It's almost impossible to create a timeline for what goes on in Fringe. Believe me, I've been trying.

Well, the timeline thing isn't THAT hard, you've just gotta think in 3 dimensions (parallel universes and alternate timelines means you've gotta use 3 dimensions to properly make a linear timeline).

The hard part is trying to figure out how to solve the bootstrap paradox (time paradox where something exists without ever being created or eventually destroyed) in the show.

You see, in the show, there's this big device called the First People Machine. It's basically this big hourglass shaped device that can create or destroy worlds so long as the right person is using it (there's only one person who can). This machine was discovered in pieces covering the globe buried millions of years ago. Our protagonists uncover the pieces and put it together (as do their counterparts in the alternate universe). Peter Bishop, one of the main characters and the only one who can control the device, steps into it and ends up using to to destroy the other universe (I don't know whether it was purely intentional or not).

Skip ahead 25 years to the year 2026 where the other universe is destroyed and (I assume) their machine with it. However, Peter learns that both universes are interconnected and their universe is being destroyed, too. That's when Walter Bishop, his father and a brilliant (if often eccentric) scientist discovers that the holes being created in their universe because of the destruction are actually wormholes that lead to the Mesozoic era. So Peter, Walter and maybe some more people take the machine (which has been disassembled at this time) and bring it with them through the wormholes and bury them exactly where they found them millions of years later.

Now this makes no sense. The machine had to have been created, but by whom?

I suspect William Bell, Walter's old lab partner and founder of Massive Dynamic, one of the largest and most scientifically advanced corporation in the world. They literally make and do everything.

BUT this also makes no sense. If he built it, then there should be two machines in each universe. One that's brand spankin new and another one that's been buried underground for several million years.

The only way to solve this paradox is if we create this entirely hypothetical timeline that was never even hinted at in the show. Not to mention that it includes time travel back to the Mesozoic era which is not only an option not available with the machine but an opportunity only seen with the wormholes and the dying universe.

Now, why is the second part a problem? Because after close examination of the machine's existence, we can see that both universes used to be joined in the past. It's the only logical conclusion since the alternate universe has a machine but does not have a William Bell to create it. Besides, if their machine was destroyed with their universe, how could they have one buried? The only solution is that they were one universe when the machine was buried and then it split.

Oh right, back to the explanation why the second part is a problem. Well, if the timeline that held the machine's origin had two universes then they must have split somehow and the only thing we know that can do that is the machine itself. (If you've read this far and even slightly understand it, put the word 'steamboat' somewhere in your comment. I don't care how, come right out and say it or cleverly work it into a joke or something) That means the machine had to have been created before and then we get this paradox that will end up in an infinite number of timelines.

Which can't happen. Not for this show, it's far too complicated.

HOWEVER, there may be a factor that's completely missing from my equation. Another means of splitting the universe. If this were to be true, then things would be looking better. Not great since we'll still need a hypothetical timeline, though.

The answer is probably so simple, too. I doubt that the writers will let this paradox go unresolved.

There. Rambling.