First of all, Fox should have known American Idol would run over one hour with eight contestants. It took them an hour and twenty minutes to get through nine. I guess they didn’t want to subject us to another Osbournes debacle. But still, for those of us who DVR Fringe, they left us on a pretty big climactic moment. And while Adam Lambert sometimes looks and sounds like he could be a “Fringe” case, it’s still ridiculous.
So I had to wait to watch the ending online, at which point I slapped myself in the forehead and asked myself why I didn’t realize what was going on sooner. Oh, and speaking of American Idol, for all you “Observer” watchers, did you notice him there? Maybe Adam really is a “Fringe” case.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the series thus far has been the omnipresent “Observer.” Pasty and bald, he seems to be at every major happening in the show, and as we’ve discovered he’s been at it possibly longer even than Walter’s been around! But we only ever saw him in passing, and in one brief exchange with Walter.
Come to think of it, why didn’t Walter make the connection, unless he did and was keeping mum about it. That Walter’s a lot more savvy than we give him credit. Still, if this boy is in fact a young Observer, then we’ve learned a helluva lot about them.
The boy “knew” things, mostly through an empathic connection to people around him. While he couldn’t go where the action was, he certainly knew where it was and was able to tell Olivia by writing it upside down; not sure what that’s all about. I wonder if the thoughts Walter’s machine picked up were backwards (can a voice be upside down). Too bad Astrid didn’t have time to record them.
But when Observer, Jr. saw The Observer at the end, that’s when it clicked to me. Which is pathetic, I know, but at that moment they saw one another and I think they sensed what they each were. So maybe as we wind down Fringe’s first season we’ll get more dirt on The Observer and even see Jr. again.
I’m glad this show is back; my TV was just too normal without it — and without Walter. From his asking Olivia if she knew what a penis was like to his happy dance for the child, his is a presence the television landscape is much bleaker without.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Apr 09, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
It was actually the first thing I thought of when I saw him in the hospital bed. So quickly, I immediately dismissed it when none of the appropriate characters made the connection. Then I just owned it, and tried to figure out why they were making their characters ignorant of the connection.
You’re right, I’m glad this show is back on TV. Its not that its just weird for the sake of being weird (Though, sometimes it definitely feels like it is).
But its different than anything else on TV right now, which to me, is a really good thing. (See Also: Kings)
I forget, but isn’t Walter the only one that knows about The Observer? I don’t remember any of the other characters having contact with the Observer. Then again, it has been a while since some of those original episodes.
I think Walter might be the only one who has met one … but the Fringe team certainly knows about them …
his son knows about him too. they met in the woods or something & the observer kept saying everything he did.
Good episode. I’m glad to have Fringe back.
I had to watch the last of the show online also. When the #@^#@^ are networks going to learn to tell time?
I always record 1 minute before (2 minutes for SNL) before and 2 minutes after the “scheduled” times for anything I record. If there’s a sporting event (game, race, etc) on at anytime before the show I want to record I’ll pad an hour onto the end just in case.
Even with that it is frustrating how often stuff like this happens.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t make the connection until the end. That was a “duh” moment if there ever was one.
one good thing about having to find the torrent of this episode to watch … was I found the first two episodes of Season (or Series) 3 of Primeval