Grade: A
Following last weeks cliffhanger of Olivia’s disappearance in “A Better Human Being”,
Fringe follows up with one of its best stories in its ‘winter finale’ for the season in
”The End of All Things”. Not only do we get great performances all around from everyone but are also treaded to the return of Jared Harris as David Robert Jones. The as well brings an end to one of its largest mysteries with the appearance of September, played by Michael Cerveris, & the reveal of just who exactly The Observers are. What
Fringe accomplishes in
”The End of All Things” solidifies the series continuation to take risks & delve deeper into its mystery & story about Peter Bishop & Olivia Dunham.
The episode follows the search for the recently dissapeared/kidnapped Olivia Dunham who as it turns out has been taken by David Robert Jones & placed in a room with Nina Sharp. It becomes apparent that Jones is trying to activate Olivia again as he did one the Blue/Prime universe by torturing Nina. It also becomes apparent to Jones that something odd is going on & that he is not ahead of everyone as Olivia, who now has memories from the Prime universe, relays to Jones that he had tested her with the lights before. This leads to a great performance by Jared Harris who plays Jones so well. Not only does he keep up with his continued arrogance but subtly relays the insecurity Jones feels from having no knowledge to compete with that of Peter & now Olivia’s knowledge of his fate & actions from the Prime universe. Meanwhile the other Nina Sharp is being questioned by Broyles & Lincoln as well Peter, Walter, & Astrid are trying to find out just what happened to Olivia & trying to retrieve footage from a camera found in Olivia’s apartment. While they are doing this September appears still wounded from his gunshot attempted to warn Peter of something. This leads them to bring back the previous element of mind exploration this time with Peter going into the mind of the Observer, September.
”The End of All Things” is
Fringe at its finest & shows that the series is not finished telling its story. Since
”Neither Here Nor There” it was apparent that
Fringe was going for something bigger & was not content with letting some of its biggest mysteries go unsolved. The fruits of the series and the season are apparent at there best here with the reveal of who The Observers are & just how dedicated this David Robert Jones is towards accomplishing his still unknown task. In what could be an end to
Fringe, at least on Fox, it is remarkable the way that the are able to continue to produce gripping stories without the need or apparent want to try & capture a new & larger audience just to garner larger ratings. Though all things do end it is great that a well done story does not as proved here.
