good-bye letter to fringe - ending this friday with a 2 hour season finale

- a lot of this is tumblr / fandom speak so... yeah -

As we all know, Fringe is not a “Big 3” fandom.  But I would argue – we all would argue – that our fandom has the biggest heart.  Many can say that they were saved by their show, but how many can say that they have saved their show?

Supernatural might say that they are the fandom that could, but sorry, WE are the fandom that could.  Our show was cast from timeslot to timeslot, doomed to die & destined to fail, but it didn’t.  It wasn’t going to get a final season – but it did.  It wasn’t going to have a proper ending on its own terms – but it did.  WE did that.  WE did that with our social networking savvy.  With our seemingly useless little #messages & our pleas to members of our friends, family, coworkers, anyone who had ears... we kept our little show chugging along. 

& it doesn’t even matter WHEN you started Fringe – the love you experience is just as powerful regardless.  One of my friends powered through ALL the seasons after Thanksgiving & up until mid-December – when Fringe had come back from a mini-hiatus.  He would spaz to me @ 2 in the morning about his theories about Walter, how much Peter really connected to him, how much he hated this villain or that villain, or how gross that case actually was.  It was wonderful.  It was beautiful.  It was love.  It didn’t matter that his love came “too late;” he STILL EXPERIENCED IT.  & people who find Fringe “too late” will STILL EXPERIENCE IT.  Even if it’s 10 years from now or even 10 minutes after the final episode has aired… we will welcome them into this family with open arms.

I came about Fringe from a different path – I guess the “normal” path for old-tv viewing, but who gives a fuck.  I saw the first pilot trailer for Fringe & I felt like I NEEDED to watch this show.  If I DIDN’T WATCH THIS SHOW I WOULD BE WASTING MY LIFE.  & then I picked up the Pilot.  &… that was one of the finest Pilots I have ever watched [granted I’m only 19, & at the time I was even younger] & even when I rewatched it thru the Science Channel’s epic “rebirth,” it still holds up. 

Like a lot of you, I adore science fiction tales.  But also like a lot of you, I like the human elements of storytelling – the emotional & psychological struggles that befall us.  Fringe mixes the two of them BRILLIANTLY.  The Emmy’s may not recognize our show’s brilliance, but all of us fans do… & I guess that’s actually what matters.

The characters on Fringe & their motives & their mistakes & regrets… they’re all so very human.  Even September, a being who shouldn’t even have emotion, becomes human – both literally & metaphorically.  September, this supposed to be cold observer, loves.  & not just in the way that August loves – September not only loves his son, but loves his extended family unit – a family unit that has become part of MY family unit as well.  He loves the Bishops, Olivia, & Astrid.  September is kind of like all of us; he sacrifices so much just to ensure the safety & happiness of the people he loves.  In a way, I’m not surprised that September is Donald.  Looking back, September is the ONLY person who COULD have been Donald.  He just loves our little Fringe family all too much.

Fringe IS a Short Story About Love.  & not in some gimmicky way, like Legend of Korra, but in a TRUE way.  Where characters truly LOVE each other based on complex & realistic reasons, motives, emotions, everything.  & even the non-canon ships [but definitely canon-strong relationships] have promise.  You can expand upon them in fanfiction & it still seems plausible.  You can expand upon them in fanfiction & you won’t get TOO much hate.  I mean compared to the Big 3, our shipping struggles are MINOR @ best.  Like even in Season 4 with the Lincoln / Liv  versus  Polivia standoff… it’s not as bad as some of those nastier shipping battles.  Sometimes we’re blessed for being so small.

But our show IS a Short Story About Love - & all these different types of loves:

Before Olivia had a relationship with Peter, she had a partnership with Charlie.  We all MISS Charlie because their chemistry was so powerful.  “You’re gonna be fine,” Charlie tells Olivia – tells all of us.  & we will.  Even after the finale, we’re GONNA BE FINE.

There’s the not as developed bond with Nick & Olivia [the Cortexibond, as I like to call it] that’s so subtle, yet has the potential to be so powerful.  Nick is one of my favorite characters because I connect to him so much.  & some of my FAVORITE moments of the show EVER are when Nick sees Olivia for the first time [or for the first time in a while] & his face lights up & the entire room lights up with him.  This bond has inspired me to start up publishable fanfiction again.  I owe a lot to this bond.

