What is the Mystery Behind Fringe’s Peter Bishop?

On the outside Fringe’s Peter Bishop seems like a nice guy pitching in to help solve the mystery behind The Pattern.  But there’s a lot about him that we don’t know and I think he’s hiding a mystery of his own – or maybe two.

 

Let’s start with what we know about Peter.

 

He didn’t have the best of childhoods.  When his father Walter was playing “mad scientist” his moods were erratic at best and after Walter was institutionalize, Peter severed all ties with his father.

 

In fact, he wanted to separate himself from his father so much that he dropped out of school.  But with an IQ as high as Peter’s, picking up skills is pretty easy.  He even posed as a college chemistry professor once.

 

Peter is a jack of all trades with a healthy dose of common sense too.  He’s the only one who “speaks Walter.”  And after last night’s episode, we know that Peter can play the piano and can read people (a skill acquired at the poker table).

 

When Olivia finds Peter, he’s in Bagdad setting up another temporary job and hiding from the gambling debts he’s acquired.

 

It takes blackmail to get him to help at first, but Peter willingly stays to babysit his father and help Olivia pursue The Pattern.  Is Peter really all that altruistic or does he have another motivation?

 

In “The Ghost Network” we saw Peter confront a guy in the diner that had been following Peter and Walter and taking pictures.  The man tells Peter “You were supposed to check in when you got home.”

 

Check in?  With whom?  Why?

 

Peter asks if the others know he’s there and threatens the guy.

 

Just who is Peter hiding from?  Is it the mob over his gambling debts or is it someone else?  Speaking of his gambling debts, just how did a street-wise math wiz lose that badly at the casinos?  And didn’t he just tell us in this episode how well he could read people?

 

I think Peter is hiding something and it has absolutely nothing to do with poker.  I don’t know what Peter’s gotten himself into, but I’m wondering if it is somehow (probably unbeknownst to him) going to turn out to be connected to The Pattern.

 

Then there’s Peter’s other mystery – the one I’m not even sure he knows about himself.

 

In the pilot, when Olivia first came to see Walter he knew that Peter had come with her and requested to see him.  Walter immediately inquired about Peter’s health and how he was doing.  I had originally chalked these questions up to some deeply buried fatherly concerned.  Now I’m not so sure.

 

Maybe it is fatherly concern, but not in the way you think.  In “The Same Old Story,” an episode about human cloning, Walter corners Olivia, asks her about Peter’s health and then asks her to keep what she read in Peter’s file about his medical history a secret.  A very confused Olivia tells Walter that the only thing in Peter’s file is his birth date.  Walter is relieved and then refuses to tell her anymore.

 

While I think that part of this scene is misdirection to let us think that maybe Peter is a clone, I think it does have some key clues.  I do not think Peter is a clone.  But once again, Walter is concerned about Peter’s health.  And there is something about that birth date that is going to come back again.  I wish they had given us the date.

 

Also, notice that we know absolutely nothing about Peter’s mom – not even her name.  And when Olivia asks Peter about her in “The Ghost Network” he tells Olivia “that’s a story for a different time” and quickly redirects the conversation.  It makes you really wonder who she is.

 

While I don’t think Peter is a clone, I do think that in some way Walter has experimented on him.  I’m just not sure how and why yet.  But I’m very sure it’s going to come into play at some time.

 

Also I can’t figure out if Walter’s inquiries are genuine concern about Peter because of his experiments or if it’s curiosity about the success/progress of the experiment.

 

So what do you think?  Is Peter hiding from someone?  Who?  Why is Walter so concerned about Peter’s health?  What did Walter think was in Peter’s file?

 

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House Tries to Replace Wilson in ‘Not Cancer’

This week’s House, leaves Dr. House still reeling from the news that Wilson has left Princeton-Plainsboro to get away from him.  In “Not Cancer” House must deal with the lost of his only friend.

House and Lucas. Can Lucas fill Wilson's shoes?

“What did Wilson do for me?” is the question House asks his team when transplant recipients start dropping like flies from illnesses not associated with their transplanted organ.

House is talking about the diagnosis of cancer, but the question becomes a theme throughout the show to emphasis how much he misses Wilson.

First, the case of the week – as we open four recipients of transplants from one donor are dead, one is dying and 13 brings in the last one who shows no symptoms yet.  Each person has died/is dying from a different cause and none of the causes are affiliated with the transplanted organs.

House insists its cancer.  The rest of team believes it anything but cancer.  Foreman tells House, “You need it to be cancer, so you have an excuse to talk to Wilson.”

House doesn’t accept that answer.  In fact, he even goes as far as hiring a private investigator, Lucas (Michael Weston), to do backgrounds on all the recipients and the donor.  Lucas, posing as a coffee machine repairman, buts into the team’s discussion on the patients with tidbits he’s learned.  House continues to believe its cancer and sends the team to do more tests.

“Does that PI mean we don’t have to break in to people’s houses anymore,” Kutner asks.

Meanwhile, Frank (Eric Kaldor) – the one dying case – expires while his wife and Apple (Felicia Day) – the living case – argue over whose life is more valuable.  The autopsy of Frank’s brain reveals nothing.

“We’ve gone from no sense to making less sense and then taking a step backwards,” 13 complains of House’s continual insistence that it’s cancer.

But it turns out House is right – sort of.  It’s cancer that the donor had and passed on to the recipients where it attached itself to organs and caused failure.

While the team is busy with the patients, House is recruiting for a Wilson replacement.  He corners Dr. O’Shea in the cafeteria where he gets him to buy lunch.  House tries to talk to O’Shea about monster trucks (something he had in common with Wilson) and invites him over to watch TV.

Then House hires Lucas to spy on O’Shea adding that he wants to know if he lends money interest free.

But Lucas calls House on this lie adding that House really wants to be spying on Wilson to find out if he’s pining for House.

So House sets Lucas on Wilson and finds out that Wilson isn’t trying to move on from life at Princeton-Plainsbor, just from House.  Wilson has been in contact with Cameron, Cuddy and Foreman.

But when House shows up at Wilson’s doorstep, Wilson won’t even talk to him.  But guess who’s there to help House talk it out and find the diagnosis he needs when Wilson turns him away – Lucas.

And when Cuddy refuses the treatment House wants – opening the woman’s head – and places security around the patient’s room, House sends in Lucas to do his dirty work.  Even better, Lucas shows up during the surgery to say what House wants to hear.

Anyone else think House has found a replacement for Wilson?  Even House thinks so.  He puts Lucas on retainer.

I’m definitely sad to see Wilson playing a smaller role (I’ve not heard that the actor is leaving), but I like Lucas.  He calls it like he sees it.  He adds a touch a humor.  And then there’s the argyle socks.

Guess we have to wait until next week to find out if his paying for a friend works out for House.

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