Fringe 3.15 “Subject 13” Recap

Peter Bishop is standing over Reiden Lake with a small boulder tied to his waist. He picks it up and throws it at the ice; A slight crack. He picks it up again and throws it down harder. The ice breaks. Down he goes through the water. His ‘mother’runs after him to save him from the cold.

Peter Bishop wants to go home.

It was 1985 again in last night’s episode of Fringe, as the writers and creators of the show brought us a companion episode to season 2’s excellent foray into the past, ‘Peter.’We were shown some emotional heavy back-story, the initial and apparently forgotten interaction between our two favorite fringe division agents and what immediately followed Walter’s ‘˜kidnapping’of Peter. Pinpoint beginnings of events, which impact our fringe universe today.

‘I am not your son. You are not my mother,’Peter continues.

Insistent that he is not home, Peter is distressed and it’s slowly killing Elizabeth Bishop. She explains to Walter that they need to bring him home; she can’t keep watching him suffer through this. When he doesn’t trust her it makes trying to keep him alive and safe difficult.

In Jacksonville, Walter is with the cortexiphan children including our dear Olivia, subject number 13. He assures his wife that these children are the key to crossing over and with just a little more time, he should be able to return Peter back to where he belongs.

Olivia has unconsciously crossed over to the other universe. Her first time crossing over is triggered by her insufferable and abusive stepdad. Terrified of being hit, she momentarily crosses over to a field before being pulled back to our world and an awaiting fist.

Moments later, while driving in the car, Peter sees a field of white tulips. They don’t usually grow here, Elizabeth says. A professor missed them and invented it. ‘He used his brain and his imagination to turn the world into what he wanted it to be.’

What would Peter wish his world to be his ‘mother’asks…He’d go home.

Attempting to foster their relationship, Elizabeth allows Peter to pick a toy at the store. He looks over a board game, a Rubik’s cube, and joust but finally settles on a toy plane. He gives his ‘mother’a faint smile and it appears he is slightly coming around.

After leaving the toy store, she brings Peter to see Walter at work. He catches the eye of the beguiling Olivia Dunham who Elizabeth hears from Walter has crossed over. Elated with the news of this possible step forward in being able to return Peter to his home, Elizabeth hugs Walter.

Realizing that an intense emotional state is needed to trigger her ability to cross over, Dr. Walter puts Olivia through a series of tests. Joy, exhilaration, anger…none of these emotions cause any sort of reaction.

Walter finds ‘it is the unique combination of love and terror which stimulates her cortical reaction’and scares her with a practical joke of a dead boy on the floor. Olivia burns out the room.

(continued on the next page)