The best episodes of Fringe
Ranked by viewer rating, highs first. Lit marks on the season rail place this list across the run. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
Sacrifices will be made and both universes may never be the same again after Walter and Olivia visit the "other side".
- 02
There's More than One of Everything
With everyone still recovering from the unexpected attack on Nina Sharp, and the return of bio-terrorist David Robert Jones, Fringe Division puts all their efforts into locating William Bell for questioning, whom they believe to be responsible for all the recent fringe events. Meanwhile, accompanied by The Observer, Walter embarks on a mission of his own in an effort to discover important memories that he has lost. As the mysterious events of The Pattern continue to unfold, questions are answered, observations are made, and loyalties are tested to their breaking point.
- 03
A Manhattan office building is rattled to its core, leaving only one survivor, and the Fringe Team examines his otherworldly origins. Once Walter surmises that what shook the building was something he discovered many years ago, the team races to Jacksonville to help Olivia reconnect with her past in order to avert what they fear will happen next.
- 04
Walter and Olivia travel to the Alternate Universe, and the anticipated face-off between Walter Bishop and William Bell occurs.
- 05
Peter grapples with the aftermath of recent events as Olivia desperately searches for an ally. Meanwhile, the Fringe Team discovers a critical device that communicates between universes.
- 06
Recuperating from the traumatic and alarming meeting with Massive Dynamic founder William Bell, Agent Dunham consumes a powerful fringe concoction that Dr. Bishop prescribes to stimulate her memory. Meanwhile, the Fringe Division investigates a series of robbery cases that are tied to shape-shifting. As clues are tracked and memories are jogged, another woman experimented on by Dr. Bishop is introduced and a flashback reveals more about Olivia's visit to the Alternate Universe.
- 07
A Fringe investigation is triggered when a patient at a mental institution undergoes an impromptu brain surgery that unexpectedly leaves his brain exposed. Despite the unthinkable circumstances, the patient's condition and sanity miraculously improves before the Fringe team arrives. While Agent Dunham and Peter scan surveillance tapes, Olivia recognizes a familiar face as Thomas Jerome Newton, the leader of the "shape-shifters." As similar cases stack up, the Fringe team heads back to the lab to determine exactly how patients are being cured.
- 08
Walter flashes back to 1985 while explaining Peter's otherworldly origins to Olivia. Also, Peter's mother is introduced, and details of the neighboring world reaffirms that there is more than one of everything.
- 09
When two teenagers on a date turn up "dead" at an abandoned warehouse with the three puncture wounds to the soft palate - a trademark of the shape-shifters - the Fringe team investigates the evidence as well as the motives of mastermind Newton. Upon discovering a shape-shifting embryo, Walter returns to the lab to conduct further analysis, and Olivia and Peter head to Massive Dynamic for answers. Meanwhile, Peter reveals a family secret to Olivia as Walter struggles to recall what Newton knows about "building a door".
- 10
When a serial kidnapper "over there" strikes again, the emotional and familiar case hits home for Colonel Broyles, sending a determined Olivia to uncover additional details about the abductions. In the meantime, Olivia fights on and reunites with Henry to enlist his services on an intense and covert mission to return home.
- 11
German agents question Olivia about her "relationship" with David Robert Jones, an escaped prisoner questioned months earlier now on the run in the USA. Meanwhile, the Fringe Division investigates a threatening case where victims die faceless from their orifices suddenly sealing. With few leads and many questions, German authorities turn to Olivia, Peter, and Walter to help makes sense of the return of Mr. Jones and the foreboding mysterious occurrences. As the investigation unfolds, Olivia is put to test.
- 12
Olivia experiences "awake dreams," seeing elaborate visions of things not really there. While investigating a disturbing case of a woman who apparently spontaneously combusted, Olivia throws caution to the wind and explores her unexplained visions further. Meanwhile, Walter discusses key information about the ZFT manifesto, and Peter reveals a secret that yields unexpected results in the case.
- 13
When a peculiar abduction occurs in Boston, the Fringe team uncovers details of the mysterious man known as The Observer. While the bizarre case takes center stage, Walter, Peter, and Astrid hit the lab to analyze unusual evidence and deal with Walter's insatiable appetite for a milkshake.
