Fringe: S04 Ep21 – Brave New World – Part 1

What happened?

Instances of spontaneous combustion are investigated by Fringe Division where it transpires they are perpetrated by Mr. Jones, working for William Bell. Walter and Astrid go to check out some leads and find themselves held at gunpoint, captured by Belly and his men. Meanwhile Olivia is developing new powers - healing and physical control of other people - when she and Peter track down Mr. Jones. Only too late does Jones realise William has sacrificed him when he is bested and killed by Peter and Olivia.

Thoughts

I think it was intentional, how this episode began almost as though the series had hit the reset switch. Like with the severing of the two universes we had been cut back to the way things were back in season one. The episode began with a suitable strange occurrence that resulted in the unpleasant death of a person and before you knew it Olivia and Peter and Walter were on the scene checking out what happened and drawing potential conclusions.

Really? I was thinking. A case of the week episode just before a season finale? Really?

Turned out no, not really, though that slip and dodge of expectations was really one of the only positive things to emerge out of an episode that I otherwise thought was a bit of a mess. The matter of the spontaneous combustion was a case in point. It was discovered to be an act of violence perpetrated by Mr. Jones, using nanobots. Further investigation yielded the truth that these nanobots were in fact designed by William Bell. So, Mr, Jones is working for William Bell. OK.

How long has that been the case? When Mr. Jones was intent on reducing two universes into one new whole was that really under the design and bidding of William Bell all along? Was William Bell also tucked away in the safe zone, waiting for the universes to collapse so he could be a part of this new world of bat monsters? It sounds a little ridiculous but I have to assume it’s the case. Unless William Bell is playing an even longer game, and he actually knew that Mr. Jones would fail in his merging universe plans and all Belly was after was for the bridge to be closed.

There’s mileage in the idea that William Bell has been playing Mr. Jones for the longterm gain, especially considering how he became unstuck here. It seemed to be the case that Belly had sent Mr. Jones to release the nanobots primarily so Walter would find them and realise who designed them. After that, Mr. Jones was then directed to ambush Olivia and Peter following the concentrated sunbeam attack whereupon it appeared to be a set-up, because William figured that Mr. Jones’ attack would fail and he would be taken out of the picture.

I have to say I was a little dismayed to see Mr. Jones taken down the way he was. Considering how much of a calculating and controlling person he has been so far, to be caught out so untidily felt disingenuous. Sure, he probably couldn’t have factored in Olivia having the power to assume control of Peter’s body and fight through him but, never-the-less, it still felt a bit cheap to me. Mr. Jones deserved a more sound finishing off. Pleasing parallel that his demise resulted in a splitting apart of his face, mirroring him being split in two during season one.

The two attacks – nanobots and sunbeam – didn’t seem to serve any other purpose, which is what informs my view that the episode felt like a bit of a mess. It’s my implied understanding that the two attacks were orchestrated purely to manipulate proceedings but that wasn’t entirely clear, and it raises the question of what purpose it was Mr. Jones himself thought he was doing it for! I mean, if someone asked you to go and plant spontaneously combustible nanobots in a public place, or direct a sunbeam into a city you’d surely have some pause to consider what you were doing it for, no?

There’s potential that this whole piece of business has been left deliberately vague because it’ll get tied up in the finale. I’m not banking on it but this is a "Part 1" so the episode does get some grace. Of course, the other result William Bell gained from all of his machinations was Walter (and Astrid, in rare action girl mode!) being delivered into his hands. This I am certain was his intention all along, and ultimately what he needs is Walter’s brilliant mind to assist him with whatever his next move is.

My guess is that those good old Cortexiphan trials they began so long ago are reaching new developments. Olivia herself is rapidly discovering new powers. Not sure how useful she will find the capacity to physically control other people, though it did make me think that perhaps she will one day force Walter and Peter and the rest to encase themselves in amber at the crucial moment. . .

Back to Belly, though. Nina’s assertion that she saw him dead certainly carried no weight, not just with Walter’s statement that he had seen him when he was in the mental hospital days after he was deceased but, of course, with the fact that he showed up alive and well during the episode! Curiously, however, Walter made a few remarks that point towards this William not being the same man he knew due to the atrocities he was committing. I’m not sure where Fringe is leading with that angle but I like to think it’s pertinent, that William either underwent some drastic change or he’s not really the William Bell of old at all (for whatever far-flung reason!). Visiting Walter in hospital certainly suggests he was saying goodbye in some fashion, though where he was leaving to is a mystery.

For now I’ll stick with the idea that he’s had a radical ideological and moral shift to serve the purpose of some perceived higher goal rather than his body being taken over by some other nefarious entity.

Despite the discussion the episode generated out of this post my impression of the episode was not a favourable one. I think I may have muttered a remark to myself about how it had been something of a mess when I was confronted by the closing credits. It lacked focus and momentum. Possibly that’s because it’s feeding into the finale and so is all about set-up, but because there’s such a veil over what exactly is being set-up I don’t feel any kind of anticipating excitement about what the next episode may hold.

I’m hoping it’s all set to blow me away with a whopping surprise. Fringe finales have all been pretty special over the course of the years but I don’t recall ever going into onto with the sense of shoulder shrugging, nonplussed feelings this precursor has filled me with. Like I said, I’m hoping it’s just going to blow me away.

What was the best part?

Despite it ultimately not making much sense of having any great purpose, the moment the sunbeam was blazed into the night was a thrilling moment. Olivia and Peter stared out of their window at the source of this brightness, and then Broyles was caught agape looking at what was in front of him. Before it was revealed I wondered if there was some kind of alien invasion event occurring (which would have been nicely foreshadowed in that throwaway remark Walter made to the ginger one out of Lost, enquiring if she was extra-terrestrial!).

For some dizzying moments I thought Fringe had just started out like a run-of-the-mill episode purely to deliver this leftfield, knockout surprise of an alien invasion raining from the skies! In all likelihood that would have been stupid for the show, but for those few moments it was actually a rather exhilarating notion.

What do I think will happen next?

As with previous mysteries lately, it's all about what a certain man intends to do next. It used to be the question of what Mr. Jones was up to, and now it's about what William Bell is up to (although presumably Mr. Jones has always been working for William). I interpreted the episode as William drawing Walter to him and getting rid of Mr. Jones, but quite what he intends beyond that I don't know.

I'm hazarding a guess that William isn't planning on the impending arrival of The Observers at this moment and is certainly not in league with them - that's something that's going to take the whole world by surprise. So I can only figure that William wants Walter with him to complete the Cortexiphan experiments they began together, now potentially coalescing in some form of good result with Olivia's recent power developments. Walter will resist it, for sure, but we saw in the 'future episode' that Walter will be very angry with what William ultimately did to Olivia. However, before such unpleasantness, Peter and Olivia have to have little Henrietta so whatever does happen to Olivia can't happen in the very near future.

Unless one of her new powers is to have an immaculate conception with an accelerated pregnancy period. And considering Fringe has once before had Olivia go through an accelerated pregnancy it's not too wild to figure the immaculate conception part isn't completely off the cards!