Skip to main content

time travel - How could Walter send Peter the letter in the last episode?


THIS QUESTION CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT VIEWED THE LAST EPISODE




In the last episode of Fringe, Peter finds a tape addressed to him, which was encased in amber. In this tape Walter says that if Peter is watching the tape, that means he probably got a weird letter from him and decided to go look for him the lab, thus finding such tape.

This tape was there since 2015, when Walter had already sent the letter and inoculated himself to go with Michael to the year 2167. But then something happened, and Walter had to amber the whole thing.
But this means that for the tape to have been recorded, the invasion must have taken place and Walter must have formulated his plan.


Fast forward to the end of the episode, once the timeline is reset, Peter gets said letter in 2015. However, unless I have misunderstood something, this is impossible.


From what I understand, the timeline goes something like this:



  1. Peter and Olivia in the park with Etta.

  2. Invasion of the Observers.

  3. Etta disappears.

  4. Walter elaborates a plan to prevent the invasion.

  5. Walter understands he will have to sacrifice himself and go with Michael to 2167.


  6. Walter records the tape and sends Peter the letter.

  7. Walter was going to the future, but instead encased it all in amber, and then stays like that for 20 years.

  8. All the events in Season 5 take place, ending with the timeline being reset.


Since resetting the timeline would modify things from point 2 onwards, how could Walter have sent Peter that letter? He could not have sent it (and recorded the tape) before the invasion took place.
Am I missing something or should we assume that the Walter in the future thought about this later and found someway to make the letter and the tape 'appear' in 2015 (in the reset timeline)?



Answer



I almost asked this same question, but I think I figured it out while trying to form the question. All it requires is good timing on the part of Walter.



  • The plan was being put together from 2013 through 2015, if I recall correctly.


  • The invasion (and the scenes with Etta in the park) happened in 2015, which is also when Walter ambered the lab and the team.

  • September said that he didn't know what Walter did with the card, which implies he knew Walter had it while they were working on the plan before 2015.

  • In the reset timeline, the card appeared to arrive on the day in 2015 when the invasion would have happened.

  • Given Walter and Donald planning to exchange places, I'm not sure how accurate this is - but Walter said that the paradox that would erase him would occur at the time of the invasion in 2015.

  • I believe earlier on in the season (but can't recall for sure) that someone said the invasion happened just when they were ready to enact the plan.


The intended timeline - and what apparently happened after the reset - was this:


In 2015, all (or, almost all) the pieces of the plan were together, and all they had to do was implement it. Walter knew this, and mailed the letter to Peter. A day or two later, Walter had vanished and Peter received the letter (seen in the last scene) and would later find the video.


Unfortunately, the invasion interrupted the last parts of the plan. Walter had sent the letter already at this point, so it was simply lost in the in post in the chaos during the invasion (This would explain why Peter didn't know about it, and Donald didn't know what happened to it). In a panic, the team quickly tries to get together the pieces to implement the plan, leading to them all being ambered and the events of Season 5.


There's a bit of fuzziness in that the plan had not been implemented by the time the Observers appeared in the invasion, so the paradox should have erased Walter before it was implemented, but he doesn't appear to have been entirely truthful about that anyway, given he was willing to trade places with Donald. It seems more likely the paradox would have occurred at a later point during the invasion when the plan was implemented - which would seem to resolve the inconsistency.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...