“It’s about changing fate” Some thoughts on the Fringe finale
When Etta died early on this season it seemed like a reset was inevitable and to be honest I wasn’t that keen on the idea. A reset seems like a waste, an easy way out. I was hoping they would have to find another way out of the mess.
Yet come the end of An Enemy of Fate I was deeply content by this turn of events. Like always when it comes to finales of my favourite sci-fi shows I don’t necessarily need things to make complete sense, I don’t need all the questions to be answered. I need closure with the characters. I need emotional satisfaction. That’s what I got.
There may be some paradoxes and possible plot holes but I am going to assume that The Observers still exist just with emotions and September was there to still save Peter and Walter from the lake.
Mostly though I don’t care because so much happened that I loved.
We got to see the Red Verse again and that made me delighted as I’ve always loved the lives of the characters over there. Alt Liv and our Lincoln are happily married, have a son and are very much awesome. It was a brief trip but the moments between Olivia and Liv was lovely, who would have thought when we watched the first half of S3 that these two enemies would kind of end up friends? We also go some brief Lincoln/Olivia time and that was also perfect. Also love that Walternate is still alive, never ever thought I would care for that son of a bitch, but that’s Fringe for you.
Some people have questioned the need to see the other verse again but we all know Michael had his reasons for stepping off the monorail. I think he knew Olivia needed to be dosed with Cortexiphan again in order to reignite her abilities and kill Windmark at the end.
Astrid always so underused throughout the show’s five seasons but her moments with Walter were so perfect. When he talked about her name, when she showed him Gene oh god seriously I may have cried the most over their scenes.
Broyles survived and was amazing in everything he did. Of course he was the Dove (or should that be Raven?). Like Nina before him he got to rattle Windmark and help the team.
Oh Olivia I can’t even begin to explain my feelings for that woman. She was so determined to crossover despite the risk! Loved it when she made all the lights go out during her rescue of Michael. Loved it even more when she killed Windmark. You do not mess with our Olivia. Not at all.
Some fans have complained at how passive she was for a lot of the season but you know she was grieving a child. That kind of lost is impossible to deal with. Once she realised though there was a very real possibility she could see Etta again she would stop at nothing to make sure the plan worked.
Now onto the main event. Walter and Peter Bishop. The love that tore apart two universes, that started this whole wonderful mess. I could not be happier at all their scenes. We got so much wonderful stuff. Peter being Walter’s favourite thing is of course a highlight but also Walter’s moment of happiness when he thought maybe his fate wasn’t to disappear into the future. He was giddy and showing Peter just how cool floating Observers could be.
Walter’s exit though was inevitable right? I always felt he would die and I didn’t think about him actually surviving just in the future. I mean it is terribly sad but it means he could raise Michael, be his father in the absence of September. Very bitter-sweet. John Noble killed it of course but I’m sure the award shows will still forget about him.
Talking of September, that man was amazing. So glad they mentioned the original 12 again and that we saw December again and got a mention of August! it seems like all of them really did care about humanity, which is lovely and I hope in the altered timeline they still went back and observed just without all of the awful stuff that followed.
With onl a few minutes left we saw that everything is connected, everything was about to come full circle. Walter taking Michael’s hand and walking into the blue light like he did all those years ago with Peter. Time resetting to that moment of happiness we saw at the start of the season only this time with a happy ending. The white tulip. Of course it would be the white tulip. Like how Lost had to end with Jack closing his eyes, Fringe had to end with that symbol.
Fathers, sons, mothers, daughters. Destiny. Fate. Love. Goodbye Fringe.
