I am a little late in finishing the Fringe season 5, and hence a little late for a review. But I felt the other reviews didn't cover few of my favorite aspects of this episode... and I owed it to them, owed it to the emotional satisfaction they gave me, and hopefully everyone else that watched it.
To start, the journey of Fringe has always been beyond exciting, always treading on new and un-walked paths of science, stretching the limits of possibility. The finale of this had to be more about a closure than exploring something new again... and it was.
The last page of this story takes us to the climactic battle, where Olivia, Peter, Walter & Astrid have figured out a way to save humanity from turning into emotionless robotic Observers, with a lot of selfless help from September, the compassionate Observer. September's son Michael is the key to this, as he has to jump in time, to convince the scientists who started the technology leading to Observers, by showing that the path they take is how depressingly wrong.
This episode had the required amount of action, as they depicted the final battle. They brought a new level of cool to this, using so many bio-weapons from previous Fringe episodes. That was the perfect use of all of their experience and knowledge of Fringe events that they faced together.
Anna Torv (Olivia) carried out the action excellently, specially when she went berserk and smashed Windmark between 2 cars with just her mind.
But the beauty of this episode is the emotional closures between characters. Joshua Jackson (Peter) and John Noble (Walter) carried out a tear-jerking goodbye scene, when they hugged each other like they would never leave each other. Michael Cerveris (September) gave a quite emotional and moving speech about destiny and hope, as he expressed how strong his bond has become to his son.
But for me, the sequence between Astrid and Walter remains higher than these. In one of the most beautiful and long overdue moment of the series, Astrid takes Walter inside the lab and shows Gene, the cow, frozen in amber with motionless peace. They refrain from releasing her, as she would make loud noise attracting enemies. As Walter and Astrid lean on each other, to enjoy that beautiful piece of their happy past, Walter tells her that she always knew how to soothe him. Astrid breaks off in tears, and says that she believes they will win this and everything will revert back to their good old times, in the lab, drinking strawberry juice. Walter, knowing that he will probably not be there to experience it, tells Astrid, that her name is beautiful.
Jasika Nicole captured the nostalgic emotion so well in this sequence, that it just pains me to think why Astrid was such an underrated character in the series.
On the whole, a combination of perfect acting from the cast and a perfect vision from the creators, led to a perfect and satisfying ending to enigmatic story of Fringe... and I switched off my TV, hoping, maybe someday, the fringe team will be back again, after a well-deserved rest... with new limitless possibilities, and their endless courage, compassion, intellect and witty humour to deal with it.
Thank you, JJ Abrams and JH Wyman.
To start, the journey of Fringe has always been beyond exciting, always treading on new and un-walked paths of science, stretching the limits of possibility. The finale of this had to be more about a closure than exploring something new again... and it was.
The last page of this story takes us to the climactic battle, where Olivia, Peter, Walter & Astrid have figured out a way to save humanity from turning into emotionless robotic Observers, with a lot of selfless help from September, the compassionate Observer. September's son Michael is the key to this, as he has to jump in time, to convince the scientists who started the technology leading to Observers, by showing that the path they take is how depressingly wrong.
This episode had the required amount of action, as they depicted the final battle. They brought a new level of cool to this, using so many bio-weapons from previous Fringe episodes. That was the perfect use of all of their experience and knowledge of Fringe events that they faced together.
Anna Torv (Olivia) carried out the action excellently, specially when she went berserk and smashed Windmark between 2 cars with just her mind.
But the beauty of this episode is the emotional closures between characters. Joshua Jackson (Peter) and John Noble (Walter) carried out a tear-jerking goodbye scene, when they hugged each other like they would never leave each other. Michael Cerveris (September) gave a quite emotional and moving speech about destiny and hope, as he expressed how strong his bond has become to his son.
But for me, the sequence between Astrid and Walter remains higher than these. In one of the most beautiful and long overdue moment of the series, Astrid takes Walter inside the lab and shows Gene, the cow, frozen in amber with motionless peace. They refrain from releasing her, as she would make loud noise attracting enemies. As Walter and Astrid lean on each other, to enjoy that beautiful piece of their happy past, Walter tells her that she always knew how to soothe him. Astrid breaks off in tears, and says that she believes they will win this and everything will revert back to their good old times, in the lab, drinking strawberry juice. Walter, knowing that he will probably not be there to experience it, tells Astrid, that her name is beautiful.
Jasika Nicole captured the nostalgic emotion so well in this sequence, that it just pains me to think why Astrid was such an underrated character in the series.
On the whole, a combination of perfect acting from the cast and a perfect vision from the creators, led to a perfect and satisfying ending to enigmatic story of Fringe... and I switched off my TV, hoping, maybe someday, the fringe team will be back again, after a well-deserved rest... with new limitless possibilities, and their endless courage, compassion, intellect and witty humour to deal with it.
Thank you, JJ Abrams and JH Wyman.