Fringe (serie televisiva)

Fringe è una serie televisiva statunitense prodotta dal 2008 al 2013.

Fringe
Immagine dalla sigla della prima stagione della serie televisiva
Titolo originale	Fringe
Paese	Stati Uniti d'America
Anno
Formato	serie TV
Genere	fantascienza, distopico, azione
Stagioni	5
Episodi	100
Durata	50 min (st. 1) 45 min (st. 2-5)
Lingua originale	inglese
Rapporto	16:9
Crediti
Ideatore	J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman
Interpreti e personaggi
Anna Torv: Olivia Dunham Joshua Jackson: Peter Bishop John Noble: Walter Bishop Lance Reddick: Phillip Broyles Kirk Acevedo: Charlie Francis Blair Brown: Nina Sharp Jasika Nicole: Astrid Farnsworth Mark Valley: John Scott Seth Gabel: Lincoln Lee
Doppiatori e personaggi
Eleonora De Angelis: Olivia Dunham Fabrizio Manfredi: Peter Bishop Carlo Valli: Walter Bishop Simone Mori: Phillip Broyles Roberto Gammino: Charlie Francis Rita Savagnone: Nina Sharp Rossella Acerbo: Astrid Farnsworth Vittorio De Angelis: John Scott Gabriele Lopez: Lincoln Lee
Casa di produzione	Warner Bros. Television, Bad Robot Productions
Prima visione
Prima TV originale
Dal	9 settembre 2008
Al	18 gennaio 2013
Rete televisiva	Fox
Prima TV in italiano
Dal	31 gennaio 2009
Al	12 maggio 2013
Rete televisiva	Steel (ep. 1-94) Premium Action (ep. 95-100)

Ideata da J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman e Roberto Orci, è una serie di fantascienza che segue le vicende della divisione Fringe dell'FBI di Boston, in Massachusetts, e che opera sotto la supervisione del Dipartimento della Sicurezza Interna degli Stati Uniti. La squadra si occupa delle indagini legate alla cosiddetta scienza di confine, ovvero la fringe science. Per la trama e i temi trattati, la serie è stata spesso paragonata a X-Files.

La serie è stata trasmessa in prima visione negli Stati Uniti da Fox dal 9 settembre 2008. In Italia ha debuttato in prima visione a pagamento il 31 gennaio 2009, trasmessa dai canali di Mediaset Premium; in chiaro è in onda dal 9 marzo 2010, sui canali Mediaset.

Uno dei temi che accompagna la serie è il conflitto di coscienza di Walter Bishop, nella consapevolezza di scelte eticamente discutibili da lui compiuti durante la sua carriera di scienziato.

Il protagonista e il suo rapporto con Dio

Walter Bishop è un ricercatore eccentrico che si specializza nella scienza di confine (dall'inglese fringe science).

Era una delle menti scientifiche più brillanti della sua generazione con un Q.I. sopra al normale, con un punteggio di 196. Dagli anni '70 fino al 1991 circa, Walter, che teneva una cattedra di Biochimica a Harvard, ha condotto degli esperimenti nel seminterrato dell'edificio Kresge dell'università, insieme al collega di laboratorio William Bell ed i loro assistenti. Il campo degli esperimenti di questi due andava dalla fisica quantistica all'ingegneria genetica, lanciando Walter verso una collaborazione di natura sconosciuta con il governo degli Stati Uniti per avanzare i suoi progetti di ricerca più innovativi dal punto di vista scientifico, sebbene anche discutibili dal punto di vista etico, sotto la guida della scienza di confine (fringe science).

Ad un certo punto nei primi anni '80, Walter collaborò agli esperimenti condotti da William Bell su dei bambini utilizzando la droga "Cortexiphan". Questa droga era un ritrovato chimico composto da William Bell che, quando somministrato ai bambini, avrebbe permesso loro di ampliare le innate abilità psichiche. Tra le cavie c'erano Olivia Dunham e Nick Lane. (Stagione 1 Episodio 17 "Bad Dreams"). Quando Olivia lo viene a scoprire, affronta Walter sui suoi passati esperimenti scientifici moralmente discutibili, per i quali tuttavia egli esprime grande rimorso (Stagione 1 Episodio 19 "The Road Not Taken").

