Fringe An Origin Story (2008–2013) Online

SPOILER WARNING - SPOILER WARNING - SPOILER WARNING - SPOILER WARNING - SPOILER WARNING:

After 3 lacklustre episodes and one pretty good, Fringe is once again awesome as this is the first episode of Season 5 that is just as good as the best of season 4 (the best season of the show in my opinion).

Following the events of the previous episode Etta is dead, Olivia is sad and Peter is out for blood, and I have to say that Joshua Jackson's performance is on par with John Noble as Walternate in terms of intimidation. You can see that the guy wants the Observers dead for what they did.

Story:

The Observers have a supply line from the future in the form of wormholes which they use to bring parts to finish the CO factory in Central park which they'll use to poison the Earth's atmosphere. Peter and Walter devise a plan to stop the Observers from getting any more supplies from the future by using anti-matter and an Observer device to open a wormhole to the future right as a supply shipment arrives and collapse it using the anti-matter on the future side to turn it into a black hole destroying the future Earth's capability to supply the occupation in the present greatly disrupting Observer operations and buying the Fringe team more time to enact the plan do defeat them once and for all.

What this season has done really well so far is show that the status quo no longer exists, the team isn't fighting an enemy that can collapse two universes into one anymore. No they are fighting an enemy that is ten times more powerful, resourceful and seemingly unstoppable. This is very much present here as the plan doesn't work in the most unexpected way, and the heroes' hope is taken away. Peter furiously interrogates an Observer after that, resulting in Pater implanting himself with Observer tech.

Characters:

The last episode proved that sacrifices are inevitable if the heroes are to win this and you get the sense that it might just cost them their lives in the process. In this episode Peter's character evolves in a very sinister turn that is very reminiscent of what Walternate became, towards the end of the episode he becomes downright horrifying and in the last scene between him and an Observer, I was scared by Peter especially his line about how he'll be ten times better than the Observer if he had their technology simply because he can feel emotions that they lack. Anna Torv once again proves that she's a capable actress during a scene where she watches a tape of her daughter's birthday.

Conclusion:

The episode builds up forward momentum towards the best part of the season's story arc if not the best of the entire series. The ending was depressing but also very sinister and Lost-like, much like the ending of "The Last Sam Weiss" was. Overall this has been the best episode of the series since "Worlds Apart" last season showed us how the series could have ended on a high note while maintaining the bittersweet feeling of it being the end of an era. I can't wait to see where the story is going but one thing is certain, it's not going to be what we're expecting.

Peter and Olivia are mourning the death of Etta but Peter contacts Anil and learns the The Observers are bringing equipment to change the atmosphere. Peter decides to bomb the wormhole to the future used by The Observers. Anil discloses that the resistance have captured an Observer and one device used to open the wormhole. However they do not know how to assemble the parts of the equipment. Peter uses his experience to judge The Observer's reaction and assemble the device. However it does not work properly and the emotionless Observer tells that he lured Peter. What will be Peter's attitude?

"An Origin Story" is another emotional episode of "Fringe" with Peter and Olivia mourning the loss of Etta in different ways. While Olivia is apathetic regarding the future of Earth, Peter seeks revenge. Now let's see what will happen to Peter and the device he removed from The Observer. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "An Origin Story"

Etta is Dead - Even though Olivia hopes it is just "Bad Dreams"

Walter had inadvertently set up a booby trap, because he wanted Bratwurst. So he had left flammable material next to the ambered Hibachi, which is unfortunately where the next tape is. So no tape today.

Meanwhile, the Observers are shown moving objects from the future through a wormhole, but the resistance was able to capture one of them. They also got one of their books. So Astrid puts on her cryptology hat to figure out what it says. It runs out to be a shipping manifest, and Astrid has an insight as to how to decrypt their language. There is also another prize: The resistance had also appropriated the device the Observers used to open the wormhole.

But Peter wants revenge. "I've made up my mind" and we know when Peter makes up his mind, sometimes that is not good. Walter of course, has the same objections as he did when Peter was secretly working on "The Vacuum" - He warns Peter that it is dangerous, but he can turn an Observer wormhole into a Black Hole.

He is warned that if he is going on a journey of revenge, to dig two graves. So he interviews the observer who picks this up, who then uses it to play with Peter's mind.

Meanwhile, Walter had found a tape of Etta when very young during happier times and he wants Olivia to watch it with Peter to bring them back into perspective. But even Olivia cannot do it right away, and Peter is bent on what he wants to do.

So Peter assembles the device, while the Observer tells him "You don't even know what you don't know." This is one imperious Observer, likening humans to insects, who think that "Darkness is nightfall rather than a descending Observer boot." This Observer claims he has no interest in why one Human is angry at another, as he has no interest in the politics of an ant colony. This observer is especially appropriate for the date this episode was shown, being a few days before the presidential election. Although Peter sets up an elaborate device to try to read The Observer's lack of emotions, It is actually Peter's own ingenuity that allows him to assemble the device- And the Observer was simply letting him do it.

