The cast and crew look back at the journey to the alternate universe and closing the bridge.
via TV Guide:
Of course, what the producers couldn’t foresee, but certainly hoped, was that audiences would end up loving the alternate universe, which made it all the more disheartening when the bridge between the universes was eventually closed.
Nicole: That was a really clever decision for the writers to make, to introduce this alternate universe where you’re not rooting for them, you’re rooting for the universe that you know. The universe that looks like yours, the one that’s relatable to you, the one that we’ve been with for a couple of seasons already and then you start seeing all these other characters and they behave so different.
Noble: I really take my hats off to the writers for that, because at the time we started off with the universe, I remember saying to people, “This is such a challenge to get people to actually not treat your character as the enemy.”
Torv: Because we committed, it meant that the audience was then able to commit knowing that this wasn’t going to be a waste of their time.
Noble: We were aware that slowly, slowly people started to say, “Well, perhaps they’re not so bad.” I thought it was a major achievement for the writers.
Gabel: I was surprised. I knew that the alternate universe was definitely something cool, but I was always concerned that people would think that we were infringing upon Fringe and that we were possibly taking away from a version of the show that they had liked. So when people were embracing it, I thought, “Okay, this is great.” We’re able to actually provide an expansion to the story and have it still be a part of the Fringe universe, if you will.
Nicole: The more you got to see the characters in the alternate universe the more you realized that they have their hopes and their dreams and their fears and their worries and their happy moments and their sad moments and they, it’s just not black and white. They made a lot of sacrifices and in a lot of ways we were the bad guys, not us specifically, but our world. That’s when you got to see “Oh, man. These people aren’t bad. These people are real people that have their own problems that they’re going through.”
Noble: And they’re still there, in Fringe history. I know Anna really misses Bolivia. She really loved to play Bolivia. And Walternate’s there. I can resurrect him any time I want to. I think it was time to leave and concentrate on the original universe. Had we been going for another season they may not have done it.
Pinkner: Yes, there was a moment when we decided to close the bridge, where we were on a conference call with Fox and Warner Brothers and Shana C. Waterman [Senior Vice President of Current Programming] from Fox said that when she read that script, she actually teared up. And we lovingly said, “See, these are the characters that you didn’t want us to introduce in the first place, and now you’re crying because we’re saying goodbye to them.” You know, it was an experiment that could have gone wildly wrong. Their caution made us work harder. So it was validated.
Reilly: Yes. But I was also getting different feedback too. There were a lot of people that felt, “Oh, I liked it better when you weren’t in the other universe. When are you coming back?” But again, this is a really talented group, and I knew they’d bring it around, and they did.
Read more here.
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{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
We have come full circle with Fringe, that is a fact.
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I actually bought the 4th season today because it was on special offer, ive already skipped 5 episodes lol
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I bought it a while back like 4 months ago or so, and have only watched certain Episodes. 4-14, 4-15, and 4-19 immediately come to mind, I actually skipped the season finale. There a few others I watched but I can’t remember the numbers and I’m too lazy to go look. Welcome To Westerfield was one. Was that 4-12 or 4-13? And Those We Left Behind was another. 4-6/7? Ack I am usually very good with the episode numbers, but I have a certain disconnect with season 4 I guess.
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I also watched the first few, skipped the fungus among us episode, and watched a few more, then skipped some more, etc. Out of the 22 episodes I probably watched like 15 or 14.
On your Wyman curiosity;
I think it was a little of both. Wyman is definitely steered by the twitter fans, no question about that one. I believe he probably reads places like this too “secretly” I know for a fact that Michael Cerveris has been here a time or two, because he linked to an article here thanking us for the love.
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Hmm? I wonder what happened to the comment that the above comment made by me was in reply to? I don’t remember there being anything wrong with that comment. Now the thread looks funny. Oh Well.
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Observers are here.
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Some of them are actually better than I thought they were, some are really just as bad.
