Unanswered Questions (Seasons 1-4)

The countdown toward the Fringe season 5 premiere - sadly, our final season premiere - continues to narrow down, and something that I think would be helpful - since this is, in fact, our final season - would be to consider what lies ahead. After four years of amazing, top-notch television (something that even most professional critics have not denied), Fringe - a mythology-heavy series with many mysteries - has left us with a lot to think about - questions that haven't yet been (fully) answered, details that are too murky to clearly identify, and so forth, and what I have, therefore, done is created this list of as many unanswered questions and loose ends that still exist after the season 4 finale as I could think of. Some of the items on the list are nitpicky and are reflective of my calling the writers out on potential continuity errors and plot-holes; some of them will very likely not be answered (although I doubt that that situation could be as bad as LOST), and some of them are really not major deals at all, but that is why I have also rated each item with a number ranging between 0 and 5 - with a 0 indicating that there is no chance of it being answered and a 5 indicating that it definitely will be answered - to indicate what I consider the likelihood to be that it will be covered during season 5 (future comic books, novels, etc. notwithstanding) because I wanted the list to be as complete as it possibly can be. As season 5 progresses, I will remove items that are covered so that at the very end of the series, we can assess what unanswered questions and loose ends with which the series has left us. I know that Joel once tweeted that he often receives questions that he had thought they had already covered. Therefore, if I have overlooked something and have asked a question that has, indeed, been answered and I have overlooked it, inform me by leaving a comment, and I will remove the item; furthermore, if there is something that you would like to add to the list, inform me of that, as well.

01.) What did John Scott mean when, near the end of the pilot episode, right before he died, he told Olivia to ask herself why Broyles sent her to the storage space? Likelihood of being covered: 1

02.) Since John Scott is later revealed to not be the traitor that we had thought that he was, why, near the end of the pilot episode, did he try to kill Olivia? Likelihood of being covered: 0

03.) For what purpose did ZFT amber a bus? Likelihood of being covered: 2

04.) Who does September report to via his communication device? Likelihood of being covered: 3

05.) Why are the Observers hairless? Likelihood of being covered: 5
Answer: The technology that is in their heads causes them to lose hair.

06.) Why can't the Observers taste much of anything? Likelihood of being covered: 4

Answer: Although the series itself does not explicitly say so, it's more than safe to assume that since the technology in the Observers' heads causes them to lose their body hair, it also dulls their taste buds.

07.) What connection did/does Mosley have to the Observers, and why did he want the Beacon? Likelihood of being covered: 3

08.) Is Massive Dynamic, in fact, responsible for the murders of Mark Young and George Morales? Likelihood of being covered: 1

09.) Since Olivia was so crucially important to ZFT, why did Mitchell Loeb tell his wife to kill her? Likelihood of being covered: 0

10.) What did Jones mean when he told Olivia that if he had wanted to harm her, he would have done so a long time ago? Likelihood of being covered: 1

11.) What other tests did Jones eventually expect Olivia to complete? Likelihood of being covered: 2

12.) Who was the Child from the "Inner Child" (1.15) episode? Is he an Observer? Why was he living underground? Likelihood of being covered: 4
Answer: He is, indeed, an Observer; he is September's son and was scheduled for termination when it was discovered that he was an anomaly due to his empathic abilities and his propensity for emotion, but September saved him and hid him underground in the past where he wouldn't be found.

13.) Since the Cortexiphan trials were initiated years before Walter breached the Redverse, what initial purpose did they serve? Likelihood of being covered: 1

14.) What happened to Olivia's biological father? Likelihood of being covered: 3

15.) Why was Bell funding ZFT? Likelihood of being covered: 3

16.) What is the significance of the green-green-green-red sequence? Likelihood of being covered: 4

17.) If Cortexiphan was not administered in the Redverse, why did the Redverse twins from "The Road Not Taken" (1.19) combust? Likelihood of being covered: 1

18.) We see near the end of season 1 that the FBI still exists in the Redverse, yet we learn from "The Abducted" (3.07) that the FBI was disbanded there more than ten years ago. How can this be? Likelihood of being covered: 0

19.) Are the strange events that occurred after season 1 connected to The Pattern? If so, why are they not referred to as such? Likelihood of being covered: 3

20.) Since Loeb said that Jones was a mere cog in the ZFT Machine, why did ZFT apparently disappear after the death of Jones? Likelihood of being covered: 2

21.) How did Raymond Gordon know about the Observers, especially the majority of them who were coming to take control of the world? Likelihood of being covered: 2

22.) Why did September have photos of Walter in his briefcase? Likelihood of being covered: 3

23.) Are the Observers' couriers from the future, as well? Likelihood of being covered: 2

24.) What is the significance of the symbol that Bell shows Olivia, telling her that it is on Newton's body? What does it represent? Likelihood of being covered: 2

25.) For what purpose were Nina and Massive Dynamic cloning children? Likelihood of being covered: 2

26.) Why does September have a tattoo of a star? Likelihood of being covered: 1

27.) How did Alfred Hoffman from "The Bishop Revivial" (2.13) prevent himself from aging? Likelihood of being covered: 0

28.) What did Sam Weiss mean when he said that he is older and taller than he appears? Likelihood of being covered: 0

Answer: This is sort of covered in the "Peter and the Machine" story in the Beyond the Fringe comic books, although it's a bit confusing. It would seem as if Sam is his own great-great-great-great-great (etc.) ancestor.

29.) Is Redverse Lincoln's father dead? If so, how did he die? Likelihood of being covered: 0

30.) Who, in the Redverse, was on the other side of the interdimensional typewriter? Likelihood of being covered: 1

31.) For what purpose were Redverse Olivia's memories in Walternate's possession? Likelihood of being covered: 0

32.) Why do Blueverse Olivia and Redverse Olivia apparently have different birthdates? Likelihood of being covered: 0

33.) Why does Walter at one point during the "Reciprocity" (3.11) episode say that his blood type is A-positive and then at another point during the "Welcome to Westfield" (4.12) episode say that it is O-negative? Likelihood of being covered: 1

34.) For what purpose was the Machine turning Peter into a darker, more sinister being whose moral standards began to become flimsier? Likelihood of being covered: 2

35.) Did or will Olivia learn that Peter is responsible for the deaths of the Shapeshifters from the "Reciprocity" (3.11) episode? Likelihood of being covered: 2

36.) Why don't Olivia and Peter remember meeting as children? Likelihood of being covered: 2

37.) Who drew the prophetic drawings of Peter and Olivia? Likelihood of being covered: 2

38.) What connection do the Observers have to the Machine? Likelihood of being covered: 3

39.) Since Peter's consciousness was moved from 2011 to 2026 at the very end of "The Last Sam Weiss" (3.21), why, in 2026, does he have memories of the last fifteen years, and since he does, why is he initially confused and disoriented? Likelihood of being covered: 0

40.) What happened to 2026 Broyles' eye? Likelihood of being covered: 0

41.) How did Peter manage to pull Sam Weiss into the past after Peter was erased and bestow upon him the secrets of the First People? Likelihood of being covered: 0

42.) Since, in the orange timeline, Peter didn't exist when Olivia was kidnapped to the Redverse, what event(s) led to her abduction and her being temporarily replaced and impersonated by Redverse Olivia? Likelihood of being covered: 0

43.) After Peter returned to the timeline, why didn't he have any memory of what happened to him during the time that he was missing? Likelihood of being covered: 2

44.) How was it that Olivia's memories of Peter returned to her even though no one else's did? Likelihood of being covered: 3

Answer: Walter eventually regained his memories as a result of being touched by Michael, the Observer child; it is safe to assume, although it's a bit flimsy, that Olivia's memories returned to her because of two factors - (a) the Cortexiphan that Meana was administering to her and (b) she was the closest to Peter, so his return was most potent for her. After all, she was the one who, in "Neither Here nor There" (4.01), told Lincoln that she had felt a hole in her life for as long as she could remember.

45.) Since September failed to carry out his orders to completely erase Peter, why does Peter's continued existence seem to confuse him? Likelihood of being covered: 1
Answer: Although not explicitly stated in the show, I think that it's now safe to assume that the device that September was supposed to have used was only meant to stop Peter from bleeding through; September never expected, even after he failed to push the button on the device, that Peter would actually physically return.

46.) If September's theory regarding why Peter returned to the timeline is correct, why didn't Redverse Olivia's love for Henry initiate Henry's return? Likelihood of being covered: 0

47.) Since we now know that the majority of the Observers are coming to conquer the world, why didn't September tell Peter that instead of telling him that they are merely here to observe? Why didn't he inform him of the malicious ones? Likelihood of being covered: 3
Answer: September and the other calendared Observers were not aware that there was a malicious intent to invade the world. They were tasked to observe but were not told the truth regarding why.

48.) Were/are there twelve Observers that make up the science team? Likelihood of being covered: 3

Answer: There were, indeed, twelve; Windmark says so during "The Boy Must Live" (5.11).

49.) Was August replaced? Likelihood of being covered: 2

50.) Why do the Observers that make up the science team use months as code names? Likelihood of being covered: 4

51.) Did/will Peter tell anyone about Henry? Likelihood of being covered: 3

52.) Are there any female Observers? Likelihood of being covered: 5

53.) Why, in 2036, was Olivia not with the rest of the ambered team? Where was/is she? Likelihood of being covered: 5
Answer: She and Peter had been separated because of fissures that had been caused in their relationship as a result of Etta having gone missing.

54.) What event(s) led to the team being ambered? Likelihood of being covered: 5
Answer: Once the team discovered that the Observers were onto it, Walter immediately ambered the team so that the Observers could not get to them.

55.) Why was Bell with the team when it was ambered? Likelihood of being covered: 5
Answer: Bell had been pretending to be on the team's side but ultimately sold them out to the Observers.

56.) When Walter referred to what Bell did to Olivia, was he referring to what we have already seen, or has Bell yet to victimize her even further? Likelihood of being covered: 5
Answer: He was definitely referring to the season 4 events that we had already seen; there has been no evidence that Bell did anything more to directly target Olivia.

57.) Why can't the Observers read Etta's thoughts? Likelihood of being covered: 3
Answer: Etta trained herself to avoid being read and even trained Broyles to do the same.

58.) Do the Observers come from a specific universe's future? Likelihood of being covered: 3

Answer: During "The Boy Must Live" (5.11), we see the Observers' future in Manhattan. Based on Manhattan's spelling, we know that it is the Blueverse.

59.) Considering the fact that Jones wanted to cross over to the Redverse to kill Bell in order to quench his thirst for revenge, how did their eventual alliance form in the new timeline? Likelihood of being covered: 3

60.) NEW SEASON 5 QUESTION! - Was Etta abducted by the Observers when she went missing the first time? Likelihood of being covered: 5

61.) NEW SEASON 5 QUESTION - Who raised Etta? Likelihood of being covered: 5
Answer: No names were ever provided, but photographs located in the bathroom of her apartment suggest that she was raised by foster parents who may or may not have adopted her.