We Have To Talk About The Fringe Finale
OK, I lied. I said that I was going to stop watching Fringe, but I have not stopped watching Fringe. I have only stopped writing about it. Not that I don't wish every week that I was able to quit this show.
Gay.
So, in shame and in secret I have submitted myself to increasingly outlandish plots while the show itself seems to have given up completely on even making sense anymore. At least at the beginning they pretended like there was some kind of real-world basis for Walter's experiments, but by the second to last episode they were just ripping off Stephen King's Firestarter and admitting as much (one line of dialog was "Stephen King invented the term, but the phenomenon existed long before that." No, it didn't.) It wasn't even a matter of jumping the shark so much as using telekenisis in a sensory deprivation chamber to move the shark UNDER YOU. Huh? Exactly.
Now, admittedly, the finale aired on Tuesday, so excuse me if I'm blowing your mind a day later than usual, but we still need to talk about this. Even if you don't watch the show, I think we would all be better off holding hands and sharing this together. Like a family. The way Walter and Peter Bishop are a family. So not really a family so much as a couple of poorly matched comic foils with horribly written dialog. Perfect.
After you, son:
OK, so, just to set this up a little bit: one of the main plotlines of the final two episodes concerns the multiverse, which admittedly, in a slightly different form, is a real theory within the physics community. The theory goes that there are infinite universes out there in which there are an infinite number of "Earths" and each of those "Earths" represents every conceivable variation on our own reality. Fair enough. There is a really fascinating discussion about this with physicist Brian Greene if you're interested. It's great. Go listen to it. Meet you back here in an hour.
Welcome back. So, on Fringe there seems to be just one other universe? Where everything is slightly different? (A black telephone, for example, is red in Fringe's parallel universe. It is raining in Fringe's parallel universe while here it is not raining. It's basically wherever Gwyneth Paltrow's hair went in Sliding Doors.) And the finale deals a lot with people being able to TRAVEL between the two universes. You know what? Fine. At this point, Fringe, if anyone is still watching you, you have earned this much. Why stop willfully suspending my disbelief (of which there is so much) now?
But then we get to the last few minutes of the finale. Agent Dunham will finally get to meet William Bell, a mysterious figure on the show played by proud new driveway owner Leonard Nimoy (who supposedly lives in the parallel universe? Forget it, Jake, it's FringeTown). This clip is a little long, just to give you a feel for it. Because you've got to feel it. And by it, of course, I mean:
Wait for it...
Wait for it...
Yup. Best show on television, hands down. That's not insane and weird and tasteless at all. Just a regular, and completely necessary plot twist to cap off a great season.
I love how as she's driving over the bridge she looks at the New York skyline, just to remind the viewer that in this universe there is no World Trade Center. It's called foreshadowing, and it was used perfectly.
Seriously, though. You guys.
Somewhere in the multiverse this made me kill myself.
Posted by Gabe at 4:15 PM in Hate-Watching, Hate-Watching
Tags: Fringe | JJ Abrams
This is probably too soon, but I'm too baffled to know for sure.
Score = 1
i want to read this - but after the big comeback in April, I missed every episode. SERIOUSLY. no spoilers.
if a show is off the air for months, how are we supposed to remember to dvr it when it returns???
**goes to hulu to watch 5 hours of Fringe**
Score = 1
my name is paige and i love fringe. line up the firing squad, gabe. i'll never betray joshua jackson.
Score = 10
Hi Paige, thanks for joining us. Gabe totally missed the reveal that the Peter we've watched the entire season is, in fact, the Peter from the other world. As Walter's son from our world died from a childhood illness. Yes, Walter and his wife kidnapped the kid they have from themselves in a parallel universe. And this is perfectly fine.
Score = 7
I'm sure there's an evil "OTHER" WALTER, so you know- Walter Prime probably did Peterx2 a favor by kidnapping him from himself... or something like that
Score = 3
An one of the major plot points of next season is Walter2 crossing over to exact his revenge by taking Walter's cow?? Theory!
Score = 4
NICE!!
Score = 0
I wonder if the Joshua Jackson that died when he was a kid could act.
Score = 0
A Triple Deek to you!
Score = 1
Gabe, you're not thinking fourth dimensionally!
Score = 3
but this IS one of the best shows on TV. its pretty much the only thing on TV other than 30 Rock i look forward to every week!
Score = 2
Finally a universe where the terrotists didn't win...
ps: not soon enough
Score = 5
So offensive. JFK alive? FBI killed that fucker for a reason.
Score = 2
Best line: "What do you mean she's out of the country?"
Score = 5
I'm going to admit that I didn't realize those were the Twin Towers (still a legitimate boob name?) until I clicked the link. I thought the twist Gabe was talking about was going to be Obama assassinated. Since I had no personal connection to 9/11 and I don't watch this show it didn't hit me like it hit Gabe. I guess it's stupid or tasteless but I care so little It doesn't register to me.
Score = -19
I gave up on this show ever making sense four episodes in. I don't understand why it was so eagerly renewed for a second season, while we're still waiting around to hear the fate of Dollhouse, which is so much better.
Score = -5
You must be watching the Dollhouse from Fringe's other universe - where it actually was good instead of merely 'okay'.
Score = 18
Nothing with Eliza Dushku in a starring role, save the stellar Bring It On, will ever be anything but mediocre.
Score = 5
Gabe, your bravery and honesty has given me the strength to admit that, I too, have been secretly watching this show all along and also, WTF!!!
