Oh Fringe… how I’ve grown to enjoy thee. When you first came around, everyone said “It’s X-Files for a new generation!” but it’s so much more character-centric and less mystery-centric than X-Files, and it took me a while to warm up to the cast. Which is kind of important when it’s all about them.

Now that it’s grown on me and I enjoy most episodes (they’re not all gems, but most are good), they finally get lazy enough to warrant a TIWTLM post.

The suspense leading up to Peter finding out he’s from the other side has been cool. Couple close calls, near misses on accidentally finding out, but when Peter ‘figures it out’, the logic behind his conclusion and his reaction just don’t lay well with me. The character isn’t always the most objective and rational, BUT he loves the man he believes is his father and it seems odd that he’d reject him so quickly after being his son for decades. So being a lifelong adopted father and being genetically identical to his real father, it seems like it would take a LOT for him to reject Walter so thoroughly, even standing on the highest moral grounds.

And how did he come to the conclusion that he was from the other side? Because someone he saw, obviously from the other universe, wasn’t torn apart and HE wasn’t torn apart. Seems like ‘luck’ on his part and ‘planning’ on the part of the guy who was doing it intentionally might have more to do with it than being from the other universe. I mean, Walter traveled to the other universe to get Peter. If Peter was under the assumption that Walter hadn’t gone over, just opened a window, then suddenly decided he HAD gone over and snatched Peter (maybe he thinks Walter used a long pair of tongs or something), then the premise that only people from the other universe can pass safely, is erroneous.

And with what looks like 2 episodes left in season two, it looks like next week is a complete punt. I don’t mind non-standard episodes from time to time, they can be fun. X-Files had plenty of them over the years, but not as a way of either avoiding or artificially drawing out the drama. All that does is make fans go “But..but.. what about Peter? You’re just going to ignore that???”

So for the last episode, we have Peter’s hissy fit and Spock’s arrival in their universe to deal with. My prediction is a bunch of Peter drama, a light peppering of side drama, then a closing shot of Spock setting up a dramatic cliffhanger for next season.

Oh Fringe.. you still satisfy my need for federal agent oriented sci-fi, but you either need to give your writers more vacation.. or less. You have so many odds and ends dangling that it’s too easy to just fall completely to tatters story-wise and that’s when you really start losing viewers.