The Walking Dead: S03 Ep10 – Home

What happened?

Whilst Rick is left alone to chase visions of Lori, Glenn takes on the mantle of leader, deciding to try and fortify the prison in anticipation of an attack from The Governor. The attack comes much sooner, with The Governor sniping rifle shots and releasing walkers into the prison grounds. Rick awakens from his insanity to fight back but it’s only Daryl and Merle arriving that prevents the situation turning far worse.

Thoughts

It’s been a long while since a TV show made me punch the air (Battlestar Galactica was probably the last time that happened) but The Walking Dead provoked such a response in this episode. I speak of the moment when Daryl returned to camp just when Rick was in the tightest of spots with the walkers. Those zipping crossbow arrows hitting their mark – he was back! Yes!

Alas, he had to bring Merle along with him. At least Merle was making a bid to prove himself a team player by helping Rick out. Not sure that will ever be enough to win over the group (Glenn and Maggie are just not going to be accept him, surely) but maybe they can offer some piece of the prison where Daryl, and Merle especially, keep to themselves. That’s if the group decides to stay at the prison at all after the latest incursion.

Rick’s group have never looked weaker. With Rick off walking in the woods chasing Lori (surprised to see Sarah Wayne Callies return for a cameo – maybe we’ll see more of her, which doesn’t exactly bode well for Rick’s road to recovery!) and the new people having been chased away after his outburst, their numbers are dwindling. Glenn made the remark about how there wasn’t anyone watching the fences for walkers; a comment that, subtly, was seeding the plot surprise of The Governor appearing with his sniper rifle.

It definitely took me by surprise when the new guy (although he’s not that new but, in all these past few episodes, I’ve never caught his name) got shot down in front of Carol. The episode played it beautifully in having him begin what looked to be the foundations of a friendship, possibly more, between he and Carol only for that to get snuffed out in an instant. The final indignity was in having Carol use his body as a shield against the hails of bullets before she could get out of there.

It seemed strange that The Governor left when he did, actually. After the ‘zombie van bomb’ got rolled into the prison compound and walkers were released he, to me, seemed to decide he had done enough and left. Had he stayed he would have then had a free hand to shoot at Rick’s group like fish in a barrel whilst they either tried to stay in cover and fend off the walkers or came out in the open to deal with the threat directly. I’m glad he didn’t, of course, but in terms of having the upper hand The Governor definitely yielded the opportunity to decimate his enemy.

Maybe (and I don’t really believe this) The Governor was simply seeking to address the attack Rick made on his group. An eye for an eye mentality. Rick showed up and shot at innocent people unannounced in Woodbury, and so The Governor has done the same at the prison. As I say, I don’t really believe that. Maybe he just thought the walkers being released would be enough to finish them off and see to it that any survivors scarpered before he came back. Maybe he just wanted to conserve ammo.

As for what happens next, well, Rick’s group are definitely between a rock and a hard place. Rick is evidently not just going to snap out of his mental wonderland and become the leader he once was – something far more drastic has to happen before that. He needs to forgive himself, to be able to relieve himself of the burden of guilt over Lori, Shane and all the rest of the flock he has lost. Luckily Daryl has returned, and Michonne seems to be making herself a useful addition to the group. And like him or love to hate him, there’s no question Merle is good in a fight. It’s just tricky to ever trust who he is fighting for. . .

I do love to hate Merle, he is an eminently reprehensible human being and I can only trust that The Walking Dead won’t go soft and try and clip his wings and allow him to undergo a character change that sees him get along with the group. He can just about play nice with others if it suits his situation, but it’s only ever a temporary reprieve.

The option to hit the road again just isn’t readily available. Rick’s half mad and his baby daughter needs better security – out there in the world she could cry and alert walkers wherever they are. Without a definite place to go then they have to make do with where they are. A genuine truce would be the best result all round, but the trouble is The Governor’s word isn’t worth a great deal.

The Governor’s speech to Andrea about letting her take charge for a while painted him as a cowering animal, licking his wounds. Again, this was all nice work from the writers springing the trap for the surprise of him going into sniper rifle murdering mode later on. Andrea, I suspect, certainly is keen on getting back in touch with her old gang. I imagine The Governor won’t be telling her about his little jaunt to the prison but there’s every chance she’ll work it out for herself since she knows he went missing. Given the level of treachery and deceit he’s shown her so far even she won’t be stupid enough to take him at face value again, right?

