The End of All Things
In the episode, the fringe team investigates Olivia's (Anna Torv) disappearance, ultimately tracing back to David Robert Jones (guest star Jared Harris).
"The End of All Things" first aired on February 24, 2012 in the United States on the Fox network to an estimated 3.1 million viewers, an increase from the previous week.
Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) has been taken to a disused medical facility by David Robert Jones (Jared Harris) and his agents.
He takes its memory device, which has been overwritten numerous times like a palimpsest, to Walter Bishop's (John Noble) laboratory, using forensic tools to examine previous images on the disc.
They identify a face belonging to Leland Spivey (Monte Markham), a man with ties to Jones and Nina, and Peter suspects that they are dosing Olivia with Cortexiphan for nefarious purposes.
With September nearly dead, Peter decides to use Walter's equipment to enter the Observer's mind to try to learn of Olivia's location.
Within September's consciousness, Peter learns the Observers are a team of scientists from one possible future of humanity, having used technology to travel to the past to witness their own creation.
Ultimately, this would lead to the birth of Henry, Peter's child with the parallel universe's Olivia, which September claimed never should have happened and will be a catalyst for disruption of future events.
September explains that Peter's reappearance may be a means to set things right, and insists he find a way to reunite his romance with his original Olivia.
As they prepare to torture him, Olivia begins to use her powers to activate the lights, not only on the box but within the facility, creating electrical sparks that kill one of Jones' men.
"The End of All Things" was written by co-executive producer David Fury and directed by CSI: Crime Scene Investigation veteran Jeff Hunt.
"[2] Referring to the Observer September, Pinker added that the episode would also peel "back some layers about what his agenda has been and use that as an opportunity to revisit the things on the show we’ve seen before.
"[6] "The End of All Things" began a four-week break for the series, though the producers initially thought this gap would commence with the following episode.
"[6] The episode was the first time that the characters of Nina Sharp and David Robert Jones had common scenes within the show, but both Blair Brown and Jared Harris had previously acted together as mother and son in an off-Broadway production of the play Humble Boy.
It had action, suspense, mystery, devious duplicitous villains, special effects, and a few Walter moments (that 'Well I didn't do any yanking' line was priceless).
Andrew Hanson of the Los Angeles Times remarked, "Great acting, a decent twist and the truth behind one of the most enigmatic characters in television history.
Club, columnist Noel Murray graded the episode with an A−, and praised September's stumbling entrance into the lab as "yet another rich and remarkable scene".
