Fringe Confusion
21 Feb 2022 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennickelsI just spent the last couple weeks rewatching all of Fringe. I watched it when it originally came out over ten years ago, but then lost interest with the last season. Or for whatever reason, I just stopped watching so never saw the end of it.
Now that I have watched it, I'm a little confused by the final episode.
In the final season, the team works to "reset" time to before the Observers invade with a plan that Walter can no longer remember. Eventually, they get all the pieces together and put the plan into motion.
They say several times that the plan ultimately is to make it so the Observers never existed in the form they know them so that they would never have any reason to interfere with the events of our reality or invade. In the end, they succeed and time resets to before the invasion when Olivia and Peter are happy with their three-year-old daughter at the park. The invasion never happens, and the episode ends with Peter discovering a letter from Walter (that will lead him to a tape explaining why he's disappeared).
The thing I don't understand is if the Observers never exist to interfere with time as they had in the previous seasons, then Peter would... not exist in our universe? Right?
Peter dies as a child. The adult Peter is from the parallel universe, and the only reason he exists in our world is because Walter kidnapped him to cure him BECAUSE an Observer (September) screwed up and made Walternate miss the cure. This is what sets off a chain reaction of events in both universes that creates Fringe events and brings the team together in the first place.
Without September distracting Walternate, he would have found the cure and his Peter would have been saved. There would be no reason for Walter to cross over and cause a rift that would result in Fringe events. Peter would grow up with his own family never meeting either Olivia and Olivia would just go on working for the FBI in a normal way.
Apparently, the writers of the show forgot their own lore when they reset time. I mean, it was a sweet, lovely ending for the characters. They finally get to be together and be happy (minus Walter disappearing on them), but it doesn't make any sense. The show ended nine years ago, and I assume the fans at the time made a big deal about this discrepancy as fans often do. Did the writers/showrunners/producers ever have an answer for this?
I'm sure I could find out, but that sounds like work, and I don't want to get sucked into another potentially toxic fandom that ruins the entire show for me. So I'll just continue to ponder things on my own.
The only explanation I can come up with is that Walter left an account of things in the future and the observers set off the chain of events that led to the Fringe events but then just never invaded. Which is dumb because those events nearly destroyed two universes, but it explains how Peter and Olivia end up together at the end.
I guess it's time to write myself a fic explaining it away.
Now that I have watched it, I'm a little confused by the final episode.
In the final season, the team works to "reset" time to before the Observers invade with a plan that Walter can no longer remember. Eventually, they get all the pieces together and put the plan into motion.
They say several times that the plan ultimately is to make it so the Observers never existed in the form they know them so that they would never have any reason to interfere with the events of our reality or invade. In the end, they succeed and time resets to before the invasion when Olivia and Peter are happy with their three-year-old daughter at the park. The invasion never happens, and the episode ends with Peter discovering a letter from Walter (that will lead him to a tape explaining why he's disappeared).
The thing I don't understand is if the Observers never exist to interfere with time as they had in the previous seasons, then Peter would... not exist in our universe? Right?
Peter dies as a child. The adult Peter is from the parallel universe, and the only reason he exists in our world is because Walter kidnapped him to cure him BECAUSE an Observer (September) screwed up and made Walternate miss the cure. This is what sets off a chain reaction of events in both universes that creates Fringe events and brings the team together in the first place.
Without September distracting Walternate, he would have found the cure and his Peter would have been saved. There would be no reason for Walter to cross over and cause a rift that would result in Fringe events. Peter would grow up with his own family never meeting either Olivia and Olivia would just go on working for the FBI in a normal way.
Apparently, the writers of the show forgot their own lore when they reset time. I mean, it was a sweet, lovely ending for the characters. They finally get to be together and be happy (minus Walter disappearing on them), but it doesn't make any sense. The show ended nine years ago, and I assume the fans at the time made a big deal about this discrepancy as fans often do. Did the writers/showrunners/producers ever have an answer for this?
I'm sure I could find out, but that sounds like work, and I don't want to get sucked into another potentially toxic fandom that ruins the entire show for me. So I'll just continue to ponder things on my own.
The only explanation I can come up with is that Walter left an account of things in the future and the observers set off the chain of events that led to the Fringe events but then just never invaded. Which is dumb because those events nearly destroyed two universes, but it explains how Peter and Olivia end up together at the end.
I guess it's time to write myself a fic explaining it away.
