Fringe Finale – The Day We Died

Fringe Opening:

Cellular rejuvenation, Thought extraction, Cryptozoology, Neural partitioning, Brain porting, Temporal plasticity

Dual maternity,  Chaos structure, Clonal transplantation

Biosuspenion, Water, Hope, The Observers are here

Picture of a hand with 5 fingers and a thumb

Were you blown away by the Fringe finale? “The Day We Died” started out surprisingly slow, but in the end it blew me away. I’m one of those people who cries at commercials, TV shows, movies, basically it doesn’t take much. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t feel much emotion about this finale. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it, but you’d think when the beloved Olivia gets a bullet to the head, I would shed a tear. I didn’t.

The jump forward to 2026 didn’t hold much emotional sway over me, because I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be staying there. When Olivia was shot, I knew that she wasn’t really gone. Despite my lack of connection to the future, I did enjoy the finale. I ended up watching it twice, because I felt I missed some of the important points on the first watch and I did.

At the end of the last episode, it appeared that Peter physically jumped to the future. He questioned where he was and seemed disoriented. But, we found out this week that he didn’t physically travel through time, only his conscience traveled to the future. And there is some question as to when that actually happened. Was it from the machine or due to the conversation with Walter after Olivia died in the future? In the end, I don’t think it really matters. Instead what matters is that while Peter was in the machine he saw the future. That information allowed him to make the decision to use the machine to create the bridge between universes at Liberty Island sacrificing himself.

For me, one of the keys to understanding the episode was the exchange between Peter and Walter at the jail. It wasn’t until I watched it a second time that I understood its importance:

“A wormhole opened in central park, right in the center of Sheep’s Meadow. Took us months, but we were finally able to amber it over.” —  Peter
“A wormhole shouldn’t emit that type of radiation, not unless it is a wormhole through time.” — Walter
“Exactly right. The carbon levels were consistent with late paleozolic era. 250 million years ago.” — Peter

That scene in the jail set the stage for the rest of the episode. The first people were Walter and those that assisted him in sending the machine back in time. In actuality, this all just creates more questions. How did Sam Weiss find out about the machine and the first people? Why did it not work as was passed through history? Did it not run the full course, which included Peter sacrificing himself?

Peter is gone. He never existed. That means that little Henry never existed. Peter never even knew he had a son. If he knew, would he have made the same choice? I’m positive that Joshua Jackson will be back for the fourth season, so the question really is where is he and how does he return? He has to come back for Olivia. They are soul mates!

The most emotional moment of the episode was the end,when the observers said,

“You were right. They don’t remember Peter.”
“How could they? He never existed. He served his purpose.”

Depending on how you look at it, this episode either took place over 60 seconds, plus a few minutes or over 15 years. Either way, it ended with Peter wiped from existence, Walter and Walternate at odds, and Olivia and Fauxlivia across from each other. Why would Walternate still blame Walter for creating the rift between universes if Peter never existed? This is actually an easy answer – Walter and William were working on crossing between universes before Peter got sick. I think it is a good assumption that their experiments led them to crossover at some point even without the Peter. (This theory was confirmed by a tweet from @JWFringe)

Season three was an exhilarating ride and it will be a long summer waiting to get answers in season four.

Notes and Quotes:

• I thought the hair and clothing of the future characters was well done. Slightly odd, but very fitting.
• Peter carries a gun in the future and wears a uniform.
• Loved seeing the wedding ring on Olivia. I almost yelled out with excitement.
• I’m not sure I’m looking forward to a future with frozen, canned steak and boxed wine being a step up from eating out.
• Ella Ella Ella. I hope we see her again somewhere, somehow.
• “Do you remember what you were saying in the field about the machine and being from the past?” – Ella to Peter
• Holograms in the future are very realistic. Interesting that Walternate pulled that off with Peter.
• How did Walternate get a copy of the crowbar picture of Olivia/Fauxlivia?
• If Little Henry doesn’t exist, did Lincoln ever proclaim his love for Fauxlivia?
• Where is Peter? Executive Producer J.H. Wyman tweeted after the show – “He is somewhere.”

Clacked by Carla Day
on May 07, 2011 @ 04:13 EST5EDT