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| Saturday, May 14, 2011 09:55 PM |
| On the Viewer - Fringe (Season 3, Episode 22 - "The Day We Died") |
 by Fëanor |
Spoilers! Etc.
Well, that's an ominous episode title if I've ever seen one.
Back in the future, Peter is 47 and a little gray at the temples! Astrid is with him, and she's got long hair! Some title text gives us the date: May 20, 2026. Woah.
The Fringe Division is clearly a big thing in the future. They have large buildings with creepy triangular hallways.
Holy crap! Olivia's niece, Ella, is all grown up, and a newly minted Fringe agent! Also, apparently everybody calls Olivia boss now. Does she run Fringe?
Ella: "People are saying that it's the End of Days."
Olivia: "That's what we think, yeah. We think it's Moreau."
Huh wha?
Weirdly, the newly awakened Peter now seems to have memories of all the intervening time. He is not confused or lost. Huh.
Olivia says the event at the World Trade Center was a stage 3 tear and required amber protocol. The TV announces that a terrorist named Moreau has claimed responsibility. It seems he's the Big Bad here in the future. And guess who's playing him? Brad Dourif! Awesome. I love Brad Dourif!
Yet another new version of the opening title sequence, this one with a gray background and different (more futuristic?) words and phrases floating about. Interesting!
Astrid mentions her father to Peter. That's odd, I can't remember her ever talking about her parents before.
Peter decides the only way to determine how the terrorists' devices work is to bring in Walter - but Walter is now in prison, sporting long hair and a wild man beard!
Walter and Peter touch the glass between them, right next to a little sticker that says not to touch the glass.
A wormhole opened in Central Park, leading back through time to the age of dinosaurs! Excellent.
Walter is apparently shut away in high security, and it'll take a lot to get him out where he can do some good.
The End of Days terrorist group is seeking to accelerate the disintegration of reality, and bring the apocalypse sooner. So apparently Peter getting in the machine didn't help anything, and the universe is still falling apart.
Broyles is now a Senator, and has one bad eye. Intriguing! He also blames Walter for the world falling apart, as does the rest of the world, which I guess is fair enough.
Peter: "Philip. If what we lost in Detroit still means anything, just give me one chance."
Okay, what is that referring to? I'm really enjoying all these little hints they're throwing at us, and that they just threw us in at the deep end here and are letting us figure this out as we go.
Looks like Broyles agreed - they're back in the old lab, and Olivia's getting Walter's old equipment together. They even let Walter shave and get his hair cut, and put on his usual shirt and sweater combo. Things he really missed: swivel chairs, and swiveling in them.
It's not terribly surprising, but Olivia and Peter are married. More surprising: Olivia now has mastery over her telekinetic abilities.
The big shocker: in this future, Walternate's universe has already been destroyed, and he's the power and smarts behind the End of Days, working to take his revenge by destroying this universe, too.
Walter: "Even if I am successful, our world is still ending. You may stop this group, but you cannot stop the inevitable. Our destiny was set the day we triggered the machine. I didn't understand until it was too late that our worlds were inextricably linked. Without one, the other simply cannot exist. When their world was destroyed, that was the day we sealed our fate. For all intents and purposes, that was the day we died."
Well, there we go. That explains that! Can Peter go back and change things somehow?
Peter: "No matter who's at fault, you're my Dad."
Walter's reaction to this line, and the joy he silently expresses as he bites into the licorice Peter has brought him, is really sweet and moving.
Peter and Olivia discussing the ethics of having a child when the world seems to be ending - wow. Deep.
Walter's examination of the device leads them to a campsite where Peter is handed a piece of evidence. It's a key that he clearly recognizes, but he hides it from Olivia. As it turns out, it's the key to the house on Reiden Lake. Of course! Naturally, Walternate left the key there on purpose, and waited to meet him.
Walternate: "Do you know what it's like to wake up and just for a moment think that everything is as it was? And then realize it's not? That the nightmare you had was real? .... You destroyed my universe, son. And I'm going to destroy yours. But not all at once."