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I know what you mean. I bought S4 when it came out and I have yet to finish it. Some of the episodes, particuarly the last few just weren’t my favorite :s
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I love hearing the cast and crew talk about the early seasons.
It’ll be interesting to see how Fringe is remembered. Obviously it didn’t make the impact of a Xfiles or a Lost but it has a reputation as quality sci fi and that is few and far between these days.
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Thanks to TVguide for this MASSIVE (dynamic) blowout for the Fringe finale! It definitely legitimizes the series as a whole. Not only that, but to have Reilly there during the interview(s) makes it more of a group effort, and he should definitely be remembered as part of the group that kept Fringe alive. We have 100 hours of story (well we will have around 75 hours of story after friday, taking the commercials out) that has a GREAT chance to have legs “post-mordem”. Interviewing everyone to the Nth degree NOW, while they are all still together (well, I guess I shouldn’t say now since they have probably all hit the ground running on future projects) means that there will be plenty to reflect on in the future. Science channel, DVD sales (maybe an AWESOME Complete Series DVD/BD special edition set), Netflix, etc. combined with all the attention that a show like Fringe hasn’t had in a couple of years really sets it up to have future life.
That being said, I am sure there will be a major death (by all appearances Walter will sacrifice himself) or two BUT….c’mon, this is Fringe. There are multiple versions of everyone with branching universes and timelines and resets and the like so that we can bring everyone and anyone back that we want too. I hope the last couple of scences leave us with closure AND a great thought-provoking jumping off point for future stories to be written. The time and effort that it took to create this “world(s)” that Fringe resides in will be hard pressed to be duplicated anytime in the future so I hope that there aren’t any closed story threads which prevent some of the beloved cast members an opportunity to return if the, ahem….need arises (so to speak).
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TV Guide has a nice sense of humour:
“The parallel universe also introduced Seth Gabel’s Lincoln Lee, who would become a beloved character in both universes.”
I’m not saying Lincoln was hated, but a beloved character is Walter…not Lincoln “in both universes”.
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Walter in both universes? NO.
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I loved Walternate WAAAAAAAAAY more than Blue/Amber Lee. FACT!
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word.
Of course we all sort of hated Walternate at first, but that’s the beauty of the show and what they did with the Alternates. By Worlds Apart, I was sobbing at the idea of losing our beloved Red ‘Verse characters. Lincoln Lee, not so much…
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They must get these facts of Wyman’s twitter feed. But to be fair Wyman seems to have gotten a fair few plot ideas of it aswell.
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I wasn’t aware people loved me so much. I’m flattered.
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That Lincoln Lee . . . gotta love ‘em.
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Can’t wait for the next part where they all try their hardest to explain the thought process behind Peter’s disappearance and blaming the fans for not getting it.
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Yeah I can’t wait. Maybe now that they are done, they will admit it. Or maybe they’ll take some time to explain it so that we dummies can understand it. I’ll tell you; I don’t know how many hours I have wasted of my life trying to piece together a coherent reasoning for the disappearing Peter issue, and the subsequent timeline reset debacle. I have settled on a somewhat logical (to me) reasoning, but I’d like to know if I am right or wrong.
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The Peter disappearing issue was always logical to me, given the context of the idea of “Balance” that was so present in the S1-S3 universe.
* September introduced a mistake into the equation between two universes, which threw them off balance. That mistake would need to be rectified at some point, in some manner. Correcting that mistake would “fix” it, which September never did, so something else had to be done to “balance the equation”. That is what S1-S3 is doing on a physics level … balancing the equation. Two universes swirling and diving into this one point that throws it all off balance. And since September never removed *himself* from that equation, something else had to go or it would be stuck on repeat, over and over and over. Peter was that something …. in the Machine, he finally made the choice to create the Bridge, instead of trying to save one or the other, and thus, he vanished. He *was* the Bridge. We were used to seeing balance play out by choice for choice, person for person, building for building …. but in that case, the Bridge between universes replaced Peter himself who created it via the Machine.
