Fringe
Season Three Review
The FOX series Fringe entered its third season
having established itself as a sci-fi drama that was not afraid of showcasing
its roots. Having begun life as an X-Files-style investigation
into the “fringes” of modern day science, its mythology
evolved into a world of parallel universes at war with each other that
shredded any pretext that the series was a traditional network television
show. The trend continued during season three as the creators and writers
pushed the boundaries of its narratives by incorporating numerous twists
and turns while treating the audience as intelligent viewers capable
of following the storyline being played out in front of them.
The sophomore
installment of Fringe saw two of the main protagonists of the
series—FBI agent Olivia Dunham and scientist Walter Bishop—traveling
to the parallel universe to retrieve Walter’s estranged son Peter.
While the elder Bishop had raised him from a young age, in actuality
the younger Bishop was the son of the Walter Bishop of the parallel
universe and in essence had been kidnapped from that world when the
Peter Bishop of this universe died of a rare disease. That action by
a grieving father, who was spurred on by the need to save the other
Peter from the same fate as his own, ripped the very fabric of the universe.
While the effect was only beginning to be felt by this world, the aftershock
had wreaked damage on the other side for decades.
Walternate,
as the parallel universe Walter Bishop was nicknamed on the series,
became determined to not only retrieve his lost son but save his own
world by destroying that of the original Walter Bishop. Although Peter
agreed to return to this dimension at the end of season two, Walternate
was able to switch Olivia Dunham with her parallel universe self before
that could be successfully accomplished. The third season of Fringe
thus began with two storylines to explore—one “over here”
and one “over there.” Initial episodes alternated between
those two worlds with narratives featuring the original Olivia Dunham’s
attempts to return home while her parallel self embarked on a clandestine
mission of infiltration and deception.
Although
that may sound confusing, the creators and writers of Fringe
managed to keep the story understandable by using the show’s traditional
blue-tinted opening credits to represent episodes centered on this universe
while utilizing a red-tinted sequence for the other side. The narrative
device also offered a richer exploration of the two worlds and the contrasting
nature of the main characters. The original Olivia Dunham was experimented
on by Walter Bishop and his lab partner William Bell at the age of three,
for instance, leaving her often cold and mistrusting as an adult. Without
such an experience of her own, the parallel Olivia Dunham was “much
quicker with a smile” and “less intense.” Walter Bishop,
meanwhile, spent seventeen years in a mental institution prior to the
pilot episode of Fringe while his equally brilliant counterpart
had risen to the position of Secretary of Defense in the alternate United
States.
During
the first two seasons of Fringe, a romantic undercurrent developed
between Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop that did not come into fruition
until the third season. Unfortunately for all involved, the subsequent
relationship involved Peter and the parallel universe Olivia. When the
two female FBI agents eventually returned to their respective home worlds,
Peter had to come to terms with falling for the wrong woman while Olivia
struggled with the depth of personal intrusion the other Olivia was
able to reach in her life. Here again Fringe was able to distance
itself from other television shows with installments that not only featured
sci-fi elements but allowed for an exploration of the characters as
they struggled with the after-effects of their actions.
The
X-Files, for instance, spliced numerous stand-alone episodes within
each of its seasons that had nothing to do with the main storyline of
the series to go along with the “mythology” episodes that
explored the overarching narrative. The ABC drama Lost, on
the other hand, used a more serialized approach that entailed each installment
to be intertwined with the grander epic being told. While Fringe
has a serialized nature to its episodes in the same way as Lost,
it also utilizes the standalone style of The X-Files to frame
its overarching narrative. Viewers are thus capable of not only following
the show’s mythology week-to-week, as opposed to sporadically
throughout the season like on The X-Files, but can also enjoy
them on an individual basis in a way that Lost never allowed.
More significantly,
the standalone episodes of Fringe often feature a storyline
that parallels those of the main characters. In the first installment
following Olivia Dunham’s return to her home universe, for instance,
the group explores a series of deaths revolving around organ donations
from a teenage suicide victim. It turns out that the culprit is attempting
to put the girl back together in order to bring her back to life. “Her
eyes,” he explains to Olivia Dunham after he has succeeded. “When
I looked into her eyes, it wasn’t Amanda. I don’t know what
I brought back but I know it wasn’t her.” The comment likewise
contrasts to Peter Bishop’s inability to realize that the Olivia
Dunham he fell in bed with was not the Olivia for whom he had developed
feelings.
While Olivia
Dunham and Peter Bishop struggled with their personal relationship,
Walter Bishop was left to ponder the ramifications of his actions decades
earlier. In the episode “Os,” another scientist found a
way to combine two of the heaviest elements on earth and use them to
make handicapped individuals lighter-than-air and thus able to float.
“Our entire universe exists in a delicate state of equilibrium,”
Walter Bishop explains during the installment. “And we know what
happens if that balance is upset. It could cause a chain reaction. He’s
messing with the fundamental constants of our world. It could lead to
chaos.” He could just as easily be referring to himself.
As the
main characters slowly came to terms with their internal demons, the
mythology of Fringe expanded with the belief that ultimately
only one of the two universes could survive and the discovery of an
ancient doomsday device, left in pieces scattered around the world by
a “first people” who walked the Earth before the time of
dinosaurs. The machine was somehow linked to Peter Bishop with the expectation
that he alone could decide the fate of competing mankinds. Alongside
this apocalyptic storyline, however, Fringe offered something
else—the concept of “hope.”
“There
are billions of innocent people over there, just like here,” Peter
Bishop remarks in regards to his presumed destiny. “People with
jobs, families, lives. I gotta believe there’s another way.”
The same philosophy is likewise shared with the parallel universe’s
Phillip Broyles when he tells Olivia Dunham, “I’ve seen
war but if what you’re saying is true, in the end I need to believe
in hope.”
That hope
appears to evaporate when Walternate finds a way to turn on the twin
doomsday devices of both worlds and uses them to extinguish the universe
he considers to be an enemy. Faced with no alternative, Peter Bishop
enters the machine and finds himself transported into a future where
it is Walternate’s universe that has been destroyed while the
remaining one continues to be torn apart. The experience only reaffirms
Peter’s belief that there has to be “another way”
and he returns to the present intent on making different choices, first
amongst them bringing the competing protagonists together in one dimension.
“I
understand now,” Peter explains to the dual versions of Walter
Bishop and Olivia Dunham. “I understand what the machine does…
but I know something else. I’ve seen doomsday and it is worse
than anything you can possibly imagine. This isn’t a war that
can be won. Our two worlds are inextricable. If one side dies, we all
die.”
As he continues
to speak of the need to work together, however, Peter Bishop suddenly
disappears, not only from the room he has been in but from the memories
of those around him. The third season of Fringe thus concludes
not only with the hope that the end of the world can be averted but
with the apparent loss of Peter Bishop in the process, leaving the aftereffects
of his action left for a fourth season to explore. Based on what Fringe
has accomplished from a narrative standpoint so far—in regards
to both its epic storyline as well as examination of the individuals
within—it will no doubt be a season that does not disappoint.
Anthony
Letizia (May 18, 2011)
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