I certainly enjoyed this episode for its fist-punching return of Daryl to the fray, though overall the show does feel very much like it’s sagging in a mid-section, working itself out (which, in terms of the season, is precisely where it’s at!). A bit like Rick left wandering in the woods, there’s a sense of things going wrong and a dire need for resolution of sorts (or the prospect of one) to present itself. I suppose the situation with the warring factions of Prison and Woodbury is now geared up and in play and this may inform the next few episodes but I’m not sure how much more of it the show can crank up before it becomes untenable. I also feel like it needs something to freshen things up. Characters are dying left, right and centre which, at least, is thinning out the core cast – something that always provides better focus. I suspect the show may have an episode or two of this similar friction before it starts honing in on the endgame for this season and gives us an indication about where it goes next.

What was the best part?

Up until the end, the scene where Daryl and a reluctant Merle stepped in to help the people on the bridge was the standout. I particularly enjoyed the walker getting its head mashed in by the boot (or, for Americans, trunk) lid of the car. And Merle’s initial reluctance turning to mercenary robbery betrayed him for the man he truly is. However, all of that brilliance was upstaged by the final scene which, with the surprise sniper bullet of The Governor, raised the stakes for our heroes and culminated in the awfully cool van bomb of zombies ploughing through the prison gates. Harrowing moments but ace entertainment.

What do I think will happen next?

The prison gang are going to have to seriously revise their plans for survival. If they do intend to stay there then they are going to have to up their security and, potentially, make plans to thwart their enemy more offensively. There’s the chance that Daryl and Merle may be sent out on a mission against their enemy, as a means of Merle proving himself and also keeping him out of their way.

I don’t foresee Rick snapping out of it his mental unrest all of a sudden – there’s unresolved business there with phantom Lori that will surely have some big scenes to trawl through. I don’t see him staying permanently out of it for more than a few episodes and I wouldn’t be surprised if a soul-searching encounter with ‘head Lori’ occurs in the very next episode to put Rick back on track.

At Woodbury I predict that Andrea will tackle The Governor about where he has been and what he has done and, if he confesses honestly, she may decide to try and broker a truce for herself to stop further bloodshed. She’s just about the only person that either side could possibly trust enough but, even if a truce is formed, it will be a distinctly uneasy one.

The Walking Dead: S03 Ep09 – The Suicide King

What happened?

Rick managed to rescue Daryl, with Merle, but when he refused to let Merle join their group then Daryl left with his brother. Rick returns to the prison to address the matter of the new arrivals but a vision of his dead wife sees him react in such a manner that they hurriedly leave. Meanwhile in Woodbury The Governor is bent on going to war with Rick’s group leaving Andrea to placate the townsfolk when they want to leave.

Thoughts

Curiously, I (as usual) enjoyed this episode. It seemed laced with tension and delivered suitable dramatic impacts and yet, now I come to writing this, I find myself surprised by just how little happened. Basically: Daryl went off with Merle and Rick went a bit mad and frightened off potential newcomers, whilst Andrea secured her position as queen of Woodbury. So how come an episode were not a lot happened still managed to effectively keep me gripped?

The answer, I think, is in the suspense of what events here could mean for the future. Basically (and ain’t it always the way) Rick and his group look to be in an ever-weakening situation and this episode was all about exacerbating that. The only moment of superiority was in the first five minutes when Rick and Maggie showed up to shoot and smoke bomb the baying crowd. It felt like a bit of an easy resolve to the season break cliffhanger, although maybe Merle’s plan of shoving the walkers against their aggressors to create panic and confusion might have seen them scrape out of it. Probably not, mind.

The Governor kept a cool head and remained a menacing presence even after Merle and Daryl escaped and left several of his people dead. Strange that afterwards he basically retreated and kept himself locked away (save to come out and shoot a dying man). It was hard to get a fix on where he was at, mentally. He told Andrea that they were now at war and the suggestion seems to be that he’s not about to change. However, he was initially prepared to let his town go to ruin and all the people with it and only Andrea – the burgeoning queen of his kingdom – held the townsfolk together. Has he softened now? Seeing Andrea take control. . . Will that quieten down his thirst for vengeance?

I doubt it. Though it might slow him down or make him review his strategy of attack.

As for Andrea she continues to confound me. She perseveres with The Governor and the town despite having seen the wall of heads, and the people cheering on two men beating each other to death, and been informed that her former friends had been held prisoner and she had been kept in the dark about it. Admittedly she’s in a tight spot in terms of abandoning the town and going it alone but, still, it’s hard to grasp why she would be so quickly willing to maintain the relationship with The Governor. It’ll be interesting to see what take she has on any proposals for Rick’s group. I expect she would want to reach out to them and try and broker a truce – and I would anticipate The Governor may allow that to happen with a steely-eyed plan of reneging on the deal and taking the prison for himself first chance he got.

