Throwback Thursday - Fringe - White Tulip

Throwback Thursday, a weekly article in which we look back at our favorite TV episodes from over the years.

Four years ago, around August, when Fringe just ended its second and the third was about to premiere season my sister begged me to start watching the show; she just finished season 1 and she had to discuss the twin tower cliffhanger with me. It took me some time, but by the time I caught up with Flashforward (which then I learned got cancelled) I craved for a new sci-fi show that could be as entertaining and so I decided to get into the show. And boy… Fringe delivered the whole package! It quickly became my favorite tv show of all time.

There were so many great stories, so many great characters and an outstanding creativity that overcame every obstacle that came in the writers way -such as budgets cuts or FOX executives trying to control the creative direction-.

There’s plenty of outstanding episodes on the show, so why did I choose “White Tulip”? It isn’t even my favorite episode (that is “Marionette” and “One Night in October” which are tied), but I feel like White Tulip became a key episode for the relationship of both fans and writers, and also it is the episode that proved that Fringe could be great not only with its mythology heavy episodes, but also with its cases of the week ones.

In theory, the case of the week never happened, but the repercussions were there and even the slightly changes while time traveling proved to have enormous ramifications.
We start off on a train station, a teenage boy is asking for spare change, and then suddenly a man appears out of nowhere on a train cabin, while everyone around him dies. He gets off the train, the teenage boy gets on the train and he sees everyone is dead.

Fringe always made very good first impressions on every single one of its episodes, with outstanding music and creepy visuals that made for very well executed horror sequences; White Tulip is not nearly as creepy as some other Fringe’s episode and it doesn’t have exactly the best start, but it is already effective in the way the music plays out and on how our villain of the week seems affected by what has happened.

Then we go back into our main story: Walter is struggling with the fact that he has to tell Peter that he stole him from an alternate universe, and as he can’t say it with words, he writes a letter in an attempt to make it easier for him to tell him. John Noble’s performance is emmy worthy through this whole episode as he plays a conflicted and saddened Walter perfectly.

As the episode progresses and our team of heroes investigate what went on they learn that a man named Alistair Peck (played by Petter Weller), an astrophysicist at MIT is responsible for what happened on the train, but before they can apprehend him he travels back in time, back to the night before on the train, and this time as he gets off the train and the teeneger is about to board it, he tells him “I’m sorry you have to go through this again.”

The first time I watched I was marveled because I had no idea how our heroes would solve this case considering they can’t remember anything after the jump; at first I believed that Olivia’s powers would come into play in order to solve this problem, but I was incredibly wrong, and boy, I’m happy I was, because otherwise this episode wouldn’t have been as outstanding.

One of the things I found most fascinating at the time was how a simple change like Alistair talking to the teenage boy and skipping the coffee shop he went to afterwards, made so many modifications this time around. Instead of going to said coffee shop to question a waitress about Alistair the FBI gets Peck’s address and they go there, Walter finds Peck’s astrophysics degree instead of Peter, and those subtle changes lead to a completely new scenario than the one they were before the time jump.

After some investigation the team discovers that Peck lost his fiancee back on May 18th and that he is trying to travel 10 months back in time in order to save her, but doing so requires an enormous amount of energy and so lives will be lost every time he jumps in time.

One of the highlights of the episode comes when Walter asks Olivia to let him talk to Peck and he goes to his lab to discuss what he is doing: Walter disconnect the plug he carries and tells him about the time he stole Peter from another universe and how he started to believe God was punishing him for what he did.

Science vs Faith becomes a major theme on Fringe from here onwards, and it is incredibly poignant to see how afflicted Walter is, and as he explains that he asked God for a sign of forgiveness, a White Tulip, Peck replies saying that God is in science. Walter insists that if he goes back in time to save his fiancee he would not be able to look at her without knowing the damage he caused to the universe, the same way he can’t look at Peter without knowing the devastation he caused.

But Peck can’t just leave her there, so he jumps back in time just as the FBI runs into the room to take down Peck. Once again he jumps to the train, but this time he knows what to do in order to jump back to May 18th, and he fixes the equation to do that.

Peck lands on an empty field, draining the life of every plant nearby and in an amazingly executed scene, with no words, Peck runs and get to the car where his fiancee would be hit, and he just stays there with her: he doesn’t save her, he dies right there with her, at her side. Peck understood that he couldn’t save her, he understood what Walter said, so instead he chose to see her one last time and die at her side. It’s a perfectly executed scene that really gets to you, I honestly teared up as I saw it.

But that’s not all; before jumping for one last time, Peck prepared an envelope, a letter meant to be sent 10 months from the accident to Walter. At that moment Walter decides to burn the letter that he himself wrote to Peter as he is not ready to tell him, and seconds later he gets mail, and among them a letter from an unknown sender. He opens it, and there is the drawing of a White Tulip.

To this day I consider that moment one of the most emotionally affecting scenes on television: we know Alistair Peck sent that white tulip, but Walter has no idea; for him it is a sign of God’s forgiveness, and we wonder: is it? Maybe God set it all up so Walter could get that White Tulip from Peck, maybe it was Peck and as he said “Science is God”, but we can’t know for sure. We are only left with John Noble’s tears as he feels a burden has been lifted and and the episode cuts to black as we grasp what just happened.

“White Tulip” is an amazing hour of television: even though the case of the week ends up never happening Walter had an impact on Peck’s choices and he in return also made a huge impact on Walter by sending him that white tulip; lives were changed forever and without our main characters ever knowing it.

It is kind of a scary thought, how much we can change things and how even little choices can change the course of events, but at the same time it is kind of beautiful to think how much freedom we have to affect the outcome of things to come, and how much of an impact we can have in other people’s lives without them even knowing.

That’s why “White Tulip” is so especial; without ever happening in the main timeline, a gift of forgiveness was sent, and that would carry on for the rest of the series as a symbol of hope, the very same one fans held on comic con 2013 for the last Fringe panel, and the same one Peter would get on the series finale as Walter went on to live in the future.

It is just incredibly beautiful, and one of the proof’s as to why Fringe was one of the most important sci-fi shows of the past and current decade: the sci-fi on it wasn’t just a decoration for the show, it was used as a way to present very human themes and to show us that, in midst of the despair and world destruction that we see among us, there is always hope.

Grade: A

Stray Observations:

-Oh, the blue intro… I forgot how much I missed it; after season 4 we never saw it again, so nostalgia hit me pretty hard when I saw it.

-Peter: “Did you notice anything weird?”
Olivia: “Not yet, but give me 10 minutes.”

-FBI Officer to Walter: “Sir, what are you doing?”
Walter: “Checking their underwear.”
The Walterisms never get old.

-Walter: “Take samples of this man’s lung, brain, and skin: something’s not right here.”
Astrid: “Yep, I think it’s my paycheck.”

-No Gene the cow spotted on the episode, that’s a shame.

-”White Tulip” may not be my favorite episode, but it is on my top 5, which would be as follows:
1: “One Night in October” / “Marionette”
3: “White Tulip”.
4: “An Enemy of Fate” (series finale)
5: “The End of All Things”

-Fringe stands as my favorite tv show ever (with Pushing Daisies coming at a solid 2nd) and it is just really hard to imagine a show ever reaching its heights. The 100 is certainly coming closer and closer with each episode, but it still has miles to go before being on par with Fringe’s level in my opinion.

About the Author - Pablo

I'm currently studying Psychology while also writing fantasy books (one already published in my home country, Chile, you can check it out on the facebook icon). I watch many different types of shows, including my favorites Revenge, Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time and about 23 more. Currently writing reviews for Once Upon a Time, The 100, Community and Marry Me

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