It has taken me an hour and a half to literally compose myself to write this recap. If you follow me on Getglue, than you know what I wrote after Peter opened the envelope from his father.

“Fringe was the shiny beacon in a sea of less than stellar TV. It showed us what a show can and should be, entertaining, action-packed, heartfelt, humorous and intelligent. There is nothing else on TV like it and that is an utter shame. Fringe will be missed, but thank god the reruns are on the science channel.”

We were told that this shortened season would be like an epic movie and during the two hour finale we went through a roller coaster of emotions as we watched this beloved and highly thought of show barrel to the end.

We watched Olivia, not once, but multiple times step up to the plate to take care of business. She risked her life to snatch Michael before the observers dissected him, took on a slew of observers with Peter and Astrid to get items that would enable Michael to go to the future and finally she took out Windmark like the bad-ass she is.

Peter learned of his father’s plan to sacrifice his life to transport Michael to the future. When September tells him that he will be the one taking Michael, but then seeing September die… he knew what was going to happen. There he stood, watching his father about to escort the little observer boy to the future and he mouths to his father who considered Peter to be his favorite thing, “I love you, Dad.”
Just thinking about it makes me cry.

By Walter and Michael jumping to the future and prohibiting the creation of these observers, we see Peter calling out to his three year old daughter, Etta. This time she runs to him and they hug.

Bawling here.

In hindsight, this show was never about Olivia and the fringe events that sucked her into this crazy time traveling, universe hopping world… this show was about parental love. If you are a parent, you get it. You will sacrifice everything… even your own life for your child. That is what we heard from Walter, September and Peter. It was clearly stated in the following in a discussion between September and Walter after he realized that September had used the last time travel shot on himself, this would enable him to lead Michael to the future. September described how he felt when he was reunited with Michael. This coupled with seeing how Walter is with Peter made him realize that by escorting Michael to the future it would show Michael how much he loved him.

“When I saw what Peter meant to you, then I understood why [my feelings] were important,” he said. “When I take his hand and I lead him, he’ll know that I love him.”

Walter followed with, “That’s being a father.”

Walter had the most heart wrenching scenes. Yes, there were his moments with Peter, but it was the moment with Astrid that had me burst out into tears. This is a relationship where Astrid was the one constant in Walter’s life that could soothe him. She was almost maternal towards him. Astrid held on to hope, even if she knew that there was a good chance that this was not going to end the way she wanted, with the two of them drinking strawberry shakes in the lab. Walter hugged her and told her that her name was beautiful and he said it correctly for the last time.

Flash forward to the very end. Peter, Olivia and Etta are home. Peter picks up the stack of mail and he sees a plain envelope addressed to him from a “W. Bishop.” Inside, a card with a white tulip on it.

A fitting end to a wonderful show.

There were other high points to the episode:

We got to visit the alternate universe and we saw the other Olivia and Lincoln happily married and they had a son. This universe also seems to be faring well.

Broyles survived.

We got to see almost all the Fringe events happen in one hallway. It took out all the Observers and their sympathizers.

The last highlight happened when Peter looked at the stack of mail. Fringe thanked all their fans for their support.

We crossed the finish line indeed…

Image Credit: @ObFuSc8

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.

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)

The title for the final episode is “Enemies of Fate.”

Let the speculation commence…

In honor of the 10th Anniversary of Firefly, we are honoring the cast of the defunct and wildly popular show…

Forever Browncoats… xoxo

P.S. – Remember, you can watch Firefly and Fringe episodes on the Science Channel, check your local listings for dates and times.