In the meantime at the prison Rick’s group is looking weak. It was a wrench to see Daryl go with Merle, but understandable. He is his brother, no matter what, and a figure that has a grip on his psyche (I recall when Daryl fell into a daze he hallucinated Merle’s return). For Rick, allowing Daryl to leave really was his only option. After what Merle had done to Maggie and Glenn, not to mention his total obnoxiousness when they were in the woods, there was no way he could have been allowed to join Rick’s group. Let’s just hope we get to follow where Daryl and Merle go to next. I’d like to think that Daryl will still want to watch over the likes of Carol and “little asskicker” but how he manages that whilst keeping Merle at bay is a difficult proposition.

Michonne is also a character that Rick has decided is not welcome among his flock (whether or not,  once she gets healthy, she would even be interested in staying is an intriguing question, too). Again, like Daryl, she is perhaps one of the most capable warriors of the tribe so her being sidelined makes a huge impact in their effectiveness should The Governor and his men come calling. I suspect, however, she will earn herself a place before she is kicked out. By the end of the episode there was serious reason for the likes of Hershal to question complete devotion to Rick’s commands.

The final scene was a truly wrenching moment. Just when you thought Hershal had done enough to whisper wisdom into Rick’s ear and let the new people stay he then went and had a mental flip and saw Lori watching over him. It wasn’t clear if this new group had scarpered on a permanent basis – but I’d like to hope that the next episode will see Hershal tell them not to go and that there clearly was a problem with Rick at the moment. Admittedly two of the four people – the two white guys who were itching to stage a coup – look like a pair of liabilities but perhaps they can prove themselves honourable allies if treated better.

Again, the point is if the four new people are thoroughly turfed out then it leaves Rick’s dwindling band in a vulnerable position against The Governor’s inevitable advances.

What to do with Rick? Well, it’s good that his mental crack-up with the radio hasn’t just come and gone. Not good as in a good thing, good as in good consistency in the show. I remarked at the time that it was a real stretch for us to believe Rick could start hallucinating voices in his head and then suddenly be cured the moment he realised the voices weren’t real (or did he even realise that?). Then in the previous episode he had a vision of Shane during the gunfight which suggested his mental problems weren’t behind him. And now we see that potential made explicit. Rick is not out of the woods of insanity just yet – the question is how far mad will he go and what will the cost of that be?

What was the best part?

The last scene was the clincher. I particularly liked how it appeared Hershal had done just enough to sway Rick’s opinion towards giving these people a chance. He started walking towards them and it was played as though he was about to relent, and then phantom Lori appeared on the balcony and Rick went and lost it. The scene just hung around that little bit too long, eking out the discomfort for all that were watching (characters and television audience alike). It went blundering past awkward and right into disaster in the space of a minute.

What do I think will happen next?

As stated, I think The Governor may seek to use Andrea as a go-between to his group and Rick’s group, but only as a Trojan horse style line of attack. Otherwise I anticipate he’ll naturally launch a more direct assault but, when I consider how he took down those army guys, subterfuge and trickery seem more his style. Meanwhile the big issue of Rick’s sanity may cause the rest of the group to realise they’re going to have to insist he rest and allow them to take over for a while.

Outside bet about Merle and Daryl: Merle will eventually try and force Daryl to do things he doesn’t want to do (perhaps against his own group) that will cause him to turn on his brother and one of them won’t survive. Hopefully Daryl will emerge from such a fallout alive!

Fringe: S05 Ep11 – The Boy Must Live

What happened?

The Fringe team track down September to his home, where he lives as a regular person as a punishment for what he did against his own people. However, he reveals that he is technically Michael’s father, and had taken him from the future because he represented a hybrid of emotion and intellect that, if taken to the future, could avert the course of time so that The Observers never come into being. This is the plan he and Walter conceived, and all looks set to be in motion only for Windmark to arrive and capture Michael.

Thoughts

See, the problem I have often had with Fringe is that I don’t follow the show closely enough, as in reading online and so forth, to remember and recall all the minutiae and details. And the nagging feeling I am left with now, at the point of the show’s finale, are that things I expected to get resolved may not even need resolving at all. The First People business is one such thing that, I feel, was definitely something that got left hanging and I figured that if Fringe was going to really complete itself then that was something that needed to be addressed.

Now I fear that this may never happen at all – and that intriguing quandary of why Olivia’s face featured in an image taken from an ancient, dissolved civilisation has been made somehow redundant. (Or maybe it won’t? Or maybe the matter was resolved and I just haven’t realised it? This is my problem!) So I’ll park that idea for now and try to continue this piece as though that wasn’t something I had ever heard about – God knows that looks like what Fringe is doing!

