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Article by Rhea Dee
Rhea Dee is a Midwestern fat girl floating through space with a donut and an attitude. She's the co-host and co-creator of the podcast Badland Girls. 3 Comments
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This episode was beautifully gut-wrenching. I've been a fan of Joshua Jackson for years, and he just knocked it out of the park. Peter's usual mix of charm, steely determination, and passion gave way to a quiet vulnerability in the hospital scene. For that brief moment, we saw the boy from Walter's flashbacks* losing faith in his father all over again. I'm not at all surprised that he ran for the hills — it's what he does — but I very much doubt that the bond between Peter and Walter is severed completely. As he told Olivia recently, Team Fringe is the most family he's ever had. The four of them need each other, especially father and son.
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* By the way, that kid, Quinn Lord, looks a lot like Jackson at that age. It's a little scary how much.
I agree about Joshua Jackson. Always been a fan, but he was amazing in this episode.
I have to ask – am I the only one who doesn't understand why he reacted as harshly as he did? All this time, as Walter was fretting about Peter's response, I thought he was overreacting. After all, Peter only really knows this Universe. And it's not as if he was taken away from other parents he never got to know, just different versions of the same parents. Obviously, Walter lied to him – but where is the actual harm to HIM? In my view, Walter's had a more difficult time of it because he has to deal with the guilt of hurting another set of parents. I don't know…
But I am also glad that Olivia was left out of the revelation. Totally not her place.
While Peter's rejection of Walter was kind of harsh, I understand the emotions behind it. I think a big part of Peter's anger comes from the fact that Walter was largely absent from his childhood. Why bother stealing him away from the other universe at all if Walter was just going to ignore and abandon him and his mother? Especially since our Peter clearly blames Walter for creating a situation in which his (adoptive-ish) mother – who he was closer to – felt compelled to commit suicide.
Plus, the revelation of the lie stings more sharply now because Peter and Walter were just coming to a really good place in their relationship as adults. I knew as soon as he called Walter "Dad" without noticing it that the writers had something terrible in store for them.