Watch TV shows online free with full episode links on The TV King.

Time is running out for Fringe fans as this coming Friday is the final episode of the FOX series.  The Penultimate episode of Fringe titled “The Boy Must Live” aired this past Friday, and focused on the Bishop Boys… both Walter (John Noble) and Peter (Joshua Jackson) along with Olivia (Anna Torv) taking the boy also known as Anomaly XB-6783746, to the house of the illustrious Donald.

Donald (Michael Cerveris), as we learned in the previous episode, is none other than ‘The Observer aka September’.  In this episode “The Boy Must Live”, Donald explains that for his crimes in allowing Peter Bishop to live, the Observers, those like Captain Windmark (Michael Kopsa) who are actively hot on the Fringe team’s trail, removed his device, making him human with each passing day. But Donald explains the history of the Observers themselves, in how they were formed, and how 12 Observers were sent back, (named after months, such as September, August, December, etc) to study when would be the opportune to strike. As those initial twelve were sent back to study us, more Observers were grown in test tubes, as they had been for years.  Things were going fine until the boy, also known as Anomaly XB-6783746, was born. 

The surprise is that Donald, aka September is Anomaly XB-6783746’s biological father, or features some DNA used in Anomaly XB-6783746’s test tube. Either way, the idea of human emotion is considered such a weakness that he was to be quickly killed off. It was here that Donald, as September, hid the boy in the past.  It was also at this point, that Donald, as September, went back in time, and advised to let the boy live, spurring Walter to save Peter, thus changing time as we know it.  With Anomaly XB-6783746 being the whole catalyst that could change how the Observers treat emotion, which is they embrace it and find a middle ground of logic and reason but with emotion, if Anomaly XB-6783746 is not killed, Donald and the Fringe Team via a sacrifice play, could re-write history. Naturally Windmark and the Observers don’t know this just yet, but they are close to killing the boy.  And as Donald confirms with Walter, who a renewed sense of importance and vigour, that the sacrifice is Walter himself.  It is his way of making up for all of his ‘past crimes’.

Personally though, the big twist is going to be not Walter as the sacrifice, but instead, Peter.  Olivia is quick to exclaim proudly that she will get her daughter back, but the whole idea that Walter gets Anomaly XB-6783746 to be a break-through in the evolution of The Observers (who are an evolved version of us anyway), would be another paradox, one that would possibly erase Peter in the process. If they show Anomaly XB-6783746 as a grown child, who during his early moments as a test tube baby was already considered a failure, prove that he has worth, it would negate the boy being kidnapped by his father September, and thus stop September from saving Peter Bishop, thus negating the entire series.  It would be truly as if Peter Bishop, ala season three’s finale, failed to exist. Which perhaps might have been the ultimate plan anyway, or maybe not.

I’m sure the real paradox would be Peter is killed off, but perhaps his daughter survives somehow. Or maybe not.  But that is generally where I think the series is going, and I think the only one within the show that realizes that is Peter himself, who seems quiet but pensively sad when Olivia is quick to exclaim they will get their daughter back.  Because he understands that if September and Walter re-write history, it will again re-write himself out of existence.

Overall, Fringe seemed to reclaim a lot of what it has lost with these past two episodes; a real sense of meandering with the loss of Peter being phased out of the original time line and from the characters’ memories, and it all seems very much worth it. Kudos to the writers for their playing ‘the long game’ so to speak, and let’s hope that the final two episodes, episode 99 and 100, end in spectacular fashion for all fans of Fringe.