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Fringe Fodder

Fringe 2-16 Peter

”Searching two worlds for a cure.”

Fringe 2-16 – Peter
Airdate: April 1, 2010

Preview:

Walter tells all to Olivia. We get the whole story of Peter and the alternate world.

Key Points in this week’s mystery:


  • 1985. US Army Research Headquarters. Downtown Manhattan? Walter briefs the brass. He shows them a cell phone, which he says he copied from what he sees in another, alternate world. He tells them it’s theoretically impossible to go to this other universe. He shows them his viewer into another world. Set up on the rooftop balcony, he focuses on the Empire State Building – with a zeppelin currently docking at it.
  • Present Day. Walter appears at Olivia’s apartment and begs to be let in to explain – she has been ignoring his telephone calls and messages. He has a large package – the viewer into the other world. Walter says he was a different man when he invented it – out to change the world – but all that changed when Peter got sick with a genetic illness.
  • 1985 – Walter and Carla view alt-Walter working in his lab to see if his other self can find the cure our Walter is unable to.
  • Walter’s wife, Elizabeth, summonses him to home, saying Peter wants to talk with him, fearing he hasn’t much longer to live. Elizabeth is hurt at Walter’s absences, but he reminds her he’s working 24-7 for a cure.
  • Walter and Peter exchange a few words, and Walter shows Peter how to do the coin-in-the-knuckles trick, when, in the midst of a hug, Peter dies.
  • Walter brings Elizabeth to Peter’s bedroom, where he’s set up the window, in which she can see that Peter lives - in another world. When he turns it off she begs him to turn it on again. He hopes she can take comfort that another Peter lives.
  • Walter drinks as he watches alt-Walter continue searching for a cure. At some point he realizes with a start that the compounds alt-Water are using in his systematic search are not random, as he had thought, but very cleverly chosen. Walter sees the compound that alt-Walter is working on turn color to a bright blue indicating he’s found the right compound. But as he does so an Observer appears in the lab, and alt-Walter’s attention is diverted. Before he can return to the experiment the compound changes color again, making alt-Walter think it’s another failure, as our Walter rails “All you had to do was stabilize it!”
  • As a blimp cruises overhead, a committee of Observers convenes on a street in front a movie marquee proclaiming “Back to the Future – Staring Eric Stolz.” They chastise the observer who appeared in the lab for interfering and changing history. He says it was an important moment, but they tell him it was the boy, not the experiment that was important. They tell him he must take action to restore balance, and he will have an opportunity to do so.
  • Walter tells Carla he’s duplicated alt-Walter’s cure to save alt-Peter. Carla thinks he might destroy both universes opening a wormhole, which is why they told the Army it was impossible. Carla argues there has to be a line they can’t cross. Walter dismisses this as religious claptrap. Walter plans to make the crossover on a frozen lake near his holiday retreat west of Albany.
  • Carla rats Walter out to Nina Sharp. She immediately calls William Bell.
  • Walter arrives at the lake and sets up his apparatus, embedding parts of I In the ice. It’s night and he has a portable generator and lights. Carla shows up with Nina Sharp to try and talk Walter out of his ‘madness’. Walter says William Bell would applaud him if he were there.
  • Walter ignores Nina Sharp’s blandishments, creates his portal and starts to cross. Nina tries to tackle him, causing him to fall to the ground. He scrambles through, Nina clutching at him, as the portal closes, her right arm is in the and appears to be vibrating in and out of reality.
  • Walter picks himself up on the other side and discovers the fall has broken his vial of the vital serum. He resolutely trudges on over the frozen lake.
  • Walter arrives at the vacation cottage and tells alt-Elizabeth he’s discovered a cure and must take Peter to the lab. He asks her to trust him that it’s better if she remains in the cottage. Walter carries Peter from the cottage, promising alt-Elizabeth to bring him back.
  • Peter is suspicious when they don’t take a car, and accuses Walter of not being his father. Walter uses a remote to trigger the portal and they walk back through it, only to fall though the ice surface which has been weakened by the device. Walter and Peter are drifting to the bottom when a figure dives in and saves them both.
  • Walter awakens in a car being driven by the Observer who saved them. The Observer tells Walter that Nina and Carla left to seek medical attention. The Observer leaves Walter to get the boy to the cure, telling him he saved them because “The boy is important – he has to live.”
  • A blue i/v drips into Peter’s arm in the lab. Carla, assisting, asks Walter if he’s going to return Peter. Walter says “Of course.”
  • Elizabeth comes to the lab and sees Peter on the table. Walter explains he had to bring him back to save him. Elizabeth touches the boy as if to see if he is real, then picks him up and holds him, and after looking into her eyes, Walter realizes he can never take Peter back.
  • Present day: Walter finishes explaining all this to Olivia. “It was the first crack in the pattern of cracked spaces between the worlds, and it’s my fault.”

~~~~~

Key points in the ongoing story arc:


  • At the beginning in 1985, Nina Sharp’s arm is normal.
  • Walter’s diatribe at the lake gives us a very unflattering portrait of William Bell and his motives.
  • We know now why Nina Sharp has an artificial arm.

