Sometimes a specific episode of a television show comes along and causes us to sit back in satisfied awe at the wonder we have witnessed. These are the episodes we refer to as classic without any trace of hyperbole. Fringe’s “Peter” is one such episode.
THE SERIES: Fringe
THE EPISODE: “Peter”
THE PLOT: When Fringe premiered on the Fox network in 2008, it was easy to write it off as a more scientifically-minded, The X-Files. It was unfair to write it off as such , because it…well, no. For the first season, it was almost exactly like The X-Files. Both programs aired on Fox, both featured F.B.I. agents investigating the paranormal, and the series centered around a photogenic male-female duo with a “will they, or won’t they” vibe that drove much of their character interactions.
So, we had this.
Then, this. I know, I know. How did we ever confuse these two? I guess we just weren’t paying attention.
However, as the series went on, it became less about monsters and fringe scientific creations, and introduced the concept of a parallel world, existing simultaneously with ours, and the show shifted from X-Files- lite to “Omigod, this amazing.” Yet, it kept one thing in common with The X-Files: it never let the sci-fi elements overwhelm the strong, dynamic amazingly compelling character dynamics. The series’ primary focus centered around Olivia Dunham, the somber, traumatized, F.B.I. agent who possesses psychic abilities as a result of her involvement in a study involving giving children an experimental drug, Peter Bishop, the rogue, civilian consultant brought in to help monitor and guard the third character in our trio: his estranged father, Walter Bishop. By far, the most arresting and compelling of these characters is Walter Bishop, the eccentric (insane?) scientist who’s past experiments are responsible for much of the fringe-science cases the team encounters. He exists as both blissfully at ease with saying whatever enters his mind out loud, while also haunted by his past (he created/ performed the experiments that caused Olivia so much childhood trauma). As the series progressed, much of the focus shifted to the romance between Peter and Olivia, but for me the best, most interesting relationship was the evolving father-son dynamic that guided the series’ early seasons.
It takes a long time to get to this point, but it’s amazing when it arrives.
Peter blamed his father for his mother’s eventual suicide, and barely wanted contact with him when the series began. Walter spent much of the first two seasons trying to reestablish a connection between them, with Peter resisting him at every turn. By the second season, their bond was more fully established. However, the first season spent a great deal of its time sprinkling little clues that Peter may be more than he seemed. In the closing moments of the season 1 finale, Walter is found standing over his son, Peter’s grave, revealing that Peter is from the parallel world. With that knowledge established, the viewer became more and more aware of the fact that the burgeoning father-son bind is living in a perpetually, precariously balanced state. Their relationship is a living on borrowed time, because once Peter figures out Walter is not really his father, the relationship they have been building will be irrevocably damaged. The destruction and eventual rebuilding of that relationship is a major force for the remainder of the second season and the third season.
(From this point on, SPOILERS are present. Read at your own risk. You’ve been warned.)
THE EPISODE:
From the series’ second season, “Peter” finally provides is with the backstory as to how Peter ended up in our universe. The episode opens in 1985. We see Oliver, the character we have loved since the series’ beginning. Yet, this is not the licorice-loving, absent-minded professor we have known throughout the show’s two seasons. This Oliver is confident, collected, and vaguely sinister. After some awesome 1980s-era opening credits, we return to the present day with Olivia, who figured out Peter came from the parallel world in the previous episode, coming to Walter and demanding an explanation as to why Peter is here. Walter is willing to tell her what happened, and we flash back to 1985. We learn Walter has found a portal that allows him to view the parallel universe, including the parallel version of Walter, called “Walternate.” Walter comes into his young son, Peter, deathly ill in bed. The son dies in Walter’s arms.
Still grieving his son’s death, Walter becomes obsessed with watching Walternate, who’s version of Peter is also ill, seeking a cure for his son’s condition. He sees that Walternate is able to develop the cure, but does not notice it because an Observer (one of the enigmatic characters that are forever maneuvering around the series’ edges), appears and distracts him. Armed with the knowledge that he now knows how the cure, he creates it, and makes plans to cross into parallel world and cure the parallel version of his son.
“I really must learn to videotape my experiments. After all, who knows when a bald man in a trench coat will magically appear?”
Alas, the vial of the cure he brought with him in to the parallel world shatters, so now he must bring Peter back into his own universe and administer the cure there. Yet, once his wife sees the cured, parallel world version of her son, resting in Walter’s lab, she begs Walter not to take him back. Walter knows how much losing Peter again will crush his wife, and cannot do that to her. As a result, he agrees to keep Peter there. The episode ends back in the present day, with Walter telling Olivia that he knows he is responsible for all of the anomalies present in both universes– his breaking through the barrier that separated them caused the cracks between the two worlds and the storm he knows is approaching.
All for this kid.
Why I Love this Episode:
First of all, this episode had an incredibly difficult task. As an audience, we knew Peter had come from the parallel world, we knew Walter’s son, Peter, had died as a young boy, and we were pretty certain Walter had taken the parallel world Peter away from his own family and raised him as his own son.
“My constant candy offerings seem a lot more sinister now.”
The episode basically has to give a backstory covering events the audience has known and understood for quite some time. what gives the episode its power is the way in which it presents the events.
First, we learn Walter’s initial intent was not to raise Peter as his own. In fact, he would have never gone near the parallel world were it not for Walternate being distracted by the Observer, thus failing to see the cure for which he had been so diligently searching had been created. Walter’s motivations are less self-serving than desperate. He knows he cannot have his son back, but he feels if the parallel version of him survives, then he can still feel as though his son is out there, somewhere.
As stated above, Walter emerged from the series as its most interesting character. We know he is responsible for several problematic experiments, including much of the trauma heaped upon Olivia, so it was easy for the audience to believe he had simply taken Peter out of a selfish, if understandable, impulse to regain his son. Twisting that expectation with the events the way they are presented here creates a far more interesting portrayal of Walter. In 1985, he’s not the quirky, candy-loving, guilt-ridden, eccentric for which the audience feels great sympathy. Instead he’s arrogant and willing to take massive scientific risks, regardless of the potential cost. If present-day Walter is concerned with the “greater good,” 1985′s Walter is concerned with the “greater scientific leap” and what will make him feel more content. Crossing into the parallel world is a massive risk. Even is he is unaware of the ramifications it will have, it is hardly a great leap to assume one cannot simply destroy universe separating barriers without consequences. However, Walter is still willing to make the right decision and return the child back to his true parents’ waiting arms. It is his wife that persuades him to have Peter remain there with them. Walter’s weakness robs his parallel world counterpart of a son (though it could be argued that Walternate would have lost that child anyway, because he failed to notice his discovery of the cure), knowing how bereaved they will feel, not out of cruelty of selfishness, but because he lacks the ability to cause his wife that much pain.
Yikes! I wouldn’t cross her either, Walter.
When we flash back to the present day, we see the sad, tired, conflicted Walter we have known over the last two seasons. He may wish he could change the actions he took to save Peter’s life and he certainly has regrets over keeping as his own son, but it ti too late for regrets. All he can do is beg Olivia not to tell Peter, knowing it will cost him the bond it has taken him so long to establish, and prepare for the catastrophic storm he knows is coming because of actions he performed.
Check out a promo for the episode:
Fringe is available to stream on Netflix and Amazon (free to Prime members) and to purchase on DVD and Blu-ray.
Did you approve of our choice? Is there another episode of Fringe you think is better? Do you hate Fringe all together, and think we should have featured a different series entirely? Let us know in the comments!
