FRINGE Final Season Recap: “The Recordist”

Welcome to another recap of FRINGE! So how about we look at that fungus growing on your skin later…

Its still 2036, the Observers still have control of Earth, and Walter’s brain is still a mess. The plan he was supposed to remember is next to gone, but he did split the steps up and hide them. So, welcome to the Fringe scavenger hunt of 2036! Hope you brought your checklist (actually, since the items are unknown, just a blank piece of paper will do)!

“Walter’s tapes are out of order.” “Figures.” The team finds the first labeled tape in the ambered lab (easy) and discover it’s the third tape (might have had something to do with that off-camera bong hit Walter takes before recording his message). No matter, a clue is a clue, and that clue leads the team to the forests in Pennsylvania, which have remained relatively uninhabited. Relatively meaning they find a small enclave of people who are taking care of a data archive, cataloguing the world’s history for future generations. They also have the worst case of exema ever.

“A form of psoriasis.” The people there know about Fringe Division’s exploits, even making fanzine comics about them (they get to sign them too), so the arrival of Peter, Olivia, and Walter pretty much un-aged, along with Etta, is a surprise to say the least. After getting more info from the old tape that what they’re looking for is in a mine nearby, they find a skeleton with an advanced form of the skin trouble the camp is having. Walter’s theory is the machines that are changing the atmosphere for the Observers are causing spillage that’s affecting the environment, and thus, the camp. The team needs a suit to go further into the mine to collect the minerals Walter needs for his plan, lest they end up being irrevocably contaminated. The camp leader, Edwin, knows of another camp where they trade for metals that could line the suit for better protection, but he’s concerned that will end badly.

“There’s a time for recording history, and there’s a time for making it.” Edwin gets proven right when he hears the metals the team needs isn’t available, and sends the team away to what he says is the camp, but isn’t. Instead, Edwin has a little heart-to-heart with his son, River, before going into the mine to retrieve the minerals, which he does, but ends up completely encased in the wood exema for it. The team takes off with the minerals, they evade the Observer patrols, River goes on to maintain the archive (and draw more Fringe indie comics apparently), and everything’s okay. Except for Edwin, who’s dead and looks like an Ent from the Lord of the Rings with clothes. So, relatively, everything’s okay.

–Fun Walter Facts: he apparently liked to get high before filming his tapes (it was medicinal!), knows wonderful facts about mine collapses, and likes those U2 Zoo TV era Bono shades.

–A man named Donald came looking for the minerals and Walter and was taken by the Observers years earlier. Walter doesn’t know any Donald.

–Peter and Olivia have another little heart-to-heart about their time pre-ambered searching for Etta. Now I really am worried about their daughter.

–“My dear, I only know one mime, and that is Marcel Marceau.” “No. Mine. M-I-N-E.”

–“I will outline the plan for using this in tape six…or tape seven.”

So what do you think so far? Is this last season going well for you? Comment below…