Last dark ’s episode of Fringe gave us a huge dose of mythology and cosmology , as we finally got some answers to the major head the show ’s been teasing us with for years . This episode worked as a twisty thriller and as a heart - breaking piece of dramatic play , plus it bring off to bring up some enthralling issue about identity and selfhood .
But most of all … do we acknowledge how Fringe is drop dead to cease ?
Spoilers ahead …
So it ’s almost hard to commend at this item how unconvincing a Peter / Olivia Romance language once seemed . For the first duet years of Fringe , Peter player Joshua Jackson in peculiar was very vocal about say that he did n’t want to see the two characters become romantically involved . ( Sample quote , from a Sept. 2009 interview : “ I do n’t call up they ’re go to go in that centering . I see Peter and Olivia as more brother and baby rather than lovers on this show . ”
And now , it ’s become clear that the Peter / Olivia romance is n’t just a thing — it ’s the center of the show , the thing everything revolves around . This has been clear at least since the Peter / Olivia / Olivia trigon , and the manufacturer floated the approximation that whichever version of Olivia Peter choose , her macrocosm alone would exist . ( This theme was swim via Sam Weiss , who at the time seemed to be the Voice of Truth on the show . ) In any case , now we have it off — the Peter / Olivia romance really is the show ’s axis .
At least , that ’s what I got from the telepathic PowerPoint presentation that Peter gets treated to in “ The conclusion of All Things . ” We bugger off a lot of context for stuff and nonsense we already roll in the hay about Peter and the Observers . In 1985 , when Walternate was on the brink of finding a miracle cure for Peter ’s illness , September disorder him at the wrong moment , so he missed out on the therapeutic . And Peter was so important to the future , that September decided to step in and salve Peter from drown after Walter bring him back to our universe . September ’s interference inadvertently led to the withering war between universe — but patently , none of that was a major deviation from the timeline that leads to the best futures . What was a major deviation ? Peter make a babe with the wrong Olivia .
Let ’s pause and process that for a minute — obviously , the Observers ( or at least September ) always wanted Peter and “ our ” Olivia to get together . And it ’s strongly hinted that the romance between Peter and Olivia is authoritative — elbow room more important than any of the fallout from all that universe - on - universe violence . significant enough that Henry , Peter ’s boy with the other Olivia , was a major problem . Henry had to be rub out from the world , even at the cost of erasing Peter himself .
That , in twist , mean that even if September had n’t trouble Walternate in his research laboratory — and Walter had n’t had any reason to cross over and kidnap Peter — Peter still would have need to traverse over at some point and meet “ our ” Olivia , for the Observers ’ trust hereafter to do to pass .
So after the offending baby Henry was rub out , and Peter along with him , there was a difference of opinion between September and December . December require Peter to stay erased , but September disobeyed his orderliness and betray to contain a magnet to the last vestige of Peter - memory in the universe . Because , I guess , September still believes Peter can fulfil his original destiny — the destiny that made it worthwhile to pull him out of a lake in the first shoes .
So how does Fringe terminate ? My bet is , with Olivia giving birthing to Peter ’s babe . Or at least , being pregnant . It ’s pretty obvious , at this point , that Peter and Olivia have a baby who ’s important to the future — some variety of historic physical body . essentially , their child is John Connor . At least , that ’s the most likely scenario , given what we ’ve just been told about infant Henry being the “ improper ” baby , and the Peter / Olivia romance being life-sustaining to the future . I feel like the show is cable a babe - relate stop passably hard , at this point .
And whether it ’s true that the beholder are outside of time , apparently they ’ve at least ensure the start of the universe and they ’ve smell sour matter and material . We learn , at last , that the Observers are from the future . And the calendar month - related names are just code names for one scientific team who were sent to our time to study important event . September knows this is how he dies , and he ’s using his last moments to clew Peter in , just like he already endure to see Olivia at the Opera House to diffuse cryptic info about Olivia ’s inevitable , impending demise . ( My guess : She dies , but is recreate heroically . Or she dies in childbirth , in the final episode . )
So here ’s the plot of “ The End of All thing ” : Olivia ’s been taken prisoner by David Robert Jones , who ’s torturing Nina to try on and get Olivia to activate her Cortexiphan powers . But Olivia cleverly figures out this is n’t the real Nina , but alt - Nina — and meanwhile , the real Nina has been detain by Broyles and Lincoln , who do n’t conceive her ( actually sincere ) protestations of purity . Peter , meanwhile , is judge to dog down Olivia , but is stymied until he get a hint from September , and then Olivia herself project to have him brought to her . Olivia saves the day with her scary psychical king , but David Robert Jones and alt - Nina get away .
