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• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Walternate - Unholy fusion between Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard with a touch of Omnicidal Maniac for spice; or simply a man who saw a series of attacks on his entire universe - that have killed thousands, if not millions, starting with the kidnapping of his son, and may possibly culminate with a Class X-4 Apocalypse - and believes this to be the result of a deliberate attack by "our" side, and thus regards himself as fighting a war. John Noble sees it as both.
  • Played with in Season 3: Walter says he no longer sees Walternate as pure evil after facing the choice to seal a soft-spot with amber. Walternate, in turn, says he will never authorise experiments on children, a line Walter crossed a long time ago. In Season 4, with the alternate timeline, Walternate is no longer a bad guy, but remains mistrusted by "our" side.
  • The Observer in "An Origin Story". Was he really displaying a fear response? Did he say what he did simply to screw with Peter's head? Or was he really devoid of any emotion?
  • There is a mild one for Captain Windmark: Is he a Blue and Orange Morality Knight Templar Well-Intentioned Extremist who is trying to build the perfect world for his nation of Observers or The Sociopath, The Unfettered Complete Monster who just loves to squash humans like bugs for the Hell of it? Or both?
• Award Snub: John Noble's lack of even a single Emmy nomination has left many fans howling.
• Base Breaker:
  • Charlie. Many fans were left very unhappy when he was replaced by an imposter.
  • Bellivia. Anna Torv's acting was either brilliant, hilarious or the stupidest thing ever done. Sometimes, all three.
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Singing Corpses!
  • "Black Umbrella."
• Crazy Awesome:
  • Walter. This man cured a virus that wiped out the mammoths with horseradish.
  • William Bell. Planned his little Body Surf months in advance.
  • Peter has his moments. He used the amount of adrenalin in a woman's brain to calculate where she had been killed.
• Crowning Music of Awesome:
  • Fauxlivia's theme. "Newton's Last Mission" on the soundtrack.
  • Peter and Olivia's theme. "Love In the Time Of Crossing Over."
  • "The Equation."
  • "Devastation Nation."
  • "Doppleganger Up On Reality." It's the music playing when blue!Peter dies.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • Alternate!Olivia is not exactly well liked by the Peter/Olivia shippers.
  • Rachel got a little hate for flirting with Peter.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Thomas Jerome Newton is arguably, the most popular villain in the series. And why not?
  • Despite being an absolute complete dick, a lot of fans have taken to Windmark.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Charlie, Lincoln (in both universes), Gene the cow , Scarlie, William Bell, Brandon, Sam Weiss, Henry Higgins the cab driver, and Asteroid! Er... I mean Astrix! Oh wait no. Astro! That's it.
• Evil Is Cool: When you have David Robert Jones, Thomas Jerome Newton, Secretary Walternate, William Bell and Captain Windmark, it almost seems like they were TRYING to invoke this.
• Fan Preferred Couple: Most everyone would love to see Lincoln (alternate universe) and Fauxlivia together.
  • She ends up with Lincoln from the original universe.
• "Funny Aneurysm" Moment:
  • Most of the humor in "Brown Betty" is negated when you look at Walter's story as an allegory for the entire series so far. Especially the part where Walter says Peter took his heart when he left and Walter will die without it, and the storyteller seems to think this is the fate he deserves.
  • At the beginning of "Concentrate and Ask Again", a guy comments that he never wants to hear his friends sing again after they sing "Happy Birthday" for him. Yeah... he doesn't last past the opening theme.
  • "You're bald! I think he's an Observer." Oh, Peter...
• Growing the Beard:
  • After the episode "Peter", the series generally lost its monster of the week formula and the alternate universe angle became much more prominent. The show has been far better ever since.
  • There's a lot of first season contenders for which episode Grew the Beard, all of them being episodes that introduced some element of the Myth Arc.
    • "The Arrival", which introduced the Observer.
    • "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones", which gave us the first Big Bad of the series.
    • "Ability", which fleshed out ZFT and the concept of the War with the Other Side, and introduced Olivia's cortexiphan abilities.
    • "There's More Than One of Everything"*
      This troper's pick
      , which revealed that Walter abducted Peter, introduced William Bell and featured the series' first trip to the Alternate Universe.
    • "Momentum Deferred", in which the stakes of the series are very explicitly laid out for the first time.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Watching "Unleashed" (S1-E16) after "A New Day In The Old Town" (S2-E01): the episode is about trying to save Agent Charlie Francis from being killed by the larvae of a hybrid monster inside him. It also shows his family. Then, in A New Day in The Old Town, the writers Dropped A Shapeshifting Assassin On Him.
  • William Bell warning Olivia about how terrible and horrifying the Shapeshifters are becomes a little bit unsettling when we find out Bell invented the damn things.
  • Walter locking up our Olivia in the dark in "Subject 13" is much more disturbing when you think about the light deprivation torture that was inflicted on her by Walternate.
  • "Everything In Its Right Place" was full of these.
    • "You'd do the same if it was your partner."
    • "I've never seen her barf or shed a tear."
    • "That's the difference between you and me. My universe wouldn't survive without me."
  • William Bell flirting with Astrid is suddenly not funny any more.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In what may be an amusing bit of Foreshadowing, the episode "The Road Not Taken" has a Conspiracy Theorist claim he is Spock. Later on, we find out who is playing William Bell...
• Ho Yay / Les Yay
  • Walter/Bell. Walter even has an affectionate nickname for "Belly." In 3.20, Walter tells Bell that he needs him. Now imagine that whole conversation between a man and a woman who've known each other for a long time...
    • "We could have been so happy together." It's like they forgot to be subtle about it.
  • Lincoln (the one from the original universe) with both Peter and his late partner Robert Danzig.
  • Astrid and William Bell-possessed Olivia.
    • Astrid seems a little freaked out by this.
  • PI Olivia and Esther Figglesworth.
  • Some fans thought the vibe between Rachel and Olivia was not at all "sisterly."
• HSQ: To the extreme at points. Season Five even more so.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Walternate, proven in Bloodline.
  • David Robert Jones. Plays both Fringe teams (including Walternate) and wins half the time.
  • Thomas Jerome Newton. "Now I know how weak you are."
  • William Bell, who successfully outplays David Robert Jones.
  Walter: You brilliant bastard, Belly.
• Memetic Mutation: A new word has recently been coined, "Walterism."

