(Spoiler alert)

Last night saw the return of Fringe for its fifth and final season.  On first impressions it’s going out with a whimper instead of a bang.  When we last saw our intrepid Fringe team they were battling David Robert Jones and trying to prevent the destruction of two universes ours and the alternate one.  The big reveal was that William Bell was the mastermind behind the drive to create a new world populated with new species.

Instead of picking up the thread of this plot,Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11 throws us once again thrown into the future, 2036 to be exact. This dystopia world is controlled by the Observers and a small band of rebels are fighting for their freedom.  Olivia, Peter, Walter and Astrid have been encased in amber for decades and are now freed and helping the resistance movement in its fight. For unknown reasons, the Observers are destroying our world (paving over the earth and polluting the sky) and keeping the population under tight control.

This isn’t the show that I know and love it. One of the central elements of the first four seasons relates to science and morality. The tale of Walter, played by the always effective John Noble, has been a major the key piece of this lesson.  His love for his son Peter coupled with his intelligence and scientific curiosity brought two universes to the brink of war. The experiments of both Walter and Walternate and the repercussions on their lives, their loved ones and even strangers have been fascinating to watch.  We see both sides finally come to an understanding and work together to save themselves only to see the story jettison for a war out of no where.

Science Fiction fans are known for fanaticism and their adherence to cannon and the Sci Fi Maven is no exception.  Since its inception, the Observers have always been portrayed as a group that watches important events in history and limit their interaction with any given timeline.  We seen a few instances where September and August have broken protocol for their own motives whether it is to clean up a mistake they have made or to change a course of history out of love.  The other Observers have frown upon them stepping outside of traditional behavior.  Now, not only do we have a group of Observers who seek power and control but are willing to torture to get the ends that they seek. Maybe there is an interesting resolution to this story but it isn’t why I tune in every week.

I hope that TPTB do not waste the last few precious episodes on this storyline.