Fringe
Season Five
Episode One
'Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11' - 8.5
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| There are less psychics in Australia, John. Come home. |
As confusing as its title is, 'Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11' barely seems to scratch the surface of the new complicated world that Fringe resides in. From Egg Sticks to giant carbon monoxide generators, the episode does its upmost to establish the Observers as tyrannical and absolutely insane - at least in a leadership sense. This utter crazy manages to come together fairly well, providing our first proper glimpse into the future and although it can get confusing at times it also makes disturbing sense after four seasons of build up.
What's best about tonight is that Anna Torv enters 2036 pretty early on, as I'd been worried that they'd killed her off in an attempt to be edgy or different, but nope, she's alive and well - if requiring an escape from her own amber mess that somehow involves Markham, the little book shop owner. Olivia had ambered herself around the same time the others did, but her body had been scavenged by 'amber gypsies' and sold to our favourite recurring guest star for one simple reason: he's fallen in deep, obsessive love with Agent Dunham, and had been using the amber block as a coffee table. Okey dokey...
As weird as it may sound, the titular device is designed to do exactly what you'd expect: unify thoughts. You see, we learn that September had implanted a complicated plot to defeat his own kind into Walter's brain, but in such a scrambled manner as to prevent the observers from pulling it out. Thus, the Thought Unifier is required to piece together the plan and get started on saving the world, and that is exactly why Olivia needed to go pick it up, and she still has it with her when she is freed from her orange prison. She is reunited with her husband, whom we learn she had separated from after the purge and after the Observers had taken Henrietta, whom she also gets to see again. Unfortunately though, the arrival of an Observer and tonnes of backup at Markham's meant that Walter got left behind and captured.
Now being held at some facility, Walter is psychically interrogated by Observers, giving us an in-depth and excessively unsettling glimpse into the telepathic abilities of these future humans. We've seen bits of it before, but never so blatantly. It's definitely no Charles Xavier-deal though, as the one assigned to Walter takes his sweet time pulling the fragments from his mind, eventually leaving with only a mental image of a young girl whom he knows to be aiding the rebellion. This is all at the suffering of Walter however, and he ends up with broken blood vessels in his eyes and a pretty severe blood nose, shaking uncontrollably whenever the Observer delves in.
Torture is always confronting, but there was something especially uncomfortable about this one, as you can't really do mind-over-matter when it's your mind being fucked with. Can you do matter-over-mind, or does that override everything? It's even worse that the dialogue between the interrogator and the subject is so well written, as the Observer gives Walter a bunch of demotivational messages to live on, i.e. 'There is no hope... for you. Nothing grows from scorched earth.'. Gee, thanks. I might get that printed with a nice picture behind it, then frame it and give it to one of my friends. A real whorey one just to get the message across further, not that I think the Observer is calling Walter slutty. They're completely devoid of social skills or cultural awareness, but I doubt they'd ever say anything like that.
You know who surprised me tonight? Joshua Jackson. He actually cried real tears after having to do the same during the season finale, this time during his 'I'm sorry we broke up' speech with Olivia, in which Anna Torv sort of shifted uncomfortably and didn't say much. He was also the focal point of the very first scene, which jumped moments forward and back and depicted him, his wife and child at the park as the Observers appeared in the distance so many years prior. From what I could tell, it was also the day that young Henrietta was taken away, as we see that later Peter found Olivia sleeping in an emergency medical tent with no signs of the girl anywhere. Though, this is Fringe so they might be playing with us a bit.
In an attempt to retrieve Walter, Henrietta uses resistance fighters to locate him, then uses her credentials - and fake death technology - to break Olivia and Peter in. They deactivate the carbon monoxide generator, which is apparently used both to help the Observers breathe and to deprive us of oxygen and shorten the life span of the natives. The Observer interrogating Walter leaves to investigate, just as Peter and Henrietta burst in to rescue him, quickly taking him out of the building without causing a huge ruckus. I was proud of Fringe for not having a big fight scene, especially after watching shows like The Vampire Diaries or Revolution, which has to punctuate all of its major events with impressive stunts and unnecessary and unlikely survival through precarious situations. Fringe is too smart for that, and that's why I love it so.
Back at the base - which is Henrietta's apartment, I think - the group is disheartened to find that Walter's staunch front against the psychic attack has actually destroyed his memories of the plan, and even the thought unifier is incapable of bringing them back. I have no clue what this means for the group, seems to me like they'll be riding solo until he can recall it somehow, despite Etta warning that he most likely won't. There is clearly hope though, because in the final extended scene, Walter travels down into the street to find a CD which he plays in a car body nearby, discovering music in the desolate Observer-controlled land. Just as this looked like a sign of hope on its own, he looks over to the pavement to see a flower growing from - you guessed it - the scorched earth. Hope!
God, wouldn't it be depressing if they fail at the end and that's how they finish it off? I can totally imagine them doing that. It's also not looking good for Henrietta, whom I keep expecting to see shot and killed or something. It's awful to say, but we don't know her very well, and her death would be some serious emotional drama for all of our main character to deal with, and now the Observers know that she's working with the resistance meaning she could go into work and BANG, no more Etta.
We've already travelled to this world once before, but the future is still shiny and new to us long-time Fringe viewers, with a million and one new things that we can learn about. From season one to now you can clearly see why so many critics consider this one of the most original and captivating shows on television, and with a new re-invention of itself every year pretty much, they really have completely outdone themselves this season. 2036, and the world is no longer ours. There is little more I could ask for, but I did find the ending gloomy and uncertain, leaving the characters without any sort of direction or purpose, other than putting Henrietta in danger. Surely by the end of the next instalment we'll know where we're heading next, as I really badly don't want to just fuss over the details for eleven episodes then have a double length finale in which everything works out fine because of an atomic bomb or something. Gimme more than that and you could go down as my favourite self-ended series. Die gracefully, and use all thirteen episodes wisely, using this chance to become a truly serialised and most-of-all intelligent drama.
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