"Safe"
I apologize for being late with this post. I’m sorry to say that I have no good excuse. I was at my cottage and the weather was so friggin’ outstanding that I decided to stay a couple of days longer. I know…rough life. So let’s get on with it, shall we.
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What did we miss?
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- I guess I had always assumed that Walter had gone to another dimension to retrieve Alter-Peter. Walter says the device can retrieve ‘anyone from anywhere‘. But when Peter asked him if he was successful in going back to 1936 to get the doctor, Walter says “Before I could test it, you started to recover. The doctor said it was a miracle.” Although, I believe his reason for not testing the device is a lie, I believe it’s true that he didn’t get a chance to use it. Judging by what the device does to Jones in later episodes, I think it’s clear that Walter never used it in any way. They seem to be hinting to us that this is the device that would be used…’anyone from anywhere‘ in the same conversation they give us a clue to Peter’s death, but that can’t be possible. The device that Jones uses to go between dimensions is not the same device. So, did the Observer bring Alter-Peter over? This is a theory that I touched on before, but now it really has me wondering.
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What theories were overlooked?
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- During a few of the “Looking back” posts, I discussed a theory about Nina losing a daughter and the possibility that Olivia was a clone of that child. In this episode, another moment with Nina gives me a little more assurance that the theory might be correct. When she was speaking with Broyles on the phone, and Broyles accuses her of being responsible for the abduction of Olivia…Nina responds “Phillip! That’s enough. Now you know how I feel about Agent Dunham. Why would I want any harm to come to her?”
- Peter’s mother is mentioned a couple of times. The line that interested me was when Walter was telling the story about Peter being sick: “Your mother was beside herself, she stopped eating – she stopped sleeping… and I was worse.”. It made me wonder if perhaps this was the reason that she and Walter are no longer together. Perhaps she just couldn’t handle the idea of a replacement Peter. Or, maybe Peter’s sickness was the result of one of Walter’s experiments gone bad and she blames Walter for Peter’s death. Maybe she lost her mind when Peter died and is in a hospital somewhere. Or, as Walter stated: ” I was the scientist, here my only son was dying and I couldn’t do anything about it.” she perhaps just blames him for not being able to save him. No matter the reason, it seems fairly clear to me, that she must have known about Alter-Peter.
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What makes sense now that didn’t before?
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- The importance of the story that Walter told Peter about being sick as a child has revealed it’s apparent meaning by the end of the season. I say apparent, because it is still just a theory that Peter died of the bird flu and was replaced. It is also possible that he died in the car crash on Thanksgiving and not of the bird flu.
- We know now why Jones says that he took Olivia. He says it was to help her. But let’s face it, that really begs more questions than it answers, if you ask me. But, I will get in to that further when we reach that point in the “Looking back” series.
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How have the characters developed?
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- Broyles does another one of his flips this week. His character, for me, has been the hardest to nail down. Sometimes he seems so cozy with Nina and protective of Massive Dynamic and sometimes he seems distrustful of both. Sometimes his attitude towards Olivia is hostile and sometimes his attitude is more like that of a big brother or close friend. This week he accuses Nina of being responsible for the abduction of Olivia and judging by the statement: “I don’t make accusations, so let me be clear. If I find out –“, it seems to me he was about to threaten her. And his tones convinces me he would follow through if he had to.
- There are a lot of moments between Peter and Walter that I just loved. But my favorite was when Peter shows understanding instead of frustration with Walter when he can’t remember what the final location of the safety deposit box. It was a fantastic moment of connection between estranged father and son.
PETER: Hey, Walter. If you were gonna rent a safety deposit box in Providence, what bank would you use?
WALTER: Providence? That would have to be the Fairmont Savings Bank, off Westminster Street… It’s the only one with safe deposit boxes big enough for my purposes. (realizing how he was manipulated) Oh…well done, son.
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What questions were never answered?
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- How did Jones know where Walter had the safety deposit boxes and which ones he rented?
- What was Nina doing in London?
- What was Walter so stressed about 23 years ago? It wasn’t the death of the assistant, as that hadn’t happened yet, according to Walter. So what had him to discombobulated? He said he was distrustful of everybody. Was he referring to William Bell? Was he beginning to think Bell was batting for the wrong team?
- Olivia makes such a point of the fact that she’s never had a best friend, ‘not even in boarding school’. But in the bar later in the episode, when she is reciting numbers that she can never forget…Olivia says “My best friend from high school’s license plate - 7240168“. So which is it, Olivia?
- After Loeb and his team have broken in to three safes (Cleveland, Baltimore and Philadelphia), Loeb states that there is only one more (Providence). In the lav notes, Walter recites his mnemonic for remembering where the safes were…”cannot build phallic puzzles inside the lab.’ What are the remaining letters in the mnemonic for?
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- Nina states “Not to place any undue pressure on you and your team, but we’re in a race against highly motivated individuals.”. Who are they in a race against…ZFT, Northwoods? And what are they racing for…the same machine? This raises the question…What information are they trying to extract from John Scott in this ‘race’? It couldn’t be the safety deposit boxes’ locations because I would find it hard to believe Nina is unaware that they have already been broken in to. So what is the goal here?
- Walter states: “I was… distrustful of everybody. Even better, your mother.” I’m unclear of what he meant by this. Was he saying that he was distrustful of everybody, but Peter’s mother was even more distrustful of everybody. Or was he saying that she was distrustful of him? I wonder if they intentionally left this statement vague to give us pause, or if it just wasn’t written clearly.
- I have asked this question before, but I will now ask it again. Who is Loeb reporting to?
- During the previous episode, I had noticed a symbol on the side of vehicle, and then again on Loeb’s van in this episode. I considered it one of the ‘Next Episode Clues’. But the meaning of the symbol and it’s text has never been revealed to us.
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What tie was Broyles wearing?
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- Only one tie this week. A very very long day for everybody, I guess.
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Tune in Sunday, July 26 for “Looking back at 111 - Bound”.
July 22nd, at 1:29 am
Hello, new to commenting, but I’ve been on your site since you started it. =) good job btw. But when Olivia is talking about not having friends and going to boarding school, that was when she was mistaking John Scotts memories with hers, because soon after that she claims to know the man in the wall. And I doubt Olivia was able to afford to go to boarding school with just a single mother.
July 22nd, at 4:52 am
I believe when Walter is talking about that time where he was distrustful of everyone, he says “Even Belly, your mother…” — he is listing off the people he didn’t trust — which includes William Bell. But maybe I was hearing it wrong.
And I always figured that the thing that had Walter so stressed at that time was Peter’s illness/death. The gravestone said 1985, which was about 23 years ago.