This episode was a curiously sedate affair and, actually, for one that was a lynchpin reveal of massive meaning and one that paved the way for the finale, it felt very underwhelming. I think it was September (now Donald, a name I can’t quite get used to even if he was named after an actor from Singin’ In The Rain) and his subdued manner that bled into the vibe. His mellow, easygoing nature undercut the impact of what he had to impart. And he had some big bombshells to impart.

He was from far into the future, and during that time his DNA was used to generate Michael who was considered an anomaly. Realising his son had emotional development against the nature of The Observers, a quality that could ultimately be used to change the passage of time entirely, he stole Michael away into the past to keep him safe. Now the time has come for him to be used to stop The Observers. . .

Right. Hold up. Hands up who can’t see the obviously plot hole? Namely: Why did September transport Michael back so far into the past when he could have just taken him directly to these people who would realise that removing emotions from humans for superior intelligence was not the correct course of action? If September had done that then The Observers would never have existed, right?

OK, so maybe there we have our answer in a paradox. If September took Michael to meet the scientists then that would change their minds and the course of time and mean The Observers would never come into being and, thus, there would be no September or Michael. Ah, right, so if there’s no Observers there’s no September or Michael to then stop them from existing. Space-time continuum meltdown. It’s the classic grandfather paradox that anyone who has a passing interest in time travel theories will have encountered. Fringe does have the option of alternate universes to resolve such matters, but there’s been no hint of that this season.

The paradox issue hasn’t gone away, either. Even if Walter’s plan is successful and Michael manages to change the course of the future it will mean The Observers never come into being and, ultimately, that Michael could never have existed and the same paradox will present itself. So how will that work? How can that work?

Maybe it won’t. Maybe the plan will fail. That would certainly avoid a paradox, though of course leave our gang with a big Observer-shaped problem to try and resolve. . . But I don’t imagine that the finale is going to go smoothly so such failures are to be expected.

However, there’s another matter in play here, mentioned in this episode, which suggests Walter and September’s plan will work: Olivia, Peter and Etta. I really liked the moment where Olivia took herself out of the room and took a glass of water as she absorbed the hopeful wisp of chance that this plan would change the course of time and bring Etta back. In this idea we have a happy ending for the entire show and it’s one that I simply cannot imagine not occurring. Hear me loud and clear: Olivia, Peter and Etta reunited has to be the end of the show. Only, if it is, and that means some kind of timeline reset occurs, then I have to wonder if it can possibly be the same Olivia and Peter we are seeing here.

It’s a bit like when Peter stepped into the machine and crunched the timelines, erasing himself and creating this new timeline. For that at least he had Olivia to bring him back, and furthermore he then brought back the ‘old’ Olivia. Maybe they could pull the same trick again? Re-write history, shift the universe around them and the two together still retain their consciousness – perhaps getting to enjoy the sunny day in the park without The Observers arriving. (Indeed, that’s the scene which is my best bet for the last scene.)

That’s a lot of projection, but this episode was a bit of a data dump that was all about setting up the final hour and a half of the show that remains so, you know, it’s to be expected.

I do have an axe to grind about how Walter’s character was handled this episode. The phantom menace of his alter-ego threatening to rise like a maniacal demon that has been brewing for the past couple of episodes was abruptly cut dead here. A bright and breezy Walter had emerged following Michael’s touch.

To be fair the episode did a good job in explaining why Walter had changed, and it was a convincing one. This was a man that had been loaded up with memories from a different universe, refreshed with momentous moments and powerful emotions from his and his alternate’s histories. He felt like a new man because, in effect, he had been imbued with the memories of another, better life. Furthermore he had also been given the knowledge that for his plan to succeed he had to die, and so he was also a man facing the final days of his life. So don’t get me wrong, I understand why he has changed and, for the record, I think it’s a terrific accumulated union of the various Walters we have seen finally reaching a form of reconciliation.

As September remarked, Walter himself had agreed to the plan because he considered it a just and righteous thing to compensate for the misdeeds of his past. And, in truth, it had occurred to me that Walter’s conclusion before the show ended would almost certainly mean his death. For all of his positives and lovable quirks he was responsible for breaking through into another universe and all the death and destruction that has happened since. There has never been any getting away from that, not to mention the terrible deeds he wreaked on the Cortexiphan kids. Yes, Walter is a hero and has found nobility, but I do anticipate his death will have to occur to give his character closure.

What’s my problem with Walter’s sudden change then? Basically because it feels like the previous episodes’ build-up was a misfiring anti-climax. The spectre of Walter’s dark side threatening to capsize everything was actually a terrific plot in waiting and would have made for a terrifying finale. Consider how intimidating Walternate was. The intellect mixed with a lack of compassion is far more fearsome than Windmark can ever hope to be. But this has now, apparently, been dropped like a hot brick.

