Fringe has expend four seasons dealing with the consequences of “ playing God . ” We ’ve learned all about Walter Bishop ’s past error , and we ’ve seen him placed alongside 12 of other misguided scientists , whose experimentation have menace people ’s lives . Over time , all of those foils of Walter Bishop have created a variety of composite portrait of Walter himself .
And now , last night ’s episode put Walter face - to - expression with his ultimate foil : William Bell , his former partner . And we got what will probably be Fringe ’s ultimate statement on scientific hubris . pamperer ahead …
I ’m strike that “ Brave New World ” represents the final , classical word on the abuses of science , for a couple reasons . First , because I ’m not sure where else there is to go after this . And second , because we already know the show is only come back for a shortened season of 13 episodes , and it appears the main focus will be on coping with the Observer invasion and the dystopian future we glimpsed a few weeks ago .
In any guinea pig , William Bell ’s plan is fully revealed in “ Brave New World Part 2 , ” and it ’s just as demented as we all expected . In a nutshell , he has gathered a carload of Dr. Moreau - esque fauna people , like the bat people we see several weeks ago . And he ’s going to use Olivia ’s Cortexiphan powers to break down both universes , allowing him to create a new universe with whatever law of natural philosophy he desire . This fresh universe will be alone populated by the weird creature he ’s design , which are safe on panel his “ Ark , ” the only power point that will survive in both macrocosm .
Why is William Bell doing this ? Out of sheer ego and spite . But not the kind of egotism that give care about his own survival as an somebody . Bell has been dying of cancer , and it ’s caused him to release against God , as Walter once did after he failed to economise both versions of his son Peter . So Bell want to become God and give ascension to a new creation in his effigy , as a contrary way of defying his own mortality rate . He tells Olivia and Peter that he expects to conk off in this new world , pass on no humans awake — but he also talk a raft about this act of creation as a way of defying decease .
Bell explains :
I develop older . I grew misanthropic . And I uprise cancer . And I realized that dose myself with Cortexiphan would slow up it down . But slow up is not stop . For me , it ’s just a issue of prison term : the clock is click . Tick , tick , tick , tick , tick . And that ’s when it happen to me : You were right , Walter . Walter , you were right , right , right . Every rant you ever went on made perfect good sense . Suddenly , I sympathize not just you , but everything . God made us in his picture . If that is so — if we are equal to of being graven image — then it is our fate to do so .
And Bell tells Walter that this was all his thought originally , and he was the one who come up with the architectural plan to collapse both world — and then Walter asked Bell to cut out a piece of his mental capacity , so “ put the djinni back in the nursing bottle . ” Walter may deny it now , but he ’s “ always been playing God , ” says Belly .
It ’s all passing loco , and an interesting counterpoint to everything we ’ve learn about Walter over the long time . We ’ve gone from believing that Walter was simply an self-important meddler who caused mayhem but out of hubris , to realizing that he was really motivated by love of his son , in both universes . As we ’ve realized this , the other sore scientist that Fringe has shown us have also been more and more often motivated by compassion or love for family .
So it ’s jarring that our ultimate reflexion of Walter is virginal haughtiness — and derisory lordliness at that . I ’m not certain how much of William Bell ’s scheming and ranting is meant to be nonsense , and how much of it simply comes across that way by accident . But in any case , he ’s like a crude caricature of Walter , without all the things that have humanized him over the retiring four years . He wants to create new life , not out of love for that living , but merely to show that he can be a god . He fears his own demise , but conceive that creating a whole newfangled world will compensate in some way .
( And yes , Nimoy ’s William Butler Yeats - quoting , cackle carrying out is kind of insanely over the top , adding to the impression that this is a scientist who ’s not just mad , but totally sick . )
Olivia ’s pity versus her belief in herself
It ’s a weird thing — in an episode where Walter in conclusion calls Astrid by her real name , nobody calls Olivia by hers . Peter keeps calling her “ Liv , ” a nickname I do n’t believe he ’s ever used before . Walter shout out her “ Olive , ” something he has n’t called her in year . Nina addresses her as “ My dearest . ” It ’s sort of fitting , in an episode where Olivia is having a chip of an identity element crisis .
Olivia feels happiest when she ’s run to someone ’s rescue , like when she races off to economise Jessica , the dupe of last hebdomad ’s nanotech attack . But she ’s thrown off guard when it turns out that Jessica is actually working for William Bell , and has been yanking Olivia ’s string all along to help touch off her Cortexiphan great power . She ’s further unsettled when they interrogate the dead Jessica — in an dementedly creepy-crawly scene , full of eye - rolled , duple part and weird children ’s jingle .
And when Olivia finally plug into the dot , and actualize that she , herself , is the power source for William Bell ’s universe - shattering scheme , she ’s ruined . ( A few weeks ago , it took a couple dozen Cortexiphan child at specific muscae volitantes , with the bridge between universes open , to burst the universes — now it just look at Olivia . I guess , because she ’s more powerful ? Or because the universes are already weakened ? ) Nina tells Olivia that she ’s so sinewy because she has so much compassion , and that ’s what makes her special . So Olivia ’s pity is going to bring William Bell ’s world of genetically engineered monsters into being .
In the face of this , Olivia feels as though she ’s still the same snare small girl that she was , back when Walter and William Bell used to try out on her in Jacksonville . Now , William Bell is still try out on her , and she feel as though nothing has ever commute . Except , Peter points out , that she ’s not alone this time , because he ’s there .
