TV Show: Fringe
Episode Title: The Day We Died
Original Air Date: May 6, 2011
Episode Number: 3×22
Episode Description
Peter successfully enters the machine with Olivia’s help, and is transported to the future days where Walternate’s universe is the one which has been destroyed. Walter learns about the origins of the machine and its ultimate purpose and sends back Peter to change his choice but gets lost in the time warp.
My Review
Very impressive finale, but I wasn’t too keen on the fact that the majority of what we saw didn’t happen and will not come to pass thanks to Walter and Peter. Nevertheless, that last scene was quite shocking with Peter disappearing into the ether as if he never existed, which according to September, he never did. Now that he’s served his purpose, there was no need for him to exist anymore. And we now understand why September was so intent on saving Peter and keeping him alive all this time.
It’s crazy how mythology-heavy this episode was. We got a ton of answers in regards to a few of the mythologies on the show including The First People. So Walter (and the rest of them) were the First People because it was him who planted all those doomsday device pieces all around the world so that when the time comes, it will help in either creating or destroying someone’s world. Crazy stuff.
Even though I didn’t like that most of the episode is not really part of canon because everything that happened in it was inconsequential, it was still pretty cool to see this version of the future (15 years from the present) and how everyone turned out:
– Olivia is the leader of the Fringe Division
– Peter is an agent in Fringe Division
– Olivia and Peter are married, but are too worried to bring a kid into the universe
– Ella is a new Fringe Division agent and it looks like Rachel has passed away
– Astrid is now also a Fringe Division agent and has straight hair (!)
– Walter is incarcerated because the public called for his arrest after it was revealed what Walter’s involvement was in regards to the world deteriorating
– Broyles is a senator and there’s something wrong with one of his eyes
– Nina was there at Olivia’s funeral, but we didn’t really find out anything about her
– The other universe was destroyed, but Walternate was able to cross over at the last minute and is working to destroy this universe as revenge
– Olivia dies at Walternate’s hands by shooting her right in the head (this future definitely sucks because I wouldn’t want to watch a show where Olivia is no longer alive)
– Olivia was given a Viking funeral, interesting
– Olivia has telekinesis powers and it was only a few years before that she was able to control them
Lastly, we didn’t hear Peter’s speech about Olivia at the funeral scene, but I think the whole speech is audible in the DVD version. Here is the whole speech, which I thought was beautiful and should really have been played on the actual airing of the episode.
“Olivia Dunham, my wife, was everything to me. When we first met, I was a nomad, moving from place to place, job to job. She gave me a purpose. She taught me to believe in something bigger than myself. She taught me to fight to keep our world safe, and more recently, to keep it from dying.
The truth is – we’re all dying. From the moment we’re born, we are all dying, and the universe is unspeakably cruel. Our one hope is that we can find some purpose, some meaning before the last day comes. Some happiness…and love. Olivia was all of that to me. There was no one like her. While I will not cease to fight, now that she’s gone, I’m afraid I’m already lost. That we are all lost. The world is a darker place without her.”
That last sentence gutted me and I couldn’t agree more.
I think I’ll take a short break before I start season four. S3 was probably the best season of the show so far, but I hate to admit that it did stumble a little bit towards the end of the season, notably with the Stowaway episode, which I still think is the worst Fringe episode ever.
It's been a long slow collision 