- 14
As the disastrous effects of Walternate's plan to destroy our universe start to manifest, Olivia joins forces with the mysterious Sam Weiss in a desperate race against time.
- 15
After stepping into the machine with the help of Olivia, Peter confronts his destiny, and the team finds itself on unfamiliar ground as the true cost of saving the universe becomes clear.
- 16
Just seconds before a building is demolished, a mysterious mute child that has been living alone underground is discovered. When the FBI's Fringe Division investigates, the boy forms an unspoken connection with Agent Olivia Dunham. Meanwhile, an especially gruesome serial killer resurfaces and showcases his "artistry" by displaying his work publicly. As the boy gradually assimilates into a new environment, Olivia and the team must race against the clock to prevent the mad man from further macabre.
- 17
As a suicide incident occurs at New York's iconic Grand Central station, Agent Dunham simultaneously witnesses the event while asleep and dreaming in Boston. Rattled by the extraordinary and coincidental circumstances, Olivia, Peter, and Walter investigate further, but keep coming up empty-handed. As these violent occurrences continue and worsen, Olivia is sent into an unthinkable direction and shocking details emerge about the ZFT manuscript, the highly experimental drug Cortexiphan, and Olivia's childhood.
- 18
When passengers aboard a commuter train appear to have died a still death, it seems that a switch was flipped because all cell phones, mp3 players, laptops, batteries and bodies have been drained of power. As the Fringe team assembles at the bizarre crime scene, Peter remains suspicious that something is amiss with Walter, who is struggling to keep the unimaginable a secret. When the investigation leads them to Alistair Peck, a very powerful man who has tremendous energy with severe consequences, an ironic set of circumstances surface.
- 19
After the extraordinary turn of events that shockingly left an imprisoned Olivia stranded in the Alternate Universe, she fights to find a way home. Meanwhile, Peter and Walter try to move on with their lives unknowingly alongside the Olivia from the other side.
- 20
The Observers, no longer content with observing history, return to the past and stage an invasion of 2015, transforming human society in a totalitarian state under their control. In 2036, FBI Agents Simon Foster and Etta Bishop begin a desperate search for the original Fringe team as the human resistance movement sets the stage for a game-changing battle with the Observers.
- 21
When an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport with no signs of life, an unlikely trio - FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham; brilliant but formerly institutionalized scientist Walter Bishop; and his scheming, reluctant son Peter - uncovers a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable events and realizes they may be a part of a larger, more disturbing pattern.
- 22
When animal rights activists ransack a laboratory, they get more than they bargained for when one of the caged "animals" unleashes a ferocious appetite. Leaving grotesquely mutilated dead bodies in its wake, the scientific engineered beast - with the body of a lion, claws of an eagle, fangs of a viper, skin of a rhinoceros and tail of a serpent - attacks Charlie. With Charlie's life on the line, Walter must come face-to-face with both his past and the beast.
- 23
In the Alternate Universe, timing is everything as a series of anomalous events lead Fringe Division to investigate deadly incidents with unimaginable coincidences. As the freaky crimes continue to occur, the team is in a race against time to protect potential victims. Meanwhile, Secretary Bishop shares his strategic plan with Colonel Broyles as Olivia grapples with a heart-stopping vision.
- 24
In the Alternate Universe, Olivia is kidnapped and given a dangerous procedure to accelerate the birth of her child. As the Fringe Division searches for her captors, Lincoln and Charlie learn the truth, that their Olivia and Olivia of the Prime Universe had recently temporarily swapped places, and become distrustful of Walternate's agenda for the future of their world.
- 25
After a deadly explosion rocks a construction site in New York City, Broyles solicits the aid of our trio to investigate a strange cylinder mysteriously found at the scene completely unharmed by the surrounding devastation. After Olivia uncovers an unbelievable commonality between disturbing events, Dr. Bishop takes matters into his own hands and Peter is forced into field duty, it almost seems as if the untraceable object is triggering the series of odd behaviors, unexpected events, and surprising revelations.
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