Season 4 was not Fringe's best.
I wanted to get that out of the way early. What follows is a somewhat lengthy exposition into the many wonderful and not-so-wonderful elements of this odd season, but essentially what I'm going to be telling you is that this season as a whole, though it had many bright spots, was only "good enough" to justify renewal for a fifth and final season.
This season of Fringe had an unusually lofty and perhaps unfair expectation to live up to – it had to provide a resolution to the Season 3 finale bombshell that Peter was erased from time and space and "never existed". Many critics and fans (myself included) worried that "The Day We Died" may have been Fringe's "jump the shark" moment and only a brilliant resolution in Season 4 could save the show from collapsing under the weight of its own massive plot twist.
The season opener, "Neither Here Nor There", didn't do much to answer the burning questions left from its predecessor. Instead it focused on showing us a world without Peter – a world drastically different than the one we knew and had come to rely on. The episode set the stage for the continuous redefinition of Fringe lore that would mark the entire season and leave Fringe fans uncertain about the future and whether the events of the previous three seasons really mattered. But a lot of the material was presented quite well, and even though this new look at the old characters wasn't necessarily welcome, it did often prove very interesting.
But the show suffered without Joshua Jackson in the mix, although Seth Gabel did an admirable job stepping in to fill the void. Even though it only took 4 episodes for Jackson to return, it felt like the series was dragging its feet on the Peter issue, and the method of his return was a bit disappointing and it was explained in a barely adequate manner that seemed anti-climactic after the huge bombshell that Season 3's finale dropped.
Once Peter was back, he spent much of his time trying to leave. Just like many of the viewers, he didn't feel the world he found himself in was "right". This created yet another quandary for the series as the viewers couldn't be sure if emotional investment in this incarnation of our characters was even worth it because it was quite possible they'd be irrelevant once Peter got back "home".
So the first third of the season was inconsistent and the episodes often felt aimless. The ratings were in the tank, with "Wallflower" and "Back to Where You've Never Been" being back-to-back episodes with viewership considerably under 3 million. The cancellation rumor mill started churning at full speed.
But Fringe is too good of a series to flounder for too long, and soon the quality of the episodes improved dramatically. Things started to turn around with "Enemy of My Enemy", the episode that re-introduced David Robert Jones as a threat to both universes. This was a great episode that was full of excellent writing, special effects, and a feeling that the show was starting to get back to its roots. Then there was "The End of All Things" which I felt was probably the best episode of the entire season with absolutely brilliant writing and clever plot twists. The dastardly deceptions of David Robert Jones and Bad Nina were excellent, and paired with equally excellent portrayal of Olivia.
The series continued with a number of high-quality episodes that gradually put the weird "timeline" play to rest. Once we hit "A Short Story About Love" Peter and Olivia were truly back together, it was clear that Peter was home all along, and the series could finally move into more consistent material. But the threat of cancellation still loomed large, and it seemed more likely than not that Fringe could no longer escape the chopping block. The producers could feel the axe being lowered, and just to hedge their bets they threw out a vision of what the series could be if they were given the chance to wrap things up. The result was "Letters of Transit".
This episode came out of nowhere and totally caught the viewers off guard, but no one could deny that the material was intriguing and bold, and interest in a shortened final season skyrocketed. This story also put William Bell back into the fray, which seemed like it might just be a CG job until Leonard Nimoy appeared in the flesh shortly afterward – the biggest and most welcome surprise of the season despite the wonky script kludges that surrounded the return of his character.
The two part season finale wrapped up the late-coming William Bell plot adequately, but the finale's greatest success was setting us up for the world we got a glimpse of in "Letters of Transit". For the first time, Fringe didn't end a season with a major cliffhanger. We know where we're going, and we're certain that it's the end.
Season 4 didn't do a lot of favors for the series, but it was not without monumental moments. However, it's important to note that the most important developments of this season revolved around making things the way they used to be. David Robert Jones came back, William Bell is back in action, Peter is back in "existence" and back with Olivia, and there's no bridge to the alternate universe. Season 4 could be seen as a long, arduous, wandering journey back to the stuff that made Fringe popular in the first place, and for fans who weren't too happy with the developments of the past two years, this could be an additional reason to have faith in Season 5.
Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/20/fringe-season-4-review
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