Who knows what goes on in the labyrinth of an Observer's mind? But Peter meets Olivia to try to stop the Observer time tunnel. They open the "generator" before the Observers do - One of the Observers looks very much like John Pyper-Ferguson, but it is difficult to tell. The head Observer is David Stuart who has a face you want to despise. One of the Observers moves himself to where Peter and Olivia are, and that Observer reads Peter and picks up on the "Boot" thing, and actually starts to do it - Thank God for William Bell's Fast Guns. Peter shoots the antimatter into the wormhole and there is a spectacular scene where a brand new Ford Mustang (New for now, classic for 20 years from now) gets sucked into the wormhole. The head observer tilts his head like September always used to, and Fringe gets away in the Resistance van - Only to stop as they see that the Observer shipment still comes through.

But as Olivia is in the Alley, she sees Posters of Etta all down the street, with the words "Resist" - Which reminds me of another popular poster circulating recently, with the word "Hope."

Walter of course is baffled by the failure of his idea, but since it was not part of the actual plan set up by himself and September, we can hardly be surprised that it had no effect on the Observer 'Shipping Lane." This whole episode plays out like a tangent down a wrong-way street, and even the Observer Peter is torturing tells us this.

But Olivia's "run-in" with Etta's Picture in the alley was enough to get her to watch Walter's Beta Tape. But Peter needed to be there too - But he is too busy making a huge mistake. We get to see the device implanted in the Observer's Brain Stem which allows them to do the things that they can do. And now that we see it we finally get what Rebecca Mader said before Olivia killed her - "It's just Tech."

Tech that without an understanding of Peter should have brought to Walter first. So as we see Olivia embracing her Humanity and reaching out to Peter, Peter decides that he'll be "Ten Times the Man an Observer is - If he had that tech in his head."

So the question is "What happens Now?" - Will Peter be able to understand what he is up against better - But at the loss of what makes him Human? This is the same Peter who was killing the Mercury Shape- Shifters and taking their Hard Drives out-A Peter that Walter referred to as "Weaponized."

Without Etta how will out fringe gang survive? Saddened by the death of his daughter Peter looks through some of her old things. He comes across a button showing some weapons she left behind for them. Olivia wakes up hoping her daughters death was a dream but of course it was not a dream but reality. Back in Manhatton the observers drive to a location where they place a box containing a wormhole, out of the portal comes three large objects that are to be transported somewhere. Walter wants to take Etta's perfume to remember her by. Astrid calls saying that she cannot get through to a tape because there are objects that are flammable. Etta's phone rings and it's Anil looking to meet with Olivia. Anil brings them to the area where the wormhole was opened. They are told it happened worldwide. Anil tells them they have in observer captured. Peter sees a cube was used, he comes up with an idea to try close these wormholes to stop the shipping. Anil calls in the cube for Peter to look at. Olivia seems distracted in her work but she keeps working just to keep herself busy. Astrid the notices she has done something wrong so she needs to have more computers to find a code. Walter decides to help by showing him that he can turn the worm hole into a black hole. To fix the cube Peter goes to talk to the observer to help fix it. Olivia tells Peter she is worried he may get hurt because she does not want to lose another family member. Anil leaves Peter alone with the awoken observer. Peter starts to assemble the cube while looking at a closeup of the observers eye. Walter try's to give a video of one of Etta's birthdays to Olivia. She does not want to look at it but her tells her she is afraid of losing people. After he try's to tell her she needs to watch the tape she still does not take it. Astrib interrupts Walter and Olivia telling them another shipping is happening this afternoon. Peter has a piece that fits in four ways, he makes the right decision. When Olivia calls Peter has finished the cube before the observers were able. The observers see that Peterand Olivia have opened the wormhole thus causing them to fight back. Peter fires into the hole they think it is a black hole but the wormhole still works. Olivia then comes across photos of Etta representing the resistance. Peter try's to kill the observer by placing plastic over his head taking it off just in time. The observer tells him that he did not react to the cube but to a fly on the wall. Peter then hits the observer again because he let his emotions get the better of him. Olivia while alone decides to watch the tape while Peter cuts into the observer taking out a part of him killing him. Peter cuts a hole in the back of his head to place the part he got from the observer. Olivia calls Peter to come home, this happens as he reacts to the device.

EPISODE GRADE: B+ (MVP: Jake Jakeson)

OK We R Finally getting to the meat n potatoes, part of this the Last Season: 4 those of U concerned that Etta, is in fact Gone forever, pay Close attention to Olivia's Foreshadow 'Surely We didn't just get her Back, only to Lose her again, so soon' This is Fringe also, where Things R seldom, if ever as they seem to be. I am sure, She'll show up, down the Line, or I am a very Poor judge of Episodic TV: Anyway: I Digress... How very nice 2 see Homage, Tribute paid to Philip K Dick, a La The Observers so closely Resembling the 'Helpers' of The Adjustment Bureau: And Peter Interacting with the Tech he Liberated, is Obviously a somewhat Awkward homage to Terminator 2: All that Aside, it really Looks like we may in fact get a Very Satisfactory Wrapping Up, to what is Arguably, the Best Thing 2 Hit TV, at Least since JJ's Last Great attempt LOST: Cheers TRX15: "I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe" Makes U think Right!