“If we are capable of being gods, then it is our destiny to do so.” – William Bell
I just want to start off this review by thanking Fox for renewing Fringe for a final half-season. Ending Fringe on the Season Four finale would have been like living a life of celibacy after losing your virginity. Although, if the second half of “Brave New World” is any indication of the tight, adrenaline-weaved material in store for Season Five, it’ll be even harder to part ways with Network Television’s strongest sci-fi storyline.
If Fringe has taught its viewers anything over the past four years, it’s to question death. And I don’t mean that in some existential, reality-altering circle of life kind of way (though there’s been plenty of that, too); instead, I mean that in the very first episode of Fringe, it was suggested that “dead men tell no tales” no longer. It only took another few episodes for Walter to prove everyone wrong about the limits of mortality, retrieving partial information from the brain of a man skulled by the bullet of a sharpshooter.
Every character of significance has been given a reprieve of sorts. The introduction of an alternate universe gave most of the core cast a chance to survive their doppelganger, as was the case with alt-Broyles last season. This season’s universal reset offered yet another opportunity for blood to be unshed, even allowing Peter to circumvent the Observers’ attempt to erase him from existence.
Which brings us, as always, to William Bell (special guest star Leonard Nimoy). Through the use of soul magnets, he was once able to temporarily anchor himself to Olivia’s mind, before eventually retreating into her subconscious and then snuffing out of existence altogether. Now, with the resetting of the multiverse, Bell is once again alive, and again, faces certain bodily death.
Instead of facing a death he can understand – molecular instability caused by the phasing between physical realities, for example – Bell has been diagnosed with lymphoma, and seeks to create the world instead of protect it. Although I’ve been calling it “Noah’s Ark” for weeks, it turns out that the monster cargo ship is actually Bell’s Ark, which he has filled with the life he wants to populate his own, human-less world with.
Bell is so content that he has won that he even offers Peter and Olivia the chance to be his Adam and Eve when they arrive to save Walter. The ensuing events at the episode’s climax incurred my own audible shock, the likes of which rate up with the death of Wash (Alan Tudyk) in the film Serenity – so I won’t ruin it for you. I will say, however, that the activation of Olivia’s powers is of more consequence than first imagined, and despite the happy ending, will doubtless return to haunt most, if not all of Season Five.
Despite the stellar performances given every single week by the starring cast, I absolutely must commend the finale’s two guest stars, Rebecca Mader and Leonard Nimoy. Even though his retirement has so far consisted of voice-work that he can perform from his own home, the legendary Leonard Nimoy graces the small screen once more, reinvigorated by his character’s new, but limited life. Truly, no one else can match Nimoy’s imposing severity as a mad genius with an entirely realizable god complex.
When Fringe moved to Fridays, it took a more markedly explicit turn towards the shocking and sometimes-literally unnerving moments that helped excavate its site on Fox’s land. When Lost-alum Rebecca Mader appeared and then left in the first half of “Brave New World,” I felt that she was unjustly underused. Her reappearance, however, after revealing her allegiance to Bell’s cause, renewed my hopes, and then terrified me in the way only Fringe can.
Mader’s character captures September with a techno-mythic rune, what’s supposed to be anachronistic technology, and then shoots him in the chest, inciting the events that lead to the journey he has been making all season – all inclusive of the removal of the bullet and his being chased by fellow Observers. Which is all we need to know during his all-familiar and inevitable appearance in Walter’s lab, bearing the warning that “They are coming.”
Revisiting tech introduced in Season One, Walter is able to revive the brainwaves of the awesomely deceased Jessica. Mader’s performance, though obviously enhanced by some stellar editing, is, at its core, the most terrifying scene on Fringe to date. Even after the emotional earthquake that is the rest of the episode, that, and one other key scene will stick in my mind the most until Fringe returns for its final run.
Some stats and info about Fringe, “Brave New World: Part 2”
TV SHOW – Fringe
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 22
AIRED ON – March 11th, 2012
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Science Fiction, Drama
CREATED BY – J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci
CAST – Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Jasika Nicole, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Blair Brown
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.