The old Timeline isn't coming back!

[Omniscient_Jay]

Well, it was a fairly good theory for a brief moment but I understand better now that you cleared up Neil Chung's history for me. Did you get this all from the episode or do you have other sources? I need to be more observant during the show, I guess. Thanks.

Neil Chung's backstory was for the most part given during Peter and Olivia's visit to MIT with the professor. As for how the device actually works, that was pretty much (plausible?) conjecture on my part, as its precise function was never made clear (though I imagine we'll get more on it in later episodes).

Don't worry about not paying attention; with a show like this, if you so much as blink, you're bound to miss something. I was distracted for parts of 4.11, so when I came here and saw people talking about Reiden Lake and flat space-time, I was all !!!

[djoe]

I don't think Neil effectively became an Observer through the device; to me, it seems that the device functions like a temporal tri-corder, flattening ambient space-time to assess surrounding temporal properties (like an object/person/area's past and potential future(s)). When Neil cracked the equations, he found out how the device worked, and was thus able to use it in his quest to "become an angel", exploiting it to create the Tears of Ra compound and scanning people at the TSA checkpoint to sort out individuals with grim potential futures.

The Observers most likely use the device to assist them in their assessment of time, but they are not dependent on it to perceive time non-linearly (though it probably makes things easier). I've made a thread that outlines my ideas on how the device works in another thread (Flattening Space-Time). You can check it out, if you are interested.

I'll check out that thread in a minute. I think the device allows the transportation through time and September left it behind on purpose to help Peter find a way back if he desired to change timelines. September makes "mistakes" on purpose. We've seen the different Observers carry different object and be able to go through walls so I doubt September would need the rod to time travel.

[dALTnielle]

What if this is the same situation like it happened before, with Peter, when he was first brought to the Blue!verse.

- In Subject 13, they showed that Peter knew he wasn't home, he knew this Walter and Elizabeth weren't his parents. He couldn't exactly know what was wrong (of course) but he knew things were different. And he kept talking about going home (like he wrote on the paper: I am going home).

When he met Olivia in the tulip field, he told her what his mom had told him (his new mom): you have to imagine how you want things to be and then you can try and change them. Like accept what is and then try to build what you want with what you have and do your best to be happy. After that, he accepted his situation and he never thought of it again. Until Peter found out he was from the Red!verse we had never seen him complain that when he was a child he knew this wasn't his home, but they made him believe otherwise... He always felt out of place yes, but that's it. He accepted that this was his home. But if you think about it Blue!verse was never his real home, Red!verse was.

- In this episode, Altstrid tells Walter that wouldn't be easier to accept Peter, love him and be happy? Like imagine/accept that he is your son, work with that and be happy. Accept what is. Just like Peter had to accept it when he was a child, even though he didn't want to at first. So maybe this is another clue that this is Blue!verse, that they all have to accept Peter, that this is his home. And maybe he feels out of place, because that's what he always felt in the Blue!verse.

The way I see it, home and where he belongs are two different things.
In Subject 13 and in The last Sam Weiss he said: I am going home, in both speaking about Red!verse.
In Over There part2 Olivia tells him that he belongs in the Blue!verse. In Back to where you've never been he told Walter he wanted his help "to get him back where he belongs" (to the Blue!verse).

Like, he has to accept this, Amber!verse, is where he belongs (Blue!verse), like he had to accept it when he was a boy (even though this isn't his home, the Red!verse).

I wanted to make a point by stating some reasons, I stated them and now I can't seem to be able to make it... ohhhh... Hope it made sense...

[djoe]

I wanted to make a point by stating some reasons, I stated them and now I can't seem to be able to make it... ohhhh... Hope it made sense...

Your point is implied This is his home now and he has to make the best of it. I agree with that

[dALTnielle]

Your point is implied This is his home now and he has to make the best of it. I agree with that

Well yeah that was the main idea. my circuits got a little mixed up in the process... so thanks for replying.

[bonnie scotland]

i agree with itaintrite about this timeline. It doesn't make sense that this is the original timeline minus peter and the memories of him. The two peters both died at a young age in this so called timeline - one by a disease and the other drowned in rieden lake (sp). So if the two peters both died at a young age then how do you explain a grown up peter living. He would have had to exist somewhere to grow up. Possibly he was mysteriously taken away from the drowning scene without walter knowing and young peter's body was never recovered. One other explanation could be that peter is some kind of bizarre anomily in all universes as are the observers.

this- pretty please!!!!

[zytrec]

Emotions played a dominant part of this show as we all know it by now.
I agree with dALTnielle there. Accepting is the key for this season. Also, I believe this is not another universe nor another timeline. This is something else. What it is actually I really do not know. One could only say it only if one could see the end of the season before hand (Alt-Astrid quote here).
I think, not only Peter is an anomaly also Walter and Olivia. In order to get things that we all knew for 3 seasons, first Walter has to accept Peter as a son as Astrid mentioned at this episode. Also, Olivia has to acknowledge Peter not just as a strange guy that knew a lot of things about Fringe cases in advance but as a former friend/lover whatever she felt comfortable. Lastly, Peter has to believe that he is at the right place, after all this is a huge déjà-vu for him. He has to see that he is in sync with this time, with his fate (White Tulip ref.). Olivia and Walter imagined Peter in different forms. Peter is still dreaming about these two. So this weird family unit has to realize that this thing that live is the real thing. Nothing is really forgotten even though it never existed (Doctor Who and Philip Broyles ref.). So they remember Peter without knowing how and why. Emotions of our trio should meet in a common ground in order to fix all of this.
Call it Quantum Emotion Effect (was it "6B"? ref.), it is all laid the possibilities of emotional states. So, both possibility is valid for these three, one where Peter exists, the other that he does not.

A bit left open but this is what I think. Any comments?

[bonnie scotland]

No matter the explantion it makes it a reboot in my book- which if its a reason not to resolve all the questions raised in the previous 3 series makes it a cheat.

[djoe]

No matter the explantion it makes it a reboot in my book- which if its a reason not to resolve all the questions raised in the previous 3 series makes it a cheat.

Feels that way.. This is what happens when you have completing forces messing with time. Peter did not know exactly what he was doing, he was just trying to avoid losing Olivia and the blue and red universes. He saved the blue and red universes but lost the intimate connection to Olivia and with the way things are going might lose Olivia again. Peter must feel like he's in a catch 22.

[MassivelyDynamic]

I'm hoping they figure out a way that everyone remembers Peter somehow, as Omniscient_Jay suggested several times. Perhaps since his "erasure" didn't quite work correctly, everyone will slowly regain their memories because the course of events will return to the way they were due to Peter being back. Some sort of course correction. Idk, just speculation on my part, but maybe the disaster that seems to be happening in the next episode, judging by the preview, was caused by the timeline course correcting itself somehow.