Dear Mr. Abrams,
I love your work. Really, I do. Fringe has been far more entertaining and sensible than The X-Files. I love that at its core, Fringe is really about the lengths to which a father will go out of love for his son.
But please, it's time to retire the doppelganger from your playbook. You've gone to that well just a few times too often. It was bad enough when you did it with Charlie, but the switcheroo in the season finale of Fringe was a doppel too far. Worse, it was blatantly telegraphed. The moment Olivia dyed her hair, there was no way the episode could end other than the wrong Olivia going home with Walter and Peter.
Worst of all, to make it work, you had to make the other characters into idiots. Are we honestly expected to believe, after their experience with Charlie's double, that our heroes never put even the simplest safeguards, such as a passphrase, into place? And when Olivia shows up with a different hair color, none of them think that maybe they should make sure she's the right Olivia?
Tell you what, I'll make you a deal. I'll cut you a free pass on this one if you give us Charlie back. He's feeling obsolete? Great. Bring him to our universe and have him join our side. Not as good as having Olivia's original trusted confidante back, but still a welcome addition to the ensemble.
But no more mistaken identity, trading places plotlines, okay?
Posted by Peter at May 21, 2010 10:07 PM | TrackBackI'm willing to give them a pass on this one. Olivia did prove her identity to Peter earlier in the episode, so when they met up with Walter and William later, repeating that would be unnecessary. Since the switcheroo happened mid-battle, there wasn't time to re-verify Olivia's identity before they had to GTFO. Now that they've made it back, I wonder how long it will take for them to discover Fauxlivia's (thank you io9) identity...
Still, this was the Bad Robot finale I was most looking forward to, and it did not disappoint.
Posted by: Derek on May 22, 2010 8:31 AMI enjoyed the episode, especially the Bell/Walter dialogue and Charlie's return. Regretfully, modern television conventions seem to require that you end a season on a cliffhanger. I think that results in unfortunate endings like this one, where they felt compelled to create this kind of scene out of last minute elements. (Sometimes it does work well, like the season finale of Warehouse 13, but they spent much more time working up to the cliffhanger.)
Anyhow, they achieved their goal... I'll be back for season 3!
Posted by: Ellen on May 23, 2010 6:59 AMI'll bet you this gets resolved EPISODE ONE of next season. 75% chance, with the other %25 by Episode Two. If it stretches past that, then I'll likely stop watching the show. Each new TV season is when I'm at my most brutal with deleting shows from my TiVo, and like Ellen said, this unfortunatly smacks of forced-cliffhanger-itus.
Which is why it didn't really bother me. It didn't feel stupid, just tired. But, like I said, there's little doubt in my mind that it'll all be wrapped up very quickly.
Which doesn't stop it from being weak... but makes it accpetable, to me.
Posted by: Dave on May 23, 2010 5:42 PMCurious though... I really loved this whole arc this season, but it kinda begs the question: now what? I kinda feel like they shot their whole wad here. Yeah, we still have the Observers, I guess, to "unravel," but... well... we'll see. It might be hard to get us all emotionally invested again next season as this story line was really the heart of the whole show.
And now it's essentially resolved.
Posted by: Dave on May 23, 2010 5:46 PM