This Week in Fringe - 5/6/11

After many hiatuses and thoughts of cancellation, we've finally made it to the season (yes, not series!) finale.

Episode 22 - "The Day We Died"

Zach says: It picks up right where the last episode left things, with Peter in the future, 2026. However, he doesn't really remember he's from the past, so things progress in this future time period as they normally would, and while some things are nice, like Peter and Olivia being happily married, other things aren't looking too bright.

As it turns out, when Peter got in that machine all those years ago, or last episode, he ended up destroying the other universe; oopsies. Walter was blamed and sent to prison, and basically everything else stayed the same; Broyles became a senator and Olivia became the head of Fringe and everyone is happy, except for the Walters. Apparently, Walternate escaped from the other universe and has plans to do to this universe what Peter did to his; namely destroy it.

Needless to say, bad things happen, but, we learn one new, crucial, crazy, piece of information, in that Walter was the one to create the machine. Through some research, Walter learns that he was the one to send the pieces of the machine back through time, and he tells Peter that this has already been done and cannot be undone, but Peter can change his past decisions and the outcome of the future and the universes.

It's a bit of a crazy idea, but sure, why not. Then come the end of the episode, Peter is sent back to the past, to when he entered the machine, now with the knowledge of the future and what needs to be done. He uses the machine to combine the two universes, or at least a part of it, bringing together both labs were the machines are held, along with the Walters and Olivias. Peter explains the future and tells them they need to cooperate to change the future and fix the world.

Waltnerate is still pretty pissed, so I don't know how things are going to turn out, but this seems like it will be the premise of the next season. Will they be able to work together? Will they be able to fix the universes? I guess we'll have to wait and see. Oh, and Peter might be gone forever. Kind of hard to say, but yeah. He "served his purpose," bringing the two groups together, and that may be all there is to it for him.
Zach's Score: 8/10

JDW says: I'm a fan of time travel. I enjoy the Terminator films, Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, and many of my favorite Star Trek episodes and films deal with time travel. So to say I was excited where Fringe was going after last week's cliffhanger would be an understatement. The seemingly post-apocalyptic setting, the possibility that Peter could return to the past knowing what he see's in the future, the possibilities made me tingle. But then the episode started...

At first it was confusing, because it was as if Peter had no recollection of the past at all, he was just back to what his 2026 self would call normal. And much like seeing the alternate universe for the first time, I liked analyzing everything in the frame, picking out little details about what made this world different. I enjoyed seeing the parallels of future Walter and Walter from when we first saw him in the series opener. Or how Walternate goes from bitter, to bitterer murderer. Or how Olivia was never killed by that guy she said she knew was going to kill her (seriously, now that just makes that semi-waful LSD episode a complete waste), you know, till Walternate shot her in the head...

Nice to see the Observers again though; and I can swear I saw one that wasn't white, so that's cool. But who knows what this all means. If this actually turned out to be the series finale (i.e. the show was not renewed for a fourth season) it would've probably been more interesting to watch, as we'd be left to speculate what it all meant. Of course we can still speculate, but at least we can hope that the next season makes it all clear. I can wait till then I suppose...
JDW's Score: 9/10

Overall Score: 8.5/10

Missed the episode? Watch it on Hulu