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Fringe series finale ‘Liberty’ & ‘An Enemy of Fate’ Review!

Jan 192013

Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham

Yesterday evening our favorite sci-fi show Fringe finally ended with an excellent pair of episodes, a journey that started in 2008 at what I think is still J.J Abrams high water mark. Fringe tried to brings elements from other shows such as The X-files and The Twilight Zone together in a more drama pact show. This was both the show’s greatest asset and liability as it offered both the familiar and the predictable. Fans were initially skeptical of Frine’s two lead characters played by Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson as they did seem a bit Barbie and Ken like. How quickly they grew on me, Anna Torv proved that a female lead can indeed captivate a viewer and involve them in the plot. Too often female lead’s are put on the back-burner of character development as shows such as Haven and Lost has shown. With Fringe’s final parting sci-fi viewers are left with an enormous gap as at the moment there are so few science-fiction TV-shows.

Liberty island hologram

The plot of ‘Liberty’…

After Michael gives himself up to Captain Windmark, he is taken to a security facility on Liberty Island, where Windmark attempts to study Michael but finds the boy’s mind impossible to read, and orders more invasive diagnostics to determine what Michael is. Discovering that the boy’s emotions has allows his intelligence to exceed that of the Observers, Windmark returns to 2609 to suggest to his superior that they destroy the child to protect themselves, but instead is told to simply “disassemble” the boy for future study.

Seth Gabel as Lincoln Lee

Broyles is able to learn of Michael’s location and relays that to the Fringe team, but cautions them that the facility is near impossible to impregnate. While brainstorming ideas, Olivia suggests the possibly of re-injecting her with Cortexiphan to let her cross over to the parallel universe, travel to Liberty Island there, cross back and retrieve Michael, and then repeat these steps to get back safely. However, Peter worries about the effects of redosing Olivia with potentially lethal levels of the drug, while Walter is concerned with the unknown condition of the parallel universe. Astrid suggests using the window (“Peter”) to determine the state of the parallel universe, and through this, find that there are no signs of the Observer invasion there, giving Olivia’s plan credibility.

Michael played by Roman Longworth

While September returns to the lab to start assembly of the device to send Michael into the future, the Fringe team goes to an underground safehouse to prepare Olivia for crossing over. Walter administers four doses – one for each expected crossing – despite the harm it has on her medical condition. As the drug takes effects, Peter and Walter have a discussion about the nature of sacrifice. When Olivia recovers from the injections, Walter warns her of how long she has and that jumping too fast will cause rapid withdrawal symptoms.

Windmark

Olivia jumps over near the site of the parallel universe Fringe division building, where she is met by her doppelganger and current leader of the Fringe division, Fauxlivia, and her former partner Lincoln Lee, who have since married. They arrange transport to Liberty Island and take her to the coordinates they believe Michael is being kept at; Olivia crosses over by finds too late that the boy is being taken to surgery, while she herself starts experiencing double visions of the two universes. She fights her way through Observers, recovers Michael, and crosses back over, where Fauxlivia and Lincoln help to stop an Observer that followed her back across. Olivia thanks them for their help and crosses back over at Battery Park with Michael.

In the conclusion, Windmark discovers that Broyles had relayed Michael’s location to the Fringe team. Meanwhile, September has completed the device, but one component fails to work. He goes to December, and requests a favor.

Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv)

The plot of ‘An Enemy of Fate’…

September, talking to December, implores him to help fix a key component of the device, an initiating reactor, to send Michael to the future, despite knowing this will erase September from time. September pleads to the same compassion that December, like the others of the original Observer team, developed for the humans. Later, September regroups with Fringe to explain the failing reactor, and describe the function of the device: to create a wormhole using the two Observer cylinders as stabilization points on either end, the large electromagnet needed to launch the second cylinder into the future of 2167. Once the wormhole is stabilized, Michael would be sent through, to meet an agent to take him to the Norwegian scientist as to stop the experiment that would be responsible for creating the Observers. As they discuss this, Olivia is still concerned while Michael willingly let himself be captured previously. (“The Boy Must Live”) One additional part is necessary to assure the magnet’s operation, and Peter begins to dig through the amber in the lab to look for it.

September (observer)

Captain Windmark, having discovered Broyles’ alliance with the Fringe team, interrogates him about the recovery of Michael from a secured facility, believing him to be “The Dove”, a mole for the underground. Windmark leaves, and Broyles sets off to meet Fringe until he realizes that Windmark intended to follow him to the Fringe team, and keeps them distracted. Though he tries to elude them, Broyles ends up captured.

