So, Fringe...
May. 14th, 2012 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ziparumpazooOkay, I liked the finale a lot.
I'll admit my biggest fear going into this season was that the previous three years worth of Olivia's character development would be completely wiped out. I mean, the girl's come a long way from being that lone agent who had to fight for every inch of ground she gained with Broyles, with Nina and all of Massive Dynamic's secrets, with even getting Walter to cooperate long enough to solve the case in early season 1. By the time the end of season three rolled around, she'd come a long way to become that confident, trusting,(dare I even say content?) individual who was part of a larger found family that had proven they would break the universe for each other. Olivia, Walter, Astrid, and Peter were the somewhat uneven and oddly-shaped, but well oiled, parts of a functioning investigative machine. Watching them work together was comfortable. They were good together.
And then Peter goes and wipes himself from existence.
Now it's easy to say that Olivia didn't need Peter for her life to be better, which may or may not be true - in some instances, Olivia's life without Peter was better, and other events played out worse. But what fascinated me the most about this season is the whole 'for want of a nail' idea - that at some point in time, *somebody* made a different choice. For narrative purposes, Peter's absence is the scapegoat. For example, Young Olivia ran away from the Cortexiphan trials. Because she didn't meet anybody along the way, she never made the choice to go back, and the changes ripple out from there. (to be sure, there were many more choices made by different parties throughout the intervening years to set the stage for the opening of season 4 - it's not as simple as a single stay-or-go coin-flip) I love this kind of what-if exercise - it's the basis behind just about every good AU fic out there.
And because of all these changes, I found the first half of the season somewhat uncomfortable to watch at times.rainer76 has a good post about the narrative structure for those episodes forcing the viewer into Peter's shoes that's well worth reading, if you haven't already - though LJ is not letting me dig up the link right now. Watching Peter with these strangers that were like but not like the people we just spend the previous three seasons getting to know was hard. (and as much as they looked like Olivia, Astrid, Walter, and even Lincoln, we were told who these people were, more than we were shown and had to trust our own eyes that they were essentially the same people we knew and loved) I was relived when Olivia started getting flashes of memories, regardless of who they belonged to.
I personally don't have a problem with Olivia choosing to claim those memories. I'm not sure how much Walter could have stopped it from happening without risking permanent damage to her anyhow. It was her choice and she chose to do something selfish that made her happy and she had the (sometimes grudging) support of the people who loved her. I can't fault that. Yes, she could have been happy with Lincoln (or with Lincoln and Peter, but this is network tv, even if it is Fox. So.), and don't get me wrong, I liked all the versions of Lincoln (liked him even better in fic), he was a good stand in for the audience, but the questions begs - if she doesn't need Peter to be happy, then does she really need Lincoln? The bonus with going this storytelling route, instead of a 'reset' where everybody gets their memories back, is that we get to keep this version of Astrid who's become more than just the lab assistant, and more like a full-fledged partner to Walter. We get to keep this tragic Walter who has learned his lesson about playing God a long time ago and while in some ways is less than what he was at the end of season 3, he is also so much more for having learned it. We get a Nina with many more facets, and we get both Broyles' back. We get to keep the Alt!Liv who is much closer to the person Olivia was at the end of season 3 and who she can see eye-to-eye with. We get a playing field with much more depth and potential. And we didn't have to lose any of that hard-won character growth after all.
So anyhow. Finale. Explicitly foreshadowed in 4.19, so the point where some of the 'twists' weren't twists at all. I actually found Olivia telling Peter shew as pregnant at the hospital more creepy than anything because it's a sign post for the impending apocalypse, not a happily-ever-after. I'm not a fan of bullet holes in foreheads, CGI, or not, so I was already in a doom and gloom, hands-over-my-eyes frame of mind for the last ten minutes or so of the episode. I'll admit that the future is not set in stone - all it takes is a different choice or two to change the outcome (which is why I was still uncertain about Astrid's fate in 4.21, even though we saw her in the future 'verse), but it's a compelling setup for next season. If there's one thing I fear almost as much as vampires, it's the apocalypse. And spiders. Oh please don't let next season be about all about vampire spiders... *shivers*
Plus, I wouldn't have traded that Astrid/Walter scene at the end for anything. Partners, as much as Walter can truly be a partner with anyone.
I did like that effort was made to wrap up as many questions that were posed in the first season as possible, given that the producers were not certain if they'd get that fifth season or not at the time of shooting. (even squeezing in Senator Van Horn there at the end) The downside to that is that there were times this season where things felt a little too rushed and heavy-handed, and sometimes hand-waving was required. Still, they did a good job of not straying too far outside the mythology they set up for themselves at the beginning, which I can't say for too many other shows of this genre (I'm looking at you X-Files!), and I'm going to be hard-pressed to find another show to fill it's spot once next season's 13 episode run is done.