After actually sitting through that ending- I'm pretty sure I have a sickness and am in need of an intervention. So, will someone point me to the free coffee and substitute nicotine addiciton... I'm jumping on (off?) the Fringe Wagon!
Score = 3
Really? First Movieline and now you guys? People are making a big deal about this? Um, it's not like they went "Fuck those guys in the WTC". They used a powerful imagine to evoke how different a similar world could be. It's not like this was an ad for Rudy Guiliani. It's not like they showed it going down and clapped their hands. I just think it's a little silly to get worked up. I mean it was almost 8 years ago. Not saying it isn't still a sore spot, but um, yeah. Not a big deal.
Score = 3
It depends on what you mean by "big deal". It was hacky and tasteless. Was it hacky and tasteless enough to start a riot on J.J. Abrams' front lawn? No, but it was hacky and tasteless enough to roll your eyes at every time you see it. You don't have to be outraged to think it was a dumb decision.
And even if you don't think the exact image was all that bad, reading that the producers went with the twist because the standing towers are "an image like no other" has to make your skin crawl just a little. Yes its been eight years, but I still think more thought should go into their usage then "Hey, you wanna know what would be really cool...."
Score = -1
more like WHEN is the world trade center!
no. sorry. i blew it.
Score = 10
The first episode of Fringe started with people melting on a plane, and federal agents blowing up and then living to be traitors. Did you expect it to obey Dogme 95 rules?
I love this show. Is it as good as Lost? Of course not, but I think the craziness of Fringe maybe seemed more digestible because season 5 of Lost suffered from the time travel nonsense. I ended up enjoying Fringe just as much if not more.
I can deal with alternate universes on a show that has placed the WTF bar high from the start. It's easy to just go with the flow, especially since they've at least told us that all the wacky happenings are essentially connected. Plus, I think Anna Torv is good enough to carry the entire show; she's excellent.
With Lost, we're already invested in at least 8 main characters, not to mention a few factions and unexplained phenomena that we've been investigating as an audience for 4 years. That takes time, emotionally speaking. Injecting season 4 with all the freighter folk was risky, but they were all still together, working towards a good conclusion, and Faraday carried it when it got shaky. Then season 5 had to start from the difficult position of having its main characters seperated. Time travel added to a show that already has enough to explain was a mistake, and we had to endure the Dharma 70's, and Jack and Kate becoming more and more illogical and annoying, and Sun reduced to different ways of saying "where is my husband??"
I love Lost dearly - it will easily be remembered as one of the best shows ever. But every episode can't carry the weight of "The Constant"; it's just too much. I think for a split second this spring, Fringe was a better show.
Score = 2
that was...... just... awful.
Score = -1
I like how JFK is somehow still alive and giving speeches when he would've been 91, and that not only did Lenny Bias NOT die of a cocaine overdose before playing a single NBA game, he also won the MVP award at age 46. That's some nice info, fake NY Post, but get it together Fringe writing staff (still makes more sense than anything else on this show).
Score = 3
Hmm, not knowing Fringe at all, but knowing J.J. Abrams, this alternate universe thingy could be in the past. And then the only story out of place is Obama being elected.
Score = 1
Alternative Kennedy might have been born later than 616 Kennedy. (And if you get that 616 reference, then, wow.)
Score = 0
I believe William Bell will inform Agent Dunham that the towers are in fact still intact but in threat of attack from a renegade Romulan mining ship. In order to prevent said threat, she must have Agent Broyles take her to a man named Faraday. Back in 1984. In Kalamazoo.
Score = 3
Twist!
Score = 6
I gave it up after 4 episodes. It takes a lot for me to delete something from my DVR (i.e. I still watch 24...) but this didn't hook me.
Score = 1
Fringe is enjoyably ridiculous, and the actors are compelling as opposed to 90% of every other JJ Abrams cast I've ever seen. You don't make me sit through hours of a bland brunette sighing/crying/love trianglin', I'm pretty much good to go.
Score = 2
Fringe is Crazy ridiculous, but I still watch it every week and love it!
Score = 3
Joshua Jackson is your boyfriend.
I like Fringe more than lost.
Score = 2
At first I thought it was totally tasteless too, probably because of the shock and emotion still tied to 9/11. But why not use it? It's an historical event with which we're all familiar, and I don't think it shows up as a subject in many popular films/books/art. Alternative history, yall!
Did anybody else think that William Bell in shadow was supposed to be a horrible Obama impersonator?
Score = -2
You people don't get it. Like Raz said, this show has been bending (not merely pushing) the envelope from the get go. Unlike Alias, and even Lost, who just go down the super crazy highway whenever they feel like it.
I believe it was the second episode of the series when a woman's head EXPLODED at the beginning of an episode. That's when I knew this show was not afraid to go places.
I love it!!!! I'm with you Gabe! It should have its weekly column like Lost and 30 Rock.
They should move it to a day where it won't be cut off for weeks because of stinky American Idol.
Score = -2
Is this a joke? This is a joke, right? I'm so inundated with snark on a minute-by-minute basis I no longer can tell when someone is being serious about being "shocked" by something as stupid as clip.
Score = 4
I just watched the finale last night and loved this episode. I am also about 5 episodes behind, I love this show. But I never made the connection that Walter and his wife stole Peter from the alternate universe. Love it!!
Score = 1
SPOILER ALERT!!!
The main plot twist for next season is the Peter is actually from the alternate universe. His father took this peter from there after the original one got very sick and died when he was a young boy.
Score = -2
The clip kind of bothered me too.
Score = 2