Fringe Season One - the ending

[tielan]

HOOOOOOLAY SHIIIIT!

Okay, so the last six episodes of the series are AWESOMESAUCE. I loves me some epic arcness and, boy, does Fringe ever deliver!

So, I watched Inner Child (baby Observer), Unleashed (monster of the week), and Bad Dreams (Olivia and the buddy pairing) last weekend and rather enjoyed Bad Dreams enough that I watched it again. Twice. That's how much I liked it.

I'd watch Ability again, but one of my personal childhood nightmares is people without orifices.

So, the previous trio of episodes was good. THESE ONES WERE BETTER.

I'd actually seen Midnight before - when my parents were watching Fringe (it's their DVDs that I'm watching) and I stuck around and watched the episode, which was good, but didn't make a lot of sense. It makes quite a lot more sense now!

• "One mad scientist is my limit."
• "You make that sound so illegal."
• "Where's the siren on this thing?"

Oh, and Walter puts the biscuit on the butt of the dead guy while clapping his hands to turns the lights on and off! Hee!

The Road Not Taken is a little scary - how is Olivia slipping between universes? Is it the same universe as the one with FauxLivia? And military!Astrid?

Also: Charlie? You're describing Olivia as much as Susan Pratt. (Well, Olivia after John Scott.) And probably Nick Lane - although he at least can get prostitutes.

It's slightly terrifying in the end: all those children now 'activated', capable of doing terrible things - and not all of them stable afterwards. Nick Lane (from Bad Dreams) and now Susan Pratt and her sister Nancy Lewis. But it was satisfying to see Harris get his come-uppance in this episode - to see Nancy controlling her abilities and striking back.

I'm kind of disappointed that it looks like we won't see her again. Although I just checked IMDb and discovered we do see Nick Lane again.

One thing I noticed about Bad Dreams and The Road Not Taken was the wardrobes of Nick Lane and Susan Pratt both - the no bright colours, blending in... Actually, I really liked the 'mirroring' effect shown in Bad Dreams - where Olivia's wake-up routine follows Nick's morning routine. Interesting that Olivia isn't blending in anymore. She was blending in until she was assigned to Fringe Division - and now she's not just "not fitting in" but making waves and causing tsunamis!

Olivia's confrontation of Walter at the end is beautiful and painful. Interestingly, I saw someone complain that Anna Torv can't act. Which I found amusing because, well, I love her Olivia - very understated and reserved, but with that hint of passion when she gets on a roll and starts pushing (usually Broyles) for whatever her thing is. The thing about Olivia is that she's not a Rodney McKay; she's been conditioned to fit in, to blend, to stay under the radar.

One wonders how far she's going against the conditioning - and what Olivia would have been like without it.

I knew this show would eventually go into AU territory - and if there's one thing I'm a complete sucker for, it's an AU episode. Or a string of 'em. Or an alternate reality deathmatch! WOOHOO! Anyway, there are some lovely moments in The Road Not Taken and There's More Than One Of Everything that just make everything very very neat.

And I guessed Peter just ahead of the reveal. I'd heard a few rumours here and there about Peter, and the little oddities between him and Walter only cemented them. Then there's a shitload of questions I have, none of which my viewing buddy (allisnow) will answer. *glares*

small things

Perhaps it's me just noticing this now, but there is a lot of lock-picking in this episode and the next couple of eps. First Charlie to get into the scientist's house, then Olivia to get into fiery!twin's apartment. Also, I didn't spot the Observer between Inner Child and the last episode There's More Than One Of Everything: significant?

How exactly did Olivia travel between our New York, and TwinTowers New York? In the elevator, yes, but who were all the people in the elevator with her for that one split second? Did she travel through two alternate realities to get to the one with William Bell in it? One with an elevator full of people and then the one with William Bell? Why does she get the glimpses of the colder, more brutal alternate reality in The Road Not Taken? Other than 'we need a way for her to get the lead on Susan Pratt's twin sister and maybe she could get it from an alternate reality'? If Walter took the Peter from the other reality, what happened to the Walter on that side of the rift? And how can William Bell be from our reality but also in that second reality?

Lots and lots and lots of questions.

And, most importantly: Do any of these questions get answered in Season Two before new questions start coming? Or do the questions just pile up in a neverending heap? (Honestly, I've never watched a JJ Abrams series before, so I have no idea what to expect. Or if expectations are a bad-wrong-dangerous thing to hold for a show like this?

Comments

[green_apple]

Those questions of yours? THEY DO GET ANSWERS. They take a bit to come and they sort of trickle in once the faucet's been open, BUT THEY DO GET ANSWERED.

There, let your mind rest at peace. New questions do pop up (not a spoiler, I think), but stuff gets resolved as well.

[tielan]

I can deal with the waxy build-up of questions, no probs. Just so long as the questions get answered eventually.

I know that 'eventually' is about as much as one can hope for in a JJ Abrams show.