In digging through the amber, Peter finds a tape that is addressed to him in Walter’s handwriting. The tape is a goodbye message from Walter to Peter, and alludes to an envelope that he will receive at some point; Walter in the present explains that he will be the one to travel with Michael into the future and will be forced to live out their lives there as to assure that a paradox is not created and that the Observers are wiped out. Walter and Peter share an emotional moment, Walter calling the time they have had “stolen” but appreciated every minute of it.

Broyles

Olivia and Astrid go to get a new initiating reactor from December, but find him killed and the reactor stolen by other Observer and loyalist forces. September asserts there’s no equivalent modern to create the reaction needed. Olivia looks to Michael to gain insight; he motions her to be quiet, during which Astrid comes up with the idea of using one of the Observer shipping lanes as their wormhole. They begin to make plans to take over one of these the next day, when they learn of Broyle’s capture from Anil. They set to use many of the past Fringe biological materials to kill many of the Observers and Loyalist forces, while they infiltrate the Observer headquarters to not only rescue Broyles, but obtain the control cube needed to operate the shipping lane. Meanwhile, September reveals to Walter that he has taken the only dose of the necessary inoculation to take Michael into the future instead of Walter, having come to have feelings for Michael.

The Fringe team races ahead of the Observers to hijack the wormhole and launch one of the cylinders through it. As they get ready for Michael, Windmark arrives and attempts to grab him. September, Peter, and Olivia fight Windmark. Windmark gains the upper hand, but Olivia, under emotional duress, has her latent Cortexiphan powers trigger and smash Windmark between two cars. September races to take Michael to the wormhole but is shot and killed by a stray bullet. Walter realizes his fate, and decides to take Michael through the wormhole as Peter, Olivia, and Astrid look on. Before entering the wormhole, Walter looks back at Peter and Peter mouths “I love you dad” to Walter.

Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop

Time flashes back to 2015, where Peter, Olivia, and their young daughter Etta are enjoying a day in the park. The Observer invasion does not occur, and the family returns home. When Peter checks the mail, he finds an odd envelope addressed to him from W. Bishop, containing only a piece of paper with a drawn white tulip on it. (“White Tulip”)

Conclusion; These last pair of episodes ended Fringe in a fantastic but somewhat conventional way. Most other reviews praise the first episode ‘liberty’ more than they do the second ‘An enemy of Fate’ but I disagree, there is a lot of the show’s pilot in the last episode and though the conclusion came a bit abrupt it is a very powerful scene as Peter uncovers the reference to the episode ‘White Tulip’, that with the plentiful of homages to the show’s pilot allows it to come full circle.

Fringe’s best moments were for the most part found during it’s first three seasons at a time when the show had a strong mythology that gave it an impulse despite the constant threat of cancellation. The show’s fourth season was bit of a dud while it’s fifth season did better with it’s own excellent story arc. I hope we see actors Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv back soon on other TV-shows but neither has anything ‘officially’ scheduled. As for J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and ‘Bad Robot productions’ the end of Fringe comes with a now long list of failed TV-shows that raises doubt about their bankability. Only Person of Interest seems to be doing well while Revolution is already having it’s near death experience.

It will take a while but one day we will have to acknowledge that Fringe has truly ended, that is going to be a difficult moment. I still can’t believe it has been almost 5 years since this show has started, it seems like an eternity, which is meant as high praise.

Score; 9 /10.

Source; www.fox.com/fringe/

White Tulip – Fringe

Fringe Five-Twenty-Ten Review!

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Nov 182012

Five-Twenty-Ten acts as a mid-season finale for Fringe’s fifth season. It quite effectively wraps up some left-over issues from season 4 such as what Nina Sharp and William Bell have been up to. This episode picks up the pace considerably and the suspense is definitely a lot greater than the usual procedural episodes of Fringe. So far I am liking the format of season 5, it compares starkly with season 4 which seemed sort of lost in action between season 3 and 5.

As for the plot of Five-Twenty-Two…

Peter (Joshua Jackson), recently having injected one of the Observers’ devices in his own body, comes to understand the precognitive abilities that the devices give their owners, but has left him with other side-effects, like insomnia. He works with Anil (Shaun Smyth) of the human resistance to try to replace one of their briefcases with an identical one containing a bomb. The initial attempt fails as Peter fails to discount for all variables, but his second attempt is a success; later, when this Observer meets with others, the bomb contains a bio-agent that kills them (later revealed as the same one used in the show’s pilot episode).

Meanwhile, Walter (John Noble) retrieves another tape from the ambered part of the lab. The video instructs the viewer to obtain two of the Observers’ “beacons” (as seen in “The Arrival”), which help to fix a point in space and time. The video goes on to point to two stored at Kelvin Industries, where Walter and his former partner William Bell worked previously; the storage area would require Bell’s hand print, which explains why Walter had cut off William’s hand when they were previously released from the amber (as seen in “Letters of Transit”).