Woah. Looks like Olivia and her men were in range of the light bomb blast! And the worm hole to the dinosaurs is open again!
Peter: "I'm sorry for destroying our world. If I could take back that choice, I would."
Maybe he'll be able to! I hope. Although I'm starting to wonder if the show is just going to continue in this timeline...
Peter: "You're going to come with me now, father."
Walternate: "You know, Peter, if I was really there I don't think I could resist killing you. But I think this is the better way, so you can really learn about loss. Let's start by killing someone you love."
That was a truly nasty and bad-ass move by Walternate. I probably should have figured he wasn't really there, but it caught me by surprise, just as it did Peter. Man, Walternate has such a sour, evil look on his face! Although he's transformed into a straight-up villain now, you can still understand his motives for wanting to destroy Peter, and this world.
Holy crap, he just shot Olivia in the head. Yeah, we're definitely not staying with this timeline. They're willing to make pretty big changes on this show, but there's no way Olivia is staying dead.
We cut immediately to the funeral. I thought we'd see Peter rushing to get there on time and then learning dramatically that he was too late. But this works. I like their choice to just mute all of Peter's speech except the first line, since that first line said it all. Just seeing his face and the faces of Olivia's friends and loved ones is more moving than anything he could have said.
They gave her a Viking funeral! Awesome. I kind of want that now, too. Make a note, people!
Walter: "You used to call me Uncle Walter. Do you remember?"
Ella: "I don't remember much from before it got bad...."
Walter: "If I could go back and change things, I would. I would do anything to be able to go back, make different choices-"
Ella: "But you can't. There aren't any happy endings nowadays, are there?"
Walter: "No, I suppose not."
Man, this is dark stuff. But yeah, they are definitely going to get the chance to go back and make different choices. Or Peter is, anyway. I'm pretty sure.
Ella: "I remember the cow that stayed over there. She had kind eyes."
Walter: "She did, didn't she? My Gene. I do miss her."
Awww.
WOAH. It was Walter who sent the pieces of the machine back through time. That's how it ended up in the past. He used the wormhole in Central Park. Peter suggests he just never send the machine back, but Walter says he has to do it because he already did it. Stupid time travel paradoxes.
Walter: "I can't change what happened because it's already happened. But you can make a different choice within what happened."
Uh... what? That doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Walter: "I simply need to find a way to bring your consciousness forward to now so you can witness what will happen if you make the same choice. For all I know it could be happening already."
Ah ha! So that's what's going on. I like the "simply" Walter threw in there. Like that will be easy, just chucking some guy's consciousness forward through time from the future.
Walter: "There's no way of telling what the cost might be. But it can't be worse than this. It can't be worse than this."
So dark! Also, John Noble is killing it again in this episode.
Bolivia, to Walternate: "They outsmarted you, didn't they?"
Heh. Nice.
I really love the effect of the blurry almost-Peter showing up in the machine in the other universe.
Peter brings everyone together in a kind of bridge between the universes. It's very cool seeing the Walters and the Olivias getting to meet each other face to face. But as Peter's trying to make peace, and explain the consequences of one universe destroying the other, he suddenly vanishes. The hell?
Outside the Statue of Liberty, a ton of Observers are standing around watching.
Observer 1: "You were right. They don't remember Peter."
Observer 2: "How could they? He never existed. He served his purpose."
WHAT?! To save the universes, Peter had to vanish from existence? That's horrific.
I suspected Peter would use the machine to bring the universes together somehow, rather than smash one to bits, but I never guessed something like this could happen.
I can see the Olivias being able to work together, but it's hard to believe the Walters doing the same. I also don't think the show will leave it this way, and somehow Peter will come back, but how I'm really not sure. Also, I'm really hoping we get to see somebody go through that wormhole and hang out with some dinosaurs eventually.
But anyway, I like that I didn't see this ending coming. It's pretty insane, but it doesn't feel like it came completely out of left field. By which I mean, it fits in with the insanity we've already seen. Where will they go next with this story? I can't wait to see! |
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