Windmark has become interesting, however. Fuelled by revenge he can’t even articulate and disobeying his superiors, he reminded me of Agent Smith in The Matrix (not for the first time has Fringe made me think of that movie), unplugging himself from the system. I don’t know if Windmark’s thirst to stop the Fringe Team is headed in a clever direction or if it’s just creating a focussed villain for our heroes to contend against. It seems late in the day for Windmark to, ironically, discover human emotions that allies him to the very people he hunts in a meaningful way. But you never know. There’s still a little bit of time for twists and turns yet and I like that the show is doing something interesting with him.

Coming into the finale I am excited about it, purely because it is the finale of a show that I have been watching for years and so to see it all come to a conclusion is an exciting prospect. Strangely (and probably unfairly, actually) I am not excited in the sense that I have high expectations I am certain will be blown away. Fringe has been in great form and yet, for whatever reason, I can’t help but feel that the resolution will pretty much go with a bittersweet happy ending (Walter dead, Olivia, Peter and Etta together) and with some convoluted plotting through time and maybe realities to see that happen.

But I’ll tell you this: If they do manage to drag that First People stuff back and make it matter then Fringe will have me clapping and nodding and maybe, just maybe, make me revise and review the whole show with a whole new level of respect.

What was the best part?

Whilst the final scenes were enjoyably tense as everyone tried to slip through the Observers’ net and get onto the train, surely the best scene was when Walter spoke with September/Donald alone and there came the flatly-delivered reveal that Walter knew he had to die. The little speech about how it was that Michael had shown Walter those amazing moments in his life as if to prepare him to commit to such a deed was beautifully played by John Noble. Whilst I thought the sudden squandering of the menace of evil Walter was too conveniently sidestepped this bittersweet moment went a long way to compensating for it.

What do I think will happen next?

Barring the far-flung idea of the First People concept being reintroduced then all I can conceive for the finale is that, as Olivia hopes, a reset button of sorts gets hit and a new timeline is generated – one where Olivia, Peter and Etta all live. (How that happens without erasing the characters we know and replacing them I can’t imagine. Maybe it won’t. Maybe the show will erase the timeline and a new, happier timeline will be installed where the likes of Peter and Olivia never did any of the things we saw them do. . . Not sure I’d like that, but it wouldn’t exactly be a unique concept for the show considering it’s done it before!)

Here’s some things I do expect. I expect to see Broyles again. I expect to see William Bell. I expect at least one or two of our heroes to venture into the future, after rescuing Michael, and trying to show that world the folly in abandoning emotions in pursuit of intellectual superiority. And I expect, as stated, a timeline reset switch to be hit. (And maybe the only way Olivia and Peter can avoid erasure is by going way back into the past and becoming the First People!? I just can’t let it go!) Lastly, whilst I can anticipate that Walter may very well pay the ultimate sacrifice, Olivia, Peter and Etta will be reunited and live together again. That’s the happy ending. It absolutely has to occur. . . right?

Fringe: S05 Ep10 – XB-6783746

 What happened?

The Fringe Team turn to Nina for help in communicating with the Observer Boy, Michael, since he seems unresponsive. Windmark finds out Nina is helping the resistance and is with Michael, but she manages to hide him away before facing Windmark, ultimately taking her own life before he can interrogate her. The Fringe team discover what has happened and find Michael, also making the discovery that the mysterious Donald is September!

Thoughts

So Nina is the first big longstanding character casualty before the curtain closes on Fringe. She’s moved from being a villainous presence in Season One to a more motherly ally throughout her various incarnations, and this episode made sure her last scene was a fitting and dignified send off – and, of course, came complete with an unresolved mystery. Outside of that major event, and the reveal at the end, this was something of a slender episode. Not much happened outside of the orchestrations of getting Nina alone to face her fate and having the surprise that Donald was actually September.

I can take a modicum of self-satisfied credit in having predicted this would occur after seeing the previous episode. Sometimes my thoughts about what will happen next do turn out right!

So Donald turning out to be September means we can certainly expect to see him appear, perhaps in the next episode. Why does he now have hair? It could have been a wig, of course, but I am leaning towards the idea that he has managed to rid himself of his neck-tech and become more human – somehow reversing the changes in his brain. Quite how he has managed to be around at all is, of course, a matter of mystery since he was effectively killed off by a bullet and then disappeared from the operating table. I’m sure Fringe has a good explanation for that but it’s not something I am going to bother trying to fathom out beforehand! I’ll just wait and see.