Un incidente avvenuto nel 1991 è risultato nella morte di almeno uno dei suoi assistenti, Carla Warren (Stagione 1 Episodio 12 "The No-Brainer"), scatenando una serie di accuse nei confronti di Walter di utilizzare esseri umani come cavie nei suoi esperimenti.

Accusato di omicidio, Walter fu invece ritenuto instabile mentalmente e fu ammesso all'Istituto Psichiatrico di Santa Chiara. Soltanto i familiari più stretti potevano venirlo a trovare, ma ci sono voluti 17 anni prima che suo figlio, Peter Bishop, si degnasse di rivolgergli la parola.

Dopo 17 anni rinchiuso nel manicomio, con effetti piuttosto negativi sul suo carattere, Walter fu infine reclutato dall'FBI per lavorare nel Reparto di Confine (Fringe Division) accanto ad Olivia Dunham e al proprio figlio Peter Bishop. Le circostanze nelle quali ciò avvenne furono dovute alla necessità che Olivia Dunham aveva della competenza scientifica di Walter per risolvere un caso; Olivia era ancora inconsapevole degli esperimenti condotti su di lei da Walter anni addietro. Lei non aveva però modo di raggiungerlo al manicomio se non attraverso il figlio Peter. Pertanto si mise in contatto con quest'ultimo, ma visto che era piuttosto riluttante ad aiutare, gli forzò la mano per aiutarla a raggiungere Walter.

Walter però dimostrava un comportamento piuttosto bizzarro, dovuto tra altre cose ai tanti anni di reclusione nel manicomio. Quando ad un certo punto viene fatta una risonanza magnetica al cervello di Walter, si scopre che c'è stato un intervento chirurgico sul suo cervello. Risultavano infatti tre incisioni sul lobo temporale sinistro. Praticamente Walter aveva fatto rimuovere un po' di tessuto dal suo ippocampo, col risultato di una minore consapevolezza spazio-temporale e la perdita di alcuni ricordi. L'intervento l'aveva fatto suo amico William Bell, per rimuovere da Walter il ricordo di come è riuscito ad aprire la porta all'altra dimensione. Dopo che Thomas Jerome Newton gli riconnette le porzioni di cervello asportate, Walter è sembrato più normale che mai. (Stagione 2 Episodio 10 "Grey Matters")

Walter porta con sé un grande tormento e numerosi segreti sul suo passato. In particolare tiene un grande segreto dal figlio Peter. Quando Walter fa visita a una tomba dove è inciso il nome di suo figlio Peter insieme all'anno di morte indicato come 1985, s'intuisce che Walter lo possa aver sostituito con un Peter proveniente da una realtà alternativa. Walter aveva costruito, negli anni delle sue ricerche con William Bell, un marchingegno che lui chiamò "disreazione", che poteva permettere alle persone di viaggiare nel tempo e nello spazio. Nello stesso anno, il 1985, Walter lo fece a pezzi e nascose le parti in diverse cassette di sicurezza di banche sparse per il paese.

Walter dichiara di essere stato ateo fino al momento in cui rubò il Peter dell'altro universo per prenderlo come proprio figlio. La notte dopo il crimine Walter si rese conto istintivamente di aver violato il dominio di Dio, e si convinse che la serie di disgrazie che seguirono furono una forma di punizione divina. Walter pertanto chiede un segno da parte di Dio per dimostrare di averlo perdonato per i suoi crimini, ed il segno che chiede è un tulipano bianco. Quando un altro scienziato gli fa notare che i tulipani non crescono di questo periodo dell'anno, Walter risponde "Ma Lui è Dio". E spiega che "Se Dio può perdonarmi, forse ci sarà una qualche possibilità che mio figlio possa perdonarmi pure" (Stagione 2 Episodio 17 "White Tulip") Sebbene l'atteggiamento di chiedere a Dio un segno materiale possa essere considerato devozionistico quasi al punto della superstizione, allo stesso tempo Dio stesso ha concesso qualche volta dei segni per rassicurare dei suoi interventi nella storia umana, si veda per esempio Is 7:10-14, il segno dato ad Acaz nella profezia della vergine che concepirà un figlio.

