For a season finale I expected a little more. Killing Olivia but then having the healing effects of the Cortexiphan heal her, and having the bullet take away her powers all seemed too cliche, lazy, and annoying.
I will give the episode this though, when Jessica Holt was reanimated, and her eyes were going all different directions and she was reciting nursery rhymes and so on, that was pretty damn creepy.
So, William Bell rang the bell and disappeared. Was he a some sort of ghost? That made no sense. Hopefully they’ll explain that, and where he got the info on how to trap September.
And finally, at the very end, as for who’s coming, we all know, but from a link I posted in the previous Fringe thread season five won’t completely deal with the Observer invasion.
I watched the last two episodes back to back tonight. I tried to view them as if they were a series finale, as they were filmed prior to the season 5 pick-up. The writers had to wrap it all up as satisfyingly as they could.
If it had been the end, I think that I’d have appreciated the solution. The killing and subsequent resurrection of Olivia seemed a bit too easy, but not so much that I threw a shoe at the television. Her facial expression and the way she hesitated before she told Peter she was pregnant seemed odd. Like she wasn’t sure if she should tell him or not…
The PB&J on Toast scene felt tacked on to set things up for next year. Kind of like, “well, we got another year, we need to film a quick teaser…” Hopefully we’ll get more of Molly Dodd next year.
All in all it was good enough, but not incredible…
I enjoyed this finale. Afterward, I thought there were quite a few thinly-veiled D&D “spells” that happened. Can you name them?
Here’s my list:
Cure Serious Wounds
Hold Person
Magic Missile
Haste
Greater Magic Weapon
Time Stop
Remove Paralysis
Speak With Dead
Mirage Arcana / Hallucinatory Terrain
Find the Path / Locate Creature
Overland Flight
Genesis
Control Winds / Storm of Vengeance
True Seeing
Plane Shift
Gate / Dimension Door
Raise Dead
I agree it was a pretty ‘meh’ wrap-up to the story arc. Everything was too easy. Personified to me by Olivia’s ability to easily travel between universes while falling through the air with Peter in tow. If this had been the series finale, it would have been even more of a disappointment.
I guess I’m kinda in the minority. I really liked it. Cortexiphan has always had “Whatever the writer needs” power, so the fast-healing didn’t seem like a cheat. The “jump between universes” thing was her only power for the first few seasons (other than the “turn off the lights in the box” power) so that didn’t feel like a cheat to me.
“Using up” the cortexiphan seemed weak to me, but it had to be done to get rid of her super-powers and like Nobody, I was unhappily expecting brain-damage or amnesia and was very glad they didn’t go that route.
I agree that the PB&J scene seemed tacked on, but it wasn’t bad.
I was also expecting amnesia. And with the face that Olivia made before she said she was pregnant, I was expecting “I have terminal cancer.”
When Walter showed the self-healing pie (I don’t think that phrase has ever been uttered before), I immediately knew Olivia would use that power in the finale, but I totally forgot about it when she got show.
The symbol holding the observer in place was kind of a silly idea. All of Olivia’s jedi powers were also a bit silly. You could tell they really wrapped it up like a series finale, then added, “they’re coming!” when they found out there would be more episodes.
As for the, “They’re coming,” part, I was expecting it. I knew that since season five was approved then this episode would have to end on a cliffhanger. The episode “Letters in Transit” kind of took away the mystery of who’s coming though.
Frankly, as much as I love the show, this episode makes me feel like ending on season five is the right decision.