Walter, Olivia (Anna Torv), and Astrid (Jasika Nicole) go to the facility to find the entrances blocked by rubble; as traditional means to remove the rubble would be difficult to acquire, the three decide to go to Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) for help. After a tearful reunion, Nina promises to help them with an Observer device that can sublimate the rubble quickly, though the effect will quickly attract Observer forces to the area. As her aide instructs Olivia and Astrid on the device, she has a heartfelt discussion with Walter. Walter believes that the pieces of brain re-implanted by Etta has caused him to revert to the ruthless man he had been before, but hopes that Peter will help support him. When Nina asks him about William Bell’s feelings for her, he asserts that Bell never loved anyone; Nina is stunned by this revelation, and expresses she fears Walter has reverted to his old self. Meanwhile, Olivia expresses concern that she had once lost Peter before after the initial Observer invasion, and fears losing him again.

As Peter rejoins them remaining coy about his activities, the device successfully clears the rubble. Inside, they access Bell’s laboratory, and find a combination safe. Walter believes he knows the combination, but struggles to remember it, while Olivia insists time is short. Instead, Peter informs Walter he has plenty of time to recall the combination; Walter is able to come up with it, but when they open the safe, there are no beacons, only a strange device, and to Walter’s surprise, a photo of Nina. Believing the effort was all for naught, they are about to leave when Peter uses the device to bring the two beacons to the surface. Peter confidently exits the building despite Olivia’s insistence that the Observers could be waiting for them. However, Peter proves to be correct; he instructs the others to return to the lab while he deals with another matter.

Walter returns to Nina, showing her the photos, and apologizing for his earlier behavior; he asks her to consider helping him remove the pieces of brain as to re-revert to his kinder self. Olivia returns to Etta’s safe-house to find Peter there, in front of several boards, filled with dates, times, and photos of Observers. She discovers Peter has implanted the Observer’s device, had used it to switch the briefcases as to kill the Observer in charge of security such that they would not be detected at Kelvin Industries, and has plans for the same for Captain Windmark (Michael Kopsa), the lead Observer. Worried, she leaves him to plan, while he discovers that he is starting to lose his hair. Walter, alone with the assembled components from the tape, contemplates to himself listening to David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World”.

Conclusion…

The return of Blair Brown as Nina Sharp was a welcome surprise because so far this season has felt a little too dissociated with previous seasons. Previously we have also seen Lance Reddick in a guest role and despite the fact that he will probably play a role in the series finale the number of appearances of Fringe’s most beloved characters has been kept to a minimum. Preferably I would have liked to have had Leonard Nimoy as a guest star but that may still happen as he is referenced all the time in this episode.

Peter’s alteration into an Observer answers many questions surrounding the latter and has certainly upped the ante in this season, we already knew they were a separate breed of villains before but they were hardly fleshed out. This episode establishes a far more personal feeling to the Observers through Peter, this bond comes at the cost of Peter’s relationship with Olivia. The grandiose plan to defeat the observers is comparably hardly of any interest.

This episode of Fringe stands out mostly because it’s creative staff dared to put Peter in center stage in a way that will inevitably have severe consequences, his newly found violent streak gives Fringe a more action oriented impulse. Comparably the scenes between Peter and Olivia are a bit too mushy and can be described as the only downside to this episode.

Score; 9 / 10.

Fringe will be back on December 7 with the episode ‘The Human Kind’.

Source; www.fox.com/fringe/

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Fringe ‘An Origin Story’ Review

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Nov 032012

Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham

Fringe ‘An Origin Story’ deals with the direct aftermath of Etta’s death in the previous episode. In many ways it is a story of grief and revenge that has made Fringe suddenly more ‘real’ and less comic like. Previously our Fringe team tried to deal with every enemy through a plan that involved gadgets and bravado, now the team uses sheer anger and violence to get back at the Observers.

The story of ‘An Origin Story’…

Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Olivia (Anna Torv) mourn the loss of their daughter Etta. Olivia in particular is shaken up and nearly unresponsive. They prepare to leave Etta’s safe house when Peter finds a hidden stash of guns and more anti-matter bombs.

Resistance gang (Peter and Olivia)

Through Etta’s contact in the resistance, Anil (Shaun Smyth), they learn that the Observers have received a delivery of parts for their atmospheric modification machine. Which will make the planet inhospitable for humans if these are completed. Walter and Peter recognize from eyewitnesses that the deliveries are being made through wormholes from the Observers’ future. If they can disrupt the delivery process, they will be one step closer to defeating the Observers. Anil says that they have captured an Observer, along with a book in the Observer’s strange writings ans a device that was used to open the wormhole.

Etta posters

While Astrid works at decoding the book, Peter attempts to understand the device. It is believed to focus the opening of the wormhole upon delivery. The device proves to be extremely dangerous if put together the wrong way, forcing Peter to go to the captured Observer to try to get information. The Observer remains silent, but Peter monitors subtle body actions, using those to judge when he is assembling the device correctly. Meanwhile, Walter has found an old video tape of one of Etta’s first birthdays. He offers it to Olivia, hoping to coax her out of her depression, but she refuses to watch it.

Observer being tortured - Fringe 'An Origin Story' Review

Observer being tortured by Peter

Astrid successfully decodes the book and identifies a delivery being made that afternoon. Peter too is successful at assembling the device having finished it after seeing the Observer’s pupil dilate. Peter, Olivia and Anil start the device and prepare to fire one of Etta’s anti-matter canisters into the wormhole. They expecting it to disrupt the wormhole and cause the other end to collapse in a singularity. Observers nearby, preparing for the delivery, spot Peter and Olivia and try to stop them, but Olivia snaps out of her depression to waylay the Observer. Peter fires the anti-matter at the wormhole and collapses it. As the three drive away they are stunned to see another wormhole opened nearby with more shipments passing through. Peter is furious, disbelieving the Observers in the future could recover that fast, and storms off to question the captured Observer. Olivia goes to follow, but is instead confronted with number of human resistance posters plastered around with Etta’s face on them.

Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) shooting an Observer

Peter confronts the Observer, who notes that Peter only wanted to see what he thought he wanted to see – the Observer’s subtle actions were only in response in observing a fly on the wall. The Observer claims Peter assembled the device all on his own, and he only needed him to act as some type of corroboration. The Observer further mocks a quote said by Anil to Peter: If one goes on a quest for vengeance, one should dig two graves. Furious, Peter strikes the Observer, but when the Observer shows no emotion or care if he should die, Peter cuts out a device located on the back of his neck, which Anil earlier claimed is what makes an Observer super-human. The Observer dies from the cut.

Later, Olivia decides to watch the tape, and is overcome with emotion. She calls Peter to reiterate how much she loves him just as Peter inserts the Observer’s device into the back of his own neck.

Peter Bishop in Fringe – Fringe ‘An Origin Story’ Review

Conclusion; ’An Origin Story’ is a dark episode of Fringe. The fallout of Etta’s death certainly has enabled both Olivia and Peter. Whereas before the outcome of this season was never in doubt, now we are not only concerned with the destruction of the observers and everybody’s good health but also with the healing of the relationship between Peter and Olivia. Peter’s decision at the end of ’An Origin Story’ to implant Observer tech into himself throws a happy ending to Fringe into doubt. The question may be raised whether Peter caused the Observers to exist in the first place.

This episode is also formidable in that it continues the moody cinematography of the previous episodes, it gives this season a very gritty look much like the first season of Fringe.

Downsides to this episode are pretty much the same as before, Jasika Nicole is once again under used as Astrid Farnsworth and the more serious version of Walter drowns out the funny Walter.

Score; 8.5 / 10.

Source; www.fox.com/fringe/

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Fringe The Bullet that Saved the World Review!

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Oct 282012

Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham in Fringe – The Bullet that saved the World

Fringe is back after a two week break with its fourth episode of the season entitled ‘The bullet that Saved the World’. The title is a reference to the actual bullet that Etta wears in a necklace which was used by Walter to shoot Olivia. This episode of Fringe tries to up the ante by killing of Etta (Georgina Haig) at the end, a decisions which I didn’t really agree with because I just started to get to know her.

As for the plot of ‘The Bullet that saved the World’…

While Peter (Joshua Jackson) is out collecting gas, he stops in a pawn shop, where an Observer attempts to read his mind. Though he uses Etta’s advice to mask his thoughts, the Observer does obtain an image of Etta and offers Peter a necklace to give her; Peter leaves quickly before he is caught by other Observers and Loyalist forces. Captain Windmark brings in Broyles (Lance Reddick), warning him of a possible leak in the Loyalist forces. Meanwhile, Etta uses the chain of the necklace as a replacement for the bullet one, and Olivia (Anna Torv) recognizes it as “the bullet that saved the world” (“Brave New World”).

