Fringe (TV series): Difference between revisions

At one point [[fringe:Timeline#1980s|in the early 1980s]], Walter assisted [[fringe:William Bell|William Bell]]'s experiments on children using the drug "[[fringe:Cortexiphan|Cortexiphan]]". The test subjects included both [[fringe:Olivia Dunham|Olivia Dunham]] and [[fringe:Nick Lane|Nick Lane]]. (Season 1 Episode 17 "[[fringe:Bad Dreams|Bad Dreams]]"). When Olivia finds out about this, she confronts Walter about his past morally dubious scientific experiments, for which he shows great remorse (Season 1 Episode 19 "[[fringe:The Road Not Taken|The Road Not Taken]]").

 

 

 

Charged with manslaughter, Walter was instead deemed mentally unstable and admitted to St. Claire's Psychiatric Institution. Only Walter's immediate family were able to visit him in the institution, though it took seventeen years before his son, [[fringe:Peter Bishop|Peter Bishop]], would even speak to him.

After Walternate activates the machine on the [[fringe:Alternate Universe|other side]], Peter has to get in it on this side, but Walter isn't willing to let him go. Eventually, he talks to Peter and lets him go into the machine, but Peter is thrown out and is badly injured. '''Walter goes to a church and talks to God, asking Him to save his universe even though he knows he has done bad things.''' (Season 3 Episode 20 "[[fringe:6:02 AM EST|6:02 AM EST]]")

 

 

Once Peter gets back into the machine, his consciousness flashes forward to the year 2026. There Walter has been put in prison for destroying the other universe, but Peter is able to get him out to help him on a case. Walter realizes that the [[fringe:First People|First People]] are indeed them and that they have to send the machine back in time through a wormhole that was created by the universe's destruction. Since this future won't happen because the alternate universe wasn't destroyed, it is unknown if any of these events will come to pass. Back in the present day, Peter creates a bridge between the universes but then he is erased from the timeline and Walter is there to witness it. (Season 3 Episode 22 "[[fringe:The Day We Died|The Day We Died]]")

Walter however is torn between wanting to cure his son in the Alternate Universe, and the ethical consequences of crossing between timelines. His lab assistant, Dr. [[fringe:Carla Warren|Carla Warren]], tries to warn him of the dangerous consequences and the moral responsibility in front of such consequences. Walter however refuses to listen to her, taken by his own hubris in wanting to play God. (Season 2 Episode 15 "[[fringe:Peter|Peter]]")

 

 

Now, knowing that he was the only hope for the dying child on the Other Side, Walter crossed over, intent on giving the cure to the boy and proceeding to pick up the pieces of his life without a son. However, the vial containing the cure shattered, leading Walter, in a final act of desperation, to kidnap Peter, bring him Over Here, cure him, and return him to his rightful home. However, when the two returned, they fell through a patch of ice into a lake. With their fate apparently certain, Walter and Peter were saved by the same Observer, who seemed to have a job of saving Peter's life after he accidentally distracted Walternate.

Throughout his childhood, a rift between him and his father developed. After Walter was institutionalized, Peter moved to Allston with his mother because she could not afford the mortgage of their house in Cambridge. They didn't speak for the next 17 years, during the time that Walter was in the mental facility, until his hand was practically forced by the FBI agent [[fringe:Olivia Dunham|Olivia Dunham]] who needed his help to get in touch with Walter, the only one who could help with her investigations on fringe science cases. Walter was then released by the hospital into Peter's custody and Walter's former laboratory at Harvard University, which had been shut down in the meantime, was reopened for him to use.

 

 

 

 

 

After an incident on a bridge where Peter sees "a man from the other side", Peter realizes that he is not from the prime universe. Walter is saddened by Peter's anger and he tries to apologize, but Peter won't forgive him. (Season 2 Episode 19 "[[fringe:Brown Betty|Brown Betty]]")

In "[[fringe:An Enemy of Fate|An Enemy of Fate]]" (Season 5 Episode 13), there is a very emotional scene in which Walter says his goodbye to Peter.

 

 

== Emotions and conscience ==

The Observers are able to predict future events, and they are able to [[wikipedia:time travel|travel in time]] and across universes without difficulty because of their advanced technology. In "[[wikipedia:The End of All Things|The End of All Things]]" (Season 4 Episode 14), it is revealed that the group of Observers seen in the first four seasons are a team of scientists from the far future, or at least from one of humanity's many possible futures. This group of Observers traveled to their past to observe the events that led to their creation.

 

 

 

 

 

The episode "[[wikipedia:Letters of Transit|Letters of Transit]]" ([[fringe:Letters of Transit|Season 4 Episode 19]]) reveals that by the year 2609, the Observers had wreaked environmental havoc on the Earth - to the point that they decided to simply travel back in time to the early 21st century and colonize the planet before the environmental destruction occurred. In the year 2015, the Observers invaded from the future, instituting "The Purge" and killing many humans. Although humans continued to resist well into the year 2036, the Observers largely succeeded in conquering the planet. The fifth season focuses on events in this future, where the Observers, run by Captain Windmark, maintain control on the remaining humans through their own abilities and the assistance of human Loyalists. A rogue group of humans, the Resistance, fight against the Observers, and have come to learn much about the Observers' abilities, including that many extend from an implant in the back of their neck that expands their mental processing power at the cost of emotions. Due to coming from a much more polluted Earth from six centuries in the future, the unpolluted atmosphere of 21st century Earth is too "clean" for Observers to live in for prolonged periods of time (or perhaps, simply uncomfortable): thus after conquering present-day Earth, the Observers set up terraforming factories to increase the level of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere, which will cut short the life expectancy of regular humans by decades.