WRITER: J.H Wyman & Jeff Vlamin[SPOILERS] The best episodes of Fringe splice a compelling sci-fi idea to relatable human emotions; a balance the show doesn't always succeed at. But that's why the recent "Peter" was so memorable, with its focus on Walter's (John Noble) grief and guilt over his son's origins bolstering a simplistic, pulp sci-fi storyline. It's also why so much of Olivia (Anna Torv) and Peter's (Joshua Jackson) storylines never seem to ignite. Olivia hasn't had a believable connection to anyone since her fiance died in season 1 (recently she's just been taking advice from a bowling alley mystic), and Peter's main function on the show is to interpret Walter's technobabble and spew snarky rejoinders. But "White Tulip" got everything just right, with a clever and stirring hour of entertainment that ranks as one of my favourite Fringe's...
DIRECTOR: Jeffrey G. Hunt
GUEST CAST: Peter Weller, Richard Harmon, Andrew McIlroy, Kristen Ross & Laara Sadiq
This week, Fringe Division are investigating the simultaneous deaths of a train carriage full of commuters, who appear to have just collectively died. Walter, who has spent the morning writing a letter for Peter to explain why he stole him from another dimension (yeah, that chestnut), hypothesizes that something drained everyone's biological energy -- along with all electrical appliances in the vicinity. That "something" may be a mysterious man seen alighting the train on a security camera: Dr. Alistair Peck (Peter Weller), a genius science lecturer at MIT who's wife Arlette (Kristen Ross) died in a car crash almost a year ago. That tragedy elicited such grief in Peck that he's spent every day since perfecting his theories on time-travel and has constructed a device that requires he surgically implant a "Faraday mesh" beneath his skin, that so far has allowed him to jump back in time by a few hours.Time-travel is one of the most obvious and exciting areas of fringe science the show was still to tackle, and "White Tulip" was certainly worth the wait two year wait. I particularly enjoyed how the method of travel stayed true to the show's love of gross "body horror" (with Peck tearing his flesh to insert steel rods and bolts), and there was added geek-friendly fun in seeing RoboCop star Peter Weller once again merged with metal.
But above all, the parallels between Peck and Walter -- as men who have pushed the frontiers of science and bent the laws of nature for the love of their family -- was potent and convincing. The scene where Walter had a chance to sit down with Peck and implore him not to risk the death of innocent bystanders by leaping back in time 10-months and changing the timeline, was brilliantly played by Noble and Weller. Plus we learned that Walt's come to believe his insanity was God's way of punishing him from for tearing a whole through reality to steal someone else's son to replace his own dead child, and has been waiting for a sign of divine forgiveness in the form of the titular white tulip.
For an episode that risked becoming a fun but cheesy Groundhod Day-style adventure (the investigation of Peck was replayed after he jumped back in time to avoid capture), it actually gave us something less gimmicky and more human. The thrilling final moments, with Peck deciding to ignore Walt's warnings and jump back in time to (we assumed) rescue his wife also cleverly avoided expectations. Instead of pulling her from the car before it was hit by a struck, Peck instead just sat in the passenger seat with her, told her he loved her one last time, and accepted death alongside her. A moment that cleverly avoided Walt's concerns that letting Arlette live would change the course of history in unpredictable ways (although I guess you could argue that his own death did that instead.)
Even better was the beautiful closing moment, where Peck had sent a letter addressed to Walt, to be delivered at a set time, containing a drawing of a white tulip -- a sign from "God" that Walt will never fathom because, for him, history was changed and he's never had a conversation with anyone about his white tulip. It'll be interesting to see if Walt takes this as a sign that God's forgiven him and the need to tell Peter the truth isn't necessary."White Tulip" was a season and series highlight, no doubt about it. Blessed with a tender and compelling performance from Peter Weller as a widowed genius, more great scenes for John Noble, the reliable fun of time-travel as a concept, a storyline that was slickly told with neat pay-offs, and all imbued with simple human emotions of grief and obsession. Proof, if it were needed, that Fringe needs to start finding similar ways to make its sci-fi larks matter to characters on an emotional level, because episodes like this are all too rare gems.
Asides
- To be picky, it bugs me when a fictional time machine has the ancillary ability to teleport its subjects. Peck shouldn't have been jumping to trains and fields, he should have just remained wherever he stood when he activated that Faraday mesh. Everyone knows that. Of course, to get even nitpickier, any earthbound time-travel machine would actually have to be a teleporter, because the planet's constantly moving through space.
- Walter is a man who created the world's first teleporter and a portal to another dimensions decades ago, so would he really have such a hard time deciphering Peck's equations on time-travel?
- Astro. So Walter's back to mispronouncing Astrid's name again?
- Please God, give Lance Reddick something to do. Anything. Every week he basically has the role of delivering crime scene exposition, which is far beneath him. He's essentially the local Sheriff type in X Files episode, made a regular. I guess Reddick's happy and well-paid playing Broyles on network TV, but the role's such a bore.
- You may recognize the teenager at the train station as Heracles from Caprica (actor Richard Harmon), who funnily enough was an actor I spent some time trying to find the name of, and now he's appearing in everything!