* He popped back into existence, and eventually the Bridge would have to close as a result (balance again). And it did close. And Peter remained. And it mystified September, because he didn’t understand how he could do that: still exist. He surmised it had something to do with love, and he was correct …. and now we see even more clearly how love was at work: Michael. Michael and September are now the parts of the equation which are out of balance, and we even have the formula given to us which is trying to balance that equation now: Observers %99.9999 and Michael %0.0000. There was a point in time in the FUTURE which was heavily dictating past events, and we are reaching that point in time in the future now, where “Balance” will be forsaken for “Freedom”. Where the Observers and the plan with Michael “balance themselves” and Freedom is achieved. Because it’s always been the f******* Observers who were out of balance with the entirety of history. The moment they started meddling with history and changing it, they needed to be removed: proof is September himself in the S1-S3 loopverse.
Idk …. I see this as making quite a bit of sense to me for the most part lol
At first, when Peter first disappeared, I didn’t get it … reading the comic helped a bit 
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I too read the comic, and don’t get me wrong I get it now (and have for quite some time). It just ticks me off that we had to invent (flesh out in our own minds) a reasoning for it to work for us, rather than the show making it coherent to begin with.
I agree with your idea above, and it fit nicely into my more cause and effect version that I came up with:
Peter was the causation of the war, which caused the problem of the universes getting destroyed, which cause a problem for the possible future existence of the Observers, thus they guided the characters in creating a loop until Peter could grow and realize that he needed to choose balance instead of one or the other. This loop preserved the possible future of the Observers so that they could continue to exist, but it also hindered the invasion they wanted to achieve. So once they finally got Peter to choose balance they took the opportunity to commence erasure protocol to rid the timeline of this problematic “boy”, thus allowing them to rewrite the history of the timeline to the degree that they would be able to effective invade it in 2015 to a probability of 99.999%.
Peter came back because the “love” that the characters were lacking drew his previous timeline existence bleeding through the rewrite. His bleed-trough reacted with Olivia’s existence and caused her past consciousness to bleed through as well. Then with the help of Michael Walter’s past consciousness is back too.
Anyway that is my version of who, what, when, where, why, and how of the season 3-4 reset debacle.
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I gotcha … yeah on the one hand I liked Fringe’s way of trying to get us to reason it out ourselves, but they just left it at that in a “deal with it” manner without cohesively going through it for us Scooby Doo style lol, so that wasn’t cool.
As far as your own theory … not to criticize a theory lol … it leaves a very important factor out: whether Peter caused the war or not, might be largely irrelevant, because it still doesn’t account for the physical breakdown of the universes themselves. That happened once Walter crossed over in the manner in which he did … that caused the soft spots, etc. So even if both sides gave each other hugs instead of war, they would still experience the blight, and the destruction of one of them and eventually both of them. This was due to September’s interference …. and September existed because the Observers existed.
I think this is key: the Observers were always going to exist, no matter what. Each branch of possibilities in the universes yielded more and more branches of possibilities, giving rise to the possibility that at some point in time, a race like the Observers would exist, who would do what they have done. We are now seeing the eradication of that paradox created by such people who travel through time. IOW, it wasn’t the creation of the loop that protected the Observers existence in their minds, nor threatened it … that’s not their origin point
They most likely don’t view any of that nonsense with much signifficance …. probably %0.0001 signifficance in terms of domino effect. Their origin point is elsewhere, which gives rise to their existence. September told us what he believes that origin point to be: the Oslo, Norway event in 2167. So if that’s their origin point, then S1-S3 was simply just a mess to them, but nothing that their existence would hinge upon. It is the existence of September, Michael, Etta, the future Bishop family, etc … that hinges upon it, imo 
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Right, but if both universes were allowed to die, as would have happened, if the loop wasn’t in place, then there would be no possible future for the Observer to exist from. You see if there are no universes, then there are no futures, thus there are no Observers.
