I’m holding out against hope that this season of Fringe won’t be the last. When the show started, it seemed to be little more than an X-Files rehash. But over two and a half seasons, it’s developed into a transdimensional drama, packed with characters fans have grown to care about.
The premise is that there are two worlds, almost identical, on the verge of destruction. The characters seem to think that only one can survive, and that they are in a war to do just that.
Yet there have been hints that something deeper is going on. Each side seems incomplete. In one world, the main character, Olivia, has a mom. In the other, her mom is dead, but she has a sister and an aunt. In one world, the an FBI agent is a widower, in the other, he sacrificed his life for his mission, leaving a widow. A recent poignant episode told the story of an old woman who could see her dead husband’s doppleganger in the other world.
Some people believe that the gospel of Jesus is just that you go to heaven when you die. But perhaps it’s not so cut and dry. Passages in Romans speak of Earth as a mother in labor pains. The book of Revelation describes the coming of a new heaven and a new earth.
Perhaps Fringe will end, not in war, but in an amalgation of the two sides. Each side is full of puzzle pieces. The coming destruction is not a destruction at all, but the two broken sides becoming one cohesive whole.
There’s a lot of story left in Fringe, and I hope that it will get enough airtime to finish. Perhaps it will end on a note of hope, with broken worlds and relationships healed. This is also what we work for in the kingdom of God, a new heaven and new earth that represent the fullest potential of the old.
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