Fringe (season 4)

The fourth season of the American science fiction television series Fringe premiered on Fox on September 23, 2011, and concluded on May 11, 2012, consisting of 22 episodes. The series is produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. The show was officially renewed for a fourth season on March 24, 2011.

Season summary 
Peter's use of the Wave Form Device to create a bridge between the two universes has caused him to erase himself from the timeline; a new timeline, in which young Peter was not saved by September after falling through the ice of Reiden Lake in 1985 after Walter's crossing, is set in motion. Despite the absence of Peter, the bridge has created a healing effect on the parallel universe, and both Fringe teams resolve their former differences and begin to work together. 

Olivia and (now more sheltered and reclusive) Walter continue to explore Fringe events, but are aware of a memory of Peter that haunts them. Due to their actions, Peter suddenly materializes in this timeline, though his identity is not initially known nor is he trusted. However, as he spends time with the Fringe team, Olivia starts to gain memories of the original timeline, and though both are initially worried about this effect, allow it to continue on, rediscovering their romance from before. During one case, a wounded September appears to Olivia, warning her that she dies in every future that he can see, before disappearing. September later appears to Peter after he activates a strange artifact, which acted like a homing beacon to September. September explains the other Observers hid this universe from him purposely, and that this timeline is Peter's true home.

As part of the change of the original timeline, David Robert Jones remains alive and is able to cross back and forth between the two universes, using an advanced army of shapeshifters, the parallel universe's version of Nina Sharp, and the parallel Broyles, whom he has blackmailed to initiate events. He gathers a large collection of the mineral amphilicite, which enables him to build devices that can merge the two universes for disastrous results. Both Fringe teams fear that a larger plan is afoot, and later, when Jones is able to trigger microquakes across the globe in both universes simultaneously, the two sides agree that Jones must be stopped before both worlds are destroyed. 

Their first action is to disable the bridge created by the Wave Form Device, believing this enables the simultaneous events, but this proves ineffective. The prime universe Fringe team continues to track Jones' actions, and discover that he is in the employ of William Bell, still alive in this timeline, who seeks to destroy both universes as to create a void for a third one to be made, with Olivia's Cortexiphan abilities enabling this event to occur. In a stalemate, Walter shoots Olivia in the head with a bullet, disrupting Bell's plan, and as Bell escapes, Walter helps to extract the bullet from Olivia, her Cortexiphan healing her body.

After Olivia's recovery, she finds herself pregnant with Peter's child. Walter is approached by September and told that "they are coming", alluding to a future in 2036 where the Observers have taken over humanity.

Cast

Main cast 
 Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham (21 episodes)
 Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop (22 episodes)
 John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop (22 episodes)
 Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles (21 episodes)
 Blair Brown as Nina Sharp (14 episodes)
 Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth (22 episodes)
 Seth Gabel as Lincoln Lee (17 episodes)

Recurring cast 
 Michael Cerveris as September/The Observer (6 episodes)
 Jared Harris as David Robert Jones (5 episodes)
 Michelle Krusiec as Nadine Park (3 episodes)
 Eugene Lipinski as December (3 episodes)
 Leonard Nimoy as Dr. William Bell (3 episodes)
 Orla Brady as Elizabeth Bishop (2 episodes)
 Rebecca Mader as Jessica Holt (2 episodes)
 Ryan McDonald as Brandon Fayette (1 episode)

Episodes

Production

Crew
In May 2011, David Fury joined the series as a writer and producer, having previously worked with co-creator J.J. Abrams on Lost. His first writing credit included the season's third episode, "Alone in the World".

Writing

According to executive producers/showrunners Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman, the fourth season would start with the idea that "Peter no longer exists", and also that the audience would "very much see the consequences of what happened in Seasons 1, 2 and 3". These consequences included changes in the past; Pinkner and Wyman noted that though Peter was the impetus for Walter to cross over starting the chain of events, in this alternate history, Walter and William likely would have found their own way to cross, leading to the same events but with some events that "may have happened differently". Specifically, they identified that instead of Walter being brought out of a mental institution by Peter, Olivia becomes the one that does this; this changes Walter's re-acclimation to the outside world, and further alters Astrid's fate, now a field agent instead of being Walter's caretaker. 

The producers stated they would continue to employ the use of flashbacks episodes as they "deepened the emotions of these characters", using these as well as flash-forwards "if it suits the story and the things we are trying to get across". Pinkner and Wyman also stated that they viewed the premiere episode of the fourth season "like a new pilot" to draw in viewers who wanted to watch the show but did not know when to start. Actor John Noble later clarified that this approach can be used "to unravel some of that mythology a bit" to explain the impact of the disappearance of Peter to new viewers. Despite the apparent disappearance of his character, Joshua Jackson remains as the show's lead actor and is committed to a full fourth season. Jackson stated that Peter will be back on the show, but "will be different than he was before". This fact was played with at the 2011 San Diego Comic Convention where the Fringe cast appeared for a panel; a teaser video showed fake auditions for the open role of Peter, and included cameo appearances by Michael Emerson, Zachary Quinto, Greg Grunberg, Jorge Garcia, Danny Pudi, and Jeff Probst and concluded with Jackson himself dressed as an Observer.

Reception

Critical reception

IGN reviewer Ramsey Isler gave the fourth season a score of 7.5 out of 10, calling it "not Fringes best." His criticisms were that he felt the first third of the season was "inconsistent", with some episodes feeling "aimless", and the absence of Joshua Jackson as Peter in the beginning of the season hurt the show. Isler was more positive of the second half of the season, labeling the episode "Enemy of My Enemy" as the turning point of the season, with the reintroduction of villain David Robert Jones (played by Jared Harris). He highlighted "The End of All Things" as the best of the season, saying it had "absolutely brilliant writing and clever plot twists". The episodes "A Short Story About Love" and "Letters of Transit" were also named standouts, with the latter episode being called "intriguing and bold". He also enjoyed the return of William Bell (Leonard Nimoy), calling it "the biggest and most welcome surprise of the season". He concluded in saying the two-part finale wrapped up "adequately", but felt the biggest strength was the setting up for the final season, with the world we saw in "Letters of Transit".

After viewing "Letters of Transit", the season's 19th episode, Entertainment Weekly columnist Ken Tucker stated, "I've said it before: One reason Fringe has a tough time attracting a big audience is that the mass audience that's dropped away doesn't realize how much heart and soul, how much well-wrought romanticism, has been poured into this series, while its cult audience is regularly grumpy that Fringe declines to turn into the sci-fi epic some seem to want it to be. I know this season's timeline switcheroo has alienated some viewers, but even when the show veers off into mythology complexities that start to give me the megrims, I keep faith that Fringe is going to bring it back to the heart of what matters."

Ratings
The season premiere was watched by an estimated 3.5 million viewers. It scored a 1.5/5 ratings share among viewers 18-49, up 25% from the previous spring's season finale. By the end of November 2011, Fringe was the network's lowest rated program.

According to a report released by Nielsen Company, Fringe was the only network television series among the top ten of most time-shifted shows of 2011. The report continued that time shifting increased the series' overall audience by eighty percent.

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