Here is something I’ve been thinking about lately, who will be first to recognize Peter in the new season of Fringe? It’s a decent follow up to my last post when I asked if we would see Peter at all in the first episode. I’ve come down on the side that it will be Sam Weiss. The twist is no one we believe him! As the blackboard (decoded) said, “Don’t trust Sam Weiss!” We recently got an additional reply from Hemo_jr that said Olivia will see Peter (once he returns) as an enemy from the other side as he will “shimmer”. It’s a nice catch that I had completely forgotten about. It may even lead to his “re-discovery'”.
So, in the next season of Fringe who will recognize Peter first for the person he is? Olivia, Walter, Sam, Astrid, Broyles, his Mother???!!!
Sound off!
Good question, Dave! I’m still working on the idea that the Peter that ceased to exist is the blueverse Peter and that the blueverse Peter died as a boy. As such, I don’t think that Olivia, Sam (maybe), Astrid, Broyles or Nina will recognize him.
However, Walter and Elizabeth would. Again, I’m working off the assumption that if Peter died, Elizabeth did not commit suicide. I believe she committed suicide due to the guilt she had over their theft of the redverse Peter and their subsequent cover up.
With those thoughts, I think it would be cool if Elizabeth were alive in the blueverse, and she spotted him one day as she was out doing errands or something like that.
@mardarrell, Welcome newcomer! OK, I’m putting you down as Elizabeth being the first! You’re saying the blueverse Elizabeth will recognize the redverse Peter right?
Thanks for the welcome, InterdimensionalDave. I didn’t realize I was a newcomer to my own website. (This is Darrell) 🙂
AS I have been wrong on everything Fringe since its inception (except for the fauxlivia pregnancy). I will go out on a limb that redverse Peter is the one that died and blueverse Peter survived the virus.
Love this theory and hope it’s true. I would love to see Peter return to more of the badass guy he was in the pilot episode.
Normally I’d advise against encouraging Darrell. It just goes to his head. But it would fun to see Peter totally “BA” again and hopefully we get to see more of Orla Brady as Elizabeth Bishop!
This is a brain bending question. One which im sure many a Fringie has pondered over. I could pose an opposite view to mandrrells post though – i think the Peter in our universe was born and did exist ….and died when he was 7. So there are memories of him. So Walter & Elizabeth did have a son, one that they may recognise. However, i do think that the season 4 Walter wont recognise him as i suspect he will be an even ‘more’ damaged person than we have seen previously. So, this leaves Elizabeth…if she is still alive (and im assuming she is) that could possibly recognise an adult Peter.
I do believe that it was the Over There Peter that ceased to exist….so he disappeared from the red verse time line….so the AltVerse characters wont recognise him. He was never there….but thats just my opinion.
I do feel that it will be Sam Weiss who will recognise Peter…or at least identify him. Sam is First People stock…..and i do believe that Peter is as well.
Just a thought that has occured to me…..Nina has the First People books. What if she has read them or reads them…..and something about Peter is in there. I dont mean that it will directy name Peter but there may be some reference to a happening etc..that she may be able to make connections to. It could be Nina who identifies Peter.
Sorry for the ramblings……i am one confused Fringie
**As a footnote to these ramblings…i did ask Joel Wyman (via Twitter) if it was only Peter from the redverse that ceased to exist
and that there was still a memory of Peter in our universe. All he said was…and i quote exactly “Thats a good question Lyn. You WILL understand all. You will get answers for sure.”…..i did laugh! It wasnt helpful at all. But hey…he was never going to give any info away!!!
Totally mark me down in the camp that Peter did exist but died as a boy from his childhood illness in both universes. Walter still went over to get him but failed in the altered timeline. Perhaps there was Observer intervention that prevented Walter from succeeding. Such a scenario would also set up Walter as a very bitter and damaged character.
Olivia with her ‘shimmer vision’ is a great catch to seeing Peter first but relies on assuming that wherever Peter shows up is in our universe. Since he disappeared in the Universe Bride room the chances are 50/50 as to which universe he will end up in. Given his true universe is the red one, there may be a greater probability he shows up there.
As to who will recognize Peter first – it really has to be Olivia, does it not?
As to who finds him first I would like it to be Astrid, teamed up with Lincoln.
Somehow the Observers are going to have intervene. They will probably contact Walter.
~~~
Possible scene:
Walter was lost in thought as he contemplated the case file in front of him on the lab bench, chewing absently on a Red Vine. Gradually he felt a presence at his back and turned around.
It was an Observer! The very one who had prevented him from saving Peter went Walter had gone to the other side.
‘You! What are you doing here?’
Walter recoiled slightly from the unwavering gaze.
The Observer regarded him silently for a moment, was there a hint of something else in his gaze Walter wondered, before speaking with that emotionless inflection.
‘You must find him.’
‘Find? Find who?’
