How I Want Fringe To End

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Time to dust out this old blog to get an idea I have down on paper. Digital paper, that is.

Thanks again to the insistence of my friend Katrina, I am hooked on another SciFi series: Fringe.

I am finally caught up on the whole series. This post is going to tell how I want it to end. Be forewarned – if you have not seen the 10th episode of the fifth season ( the current episode as I type this)… there will be spoilers.

Really.

Still reading? Okay… hope you are caught up.

Here is how I want Fringe to end. I don’t want it to end like Lost, Battlestar Galactica, or even Chuck. I want The Dark Knight Rises – a happy ending with loose ends tied up. I like some of the things about the confusing endings, things you can fill in the blank, etc. But let’s face it – all of that is getting cliche. I want something more concrete and, well… happy.

The preview for the last three episodes has Olivia saying “so we can reset time?” I realize this is out of context – Walter could follow up by saying “well, of course not, but…” But I am going to assume that this is the “big plan” of Walter’s for a minute and go with it. I realize that this would be a big cop-out for most shows. But for a show that has already reset time at least once? It has possibilities. As long as they don’t give us Lost.

What I Don’t Want

So here is what I don’t want. They figure out how to reset time, go through with it, fade to white, and then fade in to the date that the series first started. Olivia is walking along the street, walks past Peter, doesn’t know him. Asks him for directions, he answers, and they part ways. She turns around with a look in her eye, and then the credits.

Ugh.

Does she chase him down and ask him out to coffee, or do they go their separate ways? It is left up to you to fill in the ending you want.

Ugh.

I just want a cool SciFi series to have a cool ending that leaves us KNOWING that everyone lived happily ever after. And not in purgatory or heaven or whatever.

What I Do Want

Here is the ending that I want. The Fringe team figures out that they can reset time. They go through hell to get it done. Everyone ends up dying but Peter and Olivia. They get mortally wounded. With their dying breath, they express their love for each other and then flip the time reset button or whatever. Fade to white.

We fade back in, and the time stamp tells us that it is some year after the Observers invaded. But they show us that the bridge is still there, Central Park is still there, etc. The observer invasion never happened.

We see a news report on a TV in a window about how they are making huge progress to clean up the planet, all spearheaded by Massive Dynamic. A bright future is ahead.

Cut to Fringe division. An old Olivia and an old Peter are celebrating a 30 year anniversary and retirement. Everyone is there and alive – Lincoln, Astrid, Broyles, Nina, Charlie, etc. A really old Walter is half senile in the corner, but still himself. Peter and Olivia’s daughter walks in and congratulates them.

We wonder – what happened differently? Was Peter still stolen by Walter? Did they still ruin the other universe?

Then we cut to the alternate universe. Another retirement party. Old Fauxlivia is there. Really old Waternate is there. But then walks in… the other Peter, with their daughter. We realize that both Peters lived and married Olivia. Everyone there is alive and well. How did this happen?

Then we see really old Water and Waternate sneak out of the room. They sneak into a room looking suspicious  They both turn on their windows to look at the alternate universe, but we see that it is different and allows them to talk to each other. We then realize by their banter that they have a very good and long standing relationship through this communication device.

Turns out that Walternate also tried to make the window at the same time, and they discovered a way to communicate early on. Early enough to figure out a way to cure both Peters. Then they also figured out ways to fight pollution or whatever to make both worlds better.

But Walter never crosses over to break the universes. So why is there even a need for Fringe divisions in both universes?

They start making jokes about the times that William Bell crossed over and almost destroyed both universes. But they caught him in time. We see shots of parts of the other universe that used to be in Amber, but no longer are and never were.

Walter then gets this look in his eye and makes a serious statement about wondering how bad it could have gone if something else would have happened.

Cut to the observers in their Big Bang mobile. September is talking to Windmark. He says “Everything turned out as I predicted it would.”

Windmark says “you were right, I was wrong. The universes are fixed and our timeline never existed.”

September asks “Since balance has been restored we are no longer needed?”

Windmark replies “no, we now never existed and are therefore no longer needed.”

And they dissolve into a bunch of atoms.

The End.

CECS 6010 Week Thirteen Post Blog

CECS 6020/6010

I’m not sure if we are supposed to do a follow up blog for this week or not. Its not in the grade book in Schoology, but I like to blog and reflect and find it helpful, so I will do it anyways. Even though we really looked at a lot of stuff other than this weeks reading in class.

It was interesting to me how different people came away with different take-aways from different articles. I also saw how you really better know your stuff before making a statement about something you assume. There was quite the lively discussion that ensued after the need for promoting women in Science and engineering was questioned. I think that gender disparity is well documented in the literature, but many other students made a much better case than I could. So the lesson there – know your literature.

Of course, I have always agreed with that, but I have seen from this class how much of literature I don’t know about. Guess that is why I need to get my Ph.D. 🙂

But, other than that, still no revelations on the Bernstein stuff that I did not understand  Just not much time to dig into that as I try to get papers revised and turned in (and harass my review partner to finally get me the last two of my reviews and papers of his for me to review).

Week Thirteen Pre-Post CECS 6010

CECS 6020/6010

I found the Warren and Gratch article to be very interesting. And I am not saying that just to earn points. The concept of Critical cine-ethnography seems to be an interesting way to deal with many of the problems that are encountered with research. of course, it is not perfect, but taking the time to make sure that the researcher is considered part of the environment rather than an intruder seems very effective. At least to someone like me that is skeptical of traditional research methods that seem to be so unrealistic at times. Also, I love the idea of examining bias and being honest turning a critical lens on subjectivity by taking a reflective attitude. Personally, I think we need more of that in research.

In The New Constellation reading this week, Bernstein is examining Foucault and his views on critique as a philosophical ethos. I think I understand this to mean how we investigate history and the way we became who we are. Bernstein also looks at Enlightenment blackmail, and he seems to not be very happy about the whole idea, even though I am not quite sure exactly what that entails. Of course, Bernstein points out how many of Foucault’s critics end up frustrated and confused when they examine these areas, so I am guessing that I am not the only one a bit confused by this whole topic.

In The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory reading for this week, Bernstein is covering a lot of ground and is obviously even taking the title of the book from this section. But in all honesty, I had a hard time following most of it. After a while, there are so many names and concepts that I only have a vague familiarity with. Bernstein writes with an assumption of deep understanding of anything he touches on, something that I think you probably need multiple degrees in before you understand. I am hoping that the meeting time Monday can shed some light on this for me. Or maybe I am just tired from a busy weekend 🙂

CECS 6010 Week Twelve Post Blog

CECS 6020/6010

So what have I learned since last post related to this weeks readings? Well, even though we didn’t have class, I have pondered the readings a lot and also thought about the class updates that were posted today. Now that I think about it, I can’t really say that I didn’t really learn anything about the individual professors. I did learn a lot, and was given a desire to dig into the work of some of them. That is a good start.

But sometimes you look at the papers and work of these professors and wonder to yourself: “will I ever get to that level?” It seems pretty far away at times… not just all the classes I have left to take, but also all the papers to read and issues to ponder to catch up with their massive knowledge of the topics. As others have said, I am always glad to get the help and feedback from professors on these papers – it never really seems harsh to me. Well, not in this class at least. Others in the past at other schools, maybe. But I just wonder if there is going to be a time when this all clicks and I “get” it, or I just slowly get there but never realize it and then on my death bed I have this shocking revelation that I got it and then pass away.