If Fox programming president Kevin Reilly’s recent comments are anything to go by, Fringe‘s renewal prospects are not looking good. If season 4 is indeed the final year, the writers have precious little time to wrap up everything – but here’s how I would like to see it go.

Fringe has had some real highs and lows in its 3 1/2 year run. Season 1 was, in my own humble opinion, mind-numbingly dull… until the season finale reveal that there were two parallel universes, and that Peter Bishop was literally not of this earth. This upped the game, and it shifted the focus of the show from the weekly mysteries to the central characters.

In season 2 and 3, the show was exploring the parallel universe concept, and the writers have done wonders with showcasing cause-and-effect scenarios that have led each of our characters to turn out slightly (or drastically) different in the alternate world. Meeting Fauxlivia, Walternate, as well as the alternate Broyles and Astrid, and seeing what the world might have looked like had key things in history been different, really made Fringe stand out as a brilliant and thought-provoking show. The subplot of the unusual Olivia/Peter/Fauxlivia love triangle may have vexed some fans, but personally I found that it offered some great character conflict and gave us something to root for. Lincoln, too, was a fantastic addition to the series in season 3.

So far, season 4 has continued to explore such differences – only now it’s the differences between a world with and without Peter that we’re being shown. It’s very complicated, and the “new” characters are somewhat hard to get invested in if what Peter says is true and these are actually third and fourth realities, but none the less I am intrigued, and the mysteries are holding my attention. But if this is all we’re gonna get?! I say they need to get back to the worlds as we know them and get to rounding things up fast!

The one show I always come back to when thinking about satisfying series finales is Lost, which I loved but found severely dissatisfying after all was said and done. The problem with Lost, which will always define any genre shows that follow, is that some time between seasons 5 and 6 the writers realised that they’d spun too many webs and put in too many mysteries, and so they decided to make the show all about the characters, to simplify the story. This was a good idea in theory, and I loved all the emotional send-offs, but it left a lot of viewers very dissatisfied with an ending that answered very few of our questions (and the questions they did answer were kind of hokey). I really hope that Fringe (which shares a creator with Lost) will not try to tie things up in the same neat little way, because as much as I enjoy the characters, I don’t think any of them apart from Walter were made for an emotional, sappy send-off. Could you imagine Peter, Olivia and Broyles crying and hugging in a church? No, I didn’t think so.

So what should happen before the series ends? First of all, I want to see some kind of resolution between the Walters. Walter almost destroyed both worlds when he broke across to steal Walternate’s son, and we know that Walternate is more than willing to do the same out of spite and bitter vengeance. Disappointingly, however, the slate between them has been wiped clean since neither of them now remember Peter, so we need Peter to get back to a world where everybody remembers him. This tabula rasa is great and all if you have lots of time to explore tiny complexities, but if the show ends this year, it’ll feel like a cop-out to not have the characters remember the major conflicts. Just like creating baby Henry and then erasing the “problem storyline” was, that still doesn’t sit right with me.

I also want a happy ending for Olivia and Peter. The show has had its ups and downs with romance, but I think they’ve made a point of showing us that these two characters belong together, so let’s give them that happy ending we glimpsed in the season 3 finale (you know, before Walternate killed Olivia)! We can’t forget about the vision Olivia had of the man who was gonna kill her, however, but maybe that can happen a long ways off… like when she’s old and in a hospital dying of old age anyway. Or maybe someone takes a bullet for her, say, Lincoln or Broyles. I know, that’s almost as hokey as Lost, but in this one instance I think it’d be great to see. And speaking of romance, how about having Fauxlivia and Lincoln finally getting together?! There’s a storyline that needs some payoff.

Walter and Peter, of course, need to reconcile. The bridge between the two worlds needs to be closed. Walternate needs to die. Maybe Walter/Walternate will die saving one of the universes that otherwise would have been destroyed, or else perhaps a universe is destroyed and some (but not all) key characters escape to the other, and watch it crumble, Buffy finale style.

Finally, and most importantly: we need to learn what the h*** is up with the Observers. None of this leaving it to the imagination crap. Who are they, where do they come from, what is their purpose. Questions that need answering! And not in a post-finale interview, either, I want on-screen backstory.

And that’s all I got! Share your thoughts in the comments about what YOU want to see happen before the series ends, whenever that may be!

This column post was written by Hypable staff member Selina Wilken. Follow her on Twitter @SelinaWilken!