‘The boy.’ The Observer handed Walter a legal sized envelope.
Walter tore it open to find a photograph a young man in his early 30s. Puzzled, he looked at the Observer, ‘I don’t understand. This is no boy.’
‘This is THE boy. He is important. Again. You must find him.’
Wild thoughts began to take shape in Walter’s mind as he studied the man in the photograph.
‘Surely, you don’t me..’ Walter’s question trailed off as he looked up.
The Observer was gone.
er that should be Universe Bridge Room
Another thought – since Peter has become unhooked from existence he may fluctuating between appearing in both universes – perhaps in relation to his mental/emotional state.
What will his mental condition be? Will Peter remember anything? Could he end up in a mental institution like Walter?
I tend to take the Observers literally and assume the context in which they say it can muddy its meaning to whatever the writer want. So if Peter never existed, he was never born — neither of them.
So only those who are not of the two universes will recognize Peter. That would be the Observers, whoever created and directs the Observers, or any splinter groups, rivals, or super sets there of (including aliens who don’t want Earthings to set in motion the destruction of the universe they inhabit, either).
Since Peter was never born, what happened/didn’t happen? My thoughts on this is that neither Elizabeth & Walter met. But it is possible that they met, married and simply were infertile. And that the only reason our Peter was born in a different timeline was the result of Observer intervention. They needed Peter, he was important.
So I don’t think anyone in the 6 photos above will recognize Peter. Sam Weiss, if he is still being used as an information conduit, does have an outside chance of possessing a drawing of Peter and recognizing him from that. But I think the mythology, if he does, will be completely different from that of the machine and the first people he expounded before.
How Peter is injected back into the narrative is what fascinates. He could simply appear mysteriously, without explanation and solving this mystery would be a theme of the season.
Or he could be captured in a Walter designed ghost-catcher or inter-dimensional being trap and nearly starve to death before Walter thinks to check.
Or his existence could be extrapolated by Walter from the utter improbability of the spontaneous generation of the bridge. Then Olivia could be given a shot of cortexiphan, put in the isolation chamber, seek him out and bring him back.
More likely, the writers will think up something utterly logical and incredibly cool as the mechanism to bring Peter back into the narrative.
If Peter is caught caught by the soul magnet, maybe Oliva will channel him until a body is found for him.
I think Walter will be the first to “see” Peter. Nobody will believe him, though, and he’ll end up back at St. Clare’s.
My basis for thinking this is flimsy, though: When Walter confronted Bell about removing parts of his brain, he lamented, “You robbed me of my memories of my wife, my son…”
So what if Bell never removed pieces of Walter’s brain in this time loop?
As for “existing,” that word is simple, reductive, shaped by cultural norms — to paraphrase Walter. We don’t know the context The Observers have for existing. Did they mean he never existed in physical form? Metaphysically? if you want to get all science-y, nothing we see reallllllly exists…
Another thought – could Peter returning to the Bridge Room he created have catastrophic consequences either to himself and/or both universes?
@ Art Pennington, Join the club, I’m not exactly batting 1000 when it comes to predictions. Blue-verse Peter surviving? That may mean a whole new timeline!
@runpaceyrun, I like your theory about Nina finding references to a “Peter” like person in the “First People” books. I have a feeling we may see this in the new season.
@Old Darth, OK, I am putting you down for Olivia. Lincoln’s role seems to be central early on because some of the promo pictures for season four show Hartford Police cruisers. That is where Blueverse FBI Lincoln is from. We’ll see how it plays out.
@Hemo_jr, I like your “Dreamcatcher” reference. I seem to remember an X-Files episode involving the same thing. So you think the Observers will re-introduce Peter to the Universe and I think they are trying to prevent him from coming back. If I was a betting man we’d have to set up a little wager!
@TrishCape Cod, It looks like Walter is on the fast track to return to St. Clare’s judging by all the spoilers and teases on the web. Bell may have another pretext for removing pieces of Walters brain. But I like your line of thinking. As for the literal meaning of “exist” regarding the Observers you could be on the right track there also. I don’t think we ever fully understood what their agenda is.
@Old Darth, How about this scenario, as there was no Peter but the machine still exists, he somehow manages to come back and volunteers to operate the machine to prove who he is. Where all others fail, he succeeds. The ramifications of this? All Hell breaks loose! (Or nothing bad happens and it just make coffee for everyone.)
Hey ID! Its OD! 😉
Yep, mark me down for Olivia. As for your scenario – all hell breaks loose sounds awesome but from a budget perspective, coffee maker seems more likely.
@mardarrell, Yes Darrell, I know it’s you. I couldn’t resist giving you a little tweak. You want to be treated like the rest of us Fan Boys and Girls right?
Lot’s of good stuff here! Being a mom I might be a little biased, but I think I like Darrell’s prediction.
Also, @TrishCape Cod took the words right out of my mouth. I think she is on the money with her thoughts about how to interpret the meaning of the word “existed” in this context.
