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!)
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