Lo scienziato con cui Walter stava parlando era un certo Alistair Peck, il quale stava studiando pure lui il viaggio nel tempo per cercare di impedire la morte della fidanzata Arlette Turling avvenuta in un incidente di macchina. Tuttavia i tentativi di Alistair di viaggiare nel tempo richiedevano una grande quantità di energia, e Walter cerca di dissuaderlo dal rischio di uccidere le centinaia di persone che si trovavano nell'area dove sarebbe apparso al suo arrivo nel tempo passato. Walter tenta di scoraggiarlo dal tentativo presentando il suo stesso iter che lo portò a credere in una potenza più alta, nella speranza di ricevere un segno di perdono nella forma di un tulipano bianco, per le sue azioni motivate in maniera simile a quelle di Peck, nell'aver rubato Peter dall'universo parallelo per salvarlo e tenerlo come figlio. Walter è convinto che se Dio lo perdonerà, anche Peter sarà capace di perdonarlo una volta appresa la verità della propria identità, e Walter aveva iniziato a scrivere una lettera indirizzata al proprio figlio per spiegargli il tutto quando venne interrotto per occuparsi del caso di Alistair Peck. L'atteggiamento di Walter in tutto questo è come quello del Re Davide che soffre il rimorso e chiede perdono a Dio dopo il grande peccato di aver fatto morire in battaglie Uria l'Ittita per poi prenderne la moglie Betsabea (Sal 51).

Sebbene Alistair stia contemplando di dargli ragione, il tempo però scade quando le forze armate cominciano ad entrare. Alistair fa il salto indietro nel tempo di qualche ora per riuscire a completare i calcoli modificati di energia richiesta basandosi sulle osservazioni di Walter al riguardo, e per preparare una lettera pre-indirizzata che si porta appresso. Poi quando le forze di polizia scoprono la sua posizione e entrano con la forze, Alistair riattiva la sua macchina del tempo, ed i calcoli risultano ora corretti perché si ritrova in un campo aperto nelle vicinanze del luogo dell'incidente appena qualche minuto prima della morte della fidanzata, abbastanza lontano dalla folla da evitare la morte di alcuno. Alistair riesce a raggiungere la fidanzata giusto in tempo per pronunciare un "ti amo" prima che vengono uccisi tutti e due nell'incidente.

Tornando al tempo presente, il timeline è cambiato con la morte di Alistair e gli eventi dell'episodio non sono più avvenuti, pertanto Walter ha ora più tempo per contemplare la lettera indirizzata a Peter perché non viene più interrotto per occuparsi del caso, e decide infine di gettarla nel camino. Più tardi, riceve una busta nella posta — quella che era stata preparata da Alistair e che quest'ultimo aveva destinato per la consegna a Walter in questa data specifica. All'interno, Walter trova un'immagine disegnata a mano di un tulipano bianco. In questo modo non soltanto Walter riceve il segno che aveva chiesto da Dio, ma si dimostra che Alistair ha ascoltato la sua parola e mostra segni di apertura verso un Dio che possa perdonare l'uomo per la propria malvagità. Si vedano le parole del profeta Ezechiele che invita alla correzione fraterna per salvare il malvagio in Ez 33,7-9, riprese poi da Gesù in Mt 18:15-17.

