WARNING: Please be warned that this review contains spoilers and is meant for those of you who are caught up on FRINGE or just don’t care.
The scavenger hunt plot device continues on Fringe as the team comes just a tiny bit closer to discovering Walter’s long lost plan to defeat the Observers! 4 episodes left!
As I watch this final season of Fringe, I can’t help but wonder how this show would have been received if this last season, had actually been it’s first. The series would open to our heroes trapped in a future they are both trying to understand and destroy. We are told that they use to be part of a government funded agency that monitored and handled ‘Fringe events.’ Whatever the hell that means? After an invading force from the future arrived in their present time and took control of their world, they froze themselves in amber so that they could live to fight in another day and age. Okay, it does sound a little bit too much like Dark Angel (or every other failed experimental Fox Sci-Fi show) but, it also reinforces how completely off the pre-established rails this final season has taken the show. The team goes from being celebrated government supported heroes (of two parallel universes) to guerrilla revolutionaries in a dystopian future. Alone. Out numbered. Drastically grasping onto increasingly outlandish scientific straws. Man, I love-balls this show!
This episode deals with the team attempting to pull the remaining pieces of their plan from Walter’s fractured brain all while trying to discover the source of the radio’s transmission and evading Loyalist. This all proves extra difficult due to Walter’s highly drug induced, hallucinogenic state. And in honor of Walter’s day long acid trip, I will now give you a ‘Walter like’ slightly spoiler-free breakdown of this week’s episode. Enjoy!
‘Okay. So. There’s this radio that doesn’t really work. It’s an old radio. It has dials and shit. They actually found it in a pocket universe that existed between realities. There’s this kid there. He’s bald. He’s from Season 1. They went to this in-between reality to find this kid and he ended up not being there. They walked on ceilings. They’re back now. And now it’s working. The radio is working. Kind of. I mean, you can’t listen to smooth jazz or anything. It’s just picking up a signal. They track it down. They find some skeletons. A wallet of some guy who no one but Peter and Olivia remember. He’s on Community now. Or he was. Anyway, Peter and Olivia remember only because they have memories from a reality that doesn’t exist anymore because Peter was erased from reality. But, he’s back now. Oh, Peter also is now dealing with the after effects of sticking that thing in his brain bits. Basically, they need this kid to help them in their plan to do something. He’s a child Observer. OH! And.. and.. Ever since Walter had his brain pieces put back in he’s slowly turning into an asshole.’
The plot of this episode doesn’t drift too far from the overall mission of the season. So, if you’re expecting a big reveal or a major blow dealt to the Observers, you might be slightly disappointed. The pieces of their plan are still coming together and I still have no idea what the hell they could possibly do that will ‘defeat the invaders.’
This episode does, however, give us a glimpse into Walter’s acid trips…
COOL FACTOR 11!
Walter suddenly finds himself in a Monty Python Terry Gilliam based acid trip that might be the best thing I have seen on television all year!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS2z8Aeck-M[/youtube]
(Also watch for an obvious reference to John Cleese’s famous waiter somewhere in the episode. ‘It’s wafer thin!’)
So, if sexy deep fried former lab assistants, opera singing tinker bells and visually outstanding acid trips are your thing, then I highly suggest you watch this episode! The only negative that really got to me was that, at times, the story lines of the struggle between New Walter and Old Walter, and Peter battling the temptation of technology, feel slightly forced. Overall, a great time was had.
I leave you with some questions this episode left me with:
Why do bad guys in evil dictatorships always wear the same uniforms?
Who is Donald and will his reveal be a big deal?
Was I the only one who was afraid that Peter was going to turn out to be a younger version of Windmark?
Will Walter defeat his former self, without removing pieces of his brain?
Do you think Walter’s plan will result in them returning in time to the moment the Observers arrive?
What the hell did the frog and dog represent?
Til next time!
