‘Fringe’ Review: “The Human Kind”

The battle against the Observers gets magnetic as  ‘Fringe’ season 5 debuts its eighth episode of the final season “The Human Kind,” where Olivia retrieves an electromagnet from an oracle-like woman (Jill Scott), while the team tries desperately to convince Peter to abandon his hunt for Windmark and return to his humanity.

Last time’s ‘Fringe’ episode “Five-Twenty-Ten” saw the team working to recover several Observer beacons, while Peter’s new abilities allowed him to orchestrate a mission to attack several key Observer figures, so how does “The Human Kind” keep the final season in motion?  How will season 5 of ‘Fringe’ close out the epic saga?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘Fringe’ season 5 episode 8 “The Human Kind!”

Olivia waits, observing posters of her daughter being taken down, when Anil arrives and delivers a captured Observer implant for her to study.  Elsewhere, Peter continues making calculations of Windmark’s movements in Etta’s apartment, while the Observer himself makes his way toward the dwelling!  Windmark and his associate enter the apartment to find it empty, and realize that Peter has the ability to see futures.

After Walter and Astrid learn about a giant magnet from the latest tape, Olivia returns and explains what Peter’s done to himself.  Peter himself calls to alert them to the danger of returning to Etta’s apartment, ignoring Walter’s pleas to return to the lab, and help him from becoming the man he once was.  Astrid and Walter opt to study the implant Olivia retrieved, but Olivia herself opts to go to Fitchburg and retrieve the magnet rather than feel useless.

While Peter trails Windmark, adjusting minor details on the street to get him to miss the walk light at an intersection, Olivia arrives to the Fitchburg scrap heap community.  Asking the first person she meets about the magnet, the man seems taken aback, and goes to speak with a mysterious woman.  Recognizing Olivia, the woman introduces herself as Simone, and says that a magnet ready to be driven away has been stored at the community for some time.  The magnet, and its eventual purpose gave most of the little community hope, as Simone intimates she has some ability to see flashes of both past and future.

Implanting the device into a captive brain, Walter and Astrid extrapolate that the Observer device modifies the brain greatly, eventually growing it large enough to overwrite any emotional pathways.  Meanwhile back in Fitchburg, a telling conversation with a little girl leads Olivia to believe that the community plans to turn her in, but Simone assures her that nothing is wrong, only that she lacks faith.

Peter continues observing WIndmark’s movements from a distance, only to realize that the man will appear behind him.  Peter turns around to indeed find Windmark, who explains that he too has been manipulating pathways, and the two engage in a brutal battle that pauses with Windmark showing Peter Etta’s last thoughts.  Peter’s human edge allows him to outsmart another Observer by jabbing himself in the shoulder, and teleporting the being into it, allowing him enough time to escape.

The truck fueled and ready to go, Simone tries to impart on Olivia that she should have faith in the mysteries of the universe, though Olivia believes she’s seen enough to understand the brutal realities behind everything.  Back at the lab, Astrid and Walter find Peter appearing before them, needing to be stitched up.  Walter presses on his son that his changes could soon be permanent, but Peter remains hellbent on making sure Windmark arrives at a certain location, assuredly placing him on a path to his doom.

On the way to meet Anil to store the magnet, Olivia finds the road blocked, before two men ambush her looking to rob her.  Identifying her as a lucrative fugitive, they drag Olivia back to their lair and alert the authorities, while she searches around the room for something to aid her escape.  Utilizing a nearby gas main and some tubing, Olivia places Etta’s bullet into a pipe, and fires it into her captor when he enters the room.  Retrieving the bullet and taking out the other captor, Olivia phones Walter to learn that Peter is on his way to track Windmark again.

As Peter observes the public square from a rainy balcony, Olivia joins him, attempting to extoll the value of human emotion over Observer logic as the better way to honor their daughter.  Peter spies Windmark arriving as predicted, putting him on a path to be killed by Peter the following day, but once Olivia’s words hit and a flood of memories between Olivia, Etta, and his father wash over him, he coldly unsheathes a knife and cuts the Observer device out of his neck.  Olivia places the bullet necklace in his hand, and the reunited pair embrace in the rain.

Only five episodes remain in the final season of 'Fringe,' and with the first December episode out of the way we have to admit to feeling a bit short-changed.  Sweet as it was to reunite Peter and Olivia in their mutual love for Etta, Peter's time with the Observer tech now seems to have amounted to very little, considering how the group continues assembling items we don't know the significance of.  The battle between Peter and Windmark was pretty cool to see realized on screen, as were the flashbacks to Peter's emotional memories of his family, but the lack of forward momentum in the season is increasingly more apparent with episodes like "The Human Kind."

Did you get your fill of freaky ‘Fringe’ drama?  What did you think about the season’s eighth episode? Join us next week for another all-new ‘Fringe’ episode recap of “Black Blotter” on FOX!