I'll admit my biggest fear going into this season was that the previous three years worth of Olivia's character development would be completely wiped out. I mean, the girl's come a long way from being that lone agent who had to fight for every inch of ground she gained with Broyles, with Nina and all of Massive Dynamic's secrets, with even getting Walter to cooperate long enough to solve the case in early season 1. By the time the end of season three rolled around, she'd come a long way to become that confident, trusting,(dare I even say content?) individual who was part of a larger found family that had proven they would break the universe for each other. Olivia, Walter, Astrid, and Peter were the somewhat uneven and oddly-shaped, but well oiled, parts of a functioning investigative machine. Watching them work together was comfortable. They were good together.
And then Peter goes and wipes himself from existence.
Now it's easy to say that Olivia didn't need Peter for her life to be better, which may or may not be true - in some instances, Olivia's life without Peter was better, and other events played out worse. But what fascinated me the most about this season is the whole 'for want of a nail' idea - that at some point in time, *somebody* made a different choice. For narrative purposes, Peter's absence is the scapegoat. For example, Young Olivia ran away from the Cortexiphan trials. Because she didn't meet anybody along the way, she never made the choice to go back, and the changes ripple out from there. (to be sure, there were many more choices made by different parties throughout the intervening years to set the stage for the opening of season 4 - it's not as simple as a single stay-or-go coin-flip) I love this kind of what-if exercise - it's the basis behind just about every good AU fic out there.
And because of all these changes, I found the first half of the season somewhat uncomfortable to watch at times.
rainer76 has a good post about the narrative structure for those episodes forcing the viewer into Peter's shoes that's well worth reading, if you haven't already - though LJ is not letting me dig up the link right now. Watching Peter with these strangers that were like but not like the people we just spend the previous three seasons getting to know was hard. (and as much as they looked like Olivia, Astrid, Walter, and even Lincoln, we were told who these people were, more than we were shown and had to trust our own eyes that they were essentially the same people we knew and loved) I was relived when Olivia started getting flashes of memories, regardless of who they belonged to.I personally don't have a problem with Olivia choosing to claim those memories. I'm not sure how much Walter could have stopped it from happening without risking permanent damage to her anyhow. It was her choice and she chose to do something selfish that made her happy and she had the (sometimes grudging) support of the people who loved her. I can't fault that. Yes, she could have been happy with Lincoln (or with Lincoln and Peter, but this is network tv, even if it is Fox. So.), and don't get me wrong, I liked all the versions of Lincoln (liked him even better in fic), he was a good stand in for the audience, but the questions begs - if she doesn't need Peter to be happy, then does she really need Lincoln? The bonus with going this storytelling route, instead of a 'reset' where everybody gets their memories back, is that we get to keep this version of Astrid who's become more than just the lab assistant, and more like a full-fledged partner to Walter. We get to keep this tragic Walter who has learned his lesson about playing God a long time ago and while in some ways is less than what he was at the end of season 3, he is also so much more for having learned it. We get a Nina with many more facets, and we get both Broyles' back. We get to keep the Alt!Liv who is much closer to the person Olivia was at the end of season 3 and who she can see eye-to-eye with. We get a playing field with much more depth and potential. And we didn't have to lose any of that hard-won character growth after all.
So anyhow. Finale. Explicitly foreshadowed in 4.19, so the point where some of the 'twists' weren't twists at all. I actually found Olivia telling Peter shew as pregnant at the hospital more creepy than anything because it's a sign post for the impending apocalypse, not a happily-ever-after. I'm not a fan of bullet holes in foreheads, CGI, or not, so I was already in a doom and gloom, hands-over-my-eyes frame of mind for the last ten minutes or so of the episode. I'll admit that the future is not set in stone - all it takes is a different choice or two to change the outcome (which is why I was still uncertain about Astrid's fate in 4.21, even though we saw her in the future 'verse), but it's a compelling setup for next season. If there's one thing I fear almost as much as vampires, it's the apocalypse. And spiders. Oh please don't let next season be about all about vampire spiders... *shivers*
Plus, I wouldn't have traded that Astrid/Walter scene at the end for anything. Partners, as much as Walter can truly be a partner with anyone.
I did like that effort was made to wrap up as many questions that were posed in the first season as possible, given that the producers were not certain if they'd get that fifth season or not at the time of shooting. (even squeezing in Senator Van Horn there at the end) The downside to that is that there were times this season where things felt a little too rushed and heavy-handed, and sometimes hand-waving was required. Still, they did a good job of not straying too far outside the mythology they set up for themselves at the beginning, which I can't say for too many other shows of this genre (I'm looking at you X-Files!), and I'm going to be hard-pressed to find another show to fill it's spot once next season's 13 episode run is done.
