We love you too, Walter. And Peter, Olivia, Astrid, Nina, September, Broyles, Lincoln, Charlie …

Whenever a show I love ends it’s a reminder of how insane I am, sobbing away for people who don’t exist. I know they’re not real, and yet here I am again, mourning the loss of fictional characters I have come to love.

It pained me to watch the season finale of Fringe, knowing at every moment that this was our last time together, the way Walter knew he would never see Peter or Olivia or Etta again.

I enjoyed having to look up the white tulip, because I’d totally forgotten the significance of the white tulip. But that’s it. No more things to look up and figure out. No more new adventures, no new tears, no new laughs. It’s over. Done. I can watch reruns the way I look at old photographs or home movies; artifacts with lovely memories that are all in the past. There will never be a new picture or new episode again.

Thank you creators, producers, writers, directors, actors, and everyone else who made Fringe what it was. Thank you especially, Walter/John Noble. I didn’t even like your character at first! Walter felt too goofy, too cartoon-y for me in the beginning. But it the end, you were the one who broke my heart the most, you LSD/licorice/music-loving … actually you loved a lot of things, didn’t you? But most of all you loved Peter. You portrayed love at its most genuine, perfect and imperfect, selfish and selfless. And this was echoed so beautifully by every character in the show, by Peter for Walter, between Peter and Olivia, I could go on and on, because every character at one point or another had to embody love. Damnit. Sobbing again. Thank you for making me feel crazy, tv people. No really, thank you.

Waiting for choir practice to begin. We’re working on Bach’s Mass in B Minor. A piece of music I love. I love a lot of things too, it turns out. I guess we all do.

Stacy Horn

I've written six non-fiction books, the most recent is Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York.

View all posts by Stacy Horn →

3 thoughts on “We love you too, Walter. And Peter, Olivia, Astrid, Nina, September, Broyles, Lincoln, Charlie …

  1. I’m behind in watching so didn’t even realize that Friday was the finale, ack! Love that show, so I guess I’ll be sobbing too once I catch up and the reality sinks in. Nice summing it all up Stacy. Another really good one gone. I did grow to love Walter too(played so brilliantly by John Noble), but I so loved Peter as well. And, once again, you’re not crazy! 🙂

  2. Stacy– thank god, someone I know watched Fringe besides me. I had NOBODY to relate my sadness to after the finale,since none of my friends seemed to have even heard of it, so I am so happy to see your very thoughtful posting. I think the Fringe audience consisted of a lot of people watching on their own, judging by the comments on a few of the blogs that I looked up after the finale ended.It really was kind of a solitary viewing experience I thought.The ‘problem’ with the show was that it was too intelligent for most (so audience numbers weren’t where they needed to be for continuation)and something of a challenge if one hadn’t started at the beginning (I started halfway through season one and was hooked). The character that I loved equally as much as Walter was Astrid, and I was a bit annoyed that she was the only main character about whose fate we knew nothing. Where was she to go, when they returned to 2015?

  3. I loved all the characters! I assumed that the Fringe Division would still continue, but without Walter (which would be a huge loss of course!).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap