Tonight marks the end of Fringe as we know it, and even though that means nothing to most people, hardcore Fringe fans have spent 5 years waiting to see how the show shakes out…
8:00 p.m. The end has started…
8:03 p.m. Nice to see Lance Reddick’s Colonel Broyles back in the mix…
8:04 p.m. The twitter hashtag for the finale is #keeplookingup
8:05 p.m. The nefarious leader of the Observers, Captain Widmark tries to interrogate the child observer that is the key to the plan.
8:06 p.m. Interrogates him so hard, Widmark’s nose starts bleeding and a blood vessel in his eye bursts. Nice to see the unflappable villain finally getting his ass kicked a little.
8:07 p.m. The finale credits sequence, beautiful and spare. Sniff, sniff…
8:10 p.m. We come back from the first commercial break
8:11 p.m. Colonel Broyles is trying to get out the child observer from occupied, evil-observer territory. Go Broyles! The Wire’s Lance Reddick, a badass once more…
8:12 p.m. Olivia suggests going to the other side for help rescuing the child observer, so we’ll finally get to see the other-side Fringe crew, who have been missing from this season, and haven’t played a big role since the 3rd season.
8:13 p.m. Walter looks for “cortexifan” (Sp?) the drug he and William Bell gave to Olivia as a child. Now he wants to give it to her so she can travel to the other dimension.
8:14 p.m. Peter’s against the plan, but, you know, it’s always the way that one of the Fringe crew is against something Walter wants to do. So it’s nice continuity that Peter is a stick in the mud, one last time.
8:15 p.m. Remember the episode when Peter became an observer, and was (for once) a badass capable of killing Widmark? Uhhhh…what was wrong that solution again? Seems a hundred times simpler than what they’re trying to do now. Oh well…
8:16 p.m. Creepy old Widmark is up to his old tricks. I really hope they give him a fitting death in this episode. A Fringe villain has never caused so much damage, and escape so unscathed each time. I know J.J. Abrams shows rarely kill anyone (everyone on Fringe has died five times, and still come back) but I’d like to see some exceptions made in this finale.
8:17 p.m. Walter and the team are moving equipment out of a van, and Peter spots a loyalist. Telling everyone to wait until she leaves, before they set up the equipment needed to let Olivia cross over into the other dimension.
8:18 p.m. The team gets a look at the other dimension, and Walter says (about the other universe) “isn’t she beautiful.” Indeed.
8:19 p.m. Another damn commercial break…
8:22 p.m. We’re back, and “Donald” (the good Observer otherwise known as September) is rustling through a hallway with some mysterious bags. Now he’s in the Fringe team’s lab, but they’re gone. He sets up something important for the plan. Looks important, but we don’t know what it is yet…
8:23 p.m. More scenes of Donald setting up equipment and mixing potions. Ohhhhhhhh, mysterious…Now he has a finished beaker of green liquid.
8:24 p.m. Anil, the leader of the resistance movement, takes the Fringe team down to an underground laboratory and now he too begins setting up some mysterious equipment. Maybe he and Donald could have a contest to see who can set up mysterious equipment fastest…
8:25 p.m. Walter injects Olivia with the cortexifan, and it immediately elevates her heart rate. She seems sick almost instantly.
8:26 p.m. Peter gets blurry in front of Olivia’s face, while Walter goes in for the third injection, which makes Olivia howl with pain. Peter starts arguing with Walter, I guess forgetting that Walter is always right, and Peter is usually wrong.
8:27 p.m. Goddamnit, another commercial break…
8:28 p.m. An Outback Steakhouse commercial [impatiently taps foot]…Now there’s a Bank of America commercial, and really getting impatient…
8:31 p.m. Finally, we’re back, and Captain Widmark’s observer goons are experimenting on the young-observer who is the key to the plan.
8:32 p.m. Walter and Peter have a heartfelt, man-to-man talk, and Walter says “you’re very strong son.” Sniff, sniff…No, not really, but I think we’ll get there by the end of the episode. It wouldn’t be Fringe if they didn’t mix in some tears with the sci-fi. Honest emotions are what set this show apart.
