This episode sets up the whole of Season 4 - Long before there was a Season 4. That just shows how well thought out the story of Fringe has been: It was mapped out to the last detail from before the Pilot Ep.
Each Season of Fringe was a step deeper into madness, and this is a dire preview of things to come.
A homeless teenager is panhandling outside of a Train station. He passes RoboCop's Peter Weller as he gets on a train car: The lights are all out, and everyone in the car is dead! He's trapped with them.
Walter in the meantime, is poring over a painful letter to Peter, he still does not know how to tell Peter he had been brought over from the other side. He is distracted by a phone call from Peter: Fringe Division is needed on a case involving Trains, and Peter knows how much Walter loves Trains.
When they get there, it is as if every person in the car, and every electronic gadget in the car, and every light and other electronic device has been drained of every micro-watt of electrical energy.
As the process continues, they identify Dr Alistair Peck (Weller) as leaving the car right after it had happened. They confront Peck, and he insists that the people are not really dead, or they will not be very soon. And he performs a magic trick where his head is tilting all over, and suddenly he's back in the train with the same people who are freshly-dead.
This process repeats itself at least two more times: Peck is a theoretical scientist who has figured out how to travel back in Time. But the price he has to pay is that all electrical energy is drained from everything at his arrival point: this includes people. Peck wants to achieve "The Arlette Principle" - He wants to return to the day his fiancé was killed in an accident, to right a wrong he caused: The same way Walter went to get Peter. This gives Peck and Walter a lot in common.
In each iteration of events, Fringe meets with Carol Bryce (Laara Sadiq from the X-Files episode "Leonard Betts") and she gives Walter a book of Peck's work.
Walter, who is familiar with Peck's work, knows why Peck cannot travel any further back than the Train Station: He needs to take into account an equation which involves numbers one magnitude greater than Peck was accounting for.
There is a memorable Meeting between Walter and Peck, Walter shuts off the FBI audio monitor and tells Peck two things: 1) He had crossed into another universe and had taken his Son's Doppleganger, and 2) He has been praying for Forgiveness to God, and is asking for one sign: A White Tulip. Walter then tells Peck how to get to the time he wants to get to.
Peck escapes once again, not going back to the Train Station but somewhere else, the whole process repeats, but with different circumstances, but Peck is still found and the FBI once again has him trapped. But now, Peck can go all the way back to achieve "The Arlette Principle" and he succeeds: Killing only a bunch of grass and possibly himself who was in the grassy area at that exact time (this is not shown, but it is inferred by the conversation between himself and Walter - He was there in that Grassy area at that time).
He is shown getting into the car with Arlette and an oncoming truck kills them both.
One Year after the crash, Carol Bryce mails a letter Peck left for Walter.
Walter is again back in his study, writing the letter and this time finishing it. He throws the letter away - And right then, he gets his mail, included is a letter from Peck, which is a picture of a White Tulip.
I mapped out an entire spoiler here, as a deconstruction: This was one of the best Television Episodes ever written, deserving of a Hugo Award for Dramatic Presentation. God Love Walter Bishop!
Edit: I have to note, the first time Walter gets on the train, he starts checking people for "leaks", and he is challenged by an FBI agent who looks, speaks and acts remarkable like a young version of Majel Barret-Roddenberry, the exchange between that Actress and Walter is amusing.
Each Season of Fringe was a step deeper into madness, and this is a dire preview of things to come.
A homeless teenager is panhandling outside of a Train station. He passes RoboCop's Peter Weller as he gets on a train car: The lights are all out, and everyone in the car is dead! He's trapped with them.
Walter in the meantime, is poring over a painful letter to Peter, he still does not know how to tell Peter he had been brought over from the other side. He is distracted by a phone call from Peter: Fringe Division is needed on a case involving Trains, and Peter knows how much Walter loves Trains.
When they get there, it is as if every person in the car, and every electronic gadget in the car, and every light and other electronic device has been drained of every micro-watt of electrical energy.
As the process continues, they identify Dr Alistair Peck (Weller) as leaving the car right after it had happened. They confront Peck, and he insists that the people are not really dead, or they will not be very soon. And he performs a magic trick where his head is tilting all over, and suddenly he's back in the train with the same people who are freshly-dead.
This process repeats itself at least two more times: Peck is a theoretical scientist who has figured out how to travel back in Time. But the price he has to pay is that all electrical energy is drained from everything at his arrival point: this includes people. Peck wants to achieve "The Arlette Principle" - He wants to return to the day his fiancé was killed in an accident, to right a wrong he caused: The same way Walter went to get Peter. This gives Peck and Walter a lot in common.
In each iteration of events, Fringe meets with Carol Bryce (Laara Sadiq from the X-Files episode "Leonard Betts") and she gives Walter a book of Peck's work.
Walter, who is familiar with Peck's work, knows why Peck cannot travel any further back than the Train Station: He needs to take into account an equation which involves numbers one magnitude greater than Peck was accounting for.
There is a memorable Meeting between Walter and Peck, Walter shuts off the FBI audio monitor and tells Peck two things: 1) He had crossed into another universe and had taken his Son's Doppleganger, and 2) He has been praying for Forgiveness to God, and is asking for one sign: A White Tulip. Walter then tells Peck how to get to the time he wants to get to.
Peck escapes once again, not going back to the Train Station but somewhere else, the whole process repeats, but with different circumstances, but Peck is still found and the FBI once again has him trapped. But now, Peck can go all the way back to achieve "The Arlette Principle" and he succeeds: Killing only a bunch of grass and possibly himself who was in the grassy area at that exact time (this is not shown, but it is inferred by the conversation between himself and Walter - He was there in that Grassy area at that time).
He is shown getting into the car with Arlette and an oncoming truck kills them both.
One Year after the crash, Carol Bryce mails a letter Peck left for Walter.
Walter is again back in his study, writing the letter and this time finishing it. He throws the letter away - And right then, he gets his mail, included is a letter from Peck, which is a picture of a White Tulip.
I mapped out an entire spoiler here, as a deconstruction: This was one of the best Television Episodes ever written, deserving of a Hugo Award for Dramatic Presentation. God Love Walter Bishop!
Edit: I have to note, the first time Walter gets on the train, he starts checking people for "leaks", and he is challenged by an FBI agent who looks, speaks and acts remarkable like a young version of Majel Barret-Roddenberry, the exchange between that Actress and Walter is amusing.