After 22 episodes the fourth season of Fringe is sadly over, though it wasn’t the best season it was still great. For some there was a fear that Fringe might get canceled but as looks like now Fringe will be back for a 13-episode fifth season to end the franchise. The second part of Brave New World does show however that the shows creators feared cancellation as they did tie up most of the storylines.

Here is the episode’s plot….

Olivia and Peter return to Walter’s laboratory, finding both he and Astrid missing. As they trying to determine where they left to, Olivia receives a call from Jessica, believing that someone is following her. They are unaware that September has arrived at Jessica’s house, but finds himself stuck to a “stasis rune” written into the floor preventing him from moving. Broyles reports that Astrid has been taken to a local hospital and is faring well. She is worried for Walter’s safety, warning them of Bell’s presence, and directing them to the warehouse. There, they find September still stuck on the piece of floor, and Jessica holding them at gunpoint. She reveals she was working for Bell, and uses a gun that fires faster than September can react to shoot him in the chest. When she tries to fire again, Olivia is able to catch and throw back the bullets, killing Jessica.

Peter is able to release September from the rune. Olivia recognizes the wound from the time September appeared to her at the opera house and had stated that in every future he witnessed, Olivia would die (“Back to Where You’ve Never Been”). September reveals that to him, this conversation has not yet happened, and departs to investigate why he would say that to Olivia.

Peter races Jessica’s body back to Walter’s lab, and with Nina’s help and resources from Massive Dynamic, connect her brain to equipment to briefly give her consciousness to determine Bell’s location. Her answers are vague but reveal that Bell’s seeking a power source to collapse the two universes. Olivia goes to grip Jessica, shorting out power in the laboratory. Nina realizes that Olivia is Bell’s power source; Jones’ activities have been to invigorate Olivia’s powers to start the collapse of the two universes. Nina is able to use Olivia’s electromagnetic readings to locate Bell’s ship. The Fringe team sets off for Bell’s boat on helicopters as initial signs of the final collapse begin to occur around the world.

Meanwhile aboard his boat, Bell has shown Walter his vision for the new universe, using the creatures stowed aboard it to populate his idea world. Bell reveals that he was set in this path by Walter in the past after Walter lost both Peters and desiring to play God himself. Walter had rejected the idea then, asking Bell to remove pieces of his brain to quell the idea, but Bell continued to follow on Walter’s vision, culminating in the current events.

Fringe approaches where Bell’s freighter appears to be, but find that it has already become in synch with the other universe and only observable by Peter. Olivia is able to use her Cortexiphan abilities to cross over with Peter onto the freighter in mid-jump from the helicopters. They raid the cabin where Bell and Walter are. Peter attempts to stop Bell, but Bell asserts that the process is irreversible due to Olivia’s powers. Walter uses a gun to fire and kill Olivia, completely disrupting the collapse. His plan ruined, Bell rings a bell and fades away before Walter can fire on him. Walter races to extract the bullet from Olivia, recognizing that the Cortexiphan should be able to regenerate the tissue and allow her to live.

Bell’s freighter and biological experiments are stored away, and the US Government grants Broyles request for a funding increase, as well as a promotion to General. Olivia makes a full recovery, though Walter suspects that her Cortexiphan powers will be stunted by the process. As she and Peter hug, she also reveals that she is pregnant with their child. Sometime later, as Walter prepares a snack in his lab, September appears before him, telling him they must warn the others as more Observers “are coming”, as previously seen in “Letters of Transit”

Review…

The episode was very tightly written, everything was calculated for maximum effect and though it was one of the best Fringe episodes ever it did lose a little spontaneity. Olivia’s death was hinted at just a bit too often and as such despite it being a surprise that Walter pulled the trigger her brief death was anything but.

The special effects in this episode took a slight turn for the worse over other episodes this season and i wonder if Fringe’s budget has been slashed, that would be a shame for the next season.

Despite hints by September that ‘they’ are coming I couldn’t care less because between Olivia and Peter everything is as it should be, so not much of a cliffhanger at the end then.

Score; 9 / 10.

Viewer Rating; 3.16 million. Which is decent considering the numbers for this season.

Well dear reader, see you this fall for the concluding season of Fringe.

Friday night the finale of the fourth season of Fringe will air, though a 13-episode fifth season has been confirmed I can’t but help feeling that Fringe is already ending. In some respects this has to do with the rather disjointed storyline of the fourth season compared to the first three. The smaller story arcs were fun but when it was clear they all added up to the finale they seem to lose their meaning. Adding that some lower quality episode especially in the first half of the season you can’t but help wondering if it is the right thing that Fringe should definitely stop. That despite the fact that no real replacement for this series exists.