I anticipate that further communication with Michael, using that strange mind-reading contraption, will lead the gang to September. I did think the contraption was a bit of technology overkill. Michael seemed able to communicate with Olivia in the previous episode, nodding when she asked if he knew her. So having to have this mind-reading piece of kit seemed overtly unnecessary. I suspect it was more a product of plot necessity; a reason to get the Fringe gang out of the lab so leaving Nina alone to face Windmark.

Before Nina killed herself she was treated to a moment of revelation from Michael when he touched her and she apparently experienced or witnessed something amazing (and, unless I grossly misinterpreted, something very good). I wonder if it wasn’t a glimpse into many alternate worlds, versions of herself in all of these different universes. Or perhaps it was just a vision of the future that was taking shape. . . I fully expect that Michael will pull the same trick with one of our main characters and we will actually get to see for ourselves what he shows them, so it ought to be something that translates.

I’ll be over the moon if it’s a leftfield, game-changing shift – but I’d rather not set my expectations too high for the finale. A satisfactory conclusion will suffice – anything more seems improbable (when you consider how much is left to do to reach a satisfactory conclusion!).

As stated there wasn’t much else occurring during this episode outside of those two major revelations aside from the slow crank of cantankerous Walter slowly dripping away his compassion that we all ought to keep out eye on. But I can’t complain when an episode can kill of a major character and find time to drop a whopper of a reveal just before the closing credits. There still feels like a lot to do before the end but, strangely, I am assured by the measured pacing of events in this episode that things are in good order.

What was the best part?

Nina’s final scene was a fine farewell to this stalwart of the show. She was defiant to the end, and whilst suicide could be considered a cowardly act it was actually a moment of heroism. If Nina hadn’t taken her own life then Windmark would have done so, but not before he had interrogated and broken her mind to find out where Michael was and who knows what else. Indeed, Windmark may have discovered what it was that Michael showed to Nina when he touched her, and that was certainly something he had no business knowing about! So Nina turning the gun on herself was a noble act that gives our Fringe team the grace to continue the fight.

What do I think will happen next?

I now expect Walter’s plan to really take shape so we can see what it is the gang are intending to accomplish to defeat the Observers. September may be the final piece of the puzzle, and I would expect that further mind-reading communications with Michael ought to get them there (or, perhaps, Walter has now remembered enough to be able to figure it out for himself). There’s still time travel wormholes in play, that could lead to a massive leap back in time and the creation of the First People. . .?

An outlandish theory: Walter’s grand plan involves generating a machine or device that is capable of harnessing the power of one of those wormholes and is used to cast the Observers way, way back into history. In effect they become the First People – an advanced civilisation that died out and were forgotten – leaving the future clear for humanity to continue without them. Now that’s what I call a far-reaching prediction! (And I actually rather like it!)

Fringe: S05 Ep09 – Black Blotter

What happened?

Walter took some LSD which prompted visitations from his past, with hallucinatory demons taunting him with the idea that his more egotistical self, the personality he tried to bury, is coming to the fore and taking control of his actions and eventually his psyche to become dominant. Meanwhile the team track down the radio signal to a house where the Observer boy is living and he is given over to their custody to continue the plan.

Thoughts

It’s hard to say that I’ve been a big fan of Fringe when it’s gone down it’s more fantastical route. I shudder to think of the Brown Betty singing episode, for example, which is better left forgotten. But then there have been other episodes that have fared better and, since they are something of a feature of the show then I can’t begrudge it giving Walter one last hurrah with his drugs. And, truth was, aside from the Monty Python-inspired animation sequence (the purpose of which I don’t particularly appreciate other than it seemed to inspire Walter to remember the password was “black umbrella”) the hallucinations were either startling imagery (I am thinking of the emerald castle on the island) or entertaining (the little fairies flitting about the place).

The moment where Walter tranced out and saw key moments of his life projected onto the walls were also the episode’s best moment; seeing the scenes again where he proclaimed to be a God in the laboratory, and the moment he went through the gateway on Lake Reiden and set in motion the events we have seen over the course of many seasons. It was a nice way of reviewing some of the big moments that have occurred in Fringe and a reminder of how we got to this point. I think it also served to generate the sense of monstrosity about the man Walter was and so earn that climactic end of his hallucinated doppelganger leering back at him.

I don’t fully believe that Walter will become that man, though if Fringe does want to go down the route of having Walter answer to his demon, and his crimes, and have him pay the ultimate price for it then it’s a plot idea that would be a brave and powerful move.  For now, however, I am more expectant that Walter may prove to be an obstacle to himself and the group that will have to be overcome if the plan is to succeed.

I am still none-the-wiser as to what that plan actually is, though they now have Observer boy in their custody to help with it!

