“Peter” is episode fifteen of season two of Fringe.
At the U.S. Army Research Headquarters in 1985, a younger Walter is speaking to three officers. He shows them a mobile telephone and explains they can be smaller. It doesn’t work. Not here, not yet. It’s digital, not analogue, and it will take 30 years to get up to speed. He didn’t invent it, though he wishes he had. The officers thought William Bell would be there; Walter says he’s in Europe. Walter is asked if it’s Russian technology and he says it’s quite American. But from an alternate universe, like theirs but more advanced in some areas. Walter is asked if he visited the universe and got it. He says it’s theoretically impossible to go there. He copied it.
Walter takes them to the roof where Dr Carla Warren is setting something up. Walter explains it’s a window that allows them to look into the neighbouring world. That’s why he’s asking for funding. The window shows the Empire State Building, where a zeppelin is docking.
The opening credits have an 80s feel to them.
In the previous episode, “Jacksonville”, Olivia, having got her ability back, realised that Peter was from the other world. Walter asked her to say nothing. He arrives at Olivia’s, because she wasn’t answering her phone or messages. Olivia needs time; she doesn’t know how to begin to work this out. Walter thinks he does. He needs to explain.
Olivia hasn’t told Broyles, but that doesn’t mean she won’t. Walter has brought the window and explains. He was a different man then, wanting to change the world. Then Peter became sick and none of that seemed to matter. The illness was genetic and Walter tried everything. There was no hope. Not on this side. But the other was more technologically advanced, and if that Peter was sick, his father would be equally motivated to find a cure. And he was.
In the past, Walter and Carla are watching the other Walter – Walter calls him Walternate – experimenting with a cure. The latest effort fails. Then Walter’s wife, Elizabeth, calls. He needs to come home.
Walter arrives and heads upstairs to see Peter. Peter is trying to flip his coin through his fingers. He wants Walter to have his lucky silver dollar if he dies. It’s okay; he’s not scared. Walter says he’ll be just fine. But Peter dies.
At the funeral, Nina Sharp joins Walter, Elizabeth and Carla. She tells him that William wanted to be there. It looks like Nina believes this but Walter does not.
Walter wakes his wife and takes her to Peter’s room where he has set up the window. The alternate Peter is in his bed. Walter wanted Elizabeth to know that there is somewhere where Peter will grow up to lead a proper life and be happy. They must take comfort in that and begin to move on.
Walter is watching Walternate in the lab, realising what the other is doing. However, Walternate is distracted as the Observer has arrived on the other side. The latest compound works, but Walternate doesn’t see the positive result because the Observer distracted him long enough.
This wasn’t deliberate on the Observer’s part; he made a mistake. A bad one, by the sounds of it. Walter knows that there’s a cure for alternate Peter; Walternate does not. So, Walter wants to cross between worlds and cure him. Something Carla believes is a very bad idea. And where Walter crossed did create the first weakness in the wall between the worlds.
Most of this episode takes place in the 80s, so many of the regulars don’t appear.