Allister Peck (played by the inimitable Peter Weller) materializes on a Boston train. His appearance kills all of the passengers, and not because they died of the shock. Rather, as Walter eventually figures out, they died of having all of the energy sucked out them. Quantum mechanical manipulations which enable the time travel are energy sinks - which drain batteries as well as people.
The good news is that Peck is a repeat time traveler, and each time he travels, the people in the previous energy hole are restored. Nonetheless, Broyles and company understandably want to stop this.
But why is Peck time traveling? He's more than a mad or curious scientist. He wants to save his beautiful fiance from a deadly car crash that he helped send her to, with a nasty argument that sent her driving away. Walter pleads with Peck to stop doing this. "It's not our place to adjust the universe," Walter says, of course thinking of the continuing pain his own adjustment of the universe - taking Peter from the alternate reality - has caused him and others. Walter even reveals to Peck what Walter did with Peter. But Peck is not to be moved. He travels back to save his fiance anyway, with tragic results, not for the world, but for him and his fiance.
The episode has other good touches, such as the past being re-set and slightly changed each time Peck travels back. And there's a nice bit with a letter that Walter wrote to Peter - explaining Peter's past - almost falling into Peter's hand. I consider this one of best time travel hours in a series on television, almost as good as "City on the Edge of Forever" from Star Trek: TOS and "Yesterday's Enterprise" from Star Trek: TNG.
Walter decides at the end that he can live better without telling Peter, and that will be better for Peter. But the coming attractions promise something different...
See also Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ... New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter?
See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best
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6 comments:
Hi Paul, I loved this one. I thought Peter Weller's character made the decision to die with her after Walter's warning of madness and guilt.
Plus I loved the white tulip in the mail. Walter said if God sent him a white tulip then God could forgive him and if God could forgive then Peter could forgive...thus opening the door to Peter being told.
Just my thoughts. Great review and great episode. Cheers!
Great thoughts, Nancy - and glad you enjoyed the review!
PS - But just thinking about this - and the points you raise, Nancy - if Walter's interpretation of the tulip is that God wanted him to tell Peter, then why did Walter destroy the letter?
Because Walter wanted to tell Peter in person? Perhaps...
Paul, thought about you and The Plot to Save Socrates while I was watching this one. I also enjoyed the small changes in the resets, esp. when Alistair tells the pickpocket kid "Sorry to put you through this again".
Great episode, enjoyable series. I'd really like to see more of the other side, and what's up with the bald guys? Are they just watchers from a 3rd universe? or maybe the future?
absolutly love your blog.
I want to agree and expand on what Nancy Said:
I DO believe that Peck was INDEED moved by Walters speech. His original plan was to pull her from the car and bring her back.
But afters walter's speech he chose to end the cycle and die with her.
IMHO, The tulip he shared with Walter was Peck's way of resolving Walter of his sins. To Peck, Walter righted a potential wrong by preventing a repeated mistake. If there were a god, he would have found this to be a repentive move.
I'm glad you enjoy the blog, Alisa Marie - it does a writer good to have readers like you.
I guess I'm more of an optimist and less of a fatalist than you and Nancy - however poetic such fatalism may be.
I like to think Peck thought he could triumph over the universe, and reclaim the happy life he lost with his fiance, when he got into that car with her. He would have driven away with her, thrilled to the core, but the universe did reach out and have the last word....
Larry - you and I both about The Plot to Save Socrates :)
I think we'll be seeing a lot more about the other side on Fringe, soon.
My best guess about the bald guys is that they are indeed from a third universe - or at least someplace that understands and seeks to control what goes on in cross-universe transactions. This would make their place of origin a meta-universe.
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