Joshua Jackson in Fringe The Bullet that saved the World as Peter Bishop

Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop

Back at the lab, Walter (John Noble) and Astrid (Jasika Nicole) extract another tape for part of Walter’s plan, describing the reversibility of particles. The location of the necessary information is lost on a torn part of the tape, but Walter recognizes the story his past self was telling , pointing to a subway station deep inside Observer-controlled Manhattan. Entering Manhattan through the Observer and Loyalist checkpoints would be impossible, but Walter directs them to a secret basement below his lab where he had stored elements from all the past Fringe cases. They look for some way of creating a distraction from these elements.

Some old gadgets re-used

The suspected Resistance mole is interrogated by an Observer; in addition to revealing the name “The Dove” as an unknown entity that set him up in the Loyalist forces, as well as the existence of the lab at the Harvard lab. Etta is alerted to this, and they are able to reamber the lab and hide in time before Loyalist forces arrive; to them, the lab remains as if it were still abandoned. Windmark considers that if Etta is able to hide her thoughts from the Observers, perhaps others can.

‘Bad Girl’ Olivia Dunham

Walter, Peter, Olivia, and Etta use a chemical developed by David Robert Jones (“Ability”) to cause the guards at the checkpoint to suffocate, diverting attention long enough to recover the package from the subway tunnel. Once safe, they find the package contains an extremely complex physic equation that Walter cannot immediately understand. As they review it, Broyles arrives, and reunites with his former team, and explains how he was recruited into the Resistance after seeing Etta and learning how to block his thoughts from the Observers. Brolyes helps to arm them, but they soon find Observers and Loyalists converging on them, following a tracking device on their car. They give the sheet of equations to Broyles and cover his escape before racing off to an abandoned warehouse. As the Observers and Loyalists move in, the group is split up, and Etta is cornered by Windmark. Windmark interrogates Etta to try to understand why Peter gave her the necklace, and determines it is love. He then shoots her.

Lance Reddick in Fringe The Bullet that saved the World as agent Broyles

Lance Reddick as agent Broyles

Peter, Olivia, and Walter regroup and find Etta, dying from the wound. Peter and Olivia try to convince Etta to let them take her out, but she reveals that she has armed an anti-matter device, and shortly dies after giving back the bullet necklace to Olivia. The group escapes, while the anti-matter device wipes out many Observers and Loyalist forces. They take a moment to mourn losing their daughter so soon after they were reunited with her.

Etta holding the detonator

Conclusion…

For the first part this episode is rather slow, it carefully sets the characters in a surrounding before it starts to race to the end of the episode. all this is quite familiar to most Fringe fans, but this episode differs from those earlier ones in that the very small details in the start of the episode are of importance as they forewarn Etta’s death. Personally I do not agree that she had to be killed off, her presence also gave the show a big impulse.

In this episode we also learn a great deal more about the observers in that they are not as one-dimensional as we were led to believe, they genuinely seem to have a problem in understanding humans. The observer known as Windmark is an especially effective character in this season of Fringe as he tries to undo the Observers weak spot.

Georgina Haig in Fringe - The Bullet that saved the World as Etta dying.

Georgina Haig as Etta

Jasika Nicole’s character Astrid is once again underutilized, I had hoped her character would step more into the forefront since her own standalone episode but that hasn’t happened.

That this episode brought a few old gadgets from past Fringe episode back was a very nice sign, certainly those early episodes are still fan favorites and few episode of either season 4 or 5 have managed to live up to those early ones.

Score; 9 / 10.

Source; www.fox.com/fringe/

Fringe The Recordist Review!

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Oct 142012

Fringe Team - The Recordist with Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson

Our Fringe team members in The Recordist

This week’s episode of Fringe takes a little step back from the action and uses it’s time to deepen out the background story of the world that has been taken over by the Observers. My first impressions were perhaps one of apprehension in that the story doesn’t move forward as much, but now that I have had time to reflect on the episode I have changed my mind. Just like in last weeks episode it is the small touches that really make an impression.

Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham - Fringe - The Recordist

Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham in Fringe – The Recordist

As for the story of ‘The Recordist’…

Walter (John Noble) and Astrid (Jasika Nicole) use the makeshift laser to recover another tape from the ambered part of the lab. The contents point to a location in northwest Pennsylvania, though the instructions for what to do there are garbled. While Astrid stays behind to try to improve the tape’s playback, Walter, Peter (Joshua Jackson), Olivia (Anna Torv), and Etta (Georgina Haig) travel to the designated location. There, they find a small camp of human outcasts, all displaying splotches of bark-like material over their bodies. They are introduced to Edwin (Paul McGillion), the camp’s leader, that explains that their condition is due to some unknown agent within the area. The group consider themselves to be recorders of history ever since the takeover by the Observers as to prevent history from being rewritten by the Observers, and maintain a large number of data cubes containing whatever knowledge they can recover, including much about Fringe division. Edwin is unable to find information about Walter’s previous visit to the site, but Astrid is able to fix the playback enough to know that Walter must find a mine in the area, which Edwin identifies as an abandoned gold mine.

