Fringe: “The Day We Died” – review

Woo-hoo! The season finale of Fringe is now in the books, fans–was it as great as last season’s cliffhanger? Though I liked it, and thought some parts of it were as excellent as any other episode of Fringe that rank among the best, I have my reservations, which I’ll get into in this review. Perhaps I let my expectations get too high, and nothing could live up to them. After you have read this review, please consider leaving your comments below, and let me know what you thought about this episode, “The Day We Died.” Let me know if you agree with my conclusions about this episode, or if your opinions are different.

Before I get into specific highlights and quotes I consider to be memorable from “The Day We Died,” I’ll give my general observations on it. I didn’t especially like the idea of having the season finale set primarily in the future, or a possible future, though Walter (John Noble) does eventually figure out a way to “cheat the Rules of Time.” I would have liked the episode to have been more linear, though to perhaps have had the Prologue (the first bit before the first commercials) deal with the Future Peter/Fringe Division scenario, and then to have perhaps most of the first episode of the fourth season to cover what happened in this episode. I think that this episode should have dealt with the actual destruction of Walternate’s universe via worm-hole, his pleading for help and escape, Walter’s trial, Peter’s (Joshua Jackson) and Olivia’s (Anna Torv) marriage, etc., in a linear fashion, and for it to perhaps conclude with Walter’s sentencing and imprisonment.

But this is all armchair directing, and though this episode wasn’t the one I’d eagerly anticipated in many ways, I did still like it. It had many bittersweet moments, guilty feelings, recriminations, and ideas characters have about second chances and the possibility of starting over despite the terrible sort of future our Earth faces still, due to being “inexorably linked” (in Walter’s words) with Walternate’s Earth. One example of the idea of starting over is Peter’s and Olivia’s plan to have a baby of their own.

Hope still exists for Peter’s and Olivia’s future and their happiness, at least until later on in the episode, when Walternate shoots Olivia in the center of her forehead to destroy Peter’s happiness. This took me be surprise, and I yelled out “No! This can’t be happening!” I anticipated the end of the episode (though not the comments of the Observers, which I’ll get to), but I was shocked by Walternate’s shooting of Olivia. I’d read the someone would die, but for some reason, I thought it would probably be Lieutenant Broyles (Lance Reddick). This is especially because of a Bonus Photo (below), as Broyle’s right eye looks pretty wonky. I thought that this was due to some strange illness he might have gotten or that some crazy scientist might give him that would result in his death–but, this, of course, was not the case.

Highlights/Quotable Quotes

I am writing this review right after the original airing of “The Day We Die,” so I didn’t have access to any transcripts of the show to check the accuracy of the quotes, though I hopefully have retained the general gist of what quotes follow.

1.) Seeing Peter (an older version) on a gurney, strapped down to it, and Astrid in a different role, as a full-fledged Fringe Division agent, was pretty cool. Certain things and the shifting of the roles of various characters threw me off at first, though. I believe the writers of this episode placed high expectations on the abilities of their viewers to quickly catch on to the scenario of the future that most of the episode involves, and the new, changed roles of the characters. Though I did fairly rapidly accept these changes, and then was able to more easily get into the episode, I admit at first I was thinking to myself: “Huh? What’s going on?”

2.) This thought occurred to me when, for instance, a young Fringe agent was introduced to us (I didn’t hear her first name ever, if it was ever mentioned), early on in the episode: Agent Dunham. We learn later that Walter is her uncle. Whoever she is, she did a great job of acting, and had some good lines later on.

3.) And, again I thought: “Huh?” upon hearing Olivia’s new role is as the leader of Fringe Division, or co-leader, with her husband, Peter. Anna Torv is always awesome and believable no matter what direction the storylines of Fringe episodes have veered off to, as are Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Blair Brown, Jasika Nicole, and the other actors of Fringe, and I suppose it would be inevitable that she would one day become the leader of the Fringe Division; but, still, learning that she was kind of freaked me out at first. I loved her quote: “There’s a Stage 3 Terror Alert (the word may not have been “Alert”), We’ve initiated Amber Protocol.” To hear that the Fringe Division has taken the drastic measure of encasing areas where vortexes, worm-holes, etc., have occurred in Amber 31422 made me realize how drastically the future’s been affected by Walter, Peter, Olivia, et al.

