TV-Reviewed

Fringe joined a lot of other shows this past Tuesday with its big season finale. The cat was out of the bag however, with the special guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy. The news was all over it, especially with all of the Star Trek movie buzz going around. So that big surprise was no longer a surprise, but it didn’t mean this episode was going to be boring.

The strange way that Walter disappeared in the previous episode carried over to the season finale. No one knew where he was. Agents were sent to look at all of the usual places, but no one could find him. Finally, a call from Nina Sharp netted them some valuable intel. Walter had made his way back to a beach house he, Peter, and his wife used to use.

While Peter went after his father, Olivia played ‘20 Questions’ with Nina, who was just getting out of the hospital after sustaining a nasty gunshot. Since a portion of her is metal, the bullet didn’t do as much damage as most had feared. But the gunman, David Robert Jones, managed to take a very powerful energy cell out of Nina’s arm. Apparently this was something William Bell had hidden in Nina’s arm and Jones knew right where to look.

Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham

Up to this episode, we didn’t know much about Jones, Bell, or what their relationship really was. Although Nina was a little vague on some of the specifics, it all boiled down to Jones felt like he was special and Bell didn’t feel the same way. Jones has been trying to prove himself to Bell ever since and with the new energy cell, he plans on seeing him face to face.

The only problem with finding Bell is he’s not in this world anymore. Yeah, this kind of blew my mind at first too. William Bell and Walter Bishop had figured out that there were membranes on Earth that were thinner in some areas than others and would allow for easier passage to an alternate world. It was very similar to our own, just everyone took a different path than the one here so things were a little different.

As for Walter, he created a device many years ago that would essentially plug/patch that membrane, preventing one from going to it. It took some time, but Walter did eventually find it, in a locked box which Peter had to pick to open.

This was one of the more fascinating episodes of the season. Plugging the hole was interesting enough, but I was floored when it was revealed that Peter died some years back. The story was that Peter ALMOST died, but now it looks like he died and Walter traveled to an alternative universe and brought the other Peter back. I guess it could explain why Peter doesn’t remember certain things from certain portions of his childhood.

Everything after this wasn’t very interesting. The cat was out of the bag with Nimoy guest starring as the mysterious William Bell. Frankly, I thought the appearance was wasted. His line was pretty much, “Hi, I’m William Bell.” Cut to credits.

It wasn’t much of a cliffhanger. Frankly, the sight of Peter’s grave was what stole this show’s last few minutes. This was the scene which should have ended the season, not the Bell BS.

Rating: 9.3