FRINGE Season 3 Finale Explained

FRINGE SEASON 3 FINALE EXPLAINED
by
First Person

The following is an explanation of the finale for Season 3 of FRINGE for those who don't follow the show or were totally confused when Peter disappeared.


The Original Machine And The First People

The Machine was originally designed to heal the damage done to both Universes as the result of Walter Bishop's and William Bell's interdimensional experiments at Harvard in the 1970's where they pulled objects from the Alternate Universe.

In an original timeline, the Machine was created in the future by William Bell and/or Walter Bishop to repair the damage they had done to both Universes. The First People were none other than William Bell and Walter Bishop on the "first" timeline before the machine was created.


Programming the Past

The machine was programmed to create an event or series of events in the past that would stop Walter from continuing his interdimensional experiments before he damaged both Universes beyond repair.


The Insurance Policy And Many Worlds

As an insurance policy, the machine was also sent 250 Million years into the past as a safeguard in case the programmed events failed to undo the damage caused by Walter and Bell.

In accordance with the Many Worlds Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics, time branches off into multiple timelines(The Road Not Taken - Season 1) in every instance where a choice is made.

By sending the Machine 250 Million years into the distant past, the machine could be re-assembled in the recent past on any timeline. Since an innumerable number of time lines branched off from the moment the machine arrived in the distant past, there are multitudes of Machines existing within multitudes of timelines. As the Observer told Walter in the Season 1 finale; "There is more than one of everything."


Peter Ex Machina

Peter in the Prime Universe and his double in the Alternate universe were programmed creations of the machine to correct the imbalance between both Universes caused by Walter and William Bell's experiments.

Peter entered both Universes via conception and birth at the same time Walter and William Bell in the Prime Universe were pulling objects from the Alternate Universe during their interdimensional experiments at Harvard.


Peter's Genetic Defects Caused By The Machine

Since both Peters were artificially created by the machine, both had genetic defects from childbirth which got progressively worse until both Peters were gravely ill in their respective Universes.


Original Solution

When the Peter of the Prime Universe died in 1985, the original solution was the death of the Alternate Peter in the Alternate Universe. The death of both Peters was meant to emotionally dishearten and demoralize both Walter and Walternate into giving up their endeavors and pursue some other line of work.


Walter Interferes With The Machine In 1985

When Walter crossed over to the Alternate Universe in 1985 and took the Alternate Peter in order to cure him, his refusal to emotionally "let go of Peter" interfered with the functioning of the machine and magnified the imbalance between Universes originally caused by Walter and Bell's experiments.


The Boy Is Important

After Walter crossed back into the Prime Universe with Peter at Reiden Lake, both of them fell through the ice and nearly drowned.

Walter and Peter were saved by the Observer for a simple reason; since Peter was created by the machine, he was the only one who could interact with it in at a future moment and repair all the damage caused by Walter.

This is why the Observer told Walter; "The boy is important".(Peter - Season 2)


Insurance Policy Implemented

With the magnification of the imbalance between Universes, the Observers made sure Walter and Walternate knew of the existence of the machine in both Universes in order to heal the massive damage caused by Walter's kidnapping of Peter from the Alternate Universe.


Balance And Imbalance

At the very end of the finale, Peter told Walter and Walternate that he punched holes in both Universes in the past to create balance between them(i.e. the bridge). Peter was the current representation of imbalance because he was taken from the Other Side when the original Peter died.


Erasure From Both Universes And Branching New Timelines

It's likely Peter punched the holes in both Universes around the time Walter and Bell were performing their experiments in the 1970's but at a time just before Peter was conceived and born in both Universes.

Peter's efforts canceled out the initial imbalance originally caused by Walter and Bell's experiments. At this point, new time lines branched off from the main time lines of each Universe before Peter was born in either Universe. The existence of the new time lines nullified the need for the machine to artificially create Peter in both Universes to restore balance. Therefore in each of those new time lines, Peter was never born.

As a result, Peter erased himself from the new time lines of both Universes when he created balance between them.


How Peter Vanished

The brief appearance of Peter on the bridge between the new time lines was the result of residual overlap of the original time lines of both Universes intersecting with the bridge. This was caused by the residual energy remaining inside the machine as it powered down.

As the overlap from the original Universes pulled away from the bridge and snapped back to their original time lines, Peter disappeared into nothingness.

The current moment of time on the bridge instantaneously became the culmination of history from both of the new time lines where Peter never existed.


Cause of the War Between Universes Changed

When Peter erased himself from the new time lines of both Universes, the cause for the war between the Universes changed from Peter's abduction to Walter and Bell's experiments.

The Cortexiphan trials still took place with Olivia as one of the subjects but she never met Peter Bishop either as a child(Subject 13 - Season 3) or as an adult(from The Pilot - Season 1 to The Day We Died - Season 3).

The experiments carried out by Walter and Bell in the Prime Universe continued into the 1980's including cross-overs to the Alternate Universe either by Olivia during the Cortexiphan experiments or by Walter and Bell.

These events gradually made things worse in the Alternate Universe until it culminated in the war between Universes and the animosity we saw in the room between Walter and Walternate at the end of the finale.


Peter Never Existed And Served His Purpose

The Observer on Liberty Island in the new version of the Present said Peter "never existed and served his purpose". He didn't have to exist. Peter was a function of the machine on the original time lines and wasn't necessary to restore balance on the new time lines.


Conclusion

The bridge between Universes at the end of the Season 3 finale is a link between two new time lines, one from the Prime Universe and one from the Alternate Universe. Peter never existed in either time line.