4.) I won’t mention every single highlight of “The Day We Died,” but one that I feel needs to be included is when Peter and Olivia go to the prison and see Walter there, with a very shaggy and heavy growth of beard. It was sad for me to see him there, because he is such a (generally) kind and sympathetic character, and he is often extremely funny (though sometimes unintentionally).

Sure, he has his faults, like meddling in the affairs of alternate universes, kidnapping, experimenting on young children with drugs (well, I should probably make that singular–one drug, Cortexephon), taking hallucinogenic drugs himself, etc., but he makes a great wacky (if not entirely mad) scientist character, who is (generally) well-intentioned, despite his very unorthodox behavior at times. He is also sort of grandfatherly-acting in many episodes, and you can sense his love for Peter, who he treats like his own son of the same name, who died.

5.) Terrorists trying “to accelerate the End of Days” by creating a giant wormhole in Central Park was a highlight, and learning that behind them, the mastermind of their schemes is Walternate. That John Noble can portray two such very different, yet in many aspects similar, characters, says a lot about his amazing acting skills.

6.) Yet another highlight for me was seeing Broyes (Lance Reddick) with wonky eye and all, as perhaps the president, or in some other leadership role (maybe Sec. of Defense)–if his title was mentioned, I didn’t catch it. Peter asks him to give him “just one more chance,” and to once again let Walter help them figure out the best course of action to combat the terrorists.

7.) Walter’s giving Olivia a belated “Congratulations” on her wedding to Peter–he, of course, missed it, being in prison.

8.) Walternate’s scheme to lure Peter to an isolated cabin, where he appears to him and tells Peter he’s going to destroy our universe as Peter did his, but a little bit at a time, starting with killing someone Peter loves. Peter tries to either/and grab or hit Walternate, but his hand passes through him, as Walternate is a holographic projection.

9.) Mentioned this one before, but it bears repeating: Walternate’s shooting Olivia in the forehead.

10.) Walter’s realization that when Peter triggered the doomsday Machine, leading to the death of the Other Universe, it also meant that ours would die, as the two universes were “inexorably linked.” That’s where the title for this episode comes from, of course, when Walter says: “The day their world was destroyed to all intents and purposes was the day we died.”

11.) Okay, I’m sure I’m leaving out several Highlights by jumping forward so much to the very end of the episode, but you can let me know your faves I might have missed below (hopefully in a friendly way). I’m referring to when we see two Observers talking to each other about Peter suddenly fading out after his attempt to change the past, and his bringing the major players from both universes to a room to hash out their issues and have a (I’m being sarcastic) love fest there. The Observers comment that the others have forgotten about Peter very quickly, and one says: “He never existed.” This, I’m guessing, has to do with his changing the past–somehow, by doing so, he was never born. Or, he was, but his heroic actions resulted in maybe a bigger mess (if possible) than before.

12,) The glyphs spell out: NO MORE. This means, I guess, that the Other Side, of alt-universe, no longer exists. Until next season, anyway, when possibly the past will be altered enough to bring it back into existence.

What are your thoughts and ratings for “The Day We Died”? did you love it, hate it, or fall somewhere in-between, as I did? What were your favorite highlights/quotes? What will you do to satisfy your Fringe cravings until the fourth season begins? I have enjoyed writing reviews of this past season’s episodes very much, and reading all of your comments, both favorable and otherwise–it’s proof to me (as if I didn’t already know) that Fringe is a great series, and that Fringe fans are some of the most fanatic, faithful, and coolest ones in all of the mulitverses that exist!