Nell'episodio Brave New World: Part 2 (Stagione 4 Episodio 22), Walter e Olivia vengono a sapere che Bell sta cercando una sorgente di energie per provocare il collasso dei due universi. Nina si rende conto che la stessa Olivia è quella sorgente di energia; l'adoperato di Jones nell'infettare le persone con i naniti e nel concentrare un raggio solare sopra un campo dove c'è un giacimento di olio che rischia così di incenerire la città, è volto a risvegliare i poteri di Olivia dovuti al Cortexiphan in modo da poterli utilizzare per provocare il collasso dei due universi. Olivia inizia ad emettere un'estrema energia elettromagnetica, che Nina riesce ad utilizzare per localizzare la nave di Bell. La squadra Fringe parte con degli elicotteri alla volta della nave di Bell mentre si stanno presentando i segni iniziali del collasso in tutto il mondo. Nel frattempo, a bordo la propria nave, Bell presenta a Walter la propria visione per un nuovo universo, in cui pensa di usare gli animali stivati a bordo per poi popolare il suo nuovo mondo ideale. Bell fa capire di essere stato immesso su questa strada da Walter stesso quando nel passato aveva perso tutti e due i Peter e per impedirlo volle giocare a fare Dio, descrivendo la sua idea di portare a collasso tutti e due gli universi per crearne uno nuovo. Walter però scartò successivamente questa idea e chiese a Bell di asportare pezzi del suo cervello per togliere l'idea dalla testa, Bell tuttavia continuò a portare avanti quella visione iniziale di Walter fino ad arrivare agli eventi attuali. Possiamo intravedere nel disegno di Bell un riferimento sia alla torre di Babele in Gen 11:1-9 (racconto biblico che parla dell'orgoglio dell'uomo che pensa di potersi innalzare fino al livello di Dio e sostituirsi a Lui), sia al diluvio universale e l'arca di Noè (Gen 6;7;8;9) con la differenza che, mentre Noè fu incaricato da Dio a salvare uomini e bestie per un mondo nuovo dopo il diluvio, in questo caso è Bell a progettare il nuovo mondo al posto di Dio.

Creation, life and death

The Vacuum (or the Machine) exists in both universes and has the ability to create or destroy worlds. It was designed by Walter Bishop in 2026 and sent back in time through a wormhole in the shattered universes' fabrics. Somehow, Walternate acquired the device with the intention of destroying the other universe in order to save his own. He used his son, Peter Bishop, in his insidious plot as nothing more than a pawn in his elaborate agenda.

The device is an ontological paradox, having never been created or destroyed, instead, existing in a time loop. It was originally thought to have been created by an ancient civilization called the First People. Several sketches were created detailing the device and its uses, most prominently being the one of Peter Bishop activating the Machine with fire coming out of his eyes amid the backdrop of a destroyed city. The artist of these sketches is currently unknown. (Season 2 Episode 20 "Over There: Part 2") Another sketch depicts Olivia Dunham acting as the crowbar.

In the year 2026, Walter realized that the First People were actually not prehistoric beings, but himself. He realized that he could revert the damage by sending the Machine back in time, knowing that it would be discovered by the Fringe Division. He altered the Machine by creating a system that would send Peter's consciousness forward in time. In the future, Peter would be able to see the repercussions of destroying the Alternate Universe and make a different choice.

Naturally, the most logical decision would be to not send the Machine back at all, thus guaranteeing the Alternate Universe would never be destroyed. However, because the Machine was indeed sent back in time originally, Walter had no choice but to send it back again or else risk creating a paradox. Walter explained to Peter that by instituting a technology that would allow Peter's consciousness to travel forward in time, he would be able to circumvent the rules of time and give Peter the opportunity to create a different choice.

Walter intended to send the Machine back through time by way of a wormhole, meaning that he, himself, was actually the origin of the First People myth and that the Machine paradoxically exists but cannot exist. (Season 3 Episode 20 "The Day We Died") As it was transported back to a time period before the two universes split, it was duplicated when the Alternate-Universe was created.

After Bell dies, Walter inherits Massive Dynamic from him (Season 3 Episode 2 "The Box"). Once they travel back to the prime universe, Walter does not want Peter working on the machine as he believes no good could come from it. Once parts of the machine are found underground, Walter becomes increasingly interested and even allows Peter to work on it in his lab. (Season 3 Episode 6 "6955 kHz") The machine is eventually put together, but Walter becomes worried when he believes that it is changing Peter. (Season 3 Episode 11 "Reciprocity")

Later on, Walter begins to worry when the prime universe begins to break down which he believes will lead to what happened to the alternate universe. (Season 3 Episode 14 "6B") When Bell takes over the body of Olivia Dunham, he gets a chance to work with Walter again therefore giving him some closure. (Season 3 Episode 17 "Stowaway") Walter and Peter go into Olivia's mind to rescue her and move Bell's soul into a computer, but the plan doesn't work. (Season 3 Episode 19 "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide")

After Walternate activates the machine on the other side, Peter has to get in it on this side, but Walter isn't willing to let him go. Eventually, he talks to Peter and lets him go into the machine, but Peter is thrown out and is badly injured. Walter goes to a church and talks to God, asking Him to save his universe even though he knows he has done bad things. (Season 3 Episode 20 "6:02 AM EST")

