Fringe (TV series): Difference between revisions

|list_episodes = wikipedia:List of Fringe episodes|List of Fringe episodes

|executive_producer = {{Unbulleted list|J. J. Abrams|[[wikipedia:Bryan Burk|Bryan Burk]]|Alex Kurtzman|Roberto Orci|[[wikipedia:J. H. Wyman|J. H. Wyman]]|[[wikipedia:Jeff Pinkner|Jeff Pinkner]]|[[wikipedia:Joe Chappelle|Joe Chappelle]]}}

|location = {{Unbulleted list|[[wikipedia:Toronto|Toronto]], [[wikipedia:Ontario|Ontario]] <small>("[[wikipedia:Pilot (Fringe)|Pilot]]")</small>|[[wikipedia:New York City|New York City]] <small>(Season 1)</small>|[[wikipedia:Vancouver|Vancouver]], [[wikipedia:British Columbia|British Columbia]] <small>(Seasons 2–5)</small>}}

|runtime = {{Unbulleted list|81 minutes <small>("Pilot")</small>|50 minutes <small>(Season 1)</small>|43 minutes <small>(Seasons 2–5)</small>}}

|company = {{Unbulleted list|[[wikipedia:Bad Robot Productions|Bad Robot Productions]]|[[wikipedia:Warner Bros. Television|Warner Bros. Television]]}}

|first_aired = {{Start date|2008|9|9}}

|last_aired = {{End date|2013|1|18}}

}}

 

'''''Fringe''''' is<!--"is" is correct, the show suddenly hasn't started to cease existing after its last episode--> an American [[wikipedia:science fiction on television|science fiction television]] series created by [[wikipedia:J. J. Abrams|J. J. Abrams]], [[wikipedia:Alex Kurtzman|Alex Kurtzman]], and [[wikipedia:Roberto Orci|Roberto Orci]]. It premiered on the [[wikipedia:Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] network on September 9, 2008, and concluded on January 18, 2013, after [[wikipedia:List of Fringe episodes|five seasons and 100 episodes]]. The series follows [[wikipedia:Olivia Dunham|Olivia Dunham]] ([[wikipedia:Anna Torv|Anna Torv]]), [[wikipedia:Peter Bishop|Peter Bishop]] ([[wikipedia:Joshua Jackson|Joshua Jackson]]), and [[wikipedia:Walter Bishop (Fringe)|Walter Bishop]] ([[wikipedia:John Noble|John Noble]]), all members of the fictional Fringe Division of the [[wikipedia:Federal Bureau of Investigation|Federal Bureau of Investigation]], based in [[wikipedia:Boston|Boston]], [[wikipedia:Massachusetts|Massachusetts]], under the supervision of [[wikipedia:United States Department of Homeland Security|Homeland Security]]. The team uses [[wikipedia:fringe science|fringe science]] and FBI investigative techniques to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a [[wikipedia:parallel universe (fiction)|parallel universe]].

 

 

Critical reception was at first lukewarm but became more favorable after the first season, when the series began to explore its mythology, including parallel universes and [[wikipedia:Alternate history|alternate timelines]]. The show, along with cast and crew, were nominated for many major awards. Despite its move to the "[[wikipedia:Friday night death slot|Friday night death slot]]" and low [[wikipedia:Nielsen ratings|ratings]], the series developed a [[wikipedia:cult following|cult following]]. It also spawned two six-part [[wikipedia:comic book|comic book]] series, an [[wikipedia:alternate reality game|alternate reality game]], and three novels.

At one point [[fringe:Timeline#1980s|in the early 1980s]], Walter assisted [[fringe:William Bell|William Bell]]'s experiments on children using the drug "[[fringe:Cortexiphan|Cortexiphan]]". The test subjects included both [[fringe:Olivia Dunham|Olivia Dunham]] and [[fringe:Nick Lane|Nick Lane]]. (Season 1 Episode 17 "[[fringe:Bad Dreams|Bad Dreams]]"). When Olivia finds out about this, she confronts Walter about his past morally dubious scientific experiments, for which he shows great remorse (Season 1 Episode 19 "[[fringe:The Road Not Taken|The Road Not Taken]]").

