Fringe – Recap & Review – Peter

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Fringe
Peter

Original Air Date: Apr 1, 2010

Rachel – Sr. Managing Editor
rachel@thetwocentscorp.com

When Olivia found out about Peter, that he was from the Other Side, it was so not cool. The daggers she stared at Walter! I don’t really blame her, though. Talk about a game-changing revelation! At the beginning of this episode, she had separated herself from both Bishop boys in an attempt to think clearly about the whole situation. Yeah… good luck with that. Walter shows up to come clean; there are some things Olivia needs to know before she does anything rash, so cue the brilliant 80s-themed title sequence, complete with Wargames font and a little electronica. Seriously… it was brilliant.

Back in ’85, Walter was a man on top of his game with a major US Government contract regarding this whole Other Side place. He had developed a “window” through which anyone could see this alternate universe, complete with doppelgangers and slightly modified histories (zeppelins, anyone?). But Walter had problems at home: his 7-year-old son had a genetic disease and was slowly wasting away. Walter began using the “window” to watch Other Walter (or “Walternate”) struggle to find a cure for his own Peter.

The disease moved a bit faster on our side, and Peter died in Walter’s arms. Walter lost any desire for life. He turned violent and alcoholic. In one of his drunken stupors, he found himself in his lab looking to the Other Side where Walternate found a cure! Somewhere, a Peter would have a good life! The only problem? Walternate got distracted by none other than The Observer (what’s he doing Over There?!?) and missed the chemical reaction. When he returned to the experiment, it looked as if it had failed.

Walter became consumed with saving Other Peter. He knew that Walternate would not re-discover the cure so he simply MUST create a door and take the cure to Other Peter himself. His assistant, a very Scully-Season-One-Type, tried to stop him. “There are doors we cannot open!” She even enlisted the help of Nina Sharp (William Bell was “in Europe”… right), and they confronted Walter just as he was setting up the doorway on a frozen lake near the Bishop cabin where Other Peter was staying. There were fighting words and a bit of a struggle and Walter fell through the door (along with part of Nina’s arm), breaking the bottle of antidote for Other Peter.

There was only one thing to do: take Other Peter back to our reality, concoct another antidote, and then return him. But when they stepped back through the door, the ice broke and bother Walter and Other Peter almost drowned. You know the rest of the story: The Observer saved them both, telling Walter that Other Peter was too important to die. The Observer had caused the “mistake” of Walternate not finding the cure himself, so he was trying to fix things.

Walter got Other Peter back to the lab and cured him… then his wife walked in and saw her dead child very much alive. Walter told her that they would have to take him back, but the look she gave him said “there is NO WAY I’m losing him again.” And so Walter finished the story in present day with the caveat: “You don’t know what it’s like to lose a child.”

What a heart-wrenching episode! I think the toughest part for me was watching Other Elizabeth say goodbye to her son, thinking that Walter was Walternate and had come to take Other Peter to Cambridge to fix him. Her last words were “Bring him back to me.” Knowing the outcome, that she wouldn’t see him again, was simply awful. Being a mother myself, I can’t imagine that sort of pain. But now, as for Fringe, the whole story is out there… the bandaid has been ripped off, and now it’s time to heal. What do YOU think? Give us your Two Cents in the comment section below!

Next Week: Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver.

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