Fringe- Spoiler alert.

[Jobydrone]

Those darn time paradoxes always making things more sad and complicated than they have to be :,(

[Rico]

Cool finale.  Some thoughts...

[spoiler]I enjoyed the finale and have to say I got a little misty eyed a few times.  It was great to see the alternated universe again with the other Olivia and Lincoln too.  I liked how that part was handled.  My only little problem with the finale was it felt a bit rushed in the last hour.  I wanted to learn more about the boy and see more moments between the cast.  But overall a great ending to a great series![/spoiler]

[Jobydrone]

My thoughts:

[spoiler]Yeah I would have enjoyed more exploration of the boys unique powers...and some bits about the ultimate resolution didn't make sense to me, like why Walter disappeared at the moment of the Observers invasion (I guess because Walter said so???) and how if the Observers never existed then who saved Peter and Walter when they fell through the ice, and for that matter who distracted Walternate from curing Peter in the first place leading Walter to take him meaning Olivia should have never met him and...argh its confusing and they probably needed more than an extra scene or two to explain it all so they didn't bother because they realized we love this show for its characters who all wound up happy and exactly where they should be. Peter and Olivia together with their child, Walter happily checking out the 22nd century science, and maybe one day he can pull off a Doc Brown and come Back From the Future to spend more time with the kids.[/spoiler] Ultimately I am not worried about the how and why and will always treasure the joy this show and its characters have brought me over the past five years.  I'll miss you Fringe!!!!

[Rico]

Joby...

[spoiler]Sending the boy and Walter back didn't erase the Observers - it was suppose to change their outlook and plans.  Give them back the importance of both knowledge and emotion.  So everything else in their past would still happen - except the invasion.  At least that was my understanding of it all.[/spoiler]

[Jobydrone]

[spoiler]yes i get that but with no invasion then there's no Pattern, no Fringe team, no 12 Observers sent back and no September to interfere...my point though is I'm not really too worried about that stuff. It makes enough sense and time travel isn't real anyway. How awesome was Olivia pancaking Windmark at the end?  She looked incredibly badass with all the lights winking out and BOOM don't mess with the Dunhamnator!!![/spoiler]

[jedijeff]

I thought the ending was alright, but a bit by the numbers, with the exception of a few hiccups things went pretty much to plan. I sort have the same questions Joby has on the the results in terms of how things shaked out in the end.

[spoiler]I found with Walter taking Michael into the future at the end a bit Anti-Climatic. Since they had sort of preparing us for the past episode or two that he would be. Then to switch it up that September would  go near the end. To have September killed and Walter taking over again lost it's affect on me since I did not have enough time to have it sink in he wasn't going. They might have had to do that to show that was Walters fate regardless. Maybe if I was under the impression that September was going, and then have Walter go at the end might have been a bit more of a shock to me.[/spoiler]

To be honest, this season felt a bit tacked on to me and besides the Observers I had a tough time really putting it into the rest of the fringe series. I guess with the way things ended last season, that they did not have much further to go with the current arc. Part of me wishes they would have handled this like the Xndi arc in Enterprise, where this happened in a previous season, things got resolved and then it was back to "normal" so to say and onto further seasons.

[Rico]

Joby....

[spoiler]I'm still not following you.  Fringe was set up before the invasion of 2015 - or 2016.  The 12 original Observers would still be sent - including September.  Again, the only thing I saw changing is they wouldn't invade and take over the world.[/spoiler]

[Jobydrone]

[spoiler] the Observers were sent back to prepare for the invasion, though the 12 didn't know that was why they were there...if there was never a plan to find a good time to invade, then they wouldn't have been sent back and nothing that we saw in any of the seasons would have happened they way we remember it. Another thing I can't reconcile is where Olivia's and Peters memories of Walter disappear?  Did he never exist like Peter in season 4, or does he just disappear from their lives with no explanation in 2015, or something else?  And how and from where does he send the tulip? Again ultimately it doesn't matter because I am satisfied with a happy bittersweet ending.[/spoiler]

[Rico]

I don't agree....

[spoiler]The Observers were just observing - at least at first.  The Invasion and take over plan happened later and that's what Walter and the boy altered.  It's easy to conclude that Walter would know September and the original 12 would still need to go back to make things go the way he knew they did - especially when they help him save Peter in the ice.  Also, I got the impression nothing that happened erased any memories of Walter up to the point in time of the Invasion when time was changed.  Peter & Olivia and everyone else would still recall everything Walter did up to that point.  Walter was not eliminated from existence and time like Peter had been.  Of course time travel always makes anything confusing but again, that's my take on things.[/spoiler]

[Jobydrone]

Yeah that's a good way to look at it, everything happens for a reason even if it doesn't happen the way Walter in the future remembers it...someone reminded me of this clip whose philosophy is helping me:

Austin Powers on Time Travel

[moyer777]

Wow, what a great series.

[spoiler]I found myself emotional over it.  I had a bunch of the questions that have been mentioned already in this thread, but I left with an overall good feeling, warm feeling about the show.  I have come to love the characters and really care about them.  So it was a really touching finale.  I'm glad that I went back and started watching this show again.  Fringecasting with Wayne and Dan got me back into it.  Amy watched more of the series than I did at first.  Funny!  [/spoiler]

[MARKO]

What was the meaning of the Tulip on the card at the end?

[moyer777]

Marko--  http://io9.com/5849958/white-tulips-and-wormholes-secrets-of-time-travel-in-fringe

[MARKO]

thanks brother..

[X]

I don't agree....

[spoiler]The Observers were just observing - at least at first.  The Invasion and take over plan happened later and that's what Walter and the boy altered.  It's easy to conclude that Walter would know September and the original 12 would still need to go back to make things go the way he knew they did - especially when they help him save Peter in the ice.  Also, I got the impression nothing that happened erased any memories of Walter up to the point in time of the Invasion when time was changed.  Peter & Olivia and everyone else would still recall everything Walter did up to that point.  Walter was not eliminated from existence and time like Peter had been.  Of course time travel always makes anything confusing but again, that's my take on things.[/spoiler]

Rico, you're missing one very important thing.

[spoiler]In the current timeline, the observers didn't save Peter. He was deleted from the timeline and it was only after he returned that Olivia had memories of the previous timeline. This also applies to Walter. He didn't remember his time with raising Peter until Michael gave him memories of that timeline. It appears that when the Observers removed Peter from the timeline, they also altered their presence in time.

That being said, I don't know if it's written anywhere, but I don't believe that the observers are from Walter's timeline. I think that they are from Walternate's universe. This would explain how they can go back and change time  without having to deal with the paradox. I also think that this is where Walter and Michael went in the future. Fauxlivia's tech and timeline seems to have more of a connection with the observers and I might have to go back to see what color they use when jumping to the future.

So, by altering the other timeline, it would explain how all things are possible and why Walter would vanish from the timestream.

Now the latter part is my guess, but the first part was pretty clearly spelled out, even though I forgot it last night that Peter is an anomaly and was never in the past of the remade universe.[/spoiler]