As seen in a wall mural in the season opener for Fringe, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv) and Walter Bishop (John Noble) try to overthrow the facist men in hats known as the Observers.
Fringe continues to hop-scotch over time barriers and standard prime-time story arcs by kicking off its fifth and final season with a frisky sci-fi storyline that picks up in the year 2036.
How? The FBI “Fringe” agents Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) and his scientific genius father Walter Bishop (John Noble) have been preserved in an orange substance known as Amber.
(Spoiler alert: Minor plot points follow.)
The good news: Waking up from a state of suspended animation, the agents are unravaged by the passage of time. The bad news: Future World is a bleak, denatured fascist state ruled by the once-neutral Observers.
For most of the series, these bald-headed men in hats from another dimension maintained a neutral stance by simply monitoring human destiny. But three decades on, they’ve become power-mad bastards who tolerate “Loyalist” earthlings but show no mercy to freedom fighters.
In Friday’s “Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11″ episode, the original Fringe Division power trio, plus perky aide Astrid (Jasika Nicole), join forces with Olivia and Peter’s long-lost daughter Etta (Georgina Haig), who has grown up to lead the resistance in addition to her day job as an investigator of criminally bizarre phenomena.
Peter (Josh Jackson), Astrid (Jasika Nicole, center) and Etta (Georgina Haig) discover a wall of amber in the Fringe season five premiere episode. Images courtesy Fox
Plot mechanics center on the Fringe team’s spaced out reunion: Where’s Olivia? We’ve got to find Olivia! Then: Where’s Walter? We’ve got to save Walter! But as always, it’s the little moments in between the torture scenes, chases and shoot-outs that lend Fringe its eccentric charms. Peter says to his absent-minded dad, “Walter I want to find Olivia more than anyone, but you have to wear pants.” Also, the state of a resource-despoiled future gets spelled out when Peter learns that a handful of walnuts are nearly worth their weight in gold as a form of barter.
The ongoing soap opera between Peter and Olivia takes a backseat for now — they’ve spent four years trying to hook up, and now they’ve gotten married and had a child with zero fanfare — but if their chemistry seems muted at the moment, the relationship will surely be tested in coming episodes.
On the world-saving front, the Transilience Thought Unifier, sets the table for the season’s over-arching battle plan in clever fashion. The gleaming chrome piece of headgear pulls together concepts downloaded into Walter’s brain by the one good Observer, named September. If those fragmented thoughts can be re-assembled, a plan for overthrowing the Observers may be in the offing. However, during a telepathic interrogation by a strong-minded Observer, Walter’s eyes start bleeding — not a good sign.
Created by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Fringe never got big ratings or industry respect from Emmy voters. Nonetheless, network execs gave current showrunner J.H. Wyman enough advance notice to figure out a 13-episode curtain call that should bring closure to the many fissures that cracked open over the course of Fringe‘s wormhole-ridden saga. Friday’s opening salvo promises a riveting journey before Olivia, Peter, Walter and company reach their final destination.
Fringe airs Friday at 9 p.m./8 p.m. Central on Fox.
Wired: Funny, brain-frying high-tech thriller satisfyingly sets the table for a final 13-episode season.
Tired: Newcomer Etta has yet to prove her mettle.
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