Okay! This week, our assignment was to watch the episode “6:02 AM EST” from Season Three of Fringe. (You can read the Television Without Pity Recap here, while the AV Club has their recap of the episode here. The post dedicated to the Season Three season premiere episode is here and the posts dedicated to the following episodes are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
As always, here are the ground rules: nothing that we have seen so far is considered a spoiler, anything that we have not yet seen should be considered a spoiler. Crazy nutbar speculation is *NOT* a spoiler, but confirming or denying said confirmation would be.
Here’s my idea for spoilers: please rot13 them. That’s a simple encryption that will allow the folks who want to avoid spoilers to avoid them and allow the people who want to argue them to argue them. We good? We good! Everybody who has seen the episode, see you after the cut!
The difference between a season finale and a series finale is a subtle one. It has mostly to do with which of the sub-plots you decide to pick back up. The deep-seated insecurity subplot is one you can pick up if you’ve been renewed, you see. The unrequited love subplot is one you can’t afford to leave on the bench if you haven’t been renewed, however. I mean, if you’re cancelled and you finish your season with the two main characters finally kissing? Maybe you won’t get picked up again… but box set sales will be through the roof. Heck, it’ll leave a good taste in everybody’s mouth and that’ll increase chances of syndication!
But I get ahead of myself.
We’re jumping into the three-part season finale (and I’m pretty sure that they’re using the scripts from the “renewed” pile rather than “cancelled”).
We open by advancing the plot something awful by Brandon explaining to Walternate that they took Henry’s DNA from the blood sample from a couple of weeks ago, they removed Fauxlivia’s DNA, and so they now have about half of Peter’s DNA… and they’re going to use Peter’s DNA to start The Machine. Walternate compares himself to Oppenheimer… only more so. “May God Have Mercy On Us.”
Jump to Earth-1 where we see the beginning of the end of the world. Ironically enough, the end of the world hits some shepherds first thing. It’s locusts, of course. After that pestilent cloud passes, we see the shepherds say something to the effect of “what the heck is *THAT*” only to be interrupted by a bright light.
You’re watching Fringe (blue credits).
Jump to the bowling alley. Hey! I remember this guy! It’s Sam! He’s doing the bowling alley manager thing when he notices a bowling ball acting all squirrelly and he goes back into his office and removes one of those swinging ball executive toys and gently puts it on his desk and then stares at it until it starts of its own accord. He looks like he’s smellin’ somethin’.
Immediate contrast with Olivia waking up next to Peter and being pleased. We see her get out of bed and walk into the hallway and WHOA WALTER’S NAKED. Jeez, Walter. Olivia goes back into Peter and Peter informs her that Tuesdays are naked Tuesdays at Chez Bishop. They both make noises about how happy they are which is, of course, the secret “YOU NEED TO RING NOW” signal that people send to phones. Yep. It’s the end of the world. Better get dressed.
So we jump to the farm and see a field that has been pretty much ruined. Broyles points out that the nearby army base didn’t have anything to do with any weird testing of weird weapons (which is one of those things that makes me immediately wonder “why did they bring that up if it wasn’t the nearby army base?” but maybe they were just trying to keep us from running down any particular bunny trails). Peter says “insert technobabble here” and they give him a science tool. He turns it on and says “yep.” Walter asks “what could trigger a vortex?”
And… we find out from Nina that the machine has turned on and that it’s time for Walter to hear about it.
So our team goes to the lab to figure out what, exactly, can be done about this. Specifically, someone did something in the other universe. So now what. Walter mentions that the machine has an electromagnetic signature similar to that of the between-worlds typewriters… Quantum Entanglement! Spooky Action At A Distance! Which means that they know that their machine turned on because Walternate must have turned *HIS* on.
Jump over to Earth-2 where we see Fauxlivia with the baby when, oh no!, a Fringe Event calls her to the office just to have it be “false alarmed” at the last second. Fauxlivia is having none of this so she barges into Walternate’s office (who is charmingly disappointed that she didn’t bring Henry) and asks about the event that triggered the so-called “False Alarm” that *SHOULD* be resulting in everyone evacuating the office under Lady Liberty Romeo Foxtrot November. Walter gets cold and, when Fauxlivia asks if they’ve started The Machine, gets colder. There’s a really, really cool exchange where Fauxlivia mentions that “your son is over there” and Walternate explains “I sacrificed my son so that I could save yours.” The “You’re Welcome” is left unsaid.