This to me explains why the machine was made in whatever the original iteration of the blue timeline was before the loop was put in place. (I believe the Observers signature is all over that machine and the origins of it) Then we have a loop starting in the paleolithic period, wherein the first parts of the machine are deposited by the first people (Peter and the 2026 fringe team). Which as an aside the paleolithic period is BEFORE the split that created the parallel universes (this I believe is also something I think the Observers had a hand in). I see it as the Observers preserving the probability for their possible future to come to fruition instead of existing in the fourth dimension which is where all possible future reside until they collapse into an actualized present.
Then once they achieved balance by messing around with our character to the point that they would do things that would make Peter see the need for balance, then they were able to remove Peter from the timeline retroactively so that he couldn’t possible taint their invasion plan. That is why they wanted the traces of him erased as well. September began working against the Observers at this point, because he felt something for Peter, and Walter, and Olivia, and his own boy which he knew was special.
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This could balloon into some massive theorizing in a minute lol … but quickly:
* My own assessments are based off the idea there are more than just the two universes, there is a multiverse (hinted at by September himself, as well as some other scenes from episodes). We’ve witnessed mainly two of course: red/blue. Amber might be considered another one, depending on how you look at it. Regardless, the possibility would exist, somewhere in the multiverse for an Observer like society to arise, and do what they do, whether it involved the red/blue that we’ve seen or not. It could be universe 5.66695 for example. So in some universe, they would exist at some point, and meddle with the timelines (which of course would create paradoxes, i.e. the entirety of Fringe thus far lol)
* Which brings up the other point: arguably the amber timeline IS another universe. And I assume it’s from this timeline which the Observers are from (2167 origin point). So they don’t need the red/blue verse to exist. They just need the amber.
This is counterintuitive at first, because we view the amberverse as existing with the red/blue at it’s foundation, but that’s because we don’t take into account the future where the Observers have been championed over. It is in that FUTURE which the past is built off of, because it is in that future where the past is allowed to continue to exist to serve some purpose. So it’s not that the future is built from the past … the future determines the past in Fringe. This is why the Observers aren’t from the Red/Blue universe … they are from another one (arguably the amber) which isn’t dependent upon what happened in it’s past. It’s dependent upon what happened in it’s FUTURE … and we already know some of that with Michael being stowed away by September in the past because he knew he’s be safe there lol.
* The ballooning of theorizing could take place right here, because you bring up the First People. I thought the Machine, and the artifacts, etc … had Observer written all over them also. But they also clearly have Peter/Olivia written all over them too
. So my guess, was that the First People were actually from the future, separate timeline, which championed the Observers, and created a society free from the evil version of them. It was they who were responsible for the wormhole that made the massive time loop to the prehistoric era in the blue/red verse, etc. I thought maybe this would be the “HyBrasil” folk. In other words, it was actually they who were pulling the strings, founded by the Fringe Team, September, etc … whose plan succeeded in some fashion.
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I like where you are going, but I have a fundamental different view of what is going on in Fringe as far as timelines and universes go, and in my view everything seems to tie up quite nicely into a perfect little bow. Let’s see if I can lay it out for ya;
The show has only ever mentioned two universes.(Prime/Alternate) Albeit Walter does mention roads not taken in the aptly title episode “The Road Not Taken” These are alternate realities that never came to be, in the third dimensional realities that are the Prime and the Alternate universe(s).
So we have Prime universe Timeline (blue) and Prime universe timeline (amber)
Then we have Alternate universe timeline (red[a]) and Alternate universe timeline (red[b])
Time itself resides in the fourth dimension. We perceive it as a linear progression of past, present, and then future from our third dimension point of view. However, in the fourth dimension time exists as an eternal present. The past/present/future as we know it are all rolled into one moment. In this moment, there also exists an infinite number of possible futures (roads) just waiting to be taken.
Some of those roads get passed up, and thus not taken and so they become the veritable Road not Taken. In the episode that this theory was first proposed, we saw Olivia gain access to one of these roads not taken, and it helped her to solve a case. This was not a different universe that existed in the third dimensional space, but only a fourth dimensional mind trip that she was allowed to take thanks to her Cortexiphan abilities.