 

 

 

Charged with manslaughter, Walter was instead deemed mentally unstable and admitted to St. Claire's Psychiatric Institution. Only Walter's immediate family were able to visit him in the institution, though it took seventeen years before his son, [[fringe:Peter Bishop|Peter Bishop]], would even speak to him.

The scientist with whom Walter is speaking is [[fringe:Alistair Peck|Alistair Peck]]. He had been studying time travel in order to try to prevent the death of his fiance [[fringe:Arlette Turling|Arlette Turling]] in a car collision. However Alistair's attempts at time travel required a large amount of energy, and Walter tries to convince him to avoid risking possibly killing hundreds of people in the area where he would appear upon his arrival back in time. Walter continues to try to discourage Alistair from making the attempt by explaining his own case of coming to believe in a higher power, hoping for a sign of forgiveness in the form of a white tulip for his actions in stealing Peter from the parallel universe. With God's forgiveness, Walter believes it will be possible for Peter to forgive him once he learns the truth of who he is.

 

 

Alistair considers this, but with Walter's time up, the armed forces start to move in. Alistair jumps back in time again by only a few hours to complete the modified power calculations based on Walter's comments, and to prepare a pre-addressed letter he brings with him. As his location is discovered and armed forces barge in, Alistair re-engages his time machine. Alistair's modifications have worked, as he finds himself in the field, minutes before his fiance's death. Alistair is able to make it to his fiance in time, reuniting just long enough to say "I love you" before they are both killed by the collision.

In the present, the events of the episode never occurred, and Walter, having time to contemplate the letter to Peter instead of being called to the case, tosses it into the fireplace. Later, he receives an envelope in the mail—the one Alistair had prepared and instructed to be delivered to Walter on this specific date. Inside, Walter finds a hand-drawn image of a white tulip.

 

 

In [[fringe:Brave_New_World:_Part_2|Brave New World: Part 2]] (Season 4 Episode 22), Walter and Olivia learn that Bell is seeking a power source to collapse the two universes. Nina realizes that Olivia is Bell's power source; Jones' activities with the nanites and the sun-beam have been to invigorate Olivia's Cortexiphan powers and use them to start the collapse of the two universes. Olivia is emitting extreme electromagnetic energy, which Nina is able to use to locate Bell's ship. The Fringe team sets off for Bell's ship on helicopters as initial signs of the final collapse begin to occur around the world. Meanwhile, aboard his ship, Bell has shown Walter his vision for the new universe, using the creatures stowed aboard it to populate his ideal world. Bell reveals that he was set on to this path by Walter in the past after Walter lost both Peters and had desired to play God himself, describing an idea to collapse both universes and create a new one. Walter later rejected the idea and asked Bell to remove pieces of his brain to quell the idea, but Bell continued to follow on Walter's vision, culminating in the current events.

 

 

 

== Creation, life and death ==

The [[fringe:The Vacuum|Vacuum]] (or [[fringe:The Vacuum|the Machine]]) exists in both universes and has the ability to create or destroy worlds. It was designed by [[fringe:Walter Bishop|Walter Bishop]] in 2026 and sent back in time through a wormhole in the shattered universes' fabrics. Somehow, [[fringe:Walternate|Walternate]] acquired the device with the intention of destroying the other universe in order to save his own. He used his son, [[fringe:Peter Bishop|Peter Bishop]], in his insidious plot as nothing more than a pawn in his elaborate agenda.

 

After Walternate activates the machine on the [[fringe:Alternate Universe|other side]], Peter has to get in it on this side, but Walter isn't willing to let him go. Eventually, he talks to Peter and lets him go into the machine, but Peter is thrown out and is badly injured. '''Walter goes to a church and talks to God, asking Him to save his universe even though he knows he has done bad things.''' (Season 3 Episode 20 "[[fringe:6:02 AM EST|6:02 AM EST]]")

 

 

