# Fringe Season 5 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172 "2012-09-28T18:54:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/1 "2012-09-28T18:54:17Z")
Heads up, Fringe returns tonight (Friday September 28) with “Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11” Brian ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/2 "2012-09-29T02:11:38Z")
Looks to be a great final season! Loved the nod to Three Colors: Blue. ---
**Author:** ![mage-girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@mage-girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mage-girl)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/3 "2012-09-29T02:59:28Z")
Thought it was very cool so far! It will be sad to see it end, but at least it gets an actual ending (unlike other sf shows that get canceled). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/4 "2012-09-29T03:24:27Z")
Kicks off with just the right tone and pacing. Nice to see the anomalous episode from last season (Letters of Transit) now pay off. Too bad they didn’t keep “Desmond” as a character. Seems like they did find a Scottish replacement, tough. Glad it appears the actress playing Etta can act. The reunion scene between her and Olivia was really well done. Also, that ending with Walter and the music was perfection. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/5 "2012-09-29T05:41:49Z")
Okay, that made slightly more sense to me than most of the episodes last year. I hope they dial the incomprehensible down a bit this year - I don’t need to be spoon-fed my science fiction, but I do need to be able to make sense of it. ---
**Author:** ![BTEzra04](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9f8e36/32.png) [@BTEzra04](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BTEzra04)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/6 "2012-09-30T00:01:49Z")
I love John Noble. I didn’t realize how much I love this show and missed it until I saw this premiere. Did I read somewhere that they’ll be switching back and forth between the years (i.e., the future and where we left off at the end of the last season) or was I just imagining it, or read it as fan speculation? Either way, I think that would be a fun angle. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/7 "2012-09-30T00:44:22Z")
From what I read, this season will take place in the future, following this one story arc all season (no monsters of the week episodes). Though I imagine there will be a return to the present in the finale, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/8 "2012-09-30T06:19:58Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Though I imagine there will be a return to the present in the finale, at least. That’s assuming they press a big reset button at the end - which is not something this show is prone to do. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/9 "2012-09-30T07:32:19Z")
I don’t know if they’d need a reset button as much as just a flashback, but it’s true they may just keep it all in the future, since they’re pretty much the same ages as they are in the present. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/10 "2012-09-30T13:30:51Z")
I seem to have lost the plot a bit on this one. So Peter and Olivia were talking about losing their child. Was Etta stolen from them by the Observers? Been a while and I occasionally fall asleep during their monster of the week episodes… ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/11 "2012-09-30T14:22:39Z")
> [@Smid](#): > > I seem to have lost the plot a bit on this one. > > So Peter and Olivia were talking about losing their child. Was Etta stolen from them by the Observers? Been a while and I occasionally fall asleep during their monster of the week episodes… I don’t think we have observed what happened there yet… ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/12 "2012-10-01T15:12:54Z")
I’m with **Smid**. I had to look up season 4 on wiki. Last season ended with the team foiling William Bell’s Island-of-Dr.-Moreau plan, Olivia getting shot and then getting better, and September (the good observer) warning them that “They are coming.” Apparently he was referring to the bad observers. And Olivia was pregnant, presumably with Etta. But it was apparently almost 4 years until the observers actually did come. Should be interesting to see how things fill in. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/13 "2012-10-01T20:58:21Z")
> [@Smid](#): > > I seem to have lost the plot a bit on this one. > > So Peter and Olivia were talking about losing their child. Was Etta stolen from them by the Observers? Been a while and I occasionally fall asleep during their monster of the week episodes… Yes. In the flashback/dream to when the Observers invaded, Olivia, Peter and Etta are in the park (Etta is playing with the dandelions). The Observers show up and grab Etta, Peter tries to find her, then the explosion and he and Olivia are in the emergency hospital and he is looking for her. We don’t have the details, but that seems to be what they are talking about. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/14 "2012-10-01T23:22:27Z")
I didn’t mind the future thing as a one-off episode or two, but I dunno about making it the entire final season like they’re apparently doing. Things were already a little too different with nobody remembering Peter’s life. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/15 "2012-10-02T02:13:27Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I didn’t mind the future thing as a one-off episode or two, but I dunno about making it the entire final season like they’re apparently doing. Things were already a little too different with nobody remembering Peter’s life. Yeah, that’s kind of my point of view. I’ve been reading this threat to mostly see if I could figure out wtf happened in the episode, as it all went over my head. I’m sure it was easy to follow if it interested you, but I don’t like the storyline, so I space out and it becomes incomprehensible. I’d not even bother, but there are so few left. ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/16 "2012-10-02T03:09:20Z")
Ok, I can’t recall if they’ve indicated what’s going on with the other universe. In this future, is there still the other side with Fauxlivia, Walternate et al? ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/17 "2012-10-02T07:17:34Z")
The musical ending didn’t do anything for me. It really seemed kinda tacked on, as though they realized the episode was going to come up a couple of minutes short and threw something together in haste in order to fill it out. But I thought it was a pretty good episode otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/18 "2012-10-02T14:34:00Z")
I don’t think we know what’s happening in the other universe. I’m pretty sure it still exists, because Lincoln crossed over to it permanently at the end of last season. I don’t get the observers. They can travel through space and time however they please, so why not take over the earth in the early stages of civilization when humans can put up the least resistance? ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/19 "2012-10-02T17:37:59Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > I don’t think we know what’s happening in the other universe. I’m pretty sure it still exists, because Lincoln crossed over to it permanently at the end of last season. > > I don’t get the observers. They can travel through space and time however they please, so why not take over the earth in the early stages of civilization when humans can put up the least resistance? I think the whole point behind the “observing” was that they were trying to find the perfect time to come back. As for why they decided to do it now, I have no idea. Hopefully that gets explained. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172/20 "2012-10-02T18:33:45Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I think the whole point behind the “observing” was that they were trying to find the perfect time to come back. As for why they decided to do it now, I have no idea. Hopefully that gets explained. Fanwank – a lot was made about how the Observers couldn’t breathe air that was “too pure.” Perhaps they needed some base level of pollution and/or the existence of the technology required to build the machines that would finish the job. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fringe-season-5/636172.md?page=2)