Walter & Peter.  Father & son.  One of the main dynamics of the show.  Where would Fringe be without it?  Where would WE be without it?  Like all family dynamics, it is far from perfect.  & considering the hell they’ve been through, I say they’re doing pretty fine.  Walter has hid things from Peter – downright deceived him - & yet Peter has forgiven him.  Peter has done desperate things, too – things that have broken Walter’s heart – & yet Walter forgives him, too.  The White Tulip is a symbol that Walter Bishop receives & a symbol that we have all internalized, but Peter… Peter is a White Tulip, too.  Inside him are wells of hope, forgiveness, & love.  That’s why we love Peter so much.  That’s why we get defensive over Peter.  That’s why we cling to Peter & never want to let go.

Walter & Olivia – the make-shift father / daughter relationship that could.  Of course we joke about how much Walter is POLIVIA Shipper NUMBER ONE, but… Walter takes to his little Olive in a way that I’ve never seen before.  He truly LOVES her as one of his family, almost as soon as the first episode.  He cares about her – which makes the darker!Walter’s Cortexiphan consequences all the more harder to swallow.  There’s the disconnect between the Walter who experimented on Olivia & the Walter who asks Olivia if she wants to use the bed to be with Peter.  But it’s such a powerful bond.  & it’s so POWERFUL how Olivia has to overcome her hatred of the old!Walter.  & how Walter has to overcome hatred of himself – how he has to forgive himself.  & that’s only something that he’s done recently.  Only Michael was able to show him that the man he thought was glorious & all powerful… yeah he isn’t shit @ all.  YOU, Walter, with your love are better than that man will EVER be.  & FUCK that’s why we love YOU.

I am sad that the Lincoln / Olivia relationship-partnership-bond had to be erased.  What they had @ the beginning of Season 4… yeah I shipped that a little.  I regret that it wasn’t expanded upon & I regret how quickly it was squashed, but hey… the show isn’t perfect.

Alt! Lincoln / Olivia – my ALT TP / ALT OTP.  My feelings for the Other Side, like a lot of our feelings, were strained in Seasons 2 & 3.  I’m ashamed to say that I sometimes blindly hated AltLiv with the same ferocity that Walter did.  I did despise her vagenda – for ruining Olivia’s life & causing her to break down like that, more than anything else.  & AltLiv shot Walter, AltLincoln killed Nick, AltLiv was being a deceiving fake bitch most of the time & making me just yell HOW ARE YOU GUYS NOT SEEING THAT THIS ISN’T OLIVIA I GAAAAHHHH… I was having a really bad time.  But @ the same time… this relationship with Alt! Lincoln made me realize… this Alt version of Olivia… she isn’t so different, is she?  & this Lincoln… the way that he loves Olivia so painfully… isn’t he doing what Peter would do for Olivia?  Cradling Olivia in his arms, praying to Gods he doesn’t even believe in, hoping that she’ll survive - & she does?  That moment when AltLincoln knows that AltLiv will be okay & this smile reaches across his face… it was beautiful.  & it humanized the Other Side in a way I’ve never seen another version of ANYTHING be humanized before.  & it all kept up in Season 4… which made Lincoln’s death all the more painful.  It was Charlie’s death all over again & then some, seeing AltLiv so vulnerable like that.  Even Walter couldn’t help but nurture & love her.

& now there’s Lincoln / AltLiv.  Of course it won’t be the same… but… I’d like to think that they bonded well.  Perhaps what they really needed lay on opposites sides, too.  You never know.  The possibility with this ship is most excellently endless. 

But Alt!Liv / Olivia – call it O2 or call it 2 epic females fighting each other & now… for each other.  We’ve soon realized [& even they’ve realized] that they’re just two sides of the same coin.  Within them is this beast ready to be unleashed – when people they love are in danger.  They are both leaders, not even soldiers – because both of them will openly question orders & do the right thing.  AltLiv betrayed her universe for what she believed was right.  Olivia, back when this show was still doing Fringe cases, defied questionable orders again & again.  The two of them save lives & kick ass on the regular.  They’re emotional women who are great @ their jobs BECAUSE of their emotions.  Because they’re fucking lionesses.  One of them is the sharpshooter you hope you’ll never have to face & one of them is the Strongest Cortexichild who ever was.  I’m excited for them to join forces.  I just love them so much.  They are some of the best things that have happened to television ever.

