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

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.

game of thrones - Is Syrio Forel dead?

In the episode 'The Pointy End' (Season 1 Episode 8) when Arya runs from the Lannister guards you hear the sound of a sword being dropped (around 4:56): [embedded content] After that neither Syrio or Ser Meryn Trant is never mentioned or seen in the show again, except when Arya mentions to the Hound that Ser Meryn Trant killed Syrio. Is there any mention in the books that Syrio actually dies?

tolkiens legendarium - Difference between elves and dwarves blacksmithing in the Lord of the Rings

Both the elves and the dwarves were famous for their metal work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what is the difference between what they made, and which one had the better skill of making amours and swords? Answer James Christopher's answer sums up the second part of your question well, but as to the difference in what they made, a little more detail is needed. Once the Elves learned to forge with steel, the shape of the sword changed, now being able to take on the form of a great broadsword or a light and agile curved sword. Additionally, they took great pride in decorating their swords. As we see in the Lord of the Rings , some swords like Sting had magical properties such as glowing blue when orcs are near. As far as the use of Mithril, lotr.wikia has two contradictory passages: Thus, Elven blades became renowned as great weapons, capable of performing deeds beyond the skill of their handlers and were even more glorious when the use of Mithril was allowed to the Elves. ...

How do Pokemon trainers collect their winnings?

According to Bulbapedia , Prize money is the money that a Trainer pays out at the end of a battle. So we know that the money comes directly from the trainer that just lost, and not some third-party committee or sponsor. But how is this done? It can be easy seeing the random trainers who challenge you along the way wanting to wager and then, after admitting defeat, sticking to their word and handing over their hard-earned pokebucks. Then there are the likes of Team Rocket and Giovanni, who also give money once they lose. This doesn't seem like something people in a criminal organization would willingly do. From this it appears that trainers have no say in whether or not they cough up the dough after losing, but I can't find anything on how exactly the funds are transferred from loser to winner. So how do Pokemon trainers receive their winnings?