Fringe: “Brave New World Part 1” (Episode 4.21)

“Don’t confuse a winning move with a winning game.” -William Bell
There is a problem that is both inherent and unique to being a watcher of Fringe: at some point you start to not just expect narrative twists that reset the status quo, you come to count on them. This week’s episode brought out the latter impulse in me.
Before Fox granted the show a 13-episode finale season, the creative team went on the record that the finale of the season could function as both a season ender and a series ender if necessary. Halfway through the finale, I have no idea what the hell they were talking about. There is an hour remaining in which to find some redemption, but that doesn’t excuse the numerous glaring problems with the first hour.
First of all, yes, we all love Leonard Nimoy and we enjoy it every time he comes on the show. That said, why would you spend an entire season (let alone four) building up your villain to near mythic status only to demote him to an ineffective lackey during the resolution? I had openly questioned whether David Robert Jones answered to a bigger boss (and, given the show’s repeated trips to the same well, figured it would end up being Bell), but what I hadn’t expected was that they would make this William Bell a grandiose scenery-chewing lunatic. We already had one of those, and his name was David Robert Jones. Seriously, this was like watching all four seasons of The Fugitive and then finding out that the one-armed man was working for Snidely Whiplash the whole time.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on the fact that our primary villain, a man known for his elaborate and clever plans, decides that the best way to kill one of the good guys is…to get into a fistfight with a man half his age. Wait, what? You’re telling me that the same Jones that bounces between universes and routinely evades capture by being two steps ahead of the Fringe team came up with this plan? He can bounce enough sunlight off of two satellites to take out a building but not a guy on a rooftop who happens to be right next to the device that is controlling the satellites?