all this setup... oh well. LOOK, HAVE FEELINGS." Walter's conversations with Peter and Donald/September address some thematic arcs and start pointing toward the final resolution - with two episodes to go, not a moment too soon - but don't always do a great job advancing the plot. This week's plot centers around Michael and September as keys to the final revelation of Walter's plan.

The title says Peter, or Michael, but this episode's flavor image is Walter, who gets a lot of attention this week. (He is also carrying a black umbrella in this episode, possibly in tribute to 5x09.)

Physical symbols abound this week: Walter's black umbrella calls back to the final password in "Black Blotter". September and Walter discuss Walter's missing white tulip. Windmark contemplates a set of September's curious: a Bible (for Walter's search for foriveness?) the snowglobe with Lady Liberty (hello altverse), the classic radio playing swanky big band music for Brown Betty... okay, that may be a reach. Many of these symbols revolve around Walter, pointing again to which character is at the center of the writers' fifth season concerns. As someone who really loved the first three seasons' focus on Olivia, I was disappointed the fifth season sidelined that focus in favor of Peter and Walter's arcs.



Writer: Graham Roland
Director: Paul Holahan
Originally Aired: January 11, 2013

Synopsis: With Windmark and the Observers closing in, the Fringe team seeks out the elusive Donald, aka September, to unravel the rest of Walter's plan.

Most Memorable Quote:
PETER: Is that it?
SEPTEMBER: You say that as though we're not carrying technology that can bend space and time into a Möbius Strip.

Links:
Transcript
A. V. Club
Den of Geek
Entertainment Weekly
HitFix
Pop Culture Nexus

Fanfiction: men fell with apples, and with apples rose by syllogismos is a September character study, after the Observers set him loose in the 2010's.

Comments

[cahn]

And we get all the backstory on the Observers! I mean, that was cool, but that backstory MADE NO SENSE and is not even internally consistent. Do they have emotions or don't they? Are emotions genetic or are they caught, like a disease, from huuuumans? Argh!

Walter's plot is kind of nifty, but it's got an unbelievable number of holes. The scientist is supposed to just look at Michael and go, oh, I was wrong about this whole emotion thing? (Besides which, that is not how scientists work!) What if they get stopped before they get to the scientist? What if the Observers can find them? (Why can't they?)

[sprocket]

Yes to most of this. The Michael part is something that could be leveraged into a story of its own, Terminator style, except with Observers instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Observer backstory sounds great but doesn't square up with what has come before. "August" comes to mind immediately, and that's just the second season.

(Emotions as an infection caught from those dirty old humans. I kind of like that image.)

It's not helped that the intercutting during the infodump scene is a little awkward. The episode would have been served just fine by letting Michael Cerveris (September) carry the scene. He does just fine without the cheap CGI of the future.

[wendelah1]

Another episode filled with Big Emotional Moments and little else.

So in between concocting their plan to save humanity, Walter and September would sit around and watch old movie musicals?

With every episode, I keep thinking of how good this season could have been. I'm feeling frustrated with the incompetence of the writing staff. How could they get things so right during the first three and a half seasons and go so badly off-track after that?

[sprocket]

I totally want the story where September and Walter hung out pre-2015. You know they made milkshakes and popcorn and watched all the movies in that way ex-Observers and mad scientists who need friends do.

How could they get things so right during the first three and a half seasons and go so badly off-track after that?

That is a very good question, one I bet involves off-screen events.

Mid-S3 is also when Fringe started finding some character questions it wasn't comfortable answering, like the Two Olivias One Peter issue. Something to think about.