“Don’t confuse a winning move with a winning game.” – William Bell
In celebration of the recent announcement of Fringe’s renewal for its final season, I`m going to break down the first part of the Season Four finale into five key moments that still need to be played out in next week’s second half.
* There have been a number of mirroring moments throughout Season Four. When Walter takes a woman (guest-star Rebecca Mader) infected with spontaneously combusting nanites back to his lab, she begins to lose her nerve and Olivia must talk her through her stress in order to avoid the inevitably explosive conclusion, much like she does in Season One.
* When Olivia slows the building kinetic energy, David Robert Jones effectively activates her Cortexiphan-induced abilities once more. When Jones begins destroying buildings with concentrated beams of sunlight, Olivia accesses the extremes of her empathic abilities, taking control of Peter’s movements in order to save his life. She kills the molecularly degenerating Jones through Peter in an electrifying showdown, making him realize his boss’ plans as he withers to ash.
* We finally know for certain that DRJ isn’t working alone to destroy both universes. As much as he has stolen from William Bell’s files at Massive Dynamic, he has also been getting his inspiration directly from the source. As foreshadowed in “Letters of Transit,” seen encased in amber at Walter’s lab, the one and only William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) makes a youthful reappearance in the Fringe universe. Believed dead in a car crash, apparently of his own accord while suffering from lymphoma, according to Nina, Bell leaves behind a string of clues that Walter follows from St. Claire’s mental hospital. He stumbles upon the Noah’s Ark of Fringe beasts that Bell plans to unleash on the unknowing population of the world, resulting in the unresolved shooting of Astrid (Jasika Nicole).
* We finally learn more about the miracle drug Cortexiphan. Not only is Olivia manifesting an array of kinetic abilities due to her treatment as a child, but Walter reveals the regenerative abilities of the same drug while growing a pig’s brain in some lemon cake. Astrid’s fate can still fall either way, but if she is saved, it will be the Cortexiphan that does it.
* It’s only a matter of time until Peter and Olivia conclude where Walter’s suspicions regarding Bell have led him. They should have recognized the direness of his belief when he chose to return to St. Claire’s mental hospital – where, by the way, he is goaded by a janitor bearing an eerie similarity to the animated nightmare-man whom Olivia believes is going to kill her. It was not clear whether Peter saw him or not, but we sure did, and I fear he may still come back.
Some stats and info about Fringe, “Brave New World: Part 1”
TV SHOW – Fringe
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 21
AIRED ON – March 4th, 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.