"The Bullet That Saved the World" is the fourth episode of the
fifth season of the
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
/
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
''
Fringe
Fringe may refer to:
Arts
* Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe"
* Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival
* Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre
* The Fringe, the ...
'', and the 91st episode overall.
The episode was written by
Alison Schapker and directed by
David Straiton
David Straiton is a Canadian television director.
Career
His directorial debut was a special of the Nickelodeon series '' Weinerville''. Some of his other television credits include: ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'', '' Dark Angel'', '' Fastlan ...
.
Plot
While Peter (
Joshua Jackson
Joshua Carter Jackson (born June 11, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor. He is known for his starring role as Charlie Conway in '' Mighty Ducks'', as Pacey Witter in The WB teen drama series ''Dawson's Creek'' (1998–2003), Peter Bishop in t ...
) is out collecting gas, he stops in a pawn shop, looking for a necklace to replace the chain they had to use previously from Etta's (
Georgina Haig
Georgina Haig (born 3 August 1985) is an Australian film and television actress, known for her roles in the Australian children's television series '' The Elephant Princess'', as well as the American television series ''Fringe'', '' Limitless'' ...
) old necklace. He encounters an Observer who attempts to read his mind, and though Peter employs Etta's advice to mask his thoughts, the Observer does obtain an image of Etta; Peter leaves quickly before he is caught by other Observers and Loyalist forces. Lead Observer Captain Windmark (
Michael Kopsa
Michael Kopsa (January 22, 1956 – October 23, 2022) was a Canadian actor.
Kopsa was best known for his role as Char Aznable in the English dub of ''Mobile Suit Gundam'' and for his role as Commander Volcott O'Huey in ''Galaxy Angel''. He als ...
) brings in Phillip Broyles (
Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick (born December 31, 1962) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for playing Cedric Daniels in ''The Wire'' (2002–2008), Phillip Broyles in ''Fringe'' (2008–2013), and Chief Irvin Irving in '' Bosch'' (2014–2020) ...
), warning him of a possible leak in the Loyalist forces, and then considers why Peter purchased the necklace from the shop. Meanwhile, at the lab, Etta restrings the bullet from her old necklace onto the new chain, which Olivia (
Anna Torv
Anna Torv (born 7 June 1979) is an Australian actress. She is best known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the Fox science-fiction series ''Fringe'' (2008–2013), for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award ...
) learns is the very same one she kept and that Peter had called "the bullet that saved the world" (as seen in "
Brave New World
''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hiera ...
"). Etta admits she took it from their home after her parents disappeared, but otherwise did not understand its significance.
Walter (
John Noble
John Noble (born 20 August 1948) is an Australian actor. He is known for his roles as Denethor in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Dr. Walter Bishop on the science fiction series ''Fringe'', Henry Parrish on the action-horror series '' ...
) and Astrid (
Jasika Nicole
Jasika Nicole Pruitt (born April 10, 1980), is an American actress and illustrator from Birmingham, Alabama. She is known for her role as Agent Astrid Farnsworth on the Fox series ''Fringe''. She has guest-starred in ''Scandal'' as Kim Munoz. She ...
) extract another tape for part of Walter's plan, describing the reversibility of particles. The location of the necessary information is lost on a torn part of the tape, but Walter recognizes the story his past self was telling, pointing to a subway station deep inside Observer-controlled Manhattan. Entering Manhattan through the Observer and Loyalist checkpoints would be impossible, but Walter directs them to a secret basement below his lab where he had stored elements from all the past Fringe cases. They look for some way of creating a distraction from these elements.
The suspected Resistance mole is interrogated by an Observer; in addition to revealing the name "The Dove" as an unknown entity that set him up in the Loyalist forces, the mole reveals the existence of the lab at Harvard. Etta is alerted to this by an unknown agent, and they are able to re-amber the lab and hide in time before Loyalist forces arrive; to them, the lab remains as if it were still abandoned. Windmark considers that if Etta is able to hide her thoughts from the Observers, perhaps others can.
Walter, Peter, Olivia, and Etta use a chemical developed by David Robert Jones that causes scar tissue to form over facial orifices (as seen in "
Ability
Abilities are powers an agent has to perform various actions. They include common abilities, like walking, and rare abilities, like performing a double backflip. Abilities are intelligent powers: they are guided by the person's intention and exec ...
") which cause the guards at the checkpoint to suffocate, diverting attention long enough to recover the package from the subway tunnel. Once safe, they find the package contains an extremely complex physics equation that Walter cannot understand or decipher. As they review it, Broyles arrives, reunites with his former team, and explains how he was recruited into the Resistance after seeing and recognising Olivia in Etta and learning from her how to block his thoughts from the Observers. Broyles helps to arm them, but they soon find Observers and Loyalists converging on them, following a previously placed tracking device on their car. They give the equation to Broyles and cover his escape before racing off to an abandoned warehouse. As the Observers and Loyalists move in, the group is split up, and Etta is cornered by Windmark. Windmark interrogates Etta to try to understand why Peter gave her the necklace, and determines it's due to love. He then shoots her in the chest.
Peter, Olivia, and Walter regroup and find Etta, dying from the wound. Peter and Olivia try to convince Etta to let them take her out, but she reveals that she has armed an anti-matter device, and dies shortly after returning the bullet necklace to Olivia. The group escapes, while the anti-matter device wipes out many Observers and Loyalist forces (though Windmark manages to escape). They take a moment to mourn their daughter so soon after they were reunited with her.
Production
"The Bullet That Saved the World" was written by co-executive producer
Alison Schapker, and directed by ''
House'' veteran
David Straiton
David Straiton is a Canadian television director.
Career
His directorial debut was a special of the Nickelodeon series '' Weinerville''. Some of his other television credits include: ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'', '' Dark Angel'', '' Fastlan ...
.
Actor
Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick (born December 31, 1962) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for playing Cedric Daniels in ''The Wire'' (2002–2008), Phillip Broyles in ''Fringe'' (2008–2013), and Chief Irvin Irving in '' Bosch'' (2014–2020) ...
appears in the episode as a special guest, after being a series regular since the
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
.
Reception
Ratings
"The Bullet That Saved the World" first aired in the United States on October 26, 2012 on Fox. An estimated 2.55 million viewers watched the episode, and earned a ratings share of 0.9 among adults aged 18 to 49, to rank fourth in its timeslot. The episode continued the trend of a decrease in viewership by episode.
Reviews
''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
's'' Jeff Jensen praised the episode, saying, "It was an armor-piercing round of emotional storytelling, a heartbreaker." He also proffered the opinion that Etta's death was a necessary loss, in order to become more emotionally involved with the season. Noel Murray, from ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'', also liked the installment, giving it an A−. He enjoyed the reunion between the Fringe team and Phillip Broyles, stating, "the way that he says “Agent Dunham” to Olivia and the way she answers “Philip” is one of the sweetest moments in Fringe history, and well-earned."
Ramsey Isler, of ''
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'', called the episode "great" and gave it an 8.5 out of 10. He summarized the show by saying, "Fringe was in rare form with a shocking turn of events that injected much-needed excitement back into the final season." Cory Barker of
TV.com
TV.com was a website owned by Red Ventures that covered television series and episodes with a focus on English-language shows made or broadcast in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Origin ...
named it the 20th best episode of the series, saying, "Etta's death was both gut-wrenching in the moment and important for the season's larger narrative interests."
References
External links
"The Bullet That Saved the World"at
Fox.com
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations and ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullet That Saved The World, The
2012 American television episodes
Fringe season 5 episodes
Television episodes directed by David Straiton