Olivia is shamelessly my favorite character.  In the advent of still overly sexualized female characters who don’t have much depth to them, Olivia spits in the faces of those sexist bastards: she wears pants; she puts her hair back; she doesn’t wear heels cuz that would only hinder her down; she is able to have relationships with other people without being regarded as a slut. [altho the Rachel-shaming was a side-eye moment of this fandom, & my younger idiotic self participated in that… can we forget that plz?] 

Olivia is gifted, but Olivia is broken.  Olivia has a ferocious capacity to love, but Olivia has trust issues.  Olivia is so strong, & yet… she, too, can be powerless.  This epic BAMF of a woman, who doesn’t want to show her weak side, can show it only to one man, this man who came from another universe.  She doesn’t even know HOW this man could love her, with all of her imperfections, but he seems to love her more BECAUSE of them.  It blows her mind, but he is the best thing that has happened to her.  & she will continue to do anything for him, just as he has erased himself out of existence to protect her. 

What Polivia has… it’s special.  Fanfics aside… what the canon provides us… it’s breathtaking.  For all of the struggles they go through, their love still remains.  Love WILL prevail.  Because of love you will cross universes for a person, remember who you truly ARE because of this person, do drastic things that no one would ever conceive of doing just to protect this person… because that’s one of the main themes of the show: love drives us to drastic things.  Sometimes it’s paired with a God Complex, & sometimes we keep going back in time in order to die with the people we love – because living without them has been agony.  & dying with the WOULD be such a heavenly way to die, huh, Peck?

Mama Lion & her cub… I’ll write about this last.  Because it still hurts.  I’ve never felt so much grief for a character who’s only been in a few episodes.  Etta really should’ve won that most painful death stupid internet poll… but whatever it’s passed now.  That relationship was special.  The bullet around her neck was special.  The way they looked into each other’s eyes… just… let me die here.  The love they had was a FEARLESS LOVE.

What I’m trying to say… is Fringe was SO developed for a show that only ran 5 seasons, or really like 4 & ½ seasons.  Some shows can’t even do this kind of development in 10.  Some shows can’t even go over the nuances of minor characters: how much Nina truly loved William Bell & Olivia, so much that she would DIE to save her & the cause; how much AltBroyles & Broyles resembled each other, caring about their family above all else & making the hard decisions to trust someone that they’ve been told not to trust; William Bell & all the different motivations for that man – the Man Who Sold the World & yet the man with a wondrous heart – could fill a novel; all the Cortexichildren’s struggles; David Robert Jones & his ability to villain so WELL sometimes you can’t even help but root for the man; even the struggles of the day-to-day Fringe case characters.  Even THEIR stories were told fabulously.  One Night in October showcases not only excellence in the MAIN characters, but in the SIDE CHARACTERS WHO SHOULDN’T EVEN MATTER.  & with Marionette.  & with 6B. 

Fringe does what so many shows DO NOT DO & maybe will not do.  Fringe is FAR from perfect [Astrid’s only time to shine was Making Angels & altho that is one of my favorite episodes… she isn’t given much else & that is a shame; there’s racism in this show & other people have gone into that; also how come none of the minor relationships have been LGBT* c’mon if Glee can do it shittily why can’t we even attempt here, blah blah blah], but it is a damn good show.

Thanks for the memories to everyone involved - & that INCLUDES THE FANBASE, TOO.  We were as much of a part of the creation of this show as the actual cast & the actual writers, directors, scorers.  We gave THEM White Tulips; we told THEM to keep looking up after it rains.

& Fringe fanbase, keep looking up – Fringe isn’t truly over.  I know that we’ll still be creating & exploring further through this wondrous show.  & I truly hope that AltLiv has seen a rainbow.  I hope to everything she can finally say that to Liv in the finally.