John Noble as Walter Bishop

In the mine, they find a well; hanging from a rope is a corpse showing extreme signs of the bark infection, which Walter believes is due to something in the mine and evacuates everyone. In examining the body, Walter determines that the condition is caused by the Observers’ modification of the Earth’s atmosphere, the effects being diluted due to the remote location; the atmosphere in the mine accelerated the process, calcifying the body. Edwin discovered that, sometime in the past, the Observers took away a man that had gone down into the mine for red-colored rocks, which Walter suspects he needs to get and starts working on a suit to protect its wearer from the effects of the mine. Astrid, working with the tape, discovers that the rocks provide a necessary energy source for Walter’s plan. While working on the suit, Peter and Olivia discuss the events shortly after the Observers’ arrival, with Olivia revealing that seeing all the “missing persons” posters while they were looking for Etta had made her realize that her work with Fringe division in fighting the Observers was more important than getting Etta back.

Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop

Meanwhile, human Loyalists discover evidence of the Fringe team, and report it to the Observers, who set off to capture the team; one of the Loyalists is actually a mole, and contacts the underground as to warn Etta of their approach. With time short, the only way to get the right materials for the suit is to barter with another nearby refugee camp, a step Edwin is reluctant to do and would rather see the Fringe team leave instead. However, Edwin’s son River (Connor Beardmore), who idolizes the Fringe team, accuses his father of never helping and runs off.

Observer

Edwin realizes his mistake, and makes contact with the other camp, then later has a heart-to-heart with River about no longer just being a recorder of history but becoming part of it. Edwin gives Peter and Olivia directions to the other camp and bartering goods, but when they arrive, they find the spot empty, and Peter realizes it was a deception. Meanwhile, at camp, Edwin goes to the mine alone to recover the rocks; by the time Walter and Etta discover this, Edwin has been able to bring enough of the rocks out of the well, while his body succumbed to the calcification at the bottom of the well.

Georgina Haig as Etta

As the Fringe team escapes with the mineral and return to the lab, abandoning their van to deceive the Loyalist forces, River takes over for Edwin as the recorder, writing a eulogy for his father.

Conclusion; Olivia’s confusion about how to act around Henrietta is a little bit difficult to understand, I hope it won’t be repeated throughout the rest of the season. Paul McGillion’s appearance is OK but not as brilliant as his other television roles such as Stargate Atlantis. The plot often moved leaned on tear jerker scenes but they don’t get out of hand in the fashion that would make you skip a minute of the program.

Anna Torv

This season of Fringe also seems to take much inspiration from the Half-Life 2 setting, the dreary neo-futuristic background certainly gives this season much emotion. Both last weeks episode and The Recordist stand out because of their phenomenal cinematography. Not since season 3 have I liked the world of Fringe this much, in this season everything seems very crisp and almost real to the touch. It adds to the experience of watching the story, the 45 minutes allotted for each episode are sadly also over far too quickly.

Score; 8.5 / 10. The standalone story holds the Fringe mythology back a little but it is still very good on it’s own.

Source; www.fox.com/fringe/

Paul McGillion as Edwin

Fringe Season 5 Trailer + Pictures revealed!

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Sep 252012

Well, in a few days time Fringe will be back for its fifth and final season. A season in which the Fringe team will have to topple the rule of the Observers, but Walter has a plan! See his plan in this rather spectacular and lengthy trailer of things to come…

Also we got seven posters of our favorite cast members from season 5…

Fringe season 5 will start airing this Friday the 28th.

As a bonus I have managed to find some good Fringe wallpapers, I have already used some of these for quite a few months myself.

Fringe Season 5 ‘Transilience Thought Unifier Model – 11′ Preview!

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Sep 212012

As you already know from previous posts next friday the last season of Fringe will start airing. While we are certain that the main cast such as Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson and John Noble will be back it also seems clear from the trailer that Olivia and Peter’s daughter Henrietta (Etta) will get a prominent role. Henrietta is played by Georgina Haig, a part of her role will be to uncover what happened between Olivia and Peter. The internet is abuzz with rumors that they have split up, so that is at least one more issue that needs to be tackled in season 5 besides fighting the Observers for world domination.

Here is the preview trailer for ‘Transilience Thought Unifier Model – 11′…

And here are some stills taken from the trailer and other sources…

New Fringe Season 5 Pictures!