8:33 p.m. Olivia is having Cortexifan-induced memories, including those of Etta, her daughter that Widmark killed.
8:34 p.m. Walter explains the side-effects of Cortexifan on her. A little late for that yeah?
8:35 p.m. Walter drops Olivia, his daughter-in-law, off at the spot. Exciting.
8:36 p.m. Peter “You’re coming, you’re coming with the boy and for Etta.” Olivia: “I love you too.” What did I tell you about the gooey stuff?
8:37 p.m. A trademark Fringe score swells up as Olivia crosses into the other side. Immediately, the more advanced Fringe team on that side detects a breach. And we see other-side Olivia, who’s got…some kind of weird hair, not the usual red, but more like a gray/blonde/red monster that looks like she borrowed it from Winona Judd.
8:40 p.m. We’re back from commercial break. It looks like Lincoln Lee and other-side Olivia have a son, and Olivia is looking at them in a picture.
8:42 p.m. Lincoln Lee and other-side Olivia have aged over the last twenty years, but our Olivia hasn’t since she’s been frozen in amber during that time. An awkward reunion between the two Olivias, and the man who loved them both before marrying one.
8:44 p.m. Olivia starts having hallucinations of Etta, which Walter had said would happen. Olivia recruits them into her plan, and the two happily agree.
8:45 p.m. Donald puts the finishing touches on his machine, but it doesn’t go the way he had hoped. A defeated look.
8:46 p.m. Captain Widmark goes to 2069 to speak to his superior officer. He reports what that the child-observer has emotional capabilities better than their own, but an intelligence far greater than the native humans.
8:47 p.m. Widmark and his superior argue about what to do with the child-observer. His superior orders him to “disassemble” it and study it further. Widmark looks disappointed, but either way, the child dies.
8:48 p.m. A mention that “Walternate” (the other side Walter) is 90 years old and lecturing at Harvard. And also a mention of Olivia’s ass, which is usually in tight jeans, as other-side Olivia tells Lincoln to stop checking out “her young ass,” meaning our Olivia. [Whew, that was confusing.] Olivia tells Lincoln that she’s happy for him, and glad he made it work with the other Olivia.
8:49 p.m. Olivia starts her plan…fingers crossed…
8:50 p.m. It looks like they’re getting ready to take the child-observer apart, so Olivia had better hurry.
8:51 p.m. A Goddamn Volvo commercial…way to break-up the tension Fringe…
8:52 p.m. We’re back, and Olivia is ghosting through the two worlds, as she tries to get to the child-observer. Olivia has been mostly inactive this season, so it’s good to see her be useful again.
8:53 p.m. In a very cool sequence, she plays cat and mouse with an Observer while shifting through the different dimensions, before shooting him dead. Great kill Liv!
8:54 p.m. A creepy Observer (are there any other kinds?) doctor is looking for the proper tools to dissect the Observer child with. Olivia is really feeling the side-effects of Cortexifan now.
8:55 p.m. An observer gets the drop on her, but she uses her OTHER abilities (like making a ceiling light pop) to distract him long enough to shoot him dead.
8:56 p.m. She finally gets to the room “Michael” (the observer-child) is being kept. As she does, yet another creepy observer appears.
8:57 p.m. She disappears to the other side, and the observer follows her there. Lincoln Lee and the other-side Olivia shoot him, plus a second observer that followed Olivia. Lincoln tells them to get going in case anymore come across.
8:58 p.m. Olivia and other-side Olivia say their goodbyes to each other, and they wish each other well on their families, while other side Olivia says “Go save yours.”
8:59 p.m. Olivia and Michael make it across. Walter starts driving like hell away from the danger zone.
8:59 p.m. Widmark calls in a loyalist stooge, and demands to know who all knew where Michael was being kept. The loyalist bastard says it was Agent Broyles that betrayed them.
9:00 p.m. Donald reaches out to another old-time observer for help. Cliffhanger!
Hour Two begins!
9:01 p.m. Donald and the other old-time observer are having a conversation about developing feelings for native humans.