Observer boy doesn’t say much, mind. I am not sure exactly what he is. It’s been established that the Observers are what they are due to the tech that’s in the back of their necks. Unless Observer boy also has this tech (which I am reasonably sure he doesn’t) then he does present something of a head scratch about what exactly he is. I am sure there’ll be some kind of unifying answer to that presented in due course - Fringe wouldn’t have brought him back if they didn’t have a good purpose for him, right?

Peter seems to be pretty much back to himself with only a bit of a headache as the side-effect of his radical Observification over the past few episodes. He rightly thanked Olivia for sticking by him, though that moment of reconciliation was really the only bit of character interplay the episode had time for. The episode shoehorned in a bit of action at the docks, with some guards showing up so our heroes could get their gunplay on, but whilst it was mildly entertaining it didn’t add much value. No, time was better spent indulging in Walter’s psyche and setting up him as a ticking timebomb that may just turn betrayer before the end. . .

There was a little bit more business concerning the identity of Don and the appearance (in skeletal form) of Sam Weiss. Both of these are interesting and I am kind of glad they didn’t just dip out and introduce Don as just some guy – I am still holding out hope that there is a good reason why he has been kept as something of an enigma so that when he is eventually introduced it will amaze us. My most recent idea has it that Don is September, but with his tech removed. I rather like the idea, and I will be surprised if Fringe gets to the very end without bringing September back into things at some point.

The business of Sam Weiss being reintroduced also makes me hold out hope that the grand ideas about the ‘first people’ that he was a big driver of over a season ago may yet be brought back into the thick of things. A couple of years have passed since those shows and those discussions so the true nature of what it was about is a little lost on me. As I remember it, the first people were an advanced civilisation that existed on Earth a long time before this civilisation – a people that lived and were lost. And the suggestion was that Olivia, Peter and Walter were a part of that civilisation. It was always a beguiling and complex concept Fringe seemed to be on the cusp of delving into and, in the last season, seemed to have ducked away from entirely. Maybe Sam Weiss’ skeleton is an indication that it’s making a comeback for the finale.

What was the best part?

I liked Walter’s hallucination of being in the car, having apparently gone off by himself and done the very thing he vowed he never would. As Observers approached the car things looked dire only for it to transpire it was a mental flight of fancy. However the better part was in the laboratory, with Walter remembering the things he had done projected onto the walls. Lovely bit of remembrance for Fringe fans, all set to dramatic music, and serving as a little refresher on gloriously strong moments in the show’s history as it looks set to head into the final stretch. The last few episodes are upon us. . .

What do I think will happen next?

Walter will have to wrestle with his alter-ego whilst he tries to put into motion the final touches to this mysterious grand plan of his. Observer boy is obviously going to have a big say in it, and I’ve still not seen a better idea than the ridiculous Magneto machine notion that I was discussing in the previous Fringe post. Really this feels like one of those moments where the show has put itself into a position where it can show its hand about where it intends to go next and, for me, that means I’m just strapping myself in for the ride ahead.

Fringe: S05 Ep08 - The Human Kind

What happened?

Whilst Peter has gone solo in his quest to kill Windmark, Olivia ventures out to continue Walter’s plan and procure a large magnet. She is captured but manages to escape her captors whilst they wait to turn her in for the bounty on her head. Peter’s plans to kill Windmark hit a snag when he is caught in a fight. Undeterred, he sets about putting Windmark back on the path that will lead to his death and it’s only Olivia seeking him out and pleading with him to remove the tech before he loses his humanity that wins out. Peter cuts the tech out of his head and Windmark survives.

Thoughts

I have to say that was rather more shortlived than I expected! Peter’s removal of the tech that could have been him change into more of an Observer happened far sooner than I would have predicted. Perhaps it’s purely because this final season is shorter than the others and, of course, since it is the final season then there’s an awful lot that needs to get resolved. It could be taken, however, that these past few episodes which have seen Peter change into the enemy only to abruptly stop after a few episodes have been a bit of a non-event.

I’d disagree. I think they have been very illuminating. Firstly, for the sake of dramatic television, they’ve been really entertaining and intriguing. In terms of action, the fight scenes have been totally cool (this episode, in particular, being really special). And watching Peter’s transformation has been a disturbing, captivating one. For that alone Fringe can be forgiven for taking this plot route.

Perhaps more importantly seeing what happened to Peter when he used the tech has allowed us to better understand what The Observers actually are, and I have found this most beneficial. To have it explained and shown about how it is they can predict future events, for example, has been great. Without the explanation The Observers could have been perceived as these all-knowing beings, with limitless capability. Having it shown that they can calculate the trajectory of events by knowing key events that have taken place is a lot more grounded. (Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s not particularly believable but in the context of the Fringe universe it’s acceptable.)