Careful Gawbosawx, you start agreeing with Darrell and he usually wants a hug. I do agree that Trish is on to something. Those Observers are a clever bunch. Maybe Peter will be discovered in a Boston Massacre print from 1770.
Having read the question I would like to think that Sam has so much more to offer with revelations and the normal mystery man scenario, so if it’s going to be anyone it should be Sam, it will be interesting to see how it’s done, it should be gradual not straight away and definitely NOT the first episode in, otherwise it should be blue verse Walter, he loves Peter and wouldn’t sacrifice him willingly like walernate would, our Walter would know.
Duly noted and great minds think alike! I’d hate to see Sam’s character go away. Knowing the real Peter first would give Sam the distinction he deserves.
Someone elsewhere got me thinking about another scenario for Peter getting back. This one has the advantage of Peter being the actor and heroic, rather than being passive and acted upon. And it fits well into a Peter/Olivia as Odysseus/Penelope epic love story view.
When Peter tears the holes in each universe to create the bridge, he was essentially welding the two universes together. But we have seen that the laws of the multiverse require any single universe to be balanced out by the existence of another. That, after all, is what caused the blue universe spiral into destruction that we saw in 2026.
Here, instead of one universe being destroyed causing the destruction of another, maybe the act of creating a single universe from two results in the spawning of another.
So as the blue and red universes are joined, a duplicate of the newly joined universe appears. Peter and only Peter is sucked into this new universe — which is a duplicate of the original with one exception. It is uninhabited with the single exception of Peter. That he is the only one sucked into this new universe is a tragic result of creating the bridge that welded the old red and blue into a single universe.
As Peter gets sucked from the inhabited universe, his entire existence there is erased. He never existed.
From a dramatic PoV, this is powerful. It resonates Moses before the Promised Land — he leads his people there, but cannot enter. It is high tragedy, Peter has sacrificed his very existence to save the world and the woman he loves and then is cast out, alone into desperate isolation.
Now comes the Odysseus analogy. Like Odysseus after the Trojan War having to find and fight his way back to Penelope, Peter will need to find a way back, out of this desolate new universe and back to Olivia.
And, stretching the analogy far beyond the breaking point, it is the Olivia, Walter and the rest of the world who have eaten of the lotus and forgotten about Peter. Of course when Odysseus got back to Ithaca, all he had to do was string a bow, and make a trick shot. Peter has a lot more to overcome.
I think the machine will provide Peter a way to get back to his loved ones, but I am sure there will be complications. And the act of crossing universes may have dire consequences, as usual.
Hemo-jr, I love all references to Greek mythology. Instead of “stringing a bow”, I’ve suggested that Peter climb back into the Machine to prove who he is. That simple act may realign the universe(s) to where it was. Peter will re-exist again but hopefully with subtle differences like no more Olivia/Penelope love story. (Sorry!) Surely there will be much work to be done to repair the damage to each universe and that storyline should prove fruitful.
As far as “a lot to overcome”, my thinking is the Observers will oppose Peter’s re-crossing but he will remain undeterred. Perhaps they will have to strike a new bargain with him instead of Walter this time. Anything will be fine as long as Gene the Cow doesn’t play the role of Argos the dog of Odysseus.
I think the show will lose credibility if Walter, Olivia et al. just magically start remembering Peter after the whole “Peter doesn’t exist” season finale. If they do remember him, it will be after an involved and tortuous multi-episode arc, or a side-effect of a Walternate plot.
My preference is that there is no remembering of Peter from before, only new memories.
Another thought. If Olivia does not see Peter glimmer, there is a possible explanation. It might be the Fauxlivia is still infiltrated in the blue world and Olivia is still under the influence of false memories and thinks she is Fauxlivia.
After all it was visions of Peter and her love for him that broke Olivia out of the delusions wrought by the implanted, false memories. With Peter not existing, this may be one of the things that would have happened without him.
So when Olivia sees Peter in S4 and does not see his glimmer, it might be because she is really Fauxlivia. This also gives Peter a chance to redeem himself – to a certain extent. He should be able to tell the difference this go round.
I think it will be Olivia that recognizes him. I believe that even if she does see him as an enemy at first, the Cortexiphan will eventually cause her to remember him .
In the season finale, as Walter and Peter are discussing the machine and Peter’s ability to change the past, Walter states that Peter has the ability to make a different decision, but if it goes wrong, Olivia will be the fail safe.
However it is that the two are linked, Peter + Cortexiphan has always =’d the power to trigger her abilities, or to help her use her abilities, and I don’t think it will be any different in season 4.
Whether it’s Walter and Walternate that are running the show, or this turns out to be one huge Observer experiment gone wrong, until everything is course corrected, i think it will always come down to Peter and Olivia’s ability to ‘make a different decision’, so they will always have that link.