Fringe – World’s Apart (4×20) Review + Fringe gets a Season 5!

Yep, Fringe is on a roll, the second half of this season has been fantastic. It started out slow but I think we can all appreciate that it was necessary to set up this fantastic conclusion. And if the news couldn’t get any better, Fox finally announced the news we had all been waiting for/hoping/not at all expecting, a season 5! Sure, it’s only 13 episodes long but that will probably just mean we get very few, if any Case of the week based episodes. It should mean a much more focused-plot, and if we had any concerns about the pace of the opening few episodes of Season 4, I have a hard time believing a shortened season will provide those same concerns.

So, back to normal then or as normal as an episode of Fringe could possibly be – hell what are we talking about, Fringe and normal just don’t go together. But yeah after the mind-blowingly amazing episode that was ‘Letters of transit’, ‘World’s apart’ certainly felt like a change of pace andI’m absoloutely fine with that, as it perfectly set up to the finale, whilst also serving as an episode of reflection, not just for the characters but the audience aswell.

Yes it’s desperate times for the major players in both universes, David Robert Jones has progressed from Amphilicite to influencing Cortexiphan patients, utilising them to cause a series of earthquakes in the hope of collapsing both universes, causing a big bang, whilst setting up a safe zone for him to survive the ‘new universe’, where he will able to manipulate the laws of physics. Yep, it’s complicated, it’s fringe, it’s incredibly ambitious. And whilst most shows would struggle to make this a) realistic and b) understandable, Fringe manages to do both because, well, they have Walter to explain it for us :)

But it’s not the physical consequences that make this such a rewarding episode, it’s the moral choices that allow us to have so many fantastic character interactions. The big question, should the Bridge be closed in  order to prevent Jones from collapsing the two universes? The consequences? The alternate-universe will no longer heal, the two sides will no longer be able to communicate with each other and that’s likely to cause some problems of it’s own, but let’s face it, they’re pretty screwed either way.

So yeah, we FINALLY got a walter/walternate scene and it was pretty awesome, just seeing these two characters sit on the floor, recognizing just how fucked up everything has become was truly amazing. The two olivia’s also shared a nice scene, as did Peter and Lincoln. I’ve come to like Lincoln this season so it was nice to see him finally find peace with the world, even if we ultimately don’t see him again (I personally think we will).

With those questions surrounding the entire episode, the audience is presented with a state of desperate of it’s own. We know that no matter what success the two universes have in ultimately defeating Jones, the observers are going to be invading shortly anyway. Will that make this season feel anti-climactic? I’m inclined to think so, but what it does serve to do is emphasise just how screwed these characters really are, even if they do manage to stop Jones.

And who knows, maybe it’s Jones that brings the observers over? So it’s not completely linear, this is by no means going to be a predictable finale, there are still tons of questions and now with the relief of a Season 5, I can’t wait to see how they transition into next season. Will the Observers invasion take place during the finale or will that be left for next year? What happens to Olivia? (4×19) Will Jones be defeated, or will he stick around for a season 5? How do our main characters, ultimately get preserved in amber, INCLUDING William Bell??!!? So I’ll leave you with that, quite a few things to ponder and it should be a hell of a ride as we move into the closing moments of Season 4, and the beginning of a season 5, yeah I think I mentioned it earlier on, WERE GETTING A SEASON 5!

What was everbody else’s thoughts on the episode?

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