Once Peter gets back into the machine, his consciousness flashes forward to the year 2026. There Walter has been put in prison for destroying the other universe, but Peter is able to get him out to help him on a case. Walter realizes that the [[fringe:First People|First People]] are indeed them and that they have to send the machine back in time through a wormhole that was created by the universe's destruction. Since this future won't happen because the alternate universe wasn't destroyed, it is unknown if any of these events will come to pass. Back in the present day, Peter creates a bridge between the universes but then he is erased from the timeline and Walter is there to witness it. (Season 3 Episode 22 "[[fringe:The Day We Died|The Day We Died]]")

Walter however is torn between wanting to cure his son in the Alternate Universe, and the ethical consequences of crossing between timelines. His lab assistant, Dr. [[fringe:Carla Warren|Carla Warren]], tries to warn him of the dangerous consequences and the moral responsibility in front of such consequences. Walter however refuses to listen to her, taken by his own hubris in wanting to play God. (Season 2 Episode 15 "[[fringe:Peter|Peter]]")

 

 

Now, knowing that he was the only hope for the dying child on the Other Side, Walter crossed over, intent on giving the cure to the boy and proceeding to pick up the pieces of his life without a son. However, the vial containing the cure shattered, leading Walter, in a final act of desperation, to kidnap Peter, bring him Over Here, cure him, and return him to his rightful home. However, when the two returned, they fell through a patch of ice into a lake. With their fate apparently certain, Walter and Peter were saved by the same Observer, who seemed to have a job of saving Peter's life after he accidentally distracted Walternate.

Throughout his childhood, a rift between him and his father developed. After Walter was institutionalized, Peter moved to Allston with his mother because she could not afford the mortgage of their house in Cambridge. They didn't speak for the next 17 years, during the time that Walter was in the mental facility, until his hand was practically forced by the FBI agent [[fringe:Olivia Dunham|Olivia Dunham]] who needed his help to get in touch with Walter, the only one who could help with her investigations on fringe science cases. Walter was then released by the hospital into Peter's custody and Walter's former laboratory at Harvard University, which had been shut down in the meantime, was reopened for him to use.

 

 

 

 

 

After an incident on a bridge where Peter sees "a man from the other side", Peter realizes that he is not from the prime universe. Walter is saddened by Peter's anger and he tries to apologize, but Peter won't forgive him. (Season 2 Episode 19 "[[fringe:Brown Betty|Brown Betty]]")

In "[[fringe:An Enemy of Fate|An Enemy of Fate]]" (Season 5 Episode 13), there is a very emotional scene in which Walter says his goodbye to Peter.

 

 

== Emotions and conscience ==

The Observers are able to predict future events, and they are able to [[wikipedia:time travel|travel in time]] and across universes without difficulty because of their advanced technology. In "[[wikipedia:The End of All Things|The End of All Things]]" (Season 4 Episode 14), it is revealed that the group of Observers seen in the first four seasons are a team of scientists from the far future, or at least from one of humanity's many possible futures. This group of Observers traveled to their past to observe the events that led to their creation.

 

 

 

 

 

The episode "[[wikipedia:Letters of Transit|Letters of Transit]]" ([[fringe:Letters of Transit|Season 4 Episode 19]]) reveals that by the year 2609, the Observers had wreaked environmental havoc on the Earth - to the point that they decided to simply travel back in time to the early 21st century and colonize the planet before the environmental destruction occurred. In the year 2015, the Observers invaded from the future, instituting "The Purge" and killing many humans. Although humans continued to resist well into the year 2036, the Observers largely succeeded in conquering the planet. The fifth season focuses on events in this future, where the Observers, run by Captain Windmark, maintain control on the remaining humans through their own abilities and the assistance of human Loyalists. A rogue group of humans, the Resistance, fight against the Observers, and have come to learn much about the Observers' abilities, including that many extend from an implant in the back of their neck that expands their mental processing power at the cost of emotions. Due to coming from a much more polluted Earth from six centuries in the future, the unpolluted atmosphere of 21st century Earth is too "clean" for Observers to live in for prolonged periods of time (or perhaps, simply uncomfortable): thus after conquering present-day Earth, the Observers set up terraforming factories to increase the level of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere, which will cut short the life expectancy of regular humans by decades.