*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is one episode that required it be written and directed by the Showrunner, JH Wyman - And he did a good job.
I had to stand up for the bulk of this fine series finale - I have not done this since Season 4. This is where the story of Fringe really starts turning in on itself, taking elements form all five Seasons and throwing them at us, tying up loose ends, making sense of things that were referred to or hinted at:
The Giant Slug-Shaped Cold Viruses from Season 1 - The parasitic creatures from the Season 2 ep "Snakehead" - The Butterflies that were hallucinations but could kill you - And the compound of two heavy elements that when combined could make a person float in the air, from a season 3 episode. Having only seen this once, these are the "Fringe Events" I could pick out, there may be many more in there.
While Fringe Division struggles to get the parts of the plan in place, there is still that missing Generator from the future which Donald/September had charged December to get. But unfortunately December's dead, and now Windmark has the generator, and no way to get it from him - Also, Broyles has been found out, so he can't help - All Broyles can do is lead The Observers around in a merry little car chase, but eventually they get him.
Walter has resigned himself to his Fate. It is not a bad Fate, but he will just not be around in present time if this plan works out: Basically it is the same thing that happened to Peter in Season 4. September tries to give Walter a reprieve, but the question is, is this Walter's ultimate destiny? And even if given a way out, COULD Walter be let out of his fate? The point is, he does not want to be let out of what he has to do. Even so, September tries to give him a way out: Because now SeptemberDonald has all of the qualities of Human Emotions and all of the Fringe Benefits, like having feelings for his "son."
With the loss of the main "Ignition Coil" they have to come up with another way to make a wormhole - It turns out that the Observers Themselves can provide a way to do this, they have their shipments from the Future, and Astrid still has the Observer Manifest for shipments from the Future.
All they need is one of those Square gizmos that the observers use to open the wormhole - So Peter and Olivia create a "Fringe Cocktail" of as many bad Fringe Events as they can collect and they pump it into the Main Observer/Loyalist headquarters, and they go in and get the Square thing - Freeing Broyles in the process - Cos Windmark was torturing him, but at the moment Windbag gets "The lab" out of Broyles Brain, Olivia and Peter attack.
And through all of this, what about Walter's White Tulip? There is even a place for this here.
Of all the things that ever happened in Fringe or never happened, of the things we know about, because we saw it... but the characters may not know about - It's all here in this last Episode.
And even though the "Observer Child" is not the same actor used in the Season 1 episode which has the same character, the child actor they used as replacement is great - I can suspend disbelief in that regard. I never expected all of the loose ends to be cleared up, enough of them have been dealt with so that there is a level of continuity never before seen in episodic TV.
There are still many more stories that can be told within the time frame of Fringe - The scope is from millions of years in the past to 600 years in the future. Maybe some part of me wants this story to continue, but this episode marks the end of an era, of a story about four people - Walter, Peter, Olivia and Astrid - And the other members of Fringe Division that have been part of this story - Fauxlivia, Walternate, Agent Lees, Charlie Francis, even Agent Jessup who was only shown in two episodes - Sam Weiss, Nina Sharp, William Bell.
Maybe I was hoping that Leonard Nimoy would reprise a one-handed William Bell once more, but the amount he contributed to this story was enough.
I'm hoping that in another Universe, this show will carry on with the impossibilities. Maybe in the Red Universe, Walter, Peter, Olivia and Astrid are still investigating Fringe Events. But in this Universe, No More.
Goodbye, Fringe Division.
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