• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Fringe 4x22 - "Brave New World, Part II" (Discussion, Spoilers)

Grade 'Brave New World, Part II'

  • Excellent - Fringe at its very best

    Votes: 19 50.0%
  • Very Good

    Votes: 9 23.7%
  • Good

    Votes: 5 13.2%
  • Average

    Votes: 4 10.5%
  • Bad

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Really Bad

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Terrible - encase this ep in amber!

    Votes: 1 2.6%

  • Total voters
    38
First off Rebecca Mader is hot. Second is she's cute. Third is she can look really creepy.

5ouscp.gif
 
I thought it was a good episode. I was rather puzzled on why Olivia announced that she was pregnant to Peter when earlier in Part 1 she mentioned "nursery". I thought she had already told him that.

The whole Olivia getting shot scene was a bit sad. I almost thought that Peter was going to beat up Walter. I liked how Astrid came out with the candy in the hospital.
 
what changed Bell the man so much that he'd turn from being the kinder, more caring Bell we saw in Season 2 to the wannabe god he was in the finale?

I assume it was his cancer that made him go over the edge as he basically explained.
 
Question about Broyles...When did he become a Colonel? Colonel Broyles was in the Red Universe. He was Agent Broyles in the Blue/Amber universe.

So why does he suddenly have an army rank? Actually, one of the things that I've noticed is that they've slowly converted the Blue universe Fringe Division into the Red universe version. When exactly did the Blue universe get the Red Universe's FD Headquarters? They are in different buildings but the offices now look the same.
 
Question about Broyles...When did he become a Colonel? Colonel Broyles was in the Red Universe. He was Agent Broyles in the Blue/Amber universe.



Actually, if you go back to the pilot and Season 1, Broyles had the rank of colonel before he was involved with the FBI and formed Fringe Division. It's just that in the Blue-verse, he preferred to go by 'Agent Broyles' rather than his rank.

So his promotion to General is in keeping with the original concept from the original timeline.
 
That's simply the classic Grandfather-paradox. Don't think too hard about it. It will never make sense anyway. That's why it's called a paradox.



True enough, but equally true is the fact that they wrote themselves into a box the moment that they had Peter wink out of existence in the Season 3 finale.

You're right, it'll never make sense, but it still bugs me nonetheless.
 
Average.

I have to say that for 4 years worth of build up on their mythology it came together in a very unsatisfying and anti-climatic way.--Sam Weiss, Bell''s motivation for collapsing the universes, Bell's back up plan of using Olivia as a power source, the purpose of the porcupine creature from S1, The Machine, The First People, David Robert Jones etc.

I honestly can say what a waste of time if this how it all paid off. Also this episode is a perfect example of why I hate the en vogue use of flashforward episodes--"Letters of Transit" essentially spoiled this episode and robbed it of all dramatic tension. Last week's "dramatic" shooting of Astrid should have put us on the edge of our seats but since we know Astrid survives in amber--big whoopee and the way this episode just sort of glosses over it was certainly anti-climatic--a definite sign of weak writing IMO.

Then you knew Walter would save the day since Future Nina confirmed it to Henry Ian Cusack's character. Any other time September's warning that "They are coming" would have been ominous instead we know exactly who they are--The Observers and why. Also when the writers had September show up at the Opera House to warn Olivia she was going to die in all possible futures I have to say--WRITER CONTRIVANCE. First of all for a being who can travel to any point in time why not go to the point in time that he had left instead of traveling even further back in time and why mislead Olivia to think she was going to be permanently dead--he would have known Walter saved her--Why? Because the writers were trying to gin up suspense.--Boo on them. X is Walter Yawn. Bell knows a lot about the Observers--but how and the device he sets in his office after ending the hologram of the new universe looks suspiciously like the device in 2036 that is suppose to get rid of the Observers.

Rebecca Mader is a horribly annoying actress--which I felt about her performance on LOST and seeing her replicate it just proves it wasn't the role but her acting.

Oh and just what any series needs a baby on the way--cliched, hackneyed.

Average for the episode, Average as a finale, Poor for an episode that wraps up 4 years worth of mythology.



Sorry Pal but your being way to nice.

These got to be some of the worst writers of a show that ive watched.
These writers wrote 3 seasons worth of Fringe then realize they have no idea where the show was going and ran out of ideas so they just say, hey lets just throw those 3 seasons in the dumpster and have a season 4 that has no continuity with prior seasons and do any story they want.

Honestly try watching this show from the start without coming online and reading up and trying to understand any of it.

I feel robbed and i want the real universe back, i want to see how they deal with Fauxlivia having Peters baby, Seeing Walter dealing with owning Massive Dynamic and figuring how Sam Weiss really fit into this. I really feel these writers just made this shit up as they went along.
 
Average.

I have to say that for 4 years worth of build up on their mythology it came together in a very unsatisfying and anti-climatic way.--Sam Weiss, Bell''s motivation for collapsing the universes, Bell's back up plan of using Olivia as a power source, the purpose of the porcupine creature from S1, The Machine, The First People, David Robert Jones etc.

I honestly can say what a waste of time if this how it all paid off. Also this episode is a perfect example of why I hate the en vogue use of flashforward episodes--"Letters of Transit" essentially spoiled this episode and robbed it of all dramatic tension. Last week's "dramatic" shooting of Astrid should have put us on the edge of our seats but since we know Astrid survives in amber--big whoopee and the way this episode just sort of glosses over it was certainly anti-climatic--a definite sign of weak writing IMO.