Once Peter gets back into the machine, his consciousness flashes forward to the year 2026. There Walter has been put in prison for destroying the other universe, but Peter is able to get him out to help him on a case. Walter realizes that the First People are indeed them and that they have to send the machine back in time through a wormhole that was created by the universe's destruction. Since this future won't happen because the alternate universe wasn't destroyed, it is unknown if any of these events will come to pass. Back in the present day, Peter creates a bridge between the universes but then he is erased from the timeline and Walter is there to witness it. (Season 3 Episode 22 "The Day We Died")

Walter began working with September to create a plan to defeat the Observers. The plan was rearranged in Walter's brain to protect him from being read by Observers. Meanwhile, Walter created a series of videotapes leaving detailed directions to obtain all of the pieces of his plan should something happen to him. Before the invasion, William Bell and Walter reconnected. Bell claimed he wanted to help Walter defeat the Observers. However, William betrayed Fringe Division and led the Observers to them. Walter ambered his Harvard Lab and all of the videotapes. He also ambered Astrid, Peter, William, and himself, at an unknown location in New York City to prevent the Observers from reaching them. In 2036, Walter was discovered in amber by an associate of Henrietta Bishop, his granddaughter. Etta and Simon Foster went to the former Massive Dynamic building to locate pieces of Walter's brain. Restoring Walter to a new form of sanity, the team was ready to begin constructing the plan Walter had designed decades prior to defeat the Observers.

The team recovered Michael (the son of September), a crucial part of the plan. Michael revealed the identity of Donald: September. Once the team tracked down September, they were able to gain a better understanding of the history of the plan. They followed Donald to a storage facility to acquire the final pieces of the plan. (Season 5 Episode 11 "The Boy Must Live") The final step of the plan, which would send Michael forward in time, required Walter. Michael would be incapable of communicating with the scientists, so he needed an escort. However, in order to safely travel through time, an innoculation was required. Walter was innoculated in 2015, believing it would redeem him for his hubris and breaking the universe many years before. He also left one innoculation in amber with the tapes in case something were to happen to him. September took the last innoculation in 2036 and explained to Walter that he wanted to take his son to prove his love for him once and for all. However, moments after the portal was opened, September was gunned down by Loyalists.

Walter realized that it had always been his destiny and that he must sacrifice his life with his son in order to save the world. Walter took the boy to the year 2167 and prevented scientists from creating the emotionless Observers. Michael acted as an example of what could be - human emotion did not need to be sacrificed for higher intellect. However, this would cause a paradox. If the timeline was reset, the Observers would never invade, meaning Walter would never have occasion to take Michael to the future. Walter's experiences that stemmed from the moment of the Invasion caused his plan to be put into effect. Nature would automatically stamp out Walter at the moment of the invasion to rectify this paradox, allowing for his Alternate Timeline self to still exist in 2167, thus closing the time loop and allowing for the people he loved to live happily and blissfully ignorant to the horrible ordeals they were exposed to in 2036. (Season 5 Episode 13 "An Enemy of Fate")

Walter was erased from the timeline in 2015. His very existence would be considered a paradox, as two versions of himself would be existing at once - one in the present day and the other, a version that had experienced 2036 and taken Michael to 2167. His 2015, Final Timeline self, was erased by nature in order to allow his 2036 self to exist and prevent the future scientists from sacrificing human emotion while creating Observers, preventing a time loop and paradox. Before he was erased, Walter sent Peter a white tulip and left a video explaining everything at the Harvard Lab.

Father - son relationship

The main character, Walter Bishop, has a son named Peter. Peter was born in the Alternate Universe in 1978. In 1985 at the age of 7, Peter had an incurable illness, just like his counterpart Over Here. His father desperately searched for a cure, as did the Walter Bishop from Over Here. The other Peter Bishop died before Walter could discover this cure.

However, unwilling to let his son go, Walter continued searching for a cure by watching Walternate search for a compound through a window with the capability of seeing through universes. Walternate discovered the correct compound, but September, an Observer, distracted him.

