The writing was on the wall as soon as word came out that Leonard Nimoy was retiring from acting again. He retired once before back in 1991 and generally stuck to it (except for some voice work) until last year's excellent Star Trek revival. And then he did the same producers a favor by appearing as the mysterious William Bell in Fringe. So when the stakes were raised in this week's season finale, I immediately thought upon the news out of Nimoy that he's retiring again. I thought to myself: "Oh no, he's going to die." And while we didn't see conclusively that William Bell kicked the bucket, I'm pretty sure that's the intention.

The opening of the first part of Fringe's second season finale was thrilling. We instantly know that what we're seeing is the alternate reality to our own (nothing says alternate universe like zeppelins). Firstly, Charlie is back, sporting a new 'do and some kind of arachnid parasites in his body. Secondly, Olivia has a crazy new haircut as well and smiles a lot more. Other changes include a new member of the Fringe team and Broyles overseeing Fringe operations from a very high tech, almost CTU-like command center. All we're missing to show us that this is the other side is someone rocking a goatee, like in "Mirror, Mirror". Seeing as how Leonard Nimoy made a guest appearance in this week's Fringe, maybe it should have been him. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Finally, a speculation of mine in a previous review comes back to prove me right! Regular readers of mine (are you even out there? Hello?) will know that in a recent Doctor Who review of mine, I was upset at myself for not committing a theory to the written page, only to have what I suspected come true. Well this time, I'm vindicated!

I'm not sure whether this week's Fringe is supposed to be a network tie-in with the increasingly unbearable Glee, but to have a (sort of) musical episode is a huge departure for a show known more for its grim and gross visuals than anything upbeat. Nevertheless, we got a song and dance episode and one thing is clear: some of these Fringe actors can really carry a tune!

Anybody regularly watching Fringe knows that it's been on a solid roll since coming back from its mid-season break. They're not messing around with the revelations anymore. In the last few weeks, we've delved deeper into the show's main through-lines faster than before. In fact, this week, something finally comes to a head much sooner than I thought it would.

Leonard Nimoy had a huge role in the recent Star Trek film - a role that convinced director JJ Abrams to cast him as the mysterious William Bell in the show Fringe. I don't mind not seeing Spock Prime anymore, but what will happen to the William Bell character now that Leonard Nimoy has officially come out to say that he's retiring from acting?

"I've been doing this professionally for 60 years," Nimoy said. "I love the idea of going out on a positive note. I've had a great, great time. I was away from acting for 12 years, so I guess I was seducible. But since J.J. Abrams revived the Star Trek franchise, I felt I owed him something. And I'm glad I did it, because he promised me a good story, and it was."

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I will venture out and say that this week's Fringe had a sort of lyrical beauty. The structure and telling of its story was marvelous.

On the heels of last week's excellent installment, Fringe goes back to more of a mystery of the week, albeit with a hand in the greater storyline for the show.

After an all too long break, Fringe is finally back and at the top of its form. Even without most of the regular characters, this week's episode turned in one of the strongest hours of the series to date, concentrating on the circumstances around Peter's abduction from the alternate universe in the mid-80s.

Buffy nailed the musical genre with Once More, With Feeling, but others have tried and failed. The latest show to be given the musical treatment is Fringe. What? Yep, you heard that right. Coming this May, Fringe will feature a musical episode, where musical numbers play out in Walter's head as hallucinations.

"None of us ever thought that it was really going to happen," said musically trained co-star Jasika Nicole, who plays loyal FBI agent Astrid Farnsworth, in an interview on the show's set in Vancouver, Canada, last week. "It was just a joke. We were like, 'Oh, yeah, Fringe should be a musical.' Dancing and singing and goofing off and stuff. And then John says, 'So, you know, there's going to be a musical episode,' and I was like, 'Ha, ha, John,' and he was like, 'No, really, have you read the script?'"

Nicole adds: "When I first read that, I thought, 'How are they going to pull this off? This is really weird.' And it makes complete sense within the story. It's essentially Walter kind of manifesting his idea. He's trying to get his mind off of, you know, what's going on because he's just waiting to see what's going to go on with Peter. And essentially he's kind of created this little world in his head. And so everything is super-symbolic so all the characters embody the qualities that he notices about them the most, which is really neat. And it happens in the 1940s. Everybody's in 1940s dress, but they still have cell phones and stuff. So it's just his brain, because he's telling a story to someone. Sort of like a bedtime story to help ease his anxiety. So we get to sing in it."

Fringe fans can now rest easy, as the fate of their show has been decided, and it will indeed be back next year for a third season. The show doesn't bring in amazing numbers, but the network apparently still has faith in it and its ability to perform.

We don't often get to see Fringe's Anna Torv in much more than her FBI act, but thank Jeebus that Esquire decided to include her in their magazine, where Anna is tastefully rendered topless in a variety of poses. Grrrrr. No real news regarding Fringe, but still, I deem it newsworthy.

Right from the start, you could tell that this would be a special episode of Fringe. Marked as the winter finale, you knew they'd pull out all the stops to make it a memorial episode until the series resumes in April. So in the opening, a bizarre earthquake centralized at an office building in New York causes those inside the building to turn into grotesque husks of humanity. When the fringe team shows up, the lone survivor has two faces and plenty of arms and legs. It was absolutely gross. Before he dies, the mutated guy mentions his wife, but records show he's never been married.

If there's one constant in fiction, it's that Nazis can be always be relied on for instant villains. You can kills them and present them in a multitude of evil ways and people will always hate them because...well, because they're Nazis. Imagine my surprise (and delight) that Fringe used Nazis as villains in this week's episode. They make such terrific villains because you hate them immediately.

Claustrophobia is a fear shared by many and in fiction it can be used to create an immediate sense of dread. Such is the case in this week's episode of Fringe.