What happened to Peter Bishop at end of Season 3 of Fringe?
June 16, 2011 4:22 AM Subscribe
I've read reviews and recaps but I still don't get what happened to Peter Bishop at end of the Fringe Season 3 finale episode The Day We Died. [Spoiler Warning]
I've been watching Fringe since the middle of Season 1. Everything makes sense to me in the episode The Day We Died up until the point where Peter uses the machine(s) to create a bridge between our side and the other side on our Liberty Island.
In the next scene The Observers are talking at the base of our Statue of Liberty. December says “You were right, they don’t remember Peter.” Another Observer says “How could they? He never existed. He served his purpose.”
Why does Peter never exist after creating the bridge? Is this something I'll have to wait until Season 4 to understand?
I've been watching Fringe since the middle of Season 1. Everything makes sense to me in the episode The Day We Died up until the point where Peter uses the machine(s) to create a bridge between our side and the other side on our Liberty Island.
In the next scene The Observers are talking at the base of our Statue of Liberty. December says “You were right, they don’t remember Peter.” Another Observer says “How could they? He never existed. He served his purpose.”
Why does Peter never exist after creating the bridge? Is this something I'll have to wait until Season 4 to understand?
Is this something I'll have to wait until Season 4 to understand?
Yes, that was the point. If you need more explanation the best we have is that [something] happened during all that time travel that made it so Peter was never born, or both Peters died, etc., such that the two universes were never at war and could meet on equal, peaceful terms in the scene at Liberty Island. We'll find out what that [something] is next year.
posted by gerryblog at 5:43 AM on June 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yes, that was the point. If you need more explanation the best we have is that [something] happened during all that time travel that made it so Peter was never born, or both Peters died, etc., such that the two universes were never at war and could meet on equal, peaceful terms in the scene at Liberty Island. We'll find out what that [something] is next year.
posted by gerryblog at 5:43 AM on June 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
I suppose a reasonable guess for that [something] would be that Peter just undid his own birth, and therefore Walter and Walternate just found each other through their own research, and not because Walter stole Walternate's son, and they merged worlds after that for some reason.
posted by Grither at 6:03 AM on June 16, 2011
posted by Grither at 6:03 AM on June 16, 2011
Everybody's confused. It's one hell of a cliffhanger. I can't wait to see how they sort it out. (I'm sure they won't get rid of Pacey for long....I hope...)
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 6:20 AM on June 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 6:20 AM on June 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
I agree: no one knows what happened to Peter yet, and we'll probably find out in season 4. My own harebrained theory (based only on the line “How could they? He never existed. He served his purpose.”) is that Peter wasn't really a person; rather, he was a sentient tool manufactured by the Observers in order to unite the two universes.
posted by hot soup girl at 7:04 AM on June 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by hot soup girl at 7:04 AM on June 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yes I am not at peace with the cliffhanger either. If Peter never existed then what is the reason for Walter and Walternate to be at war and at the same place and what brought them together to the same room? Everything would have to be re-written to account for what Peter did even though he wasnt there (basically they would have to find some kind of reasoning for saying that what was meant to be is meant to be and regardless of Peter being there or not the same thing would have happened and if that is the case why time travel?)
posted by The1andonly at 7:18 AM on June 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by The1andonly at 7:18 AM on June 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I hated that ending and it makes no sense. The entire show and premise of it would not exist were it not for Peter, for fuck's sake. Right, there would BE no interworld war, nothing.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:28 AM on June 16, 2011
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:28 AM on June 16, 2011
Best answer: I saw this recap on io9 that pointed to this tvline interview w/ show execs where they sort of explain that Peter changed history so he existed, but the war & colliding universes still happened, and there will be some sort of fringe-esque weird-eyed lance reddick consequences.
Man, their main story arc was all over the place this season, I wonder if there was some writer turmoil or turnover behind the scenes, or possibly some Fox pressure to squeeze in some of those 'freak of the week' episodes that made them throw out a bunch of stuff.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 7:52 AM on June 16, 2011
Man, their main story arc was all over the place this season, I wonder if there was some writer turmoil or turnover behind the scenes, or possibly some Fox pressure to squeeze in some of those 'freak of the week' episodes that made them throw out a bunch of stuff.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 7:52 AM on June 16, 2011
I only started watching Fringe this season, but didn't the Observers manipulate Peter and Walter's whole timeline to get to this point? Like Hot Soup Girl said, that was his whole purpose.
Maybe Future!Walter sending the machine back had something to do with it. We don't know HOW Peter got brought forward either. It's all very timey-wimey
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:23 PM on June 16, 2011
Maybe Future!Walter sending the machine back had something to do with it. We don't know HOW Peter got brought forward either. It's all very timey-wimey
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:23 PM on June 16, 2011
Best answer: Some showrunners have a thing where they like to intentionally write themselves into a real corner at the end of a season -- something that would seem to put the show in a real bind -- and then have fun thinking of ways to get themselves out of it when they come back again next year. As much as they like to proclaim that "the last episode has already been written" / "we know where this is going", with respect, that's often complete hooey.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:10 PM on June 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Rhomboid at 5:10 PM on June 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 4:39 AM on June 16, 2011 [2 favorites]