9:02 p.m. The other old-time observer refuses to help Donald, but Donald is persistent…
9:03 p.m. Broyles has a conversation with the Fringe team.
9:04 p.m. He leaves his car, and the observers pull out their device that can playback past sound-waves to replay a conversation that just happened.
9:05 p.m. Captain Widmark gets the drop on Broyles in his office. And thus begins the final credit sequence!
9:06 p.m. I’m a little disappointed that there was nothing special about the final credit sequence. First commercial break of the real final episode…
9:09 p.m. Widmark is interrogating Broyles. A tense conversation between them, and Widmark confronts him about being the legendary resistance operative known as “The Dove.”
9:10 p.m. Widmark pretends that Broyles is no longer under any suspicion. But it’s a ploy to get Broyles to leave and go meet up with the Fringe team. We sits there for a moment, considering everything.
9:11 p.m. Olivia wonders why Michael walked into the Observer trap to spare the rest of them, when he must have known the danger. Donald says “there is always a reason for everything he does.”
9:12 p.m. Walter lays out the plan. It’s a little too complicated to explain here, but it sounds like it makes sense.
9:13 p.m. Broyles is driving towards the Fringe team, and figures out it’s an Observer trap.
9:14 p.m. Olivia says that she will save him, but Broyles tells her not to worry. He knows he must sacrifice himself to save the plan.
9:19 p.m. After a long commercial break, we’re back, and Peter is drilling through the amber to find something useful for the mission.
9:20 p.m. After finding another tape stuck in the amber———this one addressed to “Peter”——-they play the old tape, which you’d think they would have time for later on, but this wouldn’t be Fringe if they didn’t take an inordinate amount of timeout to develop emotions while the stakes are already high.
9:21 p.m. Walter, once again, apologizes for saving “other side” Peter’s life, and blah-blahs about how men shouldn’t interfere with nature. But he also says a heartfelt goodbye to Peter, that brings tears to the grown son’s eyes. Walter says he must go into the future to bring Michael there, and Peter won’t see him again.
9:22 p.m. The central dilemma: in order to live out a future without the observers, Walter and the boy will have to live in the future. [It makes more sense when the show explains it.]
9:23 p.m. Walter says something very heartfelt to Peter, and they embrace, sniff, sniff…okay, this is the waterworks. Walter says “You are my favorite thing Peter. My very favorite thing.” Okay, this cynical blogger is tearing up a little…
9:24 p.m. Now Olivia and Astrid have gone to the other old-time observer’s apartment, and discovered he killed himself. The loyalists are there.
9:25 p.m. December is dead, and the loyalists have given the necessary part found in his apartment back to Widmark.
9:26 p.m. Widmark finds out what the Fringe team wants with the part, and that they are planning to reset the timeline.
9:27 p.m. Commercial break…Damn you commercial breaks!
9:30 p.m. Broyles is running for his life against the Observers, and one of them appears from thin air (man, I bet the heroes hate it when they do that) and clocks him.
9:31 p.m. Olivia tries to communicate with Michael, who doesn’t communicate in a normal way. She asks him for guidance, and wonders what she should do next. Michael merely puts his finger over his mouth, and tells her to be quiet.
9:32 p.m. Astrid says “What about a shipping lane?” And Walter calls her a genius. [Michael was right to tell Olivia to be quiet, as Astrid came up with the saving plan.] Donald says they need a thingamajig that will do whosits and I can’t follow what he’s saying, but I bet it’s really smart.
9:33 p.m. Anil tells them Broyles has been captured.
9:34 p.m. Astrid takes Walter into the amber tunnel to surprise him with an ambered-Gene, the cow he kept for the first few seasons. [Meanwhile, Donald asks to talk to Peter for a moment. Want to bet he’s saying that he’ll bring Michael into the future so Walter can stay behind?] Astrid and Walter share a moment, a couple? We can only dream.
9:35 p.m. Astrid and Walter should have sex…that would be enough to reset the timeline I bet.