At last , Peter and Olivia locate Bell ’s ark full of freaks , but it takes both of them to reach it . Peter can see it because he ’s from the other universe of discourse , and only Olivia can travel there thanks to her Cortexiphan power . Nina gives Olivia one last peppiness talk in which she tell that Olivia has always had the power — she just has to conceive in herself . “ You ’ve had the most extraordinary gifts , but the only one you were deny was hump it . You ’ve had the index all along . ” ( It ’s sort of a Wizard of Oz moment — she ’s had the courage all along . )
So Olivia ’s compassion and her unchecked emotions are what set off her Cortexiphan king enough to make her a “ living dubiousness engine , ” as Bell puts it . But by believe in herself , Nina advise , Olivia can put a stop to it . It ’s like the divergence between Olivia ’s uncontrolled emotion , falsify by Bell , versus her excited confidence and mastery . One means death for the universes , the other imply life .
( A side note : I reckon we never really see much of Nina reacting to Olivia ’s memories of their class together being completely gone . Or how Nina feels about William Bell , her unspoilt Quaker , twist out to be a psychotic person . Nina must be pretty downcast in good order now . )
In the conclusion , though , Olivia ’s belief in herself but give up her and Peter to achieve Bell ’s ship . It ’s not Olivia that stops Bell ’s plan , after all . rather , her individuality crisis is resolved in the most direct fashion possible — by Walter put a slug in her mind . Which he then dig up out , after which her Cortexiphan - soaked wit tissue repairs itself . ( Which , I infer , was set up with the lemon cake thing last workweek . ) Olivia ’s near - death experience burns out her Cortexiphan charge , foil Bell ’s plan — so he uses his bell - eport to get himself the heck out of there . ( I like how Nimoy get to have a holodeck and a transporter in this episode . ) ( GIF viaVargesz . )
So now that she ’s had a skillful learning ability - genuflect , how does Olivia solve her feelings over virtually being used to destroy the globe ? We do n’t get to see much about it . Her only post - mortem picture involves Peter telling Olivia that he ’s find them a house to survive in — and that now that she ’s execute the prophecy that she must die , he ’s never going to turn a loss her again . ( Good lot with that ! ) And then she drops the thunderbolt we ’ve all been carry : She ’s significant . discriminative stimulus circle of kissing as Walter and Astrid watch and hug .
I ’m kind of sad that rather of make to assert her own agency , and show once and for all that she ’s not just a pecker of the mad scientists , Olivia ’s main contribution is to get shoot in the head . And then the question of how Olivia feels about having expend her whole life sentence as a plaything of unscrupulous scientist is kind of lost in the shuffling , after having been such a huge point earlier in the instalment . On the plus side , we ’ve already met Olivia ’s kid , and we know she grows up to be pretty kick - behind .
September and the Devil ’s Trap
You could have been excused for thinking you ’d turned to the incorrect communication channel and were watching an episode of Supernatural for a moment there . September , the friendly observer , gets himself catch in a Devil ’s Trap . Oh wait — “ stasis runes . ” Sorry .
I ’m not entirely certain what the business about Jessica trap and dash September was about — except that we already take in him shot old age ago , and thus the show had to reveal why and how that happened , so as not to leave any conspicuous loose ends . Jessica immobilize September while she ’s also leading Olivia into a sand trap — and then shoot him , as a mean of activating Olivia ’s TK great power one more time . ( look-alike viaWalter ’s Wonky World . )
In any example , September then spells out what most of us have already guess — the setting in the Opera House where he tells Olivia that she has to die has n’t happened yet , from his point of survey . And he has no clew why she would have to give out . He pop off to investigate the time to come .
Later , an evidently uninjured September crop up in Walter ’s lab as he ’s making some peanut - butter - and - jelly sandwich . ( Walter ’s still puckish after those jello shooter at the infirmary turned out to be urine samples instead . ) September want Walter to discourage the others that “ they ’re come . ” Meaning , apparently , the other Observers .
So what was all this about ?
To some extent , like I enjoin , this instalment was about closing the Quran on Walter ’s law-breaking — thanks to William Bell , we ’ve now see them writ declamatory , and Walter has had a hazard to reject that variety of hubris definitively , with his reception import out in smoke points . It also probably closes out the record book on Olivia and her Cortexiphan experiences , although Walter mutters something about her still having latent biological abilities .
But what was this season , as a whole , about ? A couple things , I guess :
1 ) Putting one last obstruction between Peter and Olivia , and then reaffirming their making love once and for all . Peter being removed from the multiverse was a bit of an obstruction to a successful romance , and so was a world where nobody think back him . But destiny ( or “ providence , ” to quote William Bell ) institute the two lovers back together once again — and September spent a mountain of clip explaining that their nipper is of import . belike because she ’s the only one who can fight the Observer invasion .
2 ) Showing the two universes becoming friend — and then facing a scourge worse than a war between them . Over the course of the season , the two Olivias went from loathing each other to admiring each other , the two Astrids made protagonist , and Lincoln trade existence for good . And even the two Walters had a bonding second by the end . And meanwhile , the scourge of the two universes trying to destroy each other was replace with an even worse scourge : that first David Robert Jones , and then William Bell , might collapse both world to create a raw incubus cosmos full of uncanny monsters .
All in all , this was by no way the strongest time of year of Fringe . The rebooted cosmos allow for some interesting unexampled versions of these familiar characters , but also intend that Walter Bishop was sideline for a lot of the year . The threat of super - shapeshifters was built up , and then disappear . And so on . But looking on the vivid side , the show did manage to expend a class exploring the relationship between the two universe in some often - fascinating ways , and purpose some of its major thematic points in a pretty classic mode . And now we ’re localize for a net season about a dystopian Observer - dominated future . And try from the coup d’oeil we receive a few hebdomad ago , that could be the most playfulness yet .
J.J. AbramsJohn NobleTelevision
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , science , and cultivation word in your inbox daily .
news show from the futurity , deliver to your present .
Please select your desired newssheet and state your electronic mail to advance your inbox .
You May Also Like