Now, as for what is to come. Brave New World part 2 will see the continuation of the first part with Rebecca Mader and Jared Harris coming back to play their guest roles despite David Robert Jones’s death in the first episode.

Here is the episode description…

In the climactic conclusion of the Season Four finale, the Fringe team is pushed  to their breaking point as they desperately attempt to prevent a catastrophic  event that threatens the lives of everyone in the all-new “Brave New World, Part  2 of 2″ episode of FRINGE airing Friday, May 11 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.  (FR-422) (TV-14 L, V)

Here is the promo trailer…

Here are the still…

Its been a while since I have posted reviews of Fringe, quite frankly my studies have kept me very busy and the episodes of season 4 have so far been just tad under par compared to earlier seasons. They were for the most part still good and I am also happy to announce that Fringe has been confirmed for a fifth and last season that will span 13 episodes. That will bring the total to 100, the magic number for selling series abroad to other TV channels.

As for season 4, the finale is a two parter of which I will be reviewing the first part now. It’s entitled ‘Brave New World, a title also used by Aldous Huxley but as far as I know there is no connection between the works.

Brave New World Part 1 also sees the return of Leonard Nimoy as William Bell, who has returned from the grave as the antagonist. Another actor making an appearance is Rebecca Mader whom most best remember as Charlotte Lewis from Lost.

As for the storyline of this episode…

Several people in an office complex suddenly show signs of spontaneous combustion and die; others witnessing it realize that the symptom is onset by movement and stand perfectly still as help arrives. As Fringe investigates, they find a device planted in the building’s escalator system that released nanites into those that rode it, triggering the combustion by body movement. One survivor, Jessica, offers to be a test subject for Walter and Peter Bishop as they discover a cure. When Jessica’s body temperature starts to rise before the cure is synthesized, Olivia uses her Cortexiphan powers to slow her system, which stops the nanites and enables Peter to introduce the cure to her system.

The Fringe team finds that David Robert Jones had planted the device, and worry that despite the deactivation of the bridge, he is still trying to collapse both universes to create a third one. Walter studies the design of the device and recognizes that the nanites were not developed by Jones but by William Bell, and begins to suspect Bell is alive. Nina Sharp rejects this theory, explaining that Bell had purposely died in a car accident in 2005 to end his suffering from lymphoma. Walter returns to St. Claire’s Mental Institution and finds the scent of Bell among the log books when Walter believed he had visited, and continues to assert this claim.

Unknown to Fringe, Jones reports to William Bell aboard the container ship (“Nothing As It Seems“) about the success of the nanites. Bell ponders this over a chessboard that he states he has played for forty years, and instructs Jones to his next action, commenting that sacrificing a bishop may help him win the game.

Later, a column of light suddenly appears over Beacon Hill, burning a hole through a building and into the ground. Walter identifies it as sunlight, reflected to satellites likely under Jones’ control, aimed to ignite an oil reservoir deep below Boston. He directs Peter and Olivia to the most likely site Jones is controlling the satellites from. They find two antennas that must be disabled simultaneously, requiring them to split up to do so. Though they are successful in stopping the beam, Peter is attacked by Jones. Olivia finds her Cortexiphan powers reinvigorated, and is able to control Peter’s body, letting him get the upper hand and throwing Jones into the antenna. The electrical shock sends Jones’ body into deterioration, and realizes too late that he was the bishop to be sacrificed.

Walter discovers evidence of Chilean almonds on one of the log sheets from St. Claire’s, Bell’s favorite food. He and Astrid travel to the warehouse of the shipping company that imported the almonds, finding it abandoned with one man, armed with a gun, stating the company went out of business three years earlier. Astrid implores Walter to leave but they are enticed by a strange sound from the back of the warehouse, finding several shipping containers being moved about with the noises coming from them. They are discovered and flee. Astrid is shot, and as Walter tends to her, William Bell appears, reintroducing himself to his old friend.

Review…

The episode marked an odd turn for Fringe, at first it was strange that the other universe was barely referred too, another strange twist was the return of Leonard Nimoy as William Bell. Bell is now an antagonist with no motivation, and that feels confusing and out of character for Bell. the death of David Robert Jones was bit underdone, Fringes creative staff had used him well in this season (and so probably prevented a ratings drop) and yet in this episode he killed off in a rather understated way. Of course we need to remember that at the beginning of the season Peter has turned on the machine and had reset time, creating a new timeline with its own history. After the three earlier seasons that is almost easy to forget, I had forgotten that in this timeline William Bell is supposedly dead and that Olivia has more Cortexiphan abilities. All these changes need time to sink in and thus I am glad that the second part of Brave New World didn’t air right away. Some of the creative decisions may be criticised but they also feel gutsy!

Score; 8.5 / 10;

Viewer ratings; 2.851 million (which is under par for the season).