9:36 p.m. “That’s a beautiful name.” “What is?” “Astrid.” Walter finally calls his lab assistant by her real name…which he should have been doing the whole time, but anyway, it’s good to know Fringe made time for Astrid too, the perpetual 4th wheel of the group. [I’ll miss you Astrid, and wish Fringe had given you an episode of your own.]
9:37 p.m. Widmark admits that he “feels something” for people: hate. He says he hates humans, and how they have “infected” some of the observers with caring about them.
9:38 p.m. Peter takes off the bullet necklace he wears from when his daughter, Etta, was killed, and tells Olivia they will have her back soon. Don’t count your chickens Peter…
9:39 p.m. One of the best things about this season is that it finds the former-Fringe team having to cause Fringe events to mess with the Observers, and Peter and Olivia introduce some harmful thingamajigs into the air stream of a loyalist. Fuck you traitor loyalists!
9:41 p.m. We’re in the middle of what, I hope, is the final commercial break, because it seems like they have a lot left to do before the end.
9:42 p.m. “We need to get going,” said Walter, Finally! They’re in a hurry. Donald shows that he inoculated himself to go into the future, so Walter won’t have to…good to know I’ve still got it. [Kidding, kidding…]
9:43 p.m. Donald talks about his feelings for Michael, who is technically his son, and how it makes more sense if he goes. All right Fringe, can we get a little less emotional and a little more…forward-plot-development? [I know it’s not a real term, but still.]
9:44 p.m. Donald explains that it’s “not about fate, it’s about hope. And protecting our children.” Walter grabs his arm softly, which is meant to signal acceptance.
9:45 p.m. Widmark is torturing Broyles, trying to get the location of the Fringe team out of him. Finally, Broyles has no choice but to think “they’re in the lab.” It’s not like he talked, it’s that he merely thought it—–by accident, poor Broyles.
9:46 p.m. The Fringe Team is royally fucking up the loyalists by introducing a virus that manifests itself into inside-eating squids. Very cool, and something for the sci-fi fans to love. More and more Fringe events are being introduced into the building, and it’s a nice nod to all the creatures from past seasons.
9:47 p.m. Olivia rescues Broyles, although it would make more sense to save him by resetting the timeline and saving everyone, but oh well…
9:48 p.m. I watch the show for the mythology, and the season-long arcs, but it’s cool of the show to give the monster-of-the-week fans something too. As I said before, I love it that they’re now having to create Fringe events instead of merely investigate them.
9:49 p.m. A shot of the Fringe team looking badass as they walk towards the endgame for the plan.
9:50 p.m. The resistance begins hi-jacking the wormhole shipping lane to send Michael and Donald to the future with.
9:51 p.m. The suspense is great considering we pretty much know everything will work out in the end. A dead observer floats away———a great nod to the classic season 1 episode.
9:52 p.m. Widmark shows up to snatch Donald! And a Goddamn commercial break!
9:53 p.m. Commercials! Ahhhhhhhhhh! Hansel and Gretel looks like a shitty movie…anyway, where is Fringe?!
9:54 p.m. We’re back, and Widmark nearly kills Peter and Olivia. He throws Olivia down, and she sees the necklace that reminds her of Etta. She is royally pissed, and the lights begin blinking all around her.
9:55 p.m. It’s Olivia who finally kills Widmark! She uses her cortexifan powers to slide a van into Widmark, and (before he can move) we see a splash of blood on the windows!
9:56 p.m. Donald gets shot in the resulting gun battle.
9:57 p.m. Walter realizes that he will have to take Donald into the future after all. Peter mouths the words “I love you daddy.” Sniff, sniff…
9:58 p.m. Walter and Michael go into the vortex, thus making their mission to the future a success.
9:59 p.m. We’re magically transported back to 2015, in the scene where Peter and Olivia were playing with a young Etta in the open field. [The one right before the observers started appearing to take over.] But, this time, no observers appear, meaning Walter’s mission was a success!
9:59 p.m. Peter drives home and opens a letter. It’s the white tulip! The one from the time travel episode, and also from a few weeks ago when Walter said his son would see it, and know everything is okay.
10 p.m. It’s over folks. That’s it, and what a great five years it’s been. I’ll miss Fringe…