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Sep 152012

I know I haven’t updated SciFiEmpire.net for in like two weeks, but it has been hell with my academic career that I pursue besides my love for everything science-fiction. It would seem that I have my schedule reasonable sorted out so you can expect more regular updates from now on. Though I do hope someone ambitious will join as a contributor to SciFiEmpire.net. Prospective candidates so far have ranged from bots telling me how cheap shoes are in China to continental characters from Europe who supplement their limited knowledge of English with words from their own native tongues.

On the 17th of this month Bad Robot’s new show Revolution will air, expect a review of the Pilot before that time. And of course on the 28th Fringe will start airing its last season of 13 episodes. I am sad Fringe is going to end but we can all be considered lucky that the show wasn’t killed off earlier. Alphas and Warehouse 13 are also back from hiatus but frankly they can’t live up to Revolution and Fringe.

The first episode of Fringe’s fifth season is entitled ‘Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11′, and will see a return of the 2036 timeline that everybody was raving about in season 4. It also confirms that Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) was encased in amber, which is a neat way of avoiding having a geriatric Olivia around for a whole season. Olivia’s and Peter’s daughter Henrietta also will make a reappearance.

Below are the first pictures of the episode! Enjoy!

Fringe season 4 Alone In The World review!

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Oct 092011

Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) wearing glasses

This week’s episode of Fringe is a bit of a mixed bag, it is essentially a ‘monster-of-the-week episode’ but it also moves the storyline of Peter’s disapearance further in a proper way.

As for the plot…

It begins by showing two boys chasing another even younger boy, evidently one of the boys was slighted and seeks revenge. The younger boy hides out in a abandoned sewer drain and the two other young boys chase after him. Just as one of the boy is set to beat up the boy the they were chasing both of the bullies are grabbed by a strange creature which paralyses them which gives the younger boy time to escape.

Doctor Sumner played by William Sadler

In the next scene we see Walter being questioned by the Doctor Sumner (William Sadler), he interviews Walter on a monthly basis and now confronts him with the reports that people have noticed Walter having hallucinations. Walter dismisses the reports and states nothing is wrong with him, despite seeing Peter again in a reflective surface.

Olivia meanwhile suggest to agent Lee that he can always talk with her if the Fringe subject material would freak him out. During the conversation agent Broyles calls to inform them two bodies have been found.

One of the dead teens

The bodies belong to two 12 year olds that have been missing since the day before, the mystery lies in the fact that they are already in a advance state if decomposition. Personally I find the lack of drama surrounding the death of children a little cold even if they were bullies, the family of the kids are also not mentioned. Walter while back at the lab dares not to speculate as to cause of death or the decomposition but a third track of sneakers leads Olivia and Lincoln to believe that another child may have been involved. Quickly they find out the tracks belong to Aaron Snathon (I hope i got the name right) a 10 year old boy, Olivia and Lee take him to Walter’s lab to find out of he has been infected by something, we see the boy make drawings in a clipboard that a little later becomes a big spoiler.

Examining one of the bodies of the teens Walter notices a foul stench coming from the body which he can’t identify, Walter also demands to inspect the other body but agent Broyles first confronts him with the report that he is having hallucinations. Walter tries to deny this but then Peter starts to talk to him leading to very erratic behaviour on Walter’s part.

Walter examining Aaron

Aaron meanwhile peruses around Walter’s lab, after finding a toy Walter gets very angry and states it belongs to his dead son Peter. Walter quickly enough calms down and tells Aaron the story of how his son died of a disease, how he went to the other universe and took Peter from Walternate but that upon their return Peter died when they fell though the ice. Aaron then asks surly why Walter doesn’t think he should be in a mental institute.

Astrid finds out that the body is sucking oxygen towards it, Walter notices a fungus growing on the body and quickly states that the body should be placed in a confined glass box. After which in yet again grizzly detail it explodes and we see a cloud of fungus spores float in the box.

Exploding corpse

Walter realizes the same will happen to the other body which is still at the morgue, he contacts Olivia and Lee and suggest they evacuate the morgue as quickly as possible. They are however too late and the body explodes and infects the medical examiners working there.

Agent Broyles realizes that the fungus must be eradicated and sets out to do just that. Aaron meanwhile stays at Walter’s lab as his mother and father are out of the country and the people he is staying with don’t talk to him. Walter sees a lot of Peter in him and slowly begins to wonder whether there is a connection between the fungus and Aaron.

Walter now makes a number of erratic rants against Olivia and Broyles during which he confuses Peter’s name with Aaron’s. Walter states that by killing rh fungus htye are killing Peter.

