After five years Fringe comes to an end. Though I had my reservations at the direction the series was headed at the beginning of the season, Liberty and An Enemy of Fate brought Fringe to a satisfying conclusion that thematically worked with the rest of the series. Other finales Fringe has had have left the audience’s mind blown. Think of the reveal that Peter was from another universe, when Olivia was replaced with Fauxlivia, of when Peter was erased from history. When compared to those previous endings An Enemy of Fate was exactly what I expected to happen. That being said everything that should have occurred did, and it worked well. The Fringe played to it’s characters’ strengths giving us heartfelt goodbyes from Walter, Peter, Olivia, Astrid, September, and even Jean the Cow. It had callbacks to its old episodes, and was fairly exciting. To put it plainly instead of making me go “wow,” it made me go “aww”. That’s what made the episode work as the grand finale.
Lets get the bad things out of the way first: I missed seeing William Bell. He’s always been hovering in the background of Fringe’s mythos. I know Leonard Nimoy is getting up there in years, but even a brief cameo would have been nice. There were still a few unanswered questions and lingering mysteries. I suppose we will leave those for comic books, Netflix, or movies (with fingers crossed). September/Donald’s death was too rushed. I didn’t feel the impact as much as I could have. Finally there is a bit of a paradox, circling around the time travel aspect of the story that doesn’t make sense, but I’m not going to worry about it.
Now for the good. The best thing about this episode was the climactic scene where Walter takes Michael the Observer child’s hand and walks with him through the portal into the future. Walter broke the universe and caused all amounts of suffering by taking a child through one portal. It’s fitting that he selflessly sacrificed himself to give the world hope by taking a child through another. The extended final battle was fairly thrilling, with Peter and Olivia weaponizing all of the Fringe cases they investigated in the earlier seasons. The horror show of bodies sealing themselves off with skin, Giant slugs busting out of people chests and mouths, and nightmare butterflies slicing people to pieces was was macabre stroll down memory lane. It was especially nice to see Olivia bouncing back and forth between worlds again to meet Fauxlivia and Lincoln again. Nearly everything was brought together and tied up with a nice bow. Though the episode was filled with heartfelt moments, like Walter telling Astrid she has a beautiful name, the one that really got me was more of a humorous one. Walter hands Peter anti-gravity bullets because their cool. In the final charge to the portal he laughs and points to the body of a floating Observer, and yells “What did I tell you Peter? It’s cool!”. I thought it was the perfect summation of Walter Bishop as a character. He’s an oddball, slightly childish, brilliant mad scientist, who is ultimately in awe of the wonders he can harness. Laughing at the anti gravity effects of the weapon just shows us how quirky he is. Walter is a unique character in fiction, and it made me realize how much he’ll be missed, not just as the series ends but in the lives of the people in the show. It really hit a high note in the last scene when Peter gets the White Tulip in the mail from his long gone father.
Overall Fringe was a great series. It was imaginative science fiction and really differentiated itself from it’s peers and predecessors. I am sad to see it go, and I know it had at least another season worth of story telling, but if it had to end this was a good way for it to go out. Besides I’m still holding out hope that we will see some kind of spin off.
