Connection between Walter removal of brain cells and Peter's Alteration

[jophan]

all the bad things he did (from what we have heard) has been AFTER he abducted Peter, i.e. the crotexephian trials, becoming a horrible father (remember untill over here Peter was alive, he was closer to his dad than his mom, hence over here, he had that COIN scene with Walter, while over there, he had it with his mother)

The Cortexiphan trials were two years before Peter's kidnapping.
We don't know the timing of many of Walter's experiments. He certainly had a degree of arrogance and lack of empathy for his experimental subjects (e.g., the guy from "The Ghost Network"), but in other cases (e.g., Olive in Jacksonville) he was certainly more sympathetic than Bell.

He did admit to becoming paranoid in 1985 and beyond ("Safe"; the year didn't mean anything in particular until we learned about Peter). There was probably stress in his marriage over adapting the boy to this world and guilt feelings versus possessiveness in both spouses. So Walter became less stable after 1985.

I think though that it's interesting that the surgery came years after his commitment. If he was "becoming" something bad, what effect could it have had when he was already in maximum security? It may be that he wasn't having personality alterations but was simply being interrogated by enemies with access to the hospital. In "Grey Matters" when Astrid asks why someone would make someone else crazy, Walter's immediate answer is, to resist interrogation. There's also a recent interview with John Noble where he said the surgery was entirely Bell's decision, not Walter's. He's usually very good about remembering episode details, so I assumed that was based on an upcoming episode

[jay_eilthabhae]

The Cortexiphan trials were two years before Peter's kidnapping.

Well, we know that 1983 was the time when William Bell stopped the initial drug testing of Cortexiphan, which was held in Ohio State University....and we don't know if Walter was part of those trials, not to mention we also do not know when were the Jacksonville trials conducted (or perhaps I missed it)

And last but not the least, those dates were told to us by Nina, i.e. by Massive Dynamic, and we all know Massive Dynamic has hidden or manipulated the truth a lot to us....so......who knows!

[jophan]

We also have Walter saying it was "twenty-six years ago" in "Jacksonville". That would be early 1984 (since the episode aired in early 2010), though I think that's off. Props are unreliable, but Olivia's file in the day care lab said April 1983, IIRC. (That may have been a code number rather than a date, too.) Either way, it's before Peter's 1985 abduction.

This show is pretty careless about the internal timeline. They contradict themselves pretty often.

[rh]

This show is pretty careless about the internal timeline. They contradict themselves pretty often.

Yes, that is one thing I hate a bit about Fringe, especially because past events are of great importance to the present in the show´s universe. It seems that they make up certain details on-the-fly. Someone even noticed that the birthdates for Olivia and Fauxlivia differ by three years. Quite strange how this show is produced with so much love for details (hiding easter eggs etc) and carelessness at the same time.

[jay_eilthabhae]

Yeah I kinda agree as well, the show has contradicted itself a LOT of times before, which is not so great, because when hardcore fans who have made a habit of rewatching past episodes regularly, watch the previous episodes and see that so much of it (even the major angles) do not even make sense anymore, it feels stupid, I had a similar problem with LOST since season 3, where they just started forgetting every major angle they worked on the first 2 seasons...and never bothered to address them again..........

I agree with rh....for a show which prides itself in looking out for minor details, Fringe has contradicted itself too many times....

[rh]

Reminds me of the famous quote from Walt Whitman: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes."