If you've been on the Fringe trip with me for the last couple of seasons, you know it's rare that I am left speechless. "Letters Of Transit," however, seems to have taken my words, right along with their letters, and stored them some place inaccessible.

I had the luxury of watching this episode early and still find myself with an intense thought block. Perhaps, like the word Freedom that was wrapped in barbed wire in the credit sequence, the Fringe team has done something to my ability to think.

The reason I find it so difficult to discuss is I don't know what we were watching. It was obviously one of a million different possible futures. By jumping forward without context, we don't know how this future came to be, only that it was at the cost of civilization as we knew it. Small thing, right? Okay, not really, but amazingly difficult to examine without just recapping the episode. So bear with me folks, as I may fly off on some tangents here.

In this futureverse one thing was for certain, the children of Peter and Olivia did not create the generation of Observers, a thought I have bandied about in this column in the past. They seemed to have gone from having no feelings to being horrid, ugly creatures, both inside and out.

In 2015 they were dragging people out of their houses and killing them in the streets. In 2609 the Observers poisoned the planet and went back in time to claim it as there own. But how did they get to that state of decay in 2609 in the first place? I'll never look at the Observers the same again, will you?

Am I to believe an entire race of people is without women? Did I miss the female Observers or is that why the lugs had to kidnap them from bars? If they did kidnap them from bars to procreate, where the were the diverse Observers? Was I really just so expecting of snow-white, bald-headed, hat-wearing dudes that they were all my mind could pick up? Just wondering, did you have a tough time spotting the Observer in this episode? HA!

To add a little mystery, Etta should have taken after Peter. A straight haired blond girl named Henrietta was too easy to call as the child of our lovebirds. Her eagerness to track down the other Fringe team members once Walter was discovered was a giveaway, as was Simon calling him him her grandfather when they entered the city. Did you note the shout out to Star Wars Episode IV? You can find it in the Fringe quotes section!

As Widmark said, she was always just what she seemed. The cortexiphan didn't give her super powers like her mom, but she did have the ability to hide her feelings from the Observers, and that was as super as you could get in the future. She didn't even need to lie, because they never knew the difference. What I couldn't tell was the relationship between Etta and Nina. I would hope Etta had someone from the old regime left as "family."

Admittedly, with as excited as Etta was to find the other team members who were ambered with Walter, I expected both Olivia and Peter to be encased. To discover William Bell killed Olivia was upsetting, but we've known for a while was meant to die; that she had a child prior to leaving this earth was a nice touch.

I wonder if Peter named Etta Henrietta after the son he would never see, or if the timelines were further altered and this was the original plan all along. After all, in the current time we don't know the status of William Bell but he managed to get ambered with the group. 

Other thoughts:

• What's the deal with coffee? Unavailable in the alterverse and you eat it but can't drink it in the futureverse. Odd.
• It was 2036 and they hadn't come up with something better than a flask or a modern day laptop? For shame.
• Our modern day Fringe team was obviously never surpassed or they wouldn't have been a part of folklore or worthy of Simon giving up his life to save one of them.
• The piece of amber, once Walter was released, looked like a giant amber Spongebob Squarepants
• I enjoyed seeing our characters age. Nina looked fabulous in grey hair and dark lipstick. So dramatic!
• Walter's brain tissue finally came in handy after 40 years. He was cute as hell dancing next to the river though, wasn't he?
• Observers get drunk off of water? If only it were that easy for the rest of us.
• I'm glad Henry Ian Cusak (Simon) gave his life up for Peter and not William Bell. That would have been tragic.
• Will we ever find out what Bell did to Olivia? 
• I enjoyed the opening credits. One of my favorite parts of the series has been the show's ability to meaningfully adapt those credits as necessary. These were frightening.
• There was no mention of the alterverse. Just a hint as to whether it survived would have been a nice nod.
• Did you think this episode served a purpose, or was it just cool to see one of millions of possibilities? I'm torn, myself.

I guess it was nice to know our gang fought as long as they could. Whether they ambered themselves in the hope a different future or were ambered by someone else, I don't know. Once freed, their intent to destroy the Observers remained intact. For three more years the division fights on before the world is upended. It's too bad Fringe won't continue on as long as that to see the story play out in real time. What can I say, I'm a dreamer. 

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.