Panel: Lance Reddick and Exec Prod. JH Wyman

Images courtesy of:Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Liane Hentscher/FOX

THE THRILLING WORLDS OF “FRINGE” COME TO A MIND-BLOWING END ON THE TWO-HOUR SERIES FINALE FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, ON FOX

Series Celebrates 100 Episodes

The acclaimed series that has explored the human condition through the prism of parallel universes, unexplainable phenomena and unimaginable threats, reaches a milestone 100th episode and comes to an epic and climatic conclusion. First, the Fringe team engages a desperate plan as Olivia embarks on a dangerous and otherworldly journey into the unknown. Then, Peter, Olivia, Walter, Astrid and Broyles face off against the Observers in one final and extraordinary battle for the fate of mankind. The five-season saga comes to an epic and emotional end in the special two-hour “Liberty/An Enemy of Fate” series finale episode of FRINGE airing Friday, Jan. 18 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). (FR-512/513) (TV-14 V)

Cast: Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham; Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop; John Noble as Walter Bishop; Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles; Blair Brown as Nina Sharp; Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth

Zap2It learned  that the January 11th episode of Fringe is a gift to longtime fans of the show, but they could only divulge the following of the upcoming episode:

1. Olivia gets an eyeful. In the first of many callbacks to the pilot episode, Walter goes into the sensory deprivation tank to pull memories of September from his subconscious. He’s not a fan of the swim trunks he’s supposed to be wearing, though. “They were too restrictive. My body needs to be as free and open as my mind is so I can find September,” he tells Olivia. It’s good to know that even with his brain intact, Walter is still Walter.

2. Time travel to 2609. Captain Windmark blips into the distant future to get some answers — and he admits that he’s become consumed by the idea of eliminating Walter, Peter, and Olivia from existence entirely.

3. Walter and Peter’s relationship shifts. We’ve always been a little bummed that in this timeline, Walter doesn’t remember all of the development and growth that occurred between him and Peter over the course of the first three seasons. The father/son bonding was such an important theme to the show, so it was disappointing to have it erased, at least where Walter was concerned. There’s some much-needed resolution to that in the very beginning of this episode. (We’ll just say that we started crying less than three minutes in. We’re not proud.)

4. The Observer origin story. We’ll finally learn how they were created, and why. One particularly interesting piece of information? Because Observers don’t feel romantic love, human methods of reproduction — sex, y’all — became inconvenient, and they developed a new way to reproduce, using genetic material from donors. Michael’s genetic makeup is important.

5. A tiny spark of hope. As revealed in the above trailer for the episode, September and Walter’s plan involves resetting time — which gives Olivia hope that she and Peter may see Etta again. But we’ve seen in the past that wishful thinking can be a dangerous thing, and Peter is hesitant to be even cautiously optimistic.

6. One last sacrifice. This season, Etta and Nina both sacrificed their own lives for the greater good, making conscious decisions to die so that Walter, Peter, and Olivia could go on to save the world. In “The Boy Must Live,” we learn that one more character we’ve grown to love will have to sacrifice his or her life in order to complete the plan.

You’ll want to record the March 3rd episode of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman stated the following, I think Episode 12 is going to be something special. All [eight episodes] are pretty great, but be on the lookout for that one.”

We’ll continue to see one of  the princesses (either Aurora or Mulan) on Once Upon a Time after the show returns on January 6th. Regarding the character that Ethan Embry will portray on the fairy tale hit, all we know is that he’s an outsider, a stranger and he is not a fairytale character will not be someone anyone recognizes from fairytale land.

Make room for another Winchester on Supernatural. Playing a central role in the hour will be Sam and Dean’s paternal grandfather Henry, whose arrival stirs up some daddy issues for the pair. “In other words, what did their father’s father have to do with the way their father turned out? A lot of that is explored head-on,” Supernatural show-runner JeremyCarver stated. “There’s a tremendous amount of emotional ground that’s covered. When we get a chance to do one of these episodes, we try to do it with great care because we’re essentially [etching] a part of the mythology into stone.” Might Jeffrey Dean Morgan make a cameo as Sam and Dean’s late pa? Responds Carver, evasively: “As with any character, we always have open discussions about everybody in our universe.”

It seems Cat and Vincent will have to wait longer to get some nookie because Beauty and the Beast is getting ready to introduce a charismatic and slightly shady A.D.A. in his late 20s who will work closely with Kristin Kreuk’s Cat on a special task force. Business will turn to pleasure and, if all goes according to plan, the not-yet-cast New Guy could become a series regular.

We’ll finally get to see Diggle’s back-story on the CW’s Arrow. We will also get to see the importance of his relationship with Oliver and what it means to Diggle’s family.

A bit of normal news is that Paleyfest will host panels centered on Once Upon a Time and Revolution and if you want to keep tabs on the event, click here.

Regarding pilots, ABC has ordered 13 episodes of Weird Desk, a drama series that centers on an a top-level organization (“Weird Desk”) that is tasked with investigating paranormal, supernatural and extra-terrestrial cases. The organization is led by a character named Morgan, a stubborn and brilliant man who has a female partner named Rosetta. Anyone reminded of X-Files?

Promos to view:

Supernatural S8:Ep.10 – Tom and Frayed:

Fringe: S5:Ep.8 – The Human Kind

Arrow S1:Ep.9 – Year’s End

ACTIONS HAVE TERRIFYING CONSEQUENCES ON AN ALL-NEW “FRINGE” FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, ON FOX

Only Four FRINGE Episodes Remain

As the countdown to the climactic series finale continues, the Fringe team is running out of time to save the world. As Peter, Olivia, Astrid and Walter scramble to tap into a key piece of the puzzle to defeat the Observers, they enlist the aid of Nina Sharp who conjures up a plan on an all-new “Anomaly XB-6783746″ episode of FRINGE airing Friday, Dec. 21 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). (FR-510) (TV-14 V)