Say what you will about someone who destroys universes but, dang. I imagine that he’d make a halfway decent grampa come the Holidays.
Jump back to Earth-1 and they’re debating stuff like “taking the machine apart” and “encasing it in lead” but nothing really moves anybody until Ourlivia says she’s going to work with Massive Dynamic to set up many of the protocols she learned on the other side to help predict problems over here and Peter points out to Walter that if Peter can turn it on… somehow… maybe he can turn it off. Somehow. Walter pours himself and Peter a drink and talks about the Observer. Remember the show where Peter said “give me the keys and save the girl”? Well, Walter tells Peter, for the first time, about how the Observer was setting Walter up to save the universe by sacrificing his son. Training Walter to let his son go.
Whoa. That’s one heck of a seed to have planted.
Jump to Nina and Olivia bickering about how woefully underprepared they are for anything like this and how Nina was sure that if Olivia and Peter were boinking that this shouldn’t be a problem at all. Olivia, of course, says something to the effect of “what?” and it comes out that Sam Weiss knows a *LOT* about the end of the world.
So it’s time to jump to him. He’s writing stuff in his notebook, working equations, and they end up equalling zero. That’s either really bad or really good. Nope, wait, it’s really bad.
So we jump to Fauxlivia who is telling Linc to babysit (???) because she is pretty sure that Peter can fix both worlds and, better yet, talk Walternate out of destroying the other one prematurely. This, apparently, involves pointing a gun at Evil Brandon. Evil Brandon, of course, tries every trick in the book to talk Fauxlivia out of doing anything crazy and, of course, the book was published prematurely. She gets some weird machines from him and hits him in the head with the butt of her pistol.
I don’t mind Our Brandon that much. Nina keeps him on a short leash. Evil Brandon? I shouldn’t enjoy seeing him hit in the face half as much as I do. Sadly, it seems like the guards happen to catch Fauxlivia before she can jump universes or otherwise get away…
Jump to Ourlivia trying (and failing) to find Sam Weiss.
Jump to Peter getting ready to go into the machine… and everybody (but Olivia) there not knowing what to do or say about it. There’s a lovely moment where Walter puts some electrogel on Peter’s hands, you know, to keep them from being burned. And that’s so very sad and wonderful. Walter is such a huge failure in some areas and, in others… well. He’s Walter. Peter appreciates it… but he turns to walk to the machine and reaches out to touch it and KERRRRRANG WHAM he’s thrown back a couple dozen feet and probably concussed.
Huh. Didn’t see *THAT* coming.
So we jump to a hospital where we see Peter rolled down a hallway and we suss out that the machine was trying to protect itself or something.
Walter, however, goes to the chapel where he talks to God about the White Tulip. Huh. He probably should have kept Peter Weller around. You know, just in case he wanted Peter Weller to eavesdrop on this conversation and set something in motion. Well, Walter has a quick jaunt through some of the stages of grief. Remorse, Anger, Bargaining. Ah, Walter.
We find out that the reason Olivia couldn’t find Sam Weiss was because Sam Weiss was going to find Olivia. She tells him that the machine is on. “I know.” As it turns out, Sam needs to be taken to it.
Jump to Fauxlivia being locked up in the same cell that Ourlivia was locked up in at the beginning of the season (man, the writers are on a symmetry kick and bless them for it) and she and Walter trade some barbs… such as how Fauxlivia was willing to give up her son for the greater good while Walter has to shoulder the burden of pragmatism. He points out to her that, hey, look at the bright side. Anybody else would be on trial for treason. All Fauxlivia is going to get is a time-out in a cell until this is over… and in another brilliant nod to what happened at the beginning of the season/the end of the last one, Walter turns the lights out on Fauxlivia in her cell.
Wow. What a great show.
So… what thinks did you thunk?