The Observer, whose job it was to see moments of historical significance, did not realize the ramifications of distracting Walternate. The scientist turned away from the experiment, missing the signal that the compound had worked. When he demanded September to leave his lab and turned back to his experiment, the indicator had faded, leaving Walternate to assume the test had failed. However, Walter Bishop had seen the experiment and was able to reproduce it.

Walter however is torn between wanting to cure his son in the Alternate Universe, and the ethical consequences of crossing between timelines. His lab assistant, Dr. Carla Warren, tries to warn him of the dangerous consequences and the moral responsibility in front of such consequences. Walter however refuses to listen to her, taken by his own hubris in wanting to play God. (Season 2 Episode 15 "Peter")

Now, knowing that he was the only hope for the dying child on the Other Side, Walter crossed over, intent on giving the cure to the boy and proceeding to pick up the pieces of his life without a son. However, the vial containing the cure shattered, leading Walter, in a final act of desperation, to kidnap Peter, bring him Over Here, cure him, and return him to his rightful home. However, when the two returned, they fell through a patch of ice into a lake. With their fate apparently certain, Walter and Peter were saved by the same Observer, who seemed to have a job of saving Peter's life after he accidentally distracted Walternate.

There were even more consequences which even Walter could not foresee. The crossing between universes fundamentally weakened the very fabric of the universes. Crossing over to return Peter would risk ripping the universes apart at the seams. Coupled with Elizabeth Bishop's love for her son, Walter decided to raise Peter as the son that he had lost.

Throughout his childhood, a rift between him and his father developed. After Walter was institutionalized, Peter moved to Allston with his mother because she could not afford the mortgage of their house in Cambridge. They didn't speak for the next 17 years, during the time that Walter was in the mental facility, until his hand was practically forced by the FBI agent Olivia Dunham who needed his help to get in touch with Walter, the only one who could help with her investigations on fringe science cases. Walter was then released by the hospital into Peter's custody and Walter's former laboratory at Harvard University, which had been shut down in the meantime, was reopened for him to use.

Walternate crosses over to take Peter home, and Walter is further saddened by this. (Season 2 Episode 21 "Over There: Part 1") He then gathers Cortexiphan test subjects to cross over to rescue Peter. While over there, he reunites with William Bell and eventually rescues Peter. Though Bell dies in the process when they return to the prime universe, Walter does get some closure from Bell. (Season 2 Episode 22 "Over There: Part 2").

For the majority of the early episodes, Peter despises working with his father, and in episode 1x04, "The Arrival", he prepares to leave Boston for good. But, he comes in contact with The Observer known as "September," who appears to read Peter's mind. Following this incident, Peter realizes that "The Pattern" does actually exist, and vows to remain in Boston until he discovers the truth, becoming a civilian consultant for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in the area of fringe science.

By the culmination of season one, Peter and Walter appear to have completely reconciled. Peter even builds his father a device that could repair his water-damaged records, in episode 1x19, "The Road Not Taken."

Peter and Walter's reconciliation reaches its peak in episode 2x10, "Grey Matters". Thomas Jerome Newton, the leader of the shape-shifters, kidnaps Walter and forces him to reveal how he opened an inter-dimensional doorway in 1985. Peter risks everything to rescue Walter and is horrified at the thought of seeing him die.

After an incident on a bridge where Peter sees "a man from the other side", Peter realizes that he is not from the prime universe. Walter is saddened by Peter's anger and he tries to apologize, but Peter won't forgive him. (Season 2 Episode 19 "Brown Betty")

After Peter enters the machine with the help of Olivia's telekinetic powers which were able to drop the weapon's protective force field, Peter's consciousness is propelled 15 years through time, arriving in 2026, outside the completed One World Trade Center (Season 3 Episode 21 "The Last Sam Weiss"). In this future, after Peter entered the machine, he destroyed the Other Side. However, both universes were inextricably linked, and by destroying one, it would only be a matter of time before the side remaining would also cease to exist. Walter creates a plan to bring Peter's mind from 2011 into his 2026 body, where he would witness the end of days, before returning him, with the hopes that the younger Peter would make a different choice, than destroying the Other Side, thus creating the "First People" mythos. After the Peter from 2011 experiences life in 2026, he returns to 2011, and uses the machine to create a "bridge" between both worlds, where both Walters, and both Olivias, can hopefully forget their differences to save the multiverse. However, before he can fully explain their mission, Peter mysteriously disappears, and both sides forget about him entirely, but remain dedicated to saving their worlds. A conversation between September and December reveals they forgot about Peter because he "never existed," as he "fulfilled his purpose."

