Part of the fascination of Fringe over the past four years has been seeing Walter Bishop atone for his many sins , part by grappling with their lasting consequences . A circle of the unfit stuff the Fringe Division had to cope with was due , one means or another , to Walter ’s mistakes . So it ’s really enthralling , once and for all , to see a globe where Walter is unambiguously a Jesus Christ and champion . Spoilers in advance …
Of of course , you could gyrate it that the Observer - dominated world of 2036 is fearsome and dystopian because Walter and the Fringe gang fail to pull through the world back in 2015 , when the Observers mounted their takeover . Peter and Olivia do bring up that idea at one level during last night ’s season untier . But the fact remains — this is one Earth - spattering mess hall you ca n’t fault on Walter Bishop , and his only use in all this is to taste and fix it .
John Noble reasonably much carry last dark ’s episode , even more than he ordinarily does on Fringe . He has most of the great production line , but also he ’s the one who really has to stand up to the sadistic Observer , Windmark . We get to see him rise angry and frustrated about his impossible situation , and we also see plentifulness of his whimsical side ( particularly when he explains to the older Edward Markham that he try out write skill fiction — once . ) And then there ’s that awing fit at the remnant of the episode when he listen toYazoo ’s “ Only You,”stares at a lonesome flower , and contemplates just how dire everything has gotten .
As excited as I am about a 13 - installment time of year place in a dystopian future where bald , repressed sadist from the future oppress the human race , I ’m even more excited for a whole plot line where Walter Bishop is a freedom fighter , who ( presumptively ) triumphs over impossible odds .
We first glimpsed the Observer - dominated future in last year ’s “ Letters of Transit , ” where Walter Bishop seemed to be run rings around the Observers ( at least , once his brain was desexualise ) , shove along up a whole building with an antimatter twist and abstract out through secret threshold . Not surprisingly , he ’s not sustain quite such an easy go of it this time around .
In “ Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11 , ” it ’s shortly after “ Letters of Transit , ” and the three generations of bishop ( plus Astrid ) are searching for Olivia . It turn out that Olivia run to get a equipment to defragment the surreptitious plans to defeat the Observers that were scrambled inside Walter ’s psyche — but she almost got entrance , so she ambered herself . ( Shortly before Walter and the others follow suit . ) Now , Olivia ’s gone missing , and it bend out she ’s been taken by “ amber gypsy , ” who in bout betray her to Edward Markham , the erstwhile bookseller who ’s in beloved with her . In the course of rescuing her , Walter gets bewitch by the Observers — and Windmark probes Walter ’s mind , wiping out the hidden cognition of how to stop the Observers . So now our heroes are back to square one , only it ’s 20 years afterwards .
This episode did a pretty snappy job of increase the already - high stake . Not only has Walter lose the programme to build an anti - Observer twist ( which the friendly Observer , September , had put in his mind ) , but also we get it on more about the Observers ’ plan . Not content with dominate the creation , they ’re also altering the planet ’s atm to make it more like the polluted , ugly future tense they come from — and within a few years , the lifespan of regular humans will be down to around 45 age . Oh , and Walter ’s granddaughter Etta has been found out as a member of the Resistance , so she ca n’t use her Fringe Division membership to help oneself the good guy any more .
Oh , and it ’s tasteful that the sequence begins and ends with a dandelion — at the scratch , Young Etta is picking dandelions and mess up their spores by , and at the remainder , a despondent Walter is staring at a blowball in the wreckage .
Great Walter Bishop moments in this episode ( besides the aforementioned “ scientific discipline fable ” transmission line , and the final bloom scene ):
“ I ’m aware of not wearing trouser , Peter . I ’m not an idiot . ” Plus all his sniping at Peter for forsake Olivia and him .
Trying to use medicine to fight against Windmark ’s psychic query . I do it a good “ fighting the mind investigation ” scene , and this was an especially good one , bally face and all .
His adorable raw moment with Etta , where he tells her she ’ll always be a slight girl to him . And then he ca n’t help run across her as she was , during the interrogatory .
Calling Astrid “ Afro ” after having been brain - drilled by Windmark , and asking her if she has any music .
His freakout / nuclear meltdown when he ca n’t remember the seekrit plan , and he start up yelling that he ’s failed everyone — until Olivia comforts him and calms him down .
Walter ’s brain must be swiss cheese by now , after having had bits edit out of it by William Bell , and then suffering brain damage from being ambered , which was partially reversed by take his missing brain bits reinserted , and ultimately getting psychically nose by Windmark . It ’s a miracle Walter do it which elbow room is up .
The bit where the Johnny are attempt to decide whether to send all their resource to rescuing Walter reminded me powerfully of a standardised scene in the Doctor Who episode “ Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of the Daleks ” , instalment three , where the anti - Dalek Rebel finally decide to take chances everything to relieve the Doctor , because he ’s the one humans who can save the twenty-four hour period . Which just work me back to think that Walter Bishop is going to be at his most Doctor - ish , fight back off an invasion .
Also neat this time around : Astrid , who gets to be the stand - in for the ordinary looker , grapple with all the futureshock of come in a world where everybody eats those disgusting “ eggsticks ” and nobody remembers what Naugahyde was . ( The horror ! )
surely , there was stack of silly poppycock in this instalment that seemed to be just thrown in to keep the plot wheels spin — like the “ amber gypsies . ” ( Actually , they prefer to be called “ amber Romani , ” give thanks you very much . ) With all the other hooey the Observers crack down on , why do they countenance people to go around carve out ambered people as token — and why are there enough people in gold to make it deserving anybody ’s while ? ( Did someone deal - produce ambering devices at some level ? What for ? ) It feel like a silly contrivance that we ’ll never discover about again . Likewise , Edward Markham ’s sudden destine love for Olivia feels ever so slightly random .
Also , the latest Peter - Olivia relationship crisis feel pointless , especially since we just got told about it in a fairly “ as you know Bob ” conversation . In a nutshell , when the Observers invaded , Peter and Olivia lost their daughter Etta . Peter could n’t face losing his girl and wanted to keep search for her , while Olivia want to go to New York and press the Observers with Walter . And they could n’t really be there for each other , because they were both so wrecked by the invasion from the time to come as well as their missing girl . So they separate path , although Peter seemingly got back together with Walter in time to get ambered with him . At this point , enough hurdle have been put in the way of Peter and Olivia ’s relationship to make it an Olympian outcome , and being told in shorthand about yet another human relationship blow feel slightly inconsequent .
Although it is very odoriferous getting to see Olivia meet her daughter as a grown - up for the first time , and hear Peter talk about how much it means to him to see Etta is out there fighting for everybody , after he let her down .
But back to praising all the things this sequence did right — I really loved the look of the dystopian future . It was a really open question as to whether this show was going to be able to keep creating the oppressive visuals of “ Letters of Transit ” week after calendar week , on what is by now plausibly a shoestring budget . But the desolation and Orwellian signage seem just as severe and ugly as they did last time , and there were a few scene where I wanted to break the episode to look up to a dreadful vista — except that I also wanted to keep watching , to see what happens next .
It ’s a good thing that the hero confront such a vast setback this episode , because a huge part of watching Walter Bishop match his wits against the almost - Talosians will be seeing him improvise and schema with his back against the bulwark — determine Walter carry out a surefire plan , with no screwup , would n’t be intimately as much fun . As it is , we get to see Walter in a light we ’ve never run into him in before : not just searching for redemption , but fighting to save everybody . Ca n’t waitress to see how it ferment out .
GIFs viaGCatherineV on Tumblr .
J.J. AbramsJohn NobleTelevision
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