Thoughts on Fringe Season 5 so far (Beware of some spoilers)

[jayceee]

Hopefully the final showdown will not erase the last five years of Fringe.

For example, such as going back in time and stopping September from distracting Walternate from finding a cure for sick Peter back in 1985.

[Warp Coil]

I'm an episode behind, but my opinion of the season still hasn't changed. The future/observer arc of season 5 just doesn't make any sense to me. I don't understand the creative direction that the series has taken. It feels like a completely separate story from seasons 1-4 and a story that doesn't even need to be told, for that matter. The arc has been poorly paced and I honestly would liked more time devoted to Olivia, Peter, Walter and the rest of the major characters and less time spent with the observers.

[Joe Washington]

I don't see any problem with Season 5 like most of you are seeing. I’ve enjoying it very much. I'm close to placing it as one of my favorite final seasons. Angel, Six Feet Under, and The Shield are my other favorites.

• Etta’s death was tragic but felt inevitable to me. How they explored the impact her death had on Peter and Olivia was true to who the characters are as people. Nina’s death also pulled my heart strings. But at least she went out with a bang like the badass she was.
• Peter’s Observer arc was interesting to watch and served as an expression of Peter’s downward spiral of grief and revenge. One can say the dark side of Peter we saw displayed in S3 was foreshadowing this storyline. The way it ended with Olivia bringing Peter back from the abyss was beautiful and shows the depth of their love for each other.
• Walter’s struggle with the resurgence of his old self is another interesting storyline and gets to the core of Walter’s redemptive arc that has spanned the series. Will he able to fight the dark impulses that drove him into abducting Peter and creating the serious crack in the wall between universes? Or will he be overwhelmed by them? I consider this Walter’s ultimate test of redemption.
• Yes, Olivia doesn’t have the powers that she used to have that made her special in a way. But I have been noticing that Season 5 has been taking the time to explore Olivia as a person and not a super-powered being. Her relationship with Peter, her feelings for Etta, the personal toll the fight against the Observers is having on her and her loved ones. Before we learned that Olivia had special abilities because of the Jackson trials, she was just the badass FBI agent who took on whatever life threw at her with strength and determination.
• Out of all the seasons, Season 5 is where Peter, Walter, Olivia, and Astrid feel the most like a family. Astrid’s like the little sister to Peter and Olivia, and a daughter to Walter alongside Olivia.
• The time reset as a plan to stop the Observers makes sense concerning that they are from the future and went back to the past to take over the Earth then. I don’t think it would make everything that came before meaningless. It’s because of everything that came before that the series has reached this pivotal point.

3 episodes to go.