Fringe 3.20: Countdown to Season 3 Finale: 1 of 3

First, let me mention that that guy with grey hair, in the coming attractions for next week's Fringe - on screen for a split second or two?  I've never seen him before, and think he'll therefore play some major role in the resolution of this season's story.

Meanwhile, about tonight's episode:

• Walternate indicated at the beginning that he extracted half of Peter's DNA from Peter and Fauxlivia's baby - maybe Walternate can combine that with some of his own DNA to recreate enough of Peter's DNA, so that, even if Peter Bishop dies, he can be re-created.
• Is Sam Weiss good (working on our side) or bad (working for Walternate)?  I think he's good, but have no evidence in support of this, just that I like mysterious people who can save the day working in bowling alleys.
• Olivia so happy to be with Peter at the beginning of the episode was a nice, classic heroic way to start her and Peter's story tonight:  you ever notice in great epics how the worst things happen just when the protagonists are finally happy and at peace with their personal conflicts?

Season finales of this magnitude can sometimes entail the death of a major character.  If we are to believe Waternate, our very world could be the victim.  And then what?  Some or most or all of our major characters get over to the other side to continue the fight there?  This would be a highly original turn.  I wouldn't rule it out.  But I don't think it's going to happen.

What about the loss of a major character, then? Peter is the obvious choice - but as I indicated above, Walternate's possession of half of Peter's DNA (plus Walternate's own DNA) could well mean that our Peter in effect cannot be killed (unless that DNA is also destroyed).  I don't think Peter's going to die, in any case.   Who, then?  Sam's death would have the least impact on our characters, but is he an important enough character to really matter?  Broyles already died once on the other side - killing him again on our side would be too much.  That leaves Walter, Olivia, Astrid, and Nina.   All except Nina have doubles on the other side ... which means any one of them could be killed, with their character from the other side then coming over here and taking up the lost character's life ...

How about Walter's cow?  Does she have a double on the other side?

More next week ...

And coming this August ... my essay  The Return of 1950s Science Fiction in Fringe in this new anthology ...





See also Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia ... Fringe 3.2: Bad Olivia and Peter ... Fringe 3.3: Our/Their Olivia on the Other Side ... Fringe 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber ... Fringe 3.7: Two Universes Still Nearing Collision ... Fringe 3.8: Long Voyages Home ... Fringe 3.10: The Return of the Eternal Bald Observers ... Flowers for Fringenon in Fringe 3.11 ... Fringe 3.12: The Wrong Coffee  ... Fringe 3.13: Alternate Fringe ... Fringe 3.14: Amber Here ... Fringe 3.15: Young Peter and Olivia ... Fringe 3.16: Walter and Yoko ... Fringe 3.17: Bell, Olivia, Lee, and the Cow ... Fringe 3.18: Clever Walternate ... Fringe 3.19 meets Inception, The Walking Dead, Tron
 
See also reviews of Season 2: Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ...  New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22:  Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch

See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, Garden.com, eMusic

---

---

The Plot to Save Socrates




"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book