  "She tricked my son with her carnal manipulation and he fell right into her vagenda!"

  (Watching SpongeBob SquarePants with Gene and Astrid) "It's surprisingly profound... for a narrative about a sponge."

  (smiles) "I just got an erection. Oh, fear not. It's nothing to do with your state of undress. I just simply need to urinate."

  "Hello, Peter. This is me... your father... Walter Bishop."

  "Don't be such a prude Peter, I'm sure Agent Dunham knows what a penis looks like!"

• Paranoia Fuel: Frequently.
  • There is a chemical that causes your orifices to seal themselves shut. It's most commonly distributed on plain 'ol American paper currency. If some attempts to trach-tube you, your skin could simply grow over the trach. A two-dollar bill to be exact. Though Walter posits that they were just "showing off"; there's nothing to stop them from putting it on any given bill. Say, you got change for a twenty?
  • Right now, people from another universe could be watching you. And you'd never know it.
  • A shape-shifting assassin may have killed and replaced someone you know. Maybe a co-worker, maybe a friend, maybe a loved one. They look the same, act the same, and even have all the same memories. By the time you realize something's wrong, it's probably too late.
  • "No Brainer" gives someone melting brains using the internet. Now if that's not high octane paranoia fuel to everyone reading this page, you must have a fantastic popup blocker.
  • Mind reading, invaders from the future.
• The Scrappy: Sanford Harris
• She Really Can Act: Many viewers who were underwhelmed by Anna Torv's performance changed their minds at the end of Season 2, when they saw just how convincingly she could play Olivia and Fauxlivia as two separate characters.
• Ship Tease
  • Rachel and Peter had a few moments of flirtation in Season 1. There was disapproval.
  • Nina and Broyles. They kiss in Season 2. This is never brought up again.
  • It was suggested that Nina had a thing for William Bell throughout the series. Considering he tried to use her adopted daughter to destroy the two universes and made no attempt to save her life, the ship has probably sunk.
  • Walter and Fauxlivia have their moments of not-to-be-taken-seriously-but-kinda-hilarious flirtation in season 4.
• Shocking Swerve:
  • "Of Human Action" has some jarring twists:
    • The kid turns out to be behind everything.
    • The anti-mind control headphones turn out to not work.
    • Moreover it turns out there are several Tylers.
  • "6:02 am EST" was full of these.
  • The season three finale. Yeah.
• Squick:
  • It's okay to squirm during scenes like Flight 627, the shades-of-Alien pregnancy scene, or when people's skin start growing over their eyes... and ears... and mouth... and other places. Really.
  • The mutant shapeshifter fetus thing.
    • The tearing sound. Oh God the tearing sound!
  • William Bell wanting Peter and Olivia to be his "Adam and Eve". Does the term "genetic bottleneck" mean anything to you?
• Tear Jerker: Has it's own page.
• Too Cool to Live
  • Captain Lincoln Lee.
  • David Robert Jones. Twice.
  • Thomas Jerome Newton.
  • September/Donald
• Toy Ship: Young Peter and Young Olivia in "Subject 13".
• Uncanny Valley: The Observers. They're pale and hairless, speak in a Creepy Monotone and have an odd way of staring at people. They're more in the "off-putting" rather than "scary" part of the Valley.
• What an Idiot:
  • What would possess someone to create a wasp/snake/bat hybrid creature? In what universe is that a good idea?! Ours, apparently.
    • Darwin Awards are also in order for the morons who let it out.
  • September, we love you and everything, but why the hell didn't you just tell Walternate the cure was working?
  • Pretty much everyone for not noticing that Fauxlivia was acting odd. After a mission to an alternate universe. Where they know there is an alternate version of her. Also shapeshifters who can look like anyone. Not a single red flag.
    • Similarly, no one checking to make sure Charlie... was Charlie after he was replaced by a shapeshifter. When they knew they were fighting a shapeshifter. Seriously, guys...
  • More a case of Grief Makes You A Dumbass, but there is not a chance that Peter inserting Observer tech into his brain without knowing a thing about it is a good idea.
• The Woobie:
  • As much as Walter deserved to be locked away for his experiments in the past, one can't help but feel for him when he starts crying or suffers a Heroic BSOD as a result of his inability to deal with the skeletons in his closet.
  • Peter:
    • He was definitely a Woobie when he was little. Both of them were. He pulled off a combination of Littlest Some Kind Of Deadly Disease Patient and You Can't Go Home Again.
    • Peter in season 4 and 5. First, no one remembers that he existed. Then he loses his three year old daughter. Then she dies.
  • A lot of the minor characters come to mind. Christopher Broyles and Joseph Meagar just to name a few.
  • Rachel Dunham, Olivia's sister. Her husband is a jackass.
  • Olivia. In Season 1, her boyfriend dies (but not before finding out he's a traitor), she gets kidnapped and discovers that she was experimented on a child. In Season 2, she has PTSD, falls in love with Peter, Peter leaves, she goes to rescue him from an Alternate Universe, she gets left behind in said Alternate Universe with no obvious way of escaping and Walternate tortures and experiments on her. In Season 3, she gets mind raped into thinking she's her alternate self, she remembers who she is, she gets captured again, she gets rescued and comes home only to discover that Peter was doing her alternate. In Season 4, she can't remember the love of her life even existed, she's being drugged against her will so that she can be used to power some doomsday device, she remembers the love of her life but forgets her surrogate mother, and then she gets shot in the head. At some point between 4 and 5, her daughter goes missing, her world is invaded and she and Peter have a falling out. In Season 5, she spends 20 years in amber and then bonds with her long lost daughter, who is then unceremoniously killed off. She then finds her surrogate mother after Nina is forced to shoot herself in the head. Young Olivia was even more Woobie-ish. After Walter frightens her into blowing up a room, she runs away. Not because she doesn't want to be experimented on any more... but because she thinks that she "messed up" and that Walter will send her away. That's right folks. She's so terrified of her stepfather that she'd rather be in an illegal drug trial. Seriously... just look at her.
    • Olivia is definitely a Stoic Woobie. Despite the long list of grievances she has, it takes a lot to make her actually cry, and she refuses to do so if it means "burdening" the people around her.
  • Alt-Astrid, after her father dies.
  • Lincoln.
  • Amber Timeline Nina Sharp, considering her daughter can't remember her, her granddaughter died, she's in love with an Omnicidal Maniac who screwed her over epicly, she spends 21 years without her family, in a wheelchair with a broken cybernetic arm and surrounded by mind reading invaders from another time, she thinks that the only thing she's good for is helping the Fringe team, and when it gets out she's part of the resistance she's forced to perform a Heroic Suicide to stop herself from betraying Olivia and the others. Her life sucked.
  • If Fauxlivia wasn't upgraded to Jerkass Woobie status at the end of Season 3, she definitely was when Lincoln gets shot.
  • Etta Bishop is another Iron Woobie.
  • September AKA Donald. He's basically been alone for 21 years but not after being experimented on and banished by the other Observers.
    • And a case of fridge horror, can you imagine what it must have felt like, for September to get up, and suddenly be hit with raves of emotions? And also to live must of his life as Observer and to suddenly have all that taken away?
  • The cortexiphan subjects. All of them. Olivia got off lucky.