Olivia and Lee with night vision

When Olivia and Lee re-enter the storm drain they use UV lights to fight the fungus, however this has an adverse effect on Aaron and situation quickly becomes an emergency. Broyles is reluctant to stop fighting the fungus not in the least as it is spreading. Walter sees more apparitions of Peter and people wonder if he is going insane. Finally Broyles orders Olivia and Lee to attack the fungus with a chemical agent. Walter urges Aaron to let go of the bond with the fungus as he duduces it is a mental bond. Aaron is reluctant as he states he has no one in the world and the fungus protects him. Finally Walter manages to convice him and Aaron terminates the mental bond, leading Olivia and Lee being successful in fighting the fungus.

Walter with the nail in his head

That said, the last quarter of the episode was very predictable, after Olivia and Lee found a drawing similar to the one Aaron made in the cave/drain things were pretty much spoilered and I was just watching the characters going through their paces.

What follows next is as far as I know the only reason to watch the episode intently. Walter has decided that he is going insane and with precision instruments hopes to destroy a part of his brain in order to stop seeing apparitions of Peter. Olivia was earlier in the episode seen with a drawing of Peter and seemed to use facial recognition software to find out who it is. As Olivia enters Walter’s lab in order to congratulate Walter on fighting the fungus we hear a number of soft blows, as Olivia enters Walters office we see Walter with an instrument struck into his eye that has pierced his brain, in the other hand he is the small hammer. Quickly Olivia extracts the tool from Walter’s brain, as Walter tells in an erratic tone that he is seeing a face of a man and hearing his voices something seems to click with Olivia. Olivia holds up the drawing of the face and says the man appeared in her dreams. Walter knows he isn’t mad and together they vow to find out who the man is…..

Olivia with a drawing of Peter

Conclusion…

The episode very much functions as a introduction to next’s weeks episode, the plot of Peter’s disapearance is the real draw while the plot of the man eating fungus is unbelieveble not in the least because off-screen a lot seems to be happening that would make the show almost jump the shark. Suggesting that the fungus was spreading all over the city was from that point a mistake, and yet we have no real idea how the fungus came to be. Suggesting it was a mutation of the fungus that feeds on ants was just a little too convenient. The episode had in my mind a fair amount of sloppy writing.

The character of Lincoln Lee seems to be growing in this series, as of yet no reappearance of agent Francis and it wasn’t mentioned whether he was rock climbing or taking up stamp collecting. Let’s just hope he will be back next episode because otherwise he might as well not come back.

The episode like the ones before it from season 4 seems hellbent on making it more accessible to new viewers and as such appears to be a little bit dumbed down. I also wonder if the budget for the series has been slashed for just like the last two episodes the amount of special effects seems less.

Score; 7.5/10.

Rating; 3.24 million. that is a slight bump over last week but then again the episode had a good promo trailer.

Next week’s episode is entitled ‘Subject 9′.

Fringe Subject 9 will see the return of characters such as Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) and is written by Jeff Pinker (Lost and Profiler) and J.h Wyman.

Promotional Stills…

Olivia & Astrid

Olivia Dunham, Nina Sharp and Astrid

Olivia scared

Olivia Dunham

Olivia & Astrid

Fringe promo material released!

TV-series No Responses »

Sep 162011

It is scarcely a week until the 23rd when Fringe Season 4 will kick off. So far we know Olivia and Walther will have to make do without Peter because he has been erased from history by the machine. And that is about the only real spoiler we have for the fourth season, the new promomaterial ia mainly built up out of previous season material, though a cool new poster has emerged (spot the Observers!).

Here is the first flashback of the previous seasons, for the rest… check out Youtube…..

There is also a promo trailer, and it uses stobing light!!! (cant get anough of that), but as far as I can see it doesn’t contain anything new.

Details of the first episode…

THE FRINGE TEAM TAKES NEW SHAPE AS THE IMPACT OF PETER’S HEROIC CHOICE UNFOLDS IN THE FOURTH SEASON PREMIERE OF “FRINGE” FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, ON FOX

Just one week after Peter Bishop saved the day and was then wiped from existence, the truce between the two worlds remains intact and the two sides are forced to work together. Lincoln Lee joins the Fringe team as they investigate a shapeshifter case that is very personal to him in the “Neither Here Nor There” season premiere episode of FRINGE airing Friday, Sept. 23 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (FR-401) (TV-14 L, V)

Cast: Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham; Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop; John Noble as Walter Bishop; Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles; Blair Brown as Nina Sharp; Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth; Seth Gabel as Lincoln Lee

Guest Cast: Joe Flanigan as Robert Danzig; Shauna Johannesen as Julie Danzig; Charlotte Williams as Amy Danzig; Sean Michael Kyer as Jonathan Danzig; Stephen Lobo as Agent Frazier; Colin Lawrence Agent Roach

I know its not much, but then again we all want to be suprised on september 23rd, read the review of the episode on the 24th here on scifiempire.net

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