Fringe - "White Tulip" - OAD 4/15/10

Another fantastic episode. If there were any justice in the TV World, John Noble would have an Emmy after this season.

 

Good episode. But how did Walter go from "needing 20 years of assistance from great minds to absorb this information" to "hey, you need a 9th order polynomial instead"?

 

Really great episode. I also love it when Peter Weller shows up in something. I remember him being a terrific villain in "24" a couple seasons ago.

So I'm sure I must have missed something... what was the significance of the drawing (I think it was of a tulip?) at the end?

Oh, and I thought for sure that in one of the "re-jumps" back in time, that Peter was going to end up with that letter that Walter kept dropping on the train car. Kind of a red herring there.

 

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I think I dozed off because I didn't get it either and was too sleepy to rewind.
I'll watch it again tonight.
Great to see Buckaroo Banzai back in action- should have named the wife Penny. Or have Walter tell him "May I pass along my congratulations for your great interdimensional breakthrough. I am sure, in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined."

Sorry- I just love Buckaroo Banzai!!

 

Walter told Peter Weller's character he was looking for a sign that he should tell (Walter's son) Peter that he saved him and took him from the alternate universe. Walter decided that it should be something like a white tulip because they were exceptionally rare that time of year. The drawing was Peter Weller's way of sending Walter that sign.

So, there was a HUGE time paradox they never really resolved in this episode. Peter Weller's character goes back in time to save his wife (really to die with her), but isn't there still a Peter Weller looking at the balloon when the car crash happens? Was the past Peter Weller in the field when the Future Peter Weller came back, and as a result died? I'm guessing that's how they figured it. Otherwise there's still a Peter Weller running around still grief-stricken and legally dead.

 

Or have Walter tell him "Remember, wherever you time travel, there you are."

 

Peter Weller, referring to the people that die in the vicinity of where he jumps, said at one point they're not dead forever since "the slate is wiped clean" next time he jumps. Which implied, to me at least, that there's not multiple time lines, only one, and he'd learned to jump back and forth (well, at least back) on that one.

 

Exactly. I thought the same thing-unless we're to assume he took over his body when he jumped back-and there was only one of him existing in the timeline at the same time. Other than that a great episode-especially considering Walter got the picture of the flower without him telling anyone-to him it was a sign from God.

 

I loved the effect when the field turned brown when he traveled back by the balloon.

What was up with all the surgical implants? What were those things?

 

Walter made mention of what he had done in the scene where they first meet, and no, i can't remember the words, but they did note it.

Diane

 

They were referencing a Faraday shield, to protect his own cells from otherwise suffering the same effects as the plant life or people we saw.

 

Yeah, it looked like it was going to be yet another Groundhog Day episode (it seems almost mandatory for any genre show to have one), so I was pleasantly surprised when they did something much smarter and more interesting. And more touching...I didn't see the white tulip coming at the end, but how perfect was that?

What's interesting is, he went through all that just so he could make up with her and die with her. I wonder if that was his original plan, or if he changed his mind about saving her after he talked to Walter?

I saw an interview with Peter Weller. He said he's too busy working on his UCLA PhD in Renaissance Italian history to watch much television, but his wife is a big fan of Fringe and talked him into taking the role, and now he's a big fan as well.

 

Re: The White Tulip .. so he drew the white tulip in the present day and left it on the desk; then went 10 months back in time and was killed; so his present day desk likely would have been cleared out 10 months ago... so how did they get the letter that they had been holding for "almost a year"?

 

He left it to his contact at MIT- she held it for him until the date he specified he wanted it delivered to Walter. Remember when her assistant (or whoever) walked in as she was looking at it and said something akin to "Haven't seen you look at that in a long time!"

ETA:- Oh, I get what you are saying. Maybe he took it back with him and it was found on his person after the wreck?
Good question!

 

The white envelope with the post-it saying to deliver to Walter was inside brown envelope if I remember correctly.

The brown envelope was probably either left for his MIT contact (mailed maybe?) or on him when he died.

I thought that too. I think his original plan was to save his wife, but after talking to Walter he thought about if his fiance would be able to accept what he did to save her (assuming he still had all that crap inside his skin.) Either way chances were he wouldn't have a happy ending.

 

Yup - that is correct.

The question is when... *IF* he took it back in time with him, then that would make sense.... BUT *IF* he left it on the desk (which I believe he did) then it doesn't make sense, because by his going back in time and dieing the timeline where he left the envelope on the desk never existed so how could they have found the envelope?

 

Well, he had to have take it back with him. That is the only thing that remotely makes any sense.