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The End of All Things

Fringe The End of All Things
Season 4, Episode 14

Air date	February 24, 2012
Written by	David Fury
Directed by	Jeffrey Hunt
← previous A Better Human Being	next → A Short Story About Love
Cast \| Transcript

"The End of All Things" is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of Fringe.

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 Notable Quotes
4 Notes
5 Cypher

SynopsisEdit

As David Robert Jones uses a captive Nina in an effort to activate Olivia's cortexiphan-enhanced abilities, the dying Observer visits Peter and Walter at their lab. Peter must merge his mind with September's in order to learn his secrets.

PlotEdit

Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) has been taken to a disused medical facility by David Robert Jones (Jared Harris) and his agents. She is placed in the same room along with Nina Sharp (Blair Brown), also secured to a chair, revealing she was also abducted by Jones the night before. Jones arrives and asserts that Olivia has great abilities due to her Cortexiphan doping but must coax them out of Olivia. Jones presents a light box test that Olivia should be able to activate with her mind, torturing Nina to create the emotional driver, but Olivia admits she can't do it without rest. During this period, Olivia, her memories a mix of her own and that of Olivia from Peter Bishop's (Joshua Jackson) timeline, asks Nina to help her make an emotional connection, but she recognizes that this Nina is not the real one. Olivia continues to play along, explaining to Nina that her Cortexiphan abilities could only be induced by being near Peter; Nina fakes illness to be extracted from the room, where she explains that they need to abduct Peter.

Following Olivia's disappearance, Peter discovers a surveillance camera in her apartment. He takes its memory device, which has been overwritten numerous times like a palimpsest, to Walter Bishop's (John Noble) laboratory, using forensic tools to examine previous images on the disc. Lincoln Lee (Seth Gabel) and Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) take Nina into custody, learning that someone with Nina's bio-metric signature had accessed the Massive Dynamic supply of Cortexiphan over the last few months; Nina is surprised by this but refuses to talk. As they work, Walter accuses Peter of taking advantage of Olivia's state, even if unintentionally, imprinting his memories of Olivia of the original timeline onto her. They identify a face belonging to Leland Spivey, a man with ties to Jones and Nina Sharp, and Peter suspects that they are dosing Olivia with Cortexiphan for nefarious purposes. Their work is disrupted by the sudden appearance of the Observer September (Michael Cerveris), bleeding from a chest wound. With September nearly dead, Peter decides to use Walter's equipment to enter the Observer's mind to try to learn of Olivia's location.

Within September's consciousness, Peter learns the Observers are a team of scientists from one possible future of humanity, having used technology to travel to the past to witness their own creation. September, however, disrupted events by attempting to observe the point where Peter's cure was discovered, and his disruption has since caused several unintended changes within the timeline, including the war between the two universes. Ultimately, this would lead to the birth of Henry, Peter's child with the parallel universe's Olivia, which September claimed never should have happened and is a catalyst for disruption of future events. By Peter entering the Machine and altering the timeline, Henry also ceased to exist. September explains that Peter's reappearance may be a means to set things right, and insists he find a way to reunite his romance with his original Olivia. As the reality of September's mind breaks down, claiming "they are coming", the Observer tells Peter to "go home".

Peter is suddenly woken up in the lab, September's body goes into convulsions and vanishes. Peter realizes that September's message was literal, and returns to his home, where he is knocked out by Jones' men. He is brought to the same facility as Olivia and tied up. As they prepare to torture him, Olivia begins to use her powers to activate the lights, not only on the box but within the facility, creating electrical sparks that kills one of Jones' men. As Jones and Nina retreat, Olivia frees Peter and they give chase, though Olivia suffers from a seizure, following excessive use of her powers. They catch up to Jones and Nina as they are crossing back to the parallel universe, and even though Olivia fires a bullet through Jones' neck, he is only momentarily stunned, a side effect of his previous teleportation. Jones and Nina escape through the portal.

Peter contacts the authorities to bring medical help for Olivia. As they are waiting, Peter admits to Olivia that he fears what he has done to her memories, and has seen his original Olivia through the Observer's memory. He leaves her, believing that staying away from Olivia would be for the best.

Notable QuotesEdit

David Robert Jones: Olivia Dunham. I've waited so very long to meet you.
Olivia: Actually, we've already met.
David Robert Jones: You have me at a bit of a disadvantage.
Olivia: I watched you die, and I'm looking forward to seeing you do that again.

Astrid: Wait, stop.
Peter: What? What do you see?
Astrid: I don't see anything, but I really have to pee and I don't want to miss anything.
Walter: I've had the same issue for the last ten minutes.

Walter: Dear God, I have no idea if this man's physiology is similar to ours at all.
Peter: It is--at least that's what you told me in my timeline.
Walter: Oh. I suppose I have no reason to doubt myself.

Astrid: What do you think--that she's waiting for you at your house after she's been kidnapped?
Walter: I suppose it makes as much sense as anything that's gone on here.
Astrid: It doesn't make any sense.
Walter: My point exactly.

NotesEdit

The Observer appears in Walter's Lab and collapses from his injury. Peter establishes a synaptic link with him and goes inside his mind learning about the role both of them play in the future of mankind.