Then you knew Walter would save the day since Future Nina confirmed it to Henry Ian Cusack's character. Any other time September's warning that "They are coming" would have been ominous instead we know exactly who they are--The Observers and why. Also when the writers had September show up at the Opera House to warn Olivia she was going to die in all possible futures I have to say--WRITER CONTRIVANCE. First of all for a being who can travel to any point in time why not go to the point in time that he had left instead of traveling even further back in time and why mislead Olivia to think she was going to be permanently dead--he would have known Walter saved her--Why? Because the writers were trying to gin up suspense.--Boo on them. X is Walter Yawn. Bell knows a lot about the Observers--but how and the device he sets in his office after ending the hologram of the new universe looks suspiciously like the device in 2036 that is suppose to get rid of the Observers.

Rebecca Mader is a horribly annoying actress--which I felt about her performance on LOST and seeing her replicate it just proves it wasn't the role but her acting.

Oh and just what any series needs a baby on the way--cliched, hackneyed.

Average for the episode, Average as a finale, Poor for an episode that wraps up 4 years worth of mythology.



Sorry Pal but your being way to nice.

These got to be some of the worst writers of a show that ive watched.
These writers wrote 3 seasons worth of Fringe then realize they have no idea where the show was going and ran out of ideas so they just say, hey lets just throw those 3 seasons in the dumpster and have a season 4 that has no continuity with prior seasons and do any story they want.

Honestly try watching this show from the start without coming online and reading up and trying to understand any of it.

I feel robbed and i want the real universe back, i want to see how they deal with Fauxlivia having Peters baby, Seeing Walter dealing with owning Massive Dynamic and figuring how Sam Weiss really fit into this. I really feel these writers just made this shit up as they went along.
Well I've complained about this stuff repeatedly over the last few years including last week's episode. But honestly I never expected anything less--I've just come to know that these mythology-laden series can never be done well--all the writers know how to do is spin a multitude of intriguing mysteries then either ignore them or come up with a lame payoff after years of anticipation by the audience. Look at how ENT botched the Temporal Cold War(Who was Future Guy, why start a Klingon civil war, why seemingly save the ENT), Moore
BSG(the Opera House vision, the "angels", Cylon procreation, "God"), LOST worst offender because the writers swore up and down they learned from other shows mistakes(Why is Walt special, Alvar Hanso, Dharma, the vaccinations, the smoke monster, the cabin, and on and on and on), The X-Files Alien Mythology was clearly twisted up into something new every year with more and more new stuff just piled on.

That's why I'm so over mythologies--I much prefer a show to cut out the games and craft season long arcs that introduce a *handful* not a million mysteries and develop the arc over the season and are forced to provide satisfying payoffs and answers by the end of ep 22. I think it is a big mistake to carry over mysteries from one season to the next and even worse across the entire series--all it does is frustrate the audience and make the writers lazy by letting them procrastinate with coming with answers.

I actually gave up on the show last season and hadn't watched it until earlier this spring simply because there just wasn't anything else on. In fact I get more entertainment from picking the show apart than I do from the episodes themselves.

Thats why I have a self-imposed boycott on all LOST-influenced shows--Once Upon a Time, next season's The Last Resort and Revolution.
 
I thought it was a good episode. I was rather puzzled on why Olivia announced that she was pregnant to Peter when earlier in Part 1 she mentioned "nursery". I thought she had already told him that.

I think she was just saying to him that she'd LIKE to have children then.
 
I actually gave up on the show last season and hadn't watched it until earlier this spring simply because there just wasn't anything else on. In fact I get more entertainment from picking the show apart than I do from the episodes themselves.

Thats why I have a self-imposed boycott on all LOST-influenced shows--Once Upon a Time, next season's The Last Resort and Revolution.

This show has and continues to be a fucking mess when it tries to push forward or provide closure to its varying "arcs". The requisite technobabble by Nina attempting to explain how this destruction of the universes was to take place was especially fatuous.

And, of course, cue the rather predictable pregnant mom trope for the last season as if this show needed to be bogged down by further bland plotlines. Not to mention it has curious parallels to how X-Files ended, in a rather ignominious fashion might I add.

-Jamman
 
Hmmm - "Average" for me.

Sure, there were some good scenes, like the unexpected (but logical) death of Olivia. But...

My main problems:
- Bell as a wacky crazy villain
- Olivia killed (all good and dramatic), but then that is undone without any lasting impact (no injury, no memory loss, no loss of abilities) - this makes it a cheap trick
- Olivia "Deus ex Machina" Dunham - her abilities allow her to whatever the plot demands
- David Robert Jones (the best villain of the show) killed of as a lame sidekick

This two-parter had all the hallmarks of a series finale. But not in a good way. A series finale in the sense of "lets go all out and throw crap at the wall and see what sticks".

I'm afraid the last few episodes have killed off almost all my love for "Fringe". I'll watch the next season opener, and see... But I'm not optimistic.
 
JJ tends to waffle back and forth between awesomeness and :wtf: in many of his shows. Lost was especially heavy on the :wtf: without payoff mixed in with its :eek: , but Alias also had its :wtf: moments.
 
Lost was especially heavy on the :wtf: without payoff mixed in with its :eek:



Yup, that's pretty much the way I see it as well. We watched Lost on DVD straight through S1 to the very beginning of S6, where we just kinda gave up on it. It was going nowhere and had become completely incoherent by that point.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top