Their ability to teleport is a little more woolly, but it’s OK. We can appreciate that it’s another skill that comes along with the tech that Peter put into his head and quite what the limitations and boundaries of that are perhaps just depends on the individual. What has been most pertinent about Peter’s minor foray into becoming an Observer is in allowing us to comprehend what they are and where they came from. Previously I considered them to be a version of the human race from many centuries into the future, a version of us that had evolved into the bald, super-intelligent yet emotionally distant beings. Now I have learned that they are not particularly far removed from us at all and it’s fundamentally technology that has transformed and, curiously, enslaved them.

As has often been the case with Fringe it’s true love that trumps technology – specifically Olivia and Peter. When universes collapse and Peter steps into the breach to forge an entirely new one that erases him from existence, Olivia is there to sustain the love and bring him back. And here again, just as Peter is on the verge of losing himself forever, Olivia is there with nothing but love to bring him back. As she stated, the key difference between humans and The Observers is their capacity to feel. Far from being their Achilles heel it’s their greatest strength.

The matter of whether or not the Fringe team, in their battle against The Observers, are doing anything that can avert the future entirely is another matter. Can The Observers somehow be thwarted so that they never exist at all? And what does that mean for the space-time continuum if they do? Will Etta ever be able to come back or will she truly be memorialised as a figurehead of the resistance once humanity frees itself? I am expecting some form of happy resolution to all of this once the very last credits rolls, so I can’t help but wonder what shape that will take. I still feel unable to comprehend the idea that Peter and Olivia will have inherit a future without their daughter. . .

It was good to see Olivia being pushed back into the fray. She had become a little sidelined during the past couple of episodes but, as I expected, she didn’t crumple. She got on with the task of continuing the plan without Peter and, at the same time, keeping her busy mind whirring on how she was going to get him back. The actual mission to go and get the magnet from the people at the small farm commune felt like an odd foray. I am not quite sure what the significance of the woman who had some kind of spiritual gift was supposed to be about, but it did get me a little worried. Olivia listened to what she had to say, and took in the astonishing truth that the woman knew she had a bullet on her (and wouldn’t that come in useful later!), and then she hit the woman with her version of the truth: no matter how mystical and wondrous it may all seem, it basically just comes down to anomalies and numbers.

The woman wasn’t particularly perturbed by what she heard, and this made me wonder if Fringe was sowing the seeds for a more spiritual end to its science-heavy journey. That the solution to the future of mankind, which leads to The Observers and their tech, could be averted by a more new-age path.. . That idea worries me. It would feel like a cheap cop-out. I really liked Olivia’s clinical answer and her convictions that the world is full of many strange and inexplicable things that don’t need a spiritual rationale applied. Fringe has been blessedly free of such things, and to take that leftfield turn now wouldn’t sit right. Lost and Battlestar Galactica all saw out their finales in that manner, but the pair of them had those notions rooted in their core from their inception. Fringe hasn’t been made that way and I’ll take a lot of convincing if it tries to twist itself into that shape of things to come.

Now that Olivia has the big magnet it does make me wonder what on Earth Walter’s plan actually is. I must confess that I have rather lost track of what materials they have picked up over their scavenger hunts during these episodes, though I recall there is still the small Observer boy to be tracked down and surely he is a part of the plan. So we have a big magnet, which presumably will be fashioned as part of some large device, and the Observer boy potentially to be a key part of it. Call me crazy, but I can’t help thinking of X-Men and Professor X and his machine that allows him to telepathically connect to all mutants. I wonder if Walter might just build something like that, which would allow Observer boy to connect to all the other Observers. . .

OK, sure, you can call me crazy – that does sound pretty nuts.

What was the best part?

Peter’s scrap with Windmark was the highlight. I didn’t realise it at the time but this was surely Peter’s last bit of action with Observer powers, so at least they made it a good one. The choreography and coolness of teleporting and grappling and fighting were ingeniously put to use – good enough to have been a part of a blockbuster fight sequence for sure. Windmark wasn’t taken down easily, of course – he’s going to be around right up to the finale, no doubt about it. . .

What do I think will happen next?

OK, so barring the idea that Walter’s plan isn’t to build a big ‘Magneto machine’ for Observers, I would get myself back down to more basic next steps. With Peter back on the team Walter’s plan is their major course of advancement so I should hope the radio they found in the pocket universe will be put to use in tracking down the mysterious Donald and Observer boy. I suppose there ought to be a reason why Donald's identity has been kept secret, too – and potentially that truth could lead to something further. Right now I’ll hazard a guess that Donald is either from a different time or a different universe, and his existence is proof that there’s a way to get rid of The Observers without wrecking the space-time continuum.