Fringe "Letters of Transit" Preview - What The Future?
Fringe fans are in for a major game-changer with tomorrow's episode "Letters of Transit" - a game-changer of such magnitude that it actually raises the bar for the use of the term. Even in the Fringe-verse! Just when you think Fringe can't get any more engrossingly bizarre, they do something like this: create a brand new playing field that re-contextualizes everything we know about the Fringe story space, without knocking a single whisker of continuity out of place. Few shows can get these wild shifts in narrative right without ... wait a minute, let me rephrase that: no-one can do what the Fringe gang do week after week. No one. Fringe has become a singular genre unto itself and we can only hope that the talent behind it holds together for another season.
So, where to start? There is nothing that can quite prepare you for what "Letters of Transit" does to the storyline. It's at all at once a revelation and a wild left hand turn into new territory. Old mysteries are settled once and for all (maybe), while new ones are left screaming for answers. As you know from last week's previews, "Letters of Transit" is a trip into the future, and what a trip indeed. In 2036 we find a planet Earth under the control of a familiaryet until recently very ambiguousfoe, a Fringe Division that persists as more of a symbolic gesture between our captors and the remaining 'natives', and yes, you guessed it, a resistance movement existing just below the surface of it all. Yes it is 'Fringe does dystopia', but when Fringe does anything it is hardly typical. Fringetopia? Perhaps.
LOST fans are in for a real treat with the appearance of Desmond Hume himself, Henry Ian Cusick, as Fringe Division agent Simon, who is sort of a rough around the edges ad-hoc version of Walter. Joining Simon, and more central to the episode, is the lovely Henrietta whose connection the Fringe present(s) will definitely be a surprise for fans.
So if you are a Fringe fan who hasn't been watching live, or know Fringe fans who have fallen off the wagon, this is the episode worth watching live. Edge of your seat excitement, John Noble doing that John Noble thing squared, and tons of pop-culture and Fringe-culture hat tips that will have you prickling with nerd-gasms. If you need more convincing, here are some clips.
