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.
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