Fringe - "And Those We've Left Behind"

Season 4, Episode 6

“Too many variables, not enough constants.”

There was a awesome scene about a third of the way through tonight’s episode, where Peter began to start skipping in time, first jumping from Walter’s lab to the site of the latest fringe event, and then from the car back to the event site so that he could gain a vital clue to figuring out was causing all the temporal displacements. It was delightfully weird and disorienting without being too confusing, and it perfectly captured for the audience the feeling of being unstuck in time. I thought that this was going to be how the rest of the episode would work, and it would grow continuously more complicated with its time skipping, to a level of gleeful bat shit inanity. However, most of the episode was fairly standard, as it often seemed to skirt the more interesting idea for the sake of a more straightforward narrative.

As I stated last week, Fringe is in a bit of weird position this season since it decided to essentially reboot itself with “The Day We Died”, and while that could have been a game-changing event where the show would more fully embrace its serialized elements to tell stronger stories, a la Dollhouse. But that wasn’t the case, and in fact the show seems to have retreated even more fully into its procedural nature. At its creative height (end of season two and the first half of season three), the show wasn’t afraid to devote entire hours to the serialized narrative. By comparison, every episode this season has had a standalone case of the week, including make Peter’s return into its own case that, while certainly still ongoing, had a certain endpoint.

Now, as I’ve said many times before, there’s nothing inherently wrong with being a procedural, and if any show can get away with making the standalone elements interesting, it should be Fringe. Note that I said “should”; while in the past the show has delivered powerful punches with such stories, tonight’s episode didn’t, even while having all the elements that would generally make for a powerful story. A nice sense of pacing? Check. A believable sense of mystery about the latest fringe event? Check. An unnerving story? Check A bit of fringe science born out of love? Check. Awesome guest stars to sell those emotions? Check. Connection to the ongoing narrative? Well….

Early in the episode, it is posited by Peter and others that he perhaps was the cause of these time shifts, on the basis that his disruption of the timeline was rippling outwards. There was a certain amount of tension to this that was sorely needed, as so far the show hasn’t made it quite clear just what Peter’s return is supposed to mean, both in terms of its effect on the universe and to the Observers’ plans. In fact, the show has had problems this season sketching out the story in a meaningful way so that we the audience know exactly why these things are happening. And while it certainly wasn’t a “why”, at least having Peter’s return affected the EWOP universe raised the stakes just a little bit.

Or did it? Not soon after the show raised the idea that Peter was the source of the latest fringe event, it was quickly established that he wasn’t causing the temporal displacements, and that felt like a bit of letdown. But then by episode’s end, it was suggested that Peter didn’t directly cause the temporal displacements, but maybe his return does have a more general effect on the universe as a whole. Or something; this concept was made all that clear, and I’m not entirely sure what it means. The rubbernecking aside, while this feels like forward movement for the season-long arc (and frankly I’ll take whatever I can get), there wasn’t enough time spent on it to feel as if some actual development happened.

And it also raises a larger, even more frustrating idea, the possibility that Peter may in fact return “home”, that  is somehow reset the timeline so that the two universes go back to being separated and (this is bit selfish, really) everyone will know and love him again. I hate to sound like a broken record, but erasing Peter from the timeline only to bring him back again doesn’t really make any sense right now, mostly because it hasn’t revealed anything new about the players in the universe, or offered any hints of the same, and so for the show to tease us with the possibility that this all might be reset just seems, well….mean.

Think of it as the first four episodes of this season, only expanded to a larger scale. Much like they didn’t tell us anything about the larger forces, if the show backs away from this modified version of the show just to reset to the old status quo, it will have meant this whole move was an act of creativity deficiency. And even if going back to the old status quo means that the show can tell more relevant episodes, it will just mean that the first half of season four was just a fruitless rabbit hole. (Think of it as season five of Lost, but without even the backstory to make appearance of legitimacy.) Now, of course there’s every possibility that the show won’t follow through with this idea, and that Peter’s search to go back home will in fact reveal all the forces at play. At least, that’s what I’m realistically hoping for, since I doubt the writers are that stupid. But even so, they are deploying this setup – whatever it’s for – in the worst possible manner.

But that’s not even the episode’s worse sin. I can forgive misleading plot points if they end up but leading somewhere great. But I’m not even sure where the show is leading us – or where it want us to think it’s leading us – because there wasn’t enough time spent to flesh them out. Excuse the pun, but the (ahem) fringe elements of “And Those We’ve Left Behind” were the most interesting part of the whole ordeal. And I don’t just mean all the hints we received about Peter’s role in the grand scheme of things. I like watching Walter slowing warming up to the son he can’t rationally accept, and Peter being forced to love a woman who doesn't love him back. All of these things are interesting, but none of them felt like they were given their due, and it’s been something of trend with this season. And with only one episode left this year, I’m not sure we’re going to get the answers we need that will tie us over until January.

Next Week: The fall finale. Yes, really.

Quotes, Etc:

Apparently Walter has a soft spot for Newtonian mechanics.

He also keeps rubber cement in his Spider-Man fanny pack.

Hey, Alias fans: Raymond got the time chamber to open up for 47 minutes. Heh.

Lost fans, you got time-skipping, a Faraday box, and a headline about the Boston Red Sox. What more do you want?