September tells Walter that he can see many possible futures all happening simultaneously (in the fourth dimension), but that he does not know which ONE will come to pass (in third dimensional space)
September also told Peter (while Peter was mind tripping in September’s mind) That a more apt question is not “From where?” but instead “From When” He went on to tell Peter that we (Observers) are you (Humans) from ONE of countless possible futures (again these exist in a fourth dimensional state) Through our technology (cortical implants) we have been afforded the unique ability to travel inside an out of time (they can enter the third, and fourth dimension, in fact they are from the fourth dimension). We were sent here to Observe our beginnings…
So from what the show has shown us, and what September and even Walter has told us;
The Observers are from a distant possible future that doesn’t physically exist in this third dimension yet (which is why they are immune to rewrite of timelines), but they have the unique ability to adjust things so that they will eventually exist since they have the cortical implants and super intellect.
So the reason why they continued to exist despite the inevitable destruction of the Prime universe in the blue timeline, following the destruction of the Alternate universe in the red[a] timeline was because they set up circumstances that would end in a timeloop, thus preserving the possibility for there to even be a future at all.
Once the universes were balanced and bridged, they didn’t have to worry about mutual destruction of the universes anymore, so Peter had served his purpose to them, thus they used their implants to go back and not save Peter instead of saving him, which in turn rewrote the blue timeline into the Amber timeline, and also rewrote the red[a] timeline into the red[b] timeline.
So the plan as it stands will attempt to go to precisely the moment in our future/The Observers past wherein they had genesis. By going to this moment and creating a substantial change, then it will effectively make the ONE possible future that the Observer come from into an impossibility.
See how that works?
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rick, that post was perfect!
exactly what I think but I wouldn’t have been able to write it down as good as you did!
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Thanks!
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I don’t believe the plan to bring Michael into the future is possible because the future he will be sent to will be a future after the observers invaded. A perfect example is in Back to the Future 2 when Biff steals the almanac in 2015 and gives it to himself in 1955. Upon returning to 1985 Marty asks Doc why they can’t go into the future and stop Biff. Doc explains that the future created from the alternate 1985 will be different. It almost seems like the observers are wiping themselves out of existence.
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That is certainly a possibility, unless of course the original Observer origin point future (2167) is still a possible future that exists in the fourth dimension.
If you are right, then Walter’s plan will not work, and I would think that September would know this as well as Michael. I will say that September seemed a little coy about the full nature of the plan and allowed Walter to continue to believe it as he sees it. But we also have to remember that September went off on his own to “do some stuff” so there could be a twist to the whole plan anyway. Also we have to take into account the whole “Michael giving himself up thing” too. I’m sure that was not part of “The Plan” as Walter sees it. So there is more at work here than we know about yet.
So I can agree that you bring up a problem to the plan, but there might be loopholes to the plan we don’t yet know about, or as I mentioned at the top of this reply, the nature of possible futures would allow it.
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Nice post, and I can see your POV for the most part …. and yes I think we have a fundamentally different view of what is going on concerning timelines in Fringe.
I think what may be a pivotal crux between your POV, and mine, is the following:
Suppose at the end of the day, the Fringe team is victorious, and the Observers never existed, the timeline has been reset, etc. Will there be any memory or historical record of the observers ever having existed by *anyone* whatsoever ? I think this revelation through the end of the series will yield more insights into how the timelines actually compete with each other in Fringe
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I agree. I guess it could be that a “White Tulip” of sorts will be left for someone to remember.
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That’s another thing I’m sure we’ll see again. Walter will send the white tulip to Peter and Olivia.
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ML that would be beautiful
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Hey TW, I like this explaination! This is the one I’m going with from now on. I better re-read to make sure I understand it.
Thanks!
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@ RT: That would be a way to wrap it up
@ Scully8: Thank you
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Sorry, Michael *%0.0001 lol
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*Lost Spoilers* What got me into Fringe was the dual universes done right, after the disappointment of Lost’s fake alternate reality. The moment they closed the door on the alternate reality Fringe lost its greatness, for me.
