Watercooler: Fringe, 2036?
Henry Ian Cusick
It's a good thing this piece is running on Monday, because we needed a few days to recover from the Fringegasm that was last Friday's "Letters of Transit." Wow.
In keeping with the show's 19th-episode tradition of taking a break from blowing our mind with their usual storytelling to blow our minds with something completely different, this season's gear-shifting hour was a major win. Set in a dystopian 2036 where the Observers have take over, Fringe Division is just there to do their bidding and our present-day team has been encased in amber, this one felt almost like a prequel to Fox's late sci-fi series Dark Angel, except that it didn't fall apart in the second half of its run and there wasn't a single mention of Jessica Alba having cat hormones.
No, this was pure Future Fringe and you gotta love Lost vet Henry Ian Cusick for jumping back into J.J. Abrams territory to play a rogue Fringe agent whose partner, Etta, had a very personal reason for rescuing Walter and company. Turns out (reaaaaallly late spoiler alert) Etta is actually "Henrietta," daughter of Peter Bishop. And presumably Olivia, seeing how much Georgina Haig resembles Anna Torv. And while we only got one moment between dad and daughter, it knocked our socks off.
So here's the thing: In the future, William Bell is still alive but amberfied, Olivia is dead (allegedly because of Bell), Broyles is in cahoots with the Observers, Nina Sharp is paralyzed, and Walter has been reunited with that piece of his brain that was turning him into a monster. If this episode is supposed to be a hint at what a possible Season 5 could look like, are you down with this new reality? Can you imagine Fringe shifting gears and becoming all about the battle to bring down the Observers? Tell us below!
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