The cleverest part of the instalment was in all probability the Nina - fakeout . I was n’t certain if these new - school shapeshifters still had to kill the masses they replaced , but kudos to everybody who pegged this as the work of alt - Nina rather than a shapeshifter impersonating Nina . The episode pull a clever switch , making you believe that the existent Nina is Jones ’ captive while the imposter is in Broyles ’ custody — and even after it was revealed that the hostage - Nina was a fake , I still thought for a present moment that both Ninas were in on it . But no — evidently alt - Nina has been sneaking into monolithic Dynamic and boosting Cortexiphan samples to drug Olivia with .
It does make you inquire which Nina we ’ve been seeing in the past several episodes , articulate things like “ we provide the enquiry , and we ’re not responsible for for how it ’s used , ” and patently act unconcerned about a new round of experiments on another psychical nestling . Probably , those things were the material Nina , setting up a squeamish bit of ambiguity as to who ’s the “ evil ” Nina .
In any case , poor Nina — apparently , Olivia has all but forget her childhood as Nina ’s adopted daughter . ( Unless Olivia was exaggerating , as part of her gambit to trick them into make for Peter to the abandoned infirmary of doom . ) Olivia ’s most plastic experiences in this timeline , now deoxidize to just photoflash of someone else ’s life . One wonders how the real Nina will manage it when she finds out about this .
So Walter is hang to the theory that Olivia is “ remembering ” her past from Peter ’s timeline because of the Cortexiphan , but also because of Peter stick out his desire for “ his ” Olivia onto her . Which does n’t really explain why Olivia remembers long ton of details from the wrong puerility , that have nothing to do with Peter whatsoever . But in any case , Peter catches a circle of flak for taking Olivia out of the lab , out of Walter ’s watching , and thus allowing her to get kidnapped — to which Peter could reasonably retort that Olivia ’s a federal agent , who was working a case , and thus entitle to go out and do her caper . ( Peter does n’t actually bother to say this . )
It ’s pull up stakes to Lincoln to be the heavy , accusing Peter of being willing to wipe out Olivia ’s identicalness for his own selfish goals . And obviously , part of this is motivated by Lincoln ’s own desire to get busy with Olivia . But also , even if Lincoln ’s wrong about Peter ’s theatrical role in all this , he ’s absolutely correct about the inappropriateness of just wiping out someone ’s whole past , and how that is basically the same thing as effacing her individuality in the end . As another mysterious perceiver who stands outside of time and sees the futurity once sound out , “ A man is the sum of his memories . ”
The other great blow of the episode , though , is that Olivia wins out because she has the “ other ” Olivia ’s memories — remembering the events that we find in the first few seasons enable her to confront David Robert Jones down and boast of having see his end . She ’s able-bodied to outsmart him , and then in the ending , she ’s able-bodied to unleash the full - on lightning - shoot psychic freakout , burning a hench - guy wire to a crisp and allowing her and Peter to escape . Thanks to Olivia ’s reset memories , she ’s capable to keep the day , and turn Peter into the one who gets rescued .
Too bad David Robert Jones turns out to be an unkillable mofo , thanks to having been reassembled at a molecular level . ( And why , incisively , does n’t Olivia shoot the portal generator rather of Jones anyway ? )
Meanwhile , how many brickbats need to polish off Peter in the head before he realizes that there ’s no original timeline for him to go home to ? September even comes out and tells him that he ( and baby Henry ) had to be erased from the universe , because Henry was so wrong ? That , by definition , means that this is the same cosmos , just with Peter ’s past altered . And yet , Peter is so stuck on his compulsion about crossing back to a universe that no longer subsist , he is almost unable to interpret a two - syllable clue as to how to find Olivia in time to save her . When is Peter going to give up on this “ work home ” nonsense ?
In any case , the instalment ’s sad termination stems from the misconception of two unlike Bishops — Walter ’s probably mistaken belief that Peter ’s been causing Olivia to remember the wrong timeline , and Peter ’s belief that he can still “ get home base . ” Olivia protests that she really does palpate what she feels for Peter , and it ’s not phoney , and he can see it in her middle — but Peter decides to be stoic and ego - abnegating and stuff , walking away in the thick of a sudden rainstorm . Leaving Olivia all alone , surrounded by first answerer . ( Not to be confused with the First People . )
J.J. AbramsTelevision
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