In Seasion 4, because of Peter's "erasure" from existence, a new timeline develops, which while very similar to the original one, contains slight differences. Just as happened in the original timeline, Walter was locked away in St. Claire's Mental Hospital for seventeen years, until Olivia Dunham had him released in order to help her partner and lover John Scott. However, without Peter there, they were unable to save John's life. The Fringe Division of the prime-universe is still formed after this, but the characters all have subtle personality differences. Also, other events which Peter only had a slight hand in are erased entirely.

Without Peter's presence, Walter has even less of a grip of reality, becoming agoraphobic, afraid to leave the lab, hypersensitive to germs that may or may not be there, and prone to destructive "episodes." Olivia appears to have a calming effect on him, and their relationship is more gentle and crutch-like than in the original timeline.

In "Neither Here Nor There" (Season 4 Episode 1), September the Observer is instructed by his superior to erase all memories of Peter that still remain despite the timeline's change. While September constructs the necessary device, brief apparitions of Peter begin appearing to his former colleagues. However, they are so brief that most do not notice, with the exception of Walter, who becomes so terrified that he hides in his sensory deprivation tank. His colleagues do not believe him due to his fragile mental state. Once the device is constructed however, September decides not to activate it, and Walter sees a reflection of Peter in the screen of his television, causing him to panic. The "hallucinations" continue ("Alone in the World", Season 4 Episode 3), and become auditory, with Peter pleading with Walter to help him. This pushes Walter to the brink, and Olivia finds him about to lobotomize himself as a result. It is at that point revealed that she has dreams of Peter, and the two agree to try to find him, though they don't know who he is or why he is appearing to them.

The situation comes to a head ("Subject 9" Season 4 Episode 4) when a strange force appears to Olivia several times. They first think that it's another Cortexiphan child, but at the end of the episode, it is revealed to be Peter. He resurfaces (quite literally) in Reiden Lake, and is taken to the hospital, where, much to the confusion of the Fringe Division, he asks for Olivia and Walter, and reveals knowledge that no citizen should know.

After revealing his knowledge of the technology the new breed of shapeshifters are using ("Novation" Season 4 Episode 5), he is brought into the Fringe Division under heavy supervision. His presence is emotionally painful to Walter, who reveals that, in this timeline, Peter died when the ice broke after they crossed over from the other universe. While he seems to believe Peter's claims, he doesn't consider himself worthy of having his son returned. Though he briefly expresses joy and wonder at seeing Peter, he quickly states that he doesn't deserve it, and that Peter was never Walter's son, leaving Peter frustrated and heartbroken. His presence also confuses Olivia, who treats him as a stranger. However, time paradoxes have begun to form, apparently as a consequence of his return. After fixing the time paradoxes, Peter concludes that this timeline is not "his," not the one he knows with the people he knows, and he wants to go to the machine again, certain that it will take him back to "his own" timeline.

In "An Enemy of Fate" (Season 5 Episode 13), there is a very emotional scene in which Walter says his goodbye to Peter.

Emotions and conscience

One of the themes underlying this series is that of the emotions that make us human, together with conscience which is our interior moral compass tightly tied to emotions. These are developed especially through the characters called Observers, who had no emotions and barely any conscience.

The Observers are hairless pale men that typically wear grey suits and fedora hats. They are quiet, tending to mind their own business and interact only minimally with others. Appearing in every episode, they tend to appear before significant events in history. They use advanced equipment, such as advanced communication devices and compact binoculars, and they employ an alien written alphabet. A distinguishing trait is their diminished sense of taste, and it is often shown that they can only taste very spicy food. Observers also have diminished emotions.

The Observers are able to predict future events, and they are able to travel in time and across universes without difficulty because of their advanced technology. In "The End of All Things" (Season 4 Episode 14), it is revealed that the group of Observers seen in the first four seasons are a team of scientists from the far future, or at least from one of humanity's many possible futures. This group of Observers traveled to their past to observe the events that led to their creation.

