'Fringe' Series Finale Review and Recap

The Fringe series finale, for me, was on par with the rest of the season. It didn't emote strong emotional worries or reactions, but it was entertaining enough to keep me remembering that this was the final two hours of the series.

The series finale of Fringe left me empty.  Not upset, but I wasn't pulled into the events of these last two hours because the season leading up to it was fairly dull and disconnected from the first four seasons for me. 

But looking back at it, I guess this was the natural evolution of where everything was headed and made sense.  But when events started to unfold in the series closing finale, I was more "meh" than OH MY GOD about them.

I'm not going to say much, but what I will say will be spoilers...

-Coming into the final two hours of Fringe, we were taken on a journey where the final pieces of this device that Walter hinted at across multiple tapes, was going to be assembled.

The Observers were all over our heroes, Olivia had to jack up some drugs to jump between the two worlds, Peter discovers one last tape with his father bidding him goodbye, explaining that he and Michael had to travel into the future to fix the present.  Because in the future, is where the Observers meet someone who convince them to invade our Earth.

And that's how it went.

The emotional goodbye between Walter and Peter was supposed to be a powerful moment, but I had no real warning.  I had no reason to be concerned about this until this finale episode.  It came too late for me.

The driving force for both Olivia and Peter was that they will get Etta back if Michael can fix everything in the future.  Plus with Walter leaving their present, he removes the paradox he created with himself, as he cheated fate way back when.And when Walter and Michael step through the tube of time, we flash back to the scene where Peter is holding out his arms waiting for Etta to run across the park to him and Olivia, and this time, after seeing this so many times in the earlier part of the show, Etta makes it to his arms.

Time is reset, and Peter, Olivia, Etta and all of humanity live happily ever after.

-

For many, I'm sure this is the good closure many were all expecting.  I was riveted with worry that there would be some evil, twisted development that Fringe could throw at viewers.  But that didn't happen.

Though I have to admit, once again, through it all, for me, Walter (John Noble) made the episode.  He made the series for me.  And when he gave Peter a gun that makes the shootee float away, all he could say was "That it was cool!"  And it was.

Michael, the silent child Observer, turned out to be even cooler than I thought, as he ended up giving an Observer a bloody nose and ruptured eye vessels for his troubles.  HA!

But therein, the fun was had.  The rest was a good closure as some old, familiar faces and "fringe threats" were brought into play.

And that, concluded the series we know as Fringe.

It had a bit of a an uphill climb as people accused the series of copying X-Files, but any show you bring on the scene that tackles unknown mysteries will probably always face that accusation.  Then they added the Observers to the story, from the get-go, which gave Fringe its own factor or identity.

And that's what made the series stand out.  This mystery of the Observers.  But I was expecting a less global threat by the Observers.  One that didn't involve taking over our world because they messed up theirs.  I was expecting a more singular challenge of our heroes tackling the few, or as it turns out, dozen Observers, and stopping them in their tracks.  There, I was wrong.  Or maybe disappointed was the right word.

The show stayed true to its core, but missed the mark with me when they future jumped. But I persevered with the fifth season because I had committed to the first four.

It wasn't so bad that I stopped watching, but I continued on out of duty.  So I'm saying I didn't suffer, but if there other shows on, Fringe took a back seat to live-viewing other shows.

But I also understand that many Fringe fans loved the series finale.  I get that too!

Anna Torv, John Noble, Joshua Jackson, Jasika Nicole, Blair Brown, Lance Reddick and more brought us characters we enjoyed.  They gave us our hourly escape from the rest of the world and fans, like myself, I'm sure, appreciated that.  I loved the alternate reality and how their characters turned out over there.  (Olivia was hot!  Walter Bishop... scary!)

The ratings for this season pulled in roughly 2.5 to 3 million viewers per episode, with the s5 premiere being the lowest ever in its five-season run.
 
-BeS