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excuse me for my english I am French: I hope Saturday they are there somewhere and finally happy.peter & olivia!!..to me It is finished. their relationship,etta never existed…I love this series fringe made me cry.not an end just as the series LOST.very rare that a series that ends well.I regret that olivia second pass
season 5..next adventure books.
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Why do I have major anxiety about the finale. I’m afraid that we will be left with that blank screen and an open ended finale and that is causing me much greif this week. I’m praying that we get a satisfying resolution that leaves us knowing where the characters are at the end.
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I feel confident in the finale giving us closure to the characters. One thing that really impresses me about Fringe, especially in these last few days is that all the creative team behind it are being very much transparent about Fringe. Have you read the interviews TV_Guide has been releasing everyday? It is a 4 part tell all with Kevin Riley of FOX, Peter Roth, of WB, JJ Abrams, Bryan Burk, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Joe Wyman, Anna Torv, John Noble, Josh Jackson, Blair Brown, Lance Reddick, Seth Gabel, and Jasika Nicole. They are actually revealing things I had always wondered about the show. This is very much the opposite of what Darlton did with LOST. So because of this I am thinking that they have taken the divisiveness of the LOST fans in mind as they created this ending. I think the last thing they want to do is alienate the true fanbase of the show.
That is not saying that there won’t be some people who are disappointed, but I really don’t think most of us here will be. Well I can think of a few here, but not you or I, or many of the regulars here.
I fully expect there to be emotional closure to every character, and I fully expect there to be an action filled last-last episode, and I fully expect any type of reset to make sense to us, and I fully expect there to be a twist that will leave us smiling with wide eyes at the end, and scrambling to get to FringeBloggers to bare our souls.
But most of all I fully expect the Family to end up finding each other in the final moments and leaving us knowing that it was all damn worth it.
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Ha Ha
I’m laughing at myself right now because I’m sitting here telling you about an interview that you obviously have read considering this is the comment section of the damn post. LOL!
I have been jumping on and off this blog all day, on several different posts, and I lost track of which friggin one I was on. *FacePalm*
I guess that is what I get for responding to the recent comments section rather than going into the posts themselves.
I hope you find this as amusing as me.
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Rick I’m so glad that you have responded to my ranting and in all seriousness you have made me feel more secure heading into the finale. Knowing that you feel confident of a satisfying resolution is music to my ears.
You definitely know what you are talking about and i hold your opinions in high esteem. So thank you for easing my anxiety because it was definitely overshadowing my excitement for this episode.
I’m surprised i feel this way actually because I am one of very few people on here that always enjoys every Fringe episode and never criticizes lol
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Perhaps you are doing what everyone does when something or someone they loved has died, or is dying.
You said a couple of days ago that you couldn’t believe it was ending.
Then you said yesterday that you were in denial. (Denial)
Now you are in the (Anger) stage of grief. Soon you will be in the (bargaining) stage then the (depressed) stage but ultimately you will prevail, because you will end up in the (acceptance) stage before all is said and done.
We al grieve differently, but we all go through the same emotions. I myself am stuck in the bargaining stage, and am throwing out theories left and right to satisfy my soon to be depression. We’ll get through this. I am hopeful that Fringe won’t let me down like LOST did.
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All of us need to stick together because once that episode ends we will all be going through that depression stage together.
I’m just going to try my hardest to stay hopeful that we all get the ending we as fans deserve.
before we know it it will be Friday for u and saturday arvo for me and we will either be discussing how much we loved or hated the episode. I will be delayed as i cant watch live
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Fringies for life!!!!
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I am making a ‘Thank you Fringe/FOX’ video with some dvd-stills and (nick)names from fans world-wide.
If you would like your name and country in there, please tweet them both to me (@Observer1) with the hashtag #FringeVid. I will upload it somewhere next week and post the link on this website aswel as i will tweet it with the same hashtag.
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