I didn’t really expect Fringe to become my No. 1 show.

The first season finale, however, put it there, and with the end of Lost and Battlestar Galactica, it’s been cemented at the top. (Supernatural and Doctor Who are extremely acceptable seconds, though.)

Friday night’s third season finale has made my brain hurt, in the same glorious tradition of the Lost “flash-forward” finale. Just when you think you kind of sort of know what’s going on, Peter flashes out of existence and the Observers are all tilting their heads like cats and telling September how he was right.

But there’s this: If Peter never existed, how were the two universes brought together? If Peter never existed, why did Walter go Over There in the first place? If Peter never existed, why does my brain hurt so much and who is this Polivia everyone’s been kvelling about all season?

I wouldn’t be stuck on the paradox of Peter’s nonexistence if Walter hadn’t made such a big deal about how he couldn’t not send the machine back because of the paradox it created. It may just be that Walter was wrong – that Walter didn’t have to send the machine back in time (by the way, the fact that Walter, Astrid and Ella were the First People? LOVE THAT.), but did because he thought he had to.

Here’s my thoughts about Peter’s nonexistence:

• Watch Doctor Who? Remember last season’s finale when Amy remembered her raggedy doctor and that memory brought him back into existence? What if something like that is at play? That eventually the Olivias remember Peter and that brings him back? Imagine if it is Fauxlivia who remembers him first (which would seem likely, as she has his child, right?) – though I have to admit, that would lead to a whole romantic triangle storyline that has been played over and over and over since the beginning of literature, the star-crossed lovers never seeming to be able to come together.

• Peter as we know him never existed, but he did exist as a child, dying in both universes. September saved Peter in an alternate timeline/universe because he knew Peter could bring balance to the Red and Blue universes. But in this new, gray, universe, Peter cannot exist, because he belongs in neither and they are now joined. Perhaps he blipped back home to his own universe?

• The Observers. They are the one truly true mystery left. There are lots of little things we still don’t understand (such as, who was that guy who is supposed to kill Olivia?), but no matter how much we see the Observers, we still have no real idea who or what they are. Are they what some people would call angels, for lack of a better description? They generally are there to ensure that fates are met as they are fated to, interfering only if they have to ensure it happens as it is supposed to. But then why is September the only one who understood Peter’s role? Is it because Walter was never supposed to cross into the other universe? Did they mess up by not avoiding that and so the timeline involving the characters we know is somewhat of a mystery to them?

The good news is that we know Fringe eventually will give us the answers we seek. The bad news is that we have to wait at least until September to start to unravel them.