The group of Observers seen in the show during the first four seasons had designated code names, with each individual referred to as a month of the year: September (Michael Cerveris) appears in every episode in the first four seasons, even if only in a cameo shot, while December (Eugene Lipinski) and others appear with less frequency. In the episode named "August" (Season 2 Episode 8) a rogue Observer named August was shown (Peter Woodward) who sought to try to change the fate of a young woman contrary to the Observers' practice.

September is seen in both universes during the episode "Peter", both to cause Walternate to miss a critical observation for the cure for Peter's illness in the parallel universe, and to rescue Walter and Peter after they fell through the ice in the prime one.

The episode "The Firefly" (Season 3 Episode 10) involves a series of events temporally engineered by September to force Walter to make a choice regarding Peter's safety as to prepare him for a future event. These events included bringing the son of Walter's favorite musician into the present to draw Walter's attention.

After Peter's disappearance in the third season's finale, "The Day We Died" (Season 3 Episode 22), the Observers remain aware that Peter has vanished, claiming he has been erased from existence.

The episode "Letters of Transit" (Season 4 Episode 19) reveals that by the year 2609, the Observers had wreaked environmental havoc on the Earth - to the point that they decided to simply travel back in time to the early 21st century and colonize the planet before the environmental destruction occurred. In the year 2015, the Observers invaded from the future, instituting "The Purge" and killing many humans. Although humans continued to resist well into the year 2036, the Observers largely succeeded in conquering the planet. The fifth season focuses on events in this future, where the Observers, run by Captain Windmark, maintain control on the remaining humans through their own abilities and the assistance of human Loyalists. A rogue group of humans, the Resistance, fight against the Observers, and have come to learn much about the Observers' abilities, including that many extend from an implant in the back of their neck that expands their mental processing power at the cost of emotions. Due to coming from a much more polluted Earth from six centuries in the future, the unpolluted atmosphere of 21st century Earth is too "clean" for Observers to live in for prolonged periods of time (or perhaps, simply uncomfortable): thus after conquering present-day Earth, the Observers set up terraforming factories to increase the level of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere, which will cut short the life expectancy of regular humans by decades.

In the episode "The Boy Must Live" (Season 5 Episode 11), September explains that the final emotionless version of the Observers were "born" out of an experiment performed by a Norwegian scientist in 2167. That scientist was the first scientist to replace space in the brain usually designated for negative human emotions, such as rage, with brain cells tuned to increase intellect. Many generations of humanity later, brain cells currently tuned for emotions (not just the bad ones but the good ones as well) were engineered to be intellectual brain cells. Higher and higher intelligence was the ultimate goal.

The experimenter modified human genes to displace certain emotional facilities for improved mental abilities, and the success of the experiment eventually led to the development of near-emotionless humans with high levels of intelligence that became humanity's evolutionary future - aka "the Observers." Without emotions, there was no urge to procreate, and thus the Observers developed technology to artificially grow new Observers using Observer DNA via maturation chambers.

During the out of body growth process, Observers were grown from embryo into fully matured adults. Sometimes, the growth process would create genetic anomalies; typically, the Observers would destroy any anomalies. The Observer September encountered one such anomaly - Anomaly XB-6783746 - and was affected when he learned he was the "genetic parent." September did not destroy his progeny but developed a strong desire to save his son - Anomaly XB-6783746 - after scans revealed that the Observer was even smarter than mature Observers while possessing all of the emotions sacrificed so easily starting in 2167. His son, later named "Michael" by human caretakers during the initial Earth invasion by the Observers- possessed both human emotions and Observer-level intelligence. September then hid the child in the early 21st century (which was humanity's future but centuries before September's time). The series' finale concluded with Walter's successful effort to transport "Michael" to 2167 to convince the Norwegian scientists to abandon any efforts for reproductive medicine which might involve sacrificing emotions. These emotions are the backbone of humanity's conscience and moral compass and when humanity loses its collective moral compass in the pursuit of raw intelligence - we become the cold and calculating husks deemed "the Observers."

In the series finale, December explains that all twelve members of the science team had begun to experience varying degrees of human emotion, and that they had all agreed to keep these emerging emotions to themselves, in order to remain undetected by the other Observers in the future. They were also unaware that their mission of observation was also a precursor to the invasion that would see the Observers take over in 2015.