Fringe has been much in the news lately, rumors are plenty about it getting canceled after this season but many more allude to a shortened fifth season that will follow. If the producers continue than the show will get the magic number of 100 that is the usual benchmark for syndication. So far season 4 has been a mixed bag, with episodes being notably dumbed down as to not alienate audiences. The ratings seem to have leveled off at 3 million though this show has always been stronger with TiVo users.
As for this episode, ‘The End of all things’ is intended to give closure to events that have happened so far in season 4 and act as a jump off point to the finale…
As for the plot…
Olivia has been taken to a disused medical facility by David Robert Jones and his agents. She is placed in the same room along with Nina Sharp, also secured to a chair, revealing she was also abducted by Jones the night before. Jones arrives and asserts that Olivia has great abilities due to her Cortexiphan doping but must coax them out of Olivia. Jones presents a light box test (“Ability”) that Olivia should be able to activate with her mind, torturing Nina to create the emotional driver, but Olivia admits she can’t do it without rest. During this period, Olivia, her memories a mix of her own and that of Olivia from Peter’s timeline, asks Nina to help her make an emotional connection, but she recognizes that this Nina is not the real one. Olivia continues to play along, explaining to Nina that her Cortexiphan abilities could only be induced by being near Peter; Nina fakes illness to be extracted from the room, where she explains that they need to abduct Peter.
Following Olivia’s disappearance, Peter Bishop discovers a surveillance camera in her apartment. He takes its memory device, which has been overwritten numerous times like a palimpsest, to Walter’s laboratory, using forensic tools to examine previous images on the disc. Lincoln and Broyles take Nina into custody, learning that someone with Nina’s biometric signature had accessed the Massive Dynamic supply of Cortexiphan over the last few months; Nina is surprised by this but refuses to talk. As they work, Walter accuses Peter of taking advantage of Olivia’s state, even if unintentionally, imprinting his memories of Olivia of the original timeline onto her. They identify a face belonging to Leland Spivey, a man with ties to Jones and Nina Sharp, and Peter suspects that they are dosing Olivia with Cortexiphan for nefarious purposes. Their work is disrupted by the sudden appearance of the Observer September, bleeding from a chest wound.
With the Observer nearly dead, Peter decides to use Walter’s equipment to enter the Observer’s mind to try to learn of Olivia’s location. Within September’s consciousness, Peter learns the Observers are a team of scientists from one possible future of humanity, having used technology to travel to the past to witness their own creation. September, however, disrupted events by attempting to observe the point where Peter’s cure was discovered (“Peter”), and his disruption has since caused several unintended changes within the timeline since, including the war between the two universes. Ultimately, this would lead to the birth of Henry, Peter’s child with the parallel universe’s Olivia, which September claimed never should have happened and a catalyst for disruption of future events. By Peter entering the Machine and altering the timeline, Henry also ceased to exist. September explains that Peter’s reappearance may be a means to set things right, and insists he find a way to reunite his romance with his original Olivia. As the reality of September’s mind breaks down, claiming “they are coming”, the Observer tells Peter to “go home”. Peter is suddenly woken up in the lab, September’s body goes into convulsions and vanishes.
Peter realizes that September’s message was literal, and returns to his home, where he is knocked out by Jones’ men. He is brought to the same facility as Olivia and tied up. As they prepare to torture him, Olivia begins to use her powers to activate the lights, not only on the box but within the facility, creating electrical sparks that kills one of Jones’ men. As Jones and Nina retreat, Olivia frees Peter and they give chase, though Olivia suffers from intense pain from excessive use of her powers. They catch up to Jones and Nina as they are crossing back to the parallel universe, and even though Olivia fires a bullet through Jones’ neck, he is only momentarily stunned, a side effect of his earlier teleportation. Jones and Nina escape in the confusion.
Peter contacts the authorities to bring medical help for Olivia. As they are waiting, Peter admits to Olivia that he fears what he has done to her memories, and has seen his original Olivia through the Observer’s memory. He leaves her, believing that staying away from Olivia would be for the best.
Conclusion…
This episode was very clever, it was tightly written with plot developments following logically from one another and yet there was also tension… the deadly seriousness of David Robert Jones and the unfolding drama between Olivia and Peter made this episode feel so much more intense. it’s a shame that not more Fringe episodes were like this, I think we need to go back to season 3 to find the last one (the finale).
The fact that the Nina that was held with Olivia was a changeling must have quickly occurred to viewers and yet the episode this press this matter beyonf the realm were it was impossible for Olivia to know this fact as well.
As like last week the tension between Walter and Peter is again rising with Walter becoming increasingly more assertive. Almost all the characters on Fringe have been undergoing somekind of transformation.
The episode is also noteworthy in that it doesn’t rely large action scenes to convey excitement, it is in fact a very humble episode that feels a lot like how the X-files was during its first 5 season.
Score; 9 / 10.
Viewer rating; 3.1 million. This is slight bump over last week, please visit ScifiEmpire.net on the latest news concerning Fringe’s continuation.
Source; the plot description is courtesy of wikipedia.com