~~~~~

Key points in personal stories:

  • It’s a very small funeral, with only Walter, Elizabeth, a priest, Carla, and Nina Sharp in attendance. Nina apologizes for William Bell’s absence – he’s fund raising in Europe.
  • Nina’s uses a strange argument in attempting to stop Walter from crossing over, it’s that she knows why he’s doing this – because she know he knows how much Peter means to her.
  • Walter has a beautiful lab assistant Dr. Carla Warren. She has three degrees in theoretical physics, which doesn’t stop Walter from dismissing her as a ‘religious nut’ over her ethical issues with Walter’s actions.



Cecil



Tonight’s Secret Word: PETERS

Note the plural.-

Best Quotes:
----------------------------------------
Walter: [about keeping the other Peter] It was the first hole, Olivia. The first breach. The first crack in a pattern of cracks, spaces between the worlds. And it's my fault.
----------------------------------------
Walter: I've given him a name, Carla. [His other-world self.]

Carla: Hmm?

Walter: "Walternate."
----------------------------------------
Walter: The Casimir Effect should produce a thinner, more porous region of space-time. I only need to affect the area for long enough to cross over to the other side with the vial of the cure. And... and then, of course, recreate the effect to cross back again.

Carla: Walter, you're trying to create a wormhole into another universe?

Walter: Yes! I think I just said that.
----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

Analysis:

If you’re a parent, this episode is very difficult to watch. It is also the number one fan-rated episode of Fringe, ever, and last week’s ep, Jacksonville, is number 2.

Interestingly, alt-Walter has no alt-Carla.

Could that beautiful assistant, Carla, be the source of Elizabeth’s worries over Walter’s long hours at the lab. Could there be any history there?

We get our first indication that Peter (or at least alt-Peter, who is the only one we know), is somehow historically important enough to draw Observer interest.

In Walter’s diatribe at the lake, there’s a statement that William Bell has been pushing him to develop a portal, but Walter has not been sufficiently motivated to create one up until now. Could this possibly be a subtle hint that Bell is behind Peter’s illness and death? (If so he’d have to be operating on both sides of the universes, since both Peters have the same illness.) Not a pleasant speculation. Leonard Nimoy has been playing Bell as a good guy, but fans of another major JJ Abrams production, “Lost”, know how he enjoys ambiguity in his characters.

Could Nina’s expression of affection for Peter be another subtle hint of a past emotional relationship between Walter and Nina? This ep is full of subtleties.

A little net research reveals that Eric Stolz was originally cast in “Back to the Future.” Talk about your alternate worlds. For that matter, Jack Warner wanted Ronald Reagan for Rhett Butler.

Carla argues that the enormous amount of energy required to bridge the gulf between the two worlds will damage both of them. Apparently the “enormous amount of energy” can be supplied by a ca-1985 hand-carried portable generator.

Remains to be answered:

  1. What happened to Elizabeth? Have we ever been told?
  2. What happened to Carla? Have we seen her before?

Next Episode: "Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver."

A killer can kill with a touch. Can Fringe stop him? What connects all his victims?


~~~~~

Regular Cast:

Anna Torv _________ Agent Olivia Dunham
Joshua Jackson _____ Peter Bishop
John Noble ________ Dr. Walter Bishop
Lance Reddick ______ Agent Phillip Broyles
Blair Brown ________ Nina Sharp


Guest cast:

Quinn Lord _________ Young Peter
Orla Brady __________ Elizabeth Bishop
Jenni Blong _________ Dr. Carla Warren
Serge Houde ________ General Hames
Julian Christopher ____ General Tonks
Peter Woodward ____ August
Michael Cerveris _____ September
Eugene Lipinski ______ December


Posted by Cecil on April 8, 2010 6:28 PM
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