2x18 White Tulip

[wendelah1]

Nearly all the way to its powerful conclusion, "White Tulip" looks like nothing more than Fringe's obligatory scifi time travel episode. It had been years since I'd seen it, so I'd honestly forgotten the ending. I didn't see it coming the first time around. I was surprised and moved by it this time as well. But it's much more than the sum of its mostly familiar story elements.

The highlight of the episode before the big reveal is the conversation between Walter Bishop and Alister Peck. Walter does his best to talk Peck out of going back in time to try to save his fiancé. "You'll never be able to live with the consequences," Walter pleads.

But of course, despite what he says to Walter, Peck has no intention of living with the consequences. He's going back so he can tell Arlette that he loves her. He'd rather die at her side than live on without her. Deep down, he knows he didn't cause her untimely death--he merely escaped the same fate.

Even though he doesn't want Peck to time-jump, Walter frees Peck to end his life by telling him where his equations went wrong. Peck's last act before he makes his fatal time-jump is to try to give Walter what he asked for: the white tulip as a sign of forgiveness from God. Even if you don't believe as I do that God is working through Peck as he creates that drawing, his act is one of redemption and grace.


Writer: J.H. Wyman and Jeff Vlaming
Director: Tom Yatsko
Originally aired: 15 Apr 2010

Synopsis: Fringe is called to investigate the strange deaths of a carload of passengers aboard a commuter train. The passengers appear to have died simultaneously, as though a switch was flipped and their energy was drained. Meanwhile, Peter worries about Walter, who is struggling to keep his terrible secret.

Most Memorable Quote:
WALTER: Until I took my son from the other side, I had never believed in God. But it occurred to me... that my actions had betrayed him and that everything that had happened to me since was God punishing me. So now I'm looking for a sign of forgiveness. I've asked God for a sign of forgiveness. A specific one, a white tulip.
ALISTAIR PECK: Tulips don't bloom this time of year -- white or otherwise.
WALTER: But he's God. And if God can forgive me for my acts then maybe... it's in the realm of possibility that my son, possibly, may be able to forgive me too.

Links:
Transcript
IGN
A.V. Club
Sarah Stegall

Fanfiction:
With an episode this powerful, surely there must be fic? Share it in the comments, please.

Comments

[estella_c]

It is a very powerful episode, and just down the trail to my soul as I adore time travel. Games with time. Hard-wiring a metal body suit to jump back to where you had another chance.

Also, I really admire Peter Weller. Such a hunk he used to be, as in Married to the Mob.

But I evade. This is extremely moving, though perhaps most to a Christian. Which I am. But even if Walter simply imagines the forgiveness of the God he didn't believe in before, it will certainly help him to survive the future and live with the past. (Or vice versa.)

The scene between Walter and Peck is exquisite, and the white tulip is...whatever it is for him. A validation of a deal he made with God. (Never a good idea.) Or a vital vote of understanding from a fellow scientist, who listened to his story and understood his need. God may be in there somewhere.

I think this is my favorite episode. Which would mean more if I remembered them all.

[corwinofamber]

White Tulip might be my favorite episode of the series. It takes a well worn scifi cliche, tells it well and turns it into a story about forgiving yourself.

John Noble and Peter Weller gave an excellent performance in their conversation in the lab.

It occurred to me that Walter lied when he said it would take him twenty years to figure out what Peck was doing. Two time resets later, and he was telling Peck what he did wrong. So Walter was indirectly responsible for the death of thousands of blades of grass.

This episode also added the White Tulip motif to Fringe's lexicon of symbols, and it reappears at least twice that I'm aware of. So look out moving forward.

[casually_cruel]

I like this episode for the interactions between Oliva/Walter/Peter it provides.

The one thing I've never figured out was what the writers were trying to say by having Peck send the white tulip. Was that supposed to a sign that we are our own God? Or an answering of Walter's prayer? The show's relationship to the divine is a tricky one and I think this episode captures that well. I can't tell if it's irreverent or subtly faithful. Is it possible to be both?

Or maybe they were laying out their views in Peck's line about science:

Walter, God is science. God is polio and flu vaccines and M.R.I. machines, and artificial hearts. If you are a man of science, then that's the only faith we need.

Somehow I doubt it's that straightforward. Either way, Peck sending that white tulip is one of moments that has struck me most in all of Fringe. It's kind and selfless yet also arrogant, and I'll never quite know what to make of it.

Stepping away from the heavy stuff, I just have to say, SEPSIS! Peck would almost certainly have a full blown sepsis what with the wildly un-sterile self-surgery and open wounds he's sporting. Derm stuff is one of the few things that gets to me, and the scene where he inserts the whatever-it-is into his chest always makes my insides turn. It's about the only Fringe episode that manages to do that, so congrats White Tulip!