White Tulip - Recap

A teenage boy is pickpocketing commuters at a train station while waiting for the next train. Aboard that train, the passengers are riding comfortably until the lights start to flicker. A man suddenly appears out of nowhere in the center of the car... and every passenger instantly dies. The train arrives at the station and the man emerges, going past the teenager without a word. The teenager boards and discovers the passengers and bangs on the window as the train departs.



At home, Walter is writing out a letter to Peter explaining about how he was brought from one dimension to another. Peter calls about their newest case and tells his father that he'll be picking him up in a few minutes. Walter ignores the call and seals the letter in an envelope, then writes Peter's name on it and puts it in hi pocket.

At the train station, Walter examines the bodies while Peter comments to Olivia that his father is acting strange. Olivia lies and denies knowing anything is wrong. Walter checks and determines that the passengers died instantly with no signs of any kind of last breath or struggle. Olivia determines that the lights went out in that one car, while Peter checks the passengers' cell phones and discovers that all of the batteries are dead. Broyles talks to the teenager, the only witness. While Peter is outside, a technician picks up Walter's letter, and Walter realizes that he dropped it. He hastily recovers it and puts it back in his pocket as Peter comes in. Walter then explains that he needs to get the bodies back to the lab, while Broyles and Olivia find the mystery man on the surveillance cameras.



At the lab, Astrid and Walter confirm that all of the victims died instantly and peacefully. Peter notices that Walter is avoiding him and asks what is going on but, his father insists that everything is fine. Analyzing the victims' cell structure, Walter determines that even their mitochondria is completely dead, although typically it continues to survive for days after the body's death. Meanwhile, Olivia and Broyles tap into the city's surveillance cameras and follow the mystery man on tape as he goes to a café, Olivia goes there and talks to the waitress, who says the man is a regular customer and often draws math formulae on napkins. She finds one of his credit card receipts and Olivia determines the man's name is Alastair Peck.

Olivia and an FBI team break into Alastair's apartment and find a room filled with electronic equipment and math formulae. When Walter and Peter arrive, Walter confirms that the formulae have to do with subatomic particles and Alastair was working on a new function of the Theory of Relativity, while Pete finds Alastair's certificate showing he's an astrophysicist who teaches at MIT. Olivia finds bloody surgical tools. Downstairs, Alastair returns and casually asks what they're doing there, insisting they have no right to his property. Olivia comes down and arrests him at gunpoint. Alastair, unimpressed, says that he can prevent them from ever taking his things and that the people he murdered are only temporarily dead. However, he warns that more people will die. As Walter comes down, he spots mechanical mesh implanted beneath Alastair's skin and identifies it as a Faraday mesh, capable of creating a temporal pocket. Alastair concentrates and then flickers and vanishes. He appears 12 hours in the past on the commuter train, killing the same 12 passengers. As he leaves the car touching the handrail, he tells the teenager that he's sorry the boy will have to go through everything again and then walks away.



Many of the same things happen again. Walter finishes his letter, goes with Peter to the station, drops and recovers his letter, and confirms that the victims suffered from a massive energy drain. This time, the teenager tells them that Alastair said he was doing the same thing again. They get Alastair's fingerprints from the handrail and confirm that he was a former NASA employee. At his home, they find his equations, equipment, and surgical gear. However, this time Olivia feels a strange sense of deja vu which Peter dismisses. Also, Peter now finds a photo album with pictures of Alastair and an unidentified woman. They look around and realize that a man and a woman both live in the apartment. Alastair doesn't arrive this time and they finally give up. Walter asks Olivia to drive him home because he can't bear to be near Peter given what he's done. He admits to her that he's written the letter to try and find the right words to explain, but he can't imagine a favorable outcome. Walter admits that he will tell the Peter the truth, but he's waiting or something. Meanwhile, Peter finds machined parts that Alastair made himself several months ago, and Walter realizes that they are prototypes.



Olivia and Peter go to MIT to talk to Carol Bryce, Alastair's former co-worker. She explains that her friend was obsessed with using wormholes to travel through time, but left MIT a year ago when no one could understand his theories. The woman in the photo is Arlette Turing, Alastair's fiancée. Carol has some of Alastair's works that he gave her for proofreading, and gladly hands them over to Olivia. At the lab, Walter reads them and admits he doesn't understand many of the mathematics. However, the formulae could let someone travel through time. However, the time jump drains all energy in the vicinity upon the traveler's arrival. Walter explains that due to time travel, they may have encountered Alastair one or more times in the past, but he used time travel to escape and undid the events that led to his capture. Astrid confirms that Arlette died in a car crash ten months ago, and they conclude that Alastair is perfecting time travel so that he can go back and save his fiancée. However, Walter points out that so far, Alastair has only been able to jump 12 hours... and that killed a dozen passengers. A jump of ten months would potentially kill thousands if Alastair arrives in a populated area. Astrid runs a trace on Arlette's cell phone and determines that it's still being used in the vicinity of MIT, at Alastair's former lab. The FBI move in and surround the place. However, Walter asks to talk to Alastair in private, scientist to scientist, and Broyles reluctantly agrees.

Equipped with a hidden microphone, Walter goes inside and confronts Alastair, who is busy inserting the last series of implants into his body. Alastair knows who Walter is and Walter introduces himself as an ambassador. As they have tea, Alastair explains that they both realize that time isn't a constant and the laws of nature can be indeterminate. Walter warns his fellow scientist to stay away from the snipers, and then explains how the energy drain could kill thousand. Alastair informs him that he argued with Arlette on the day of her death, walked away, and noticed a hot-air balloon in a nearby field. As he went there and looked at it, he came up with the final solution for his time travel formulae... at the same time that the crash occurred. Alastair explains that he plans to jump to the empty field, thus avoiding any deaths. Walter realizes that Alastair can't get the time travel mechanism to let him jump more than 12 hours. He disconnects the microphone and then points out the error in Alastair's calculations.



As the FBI assault team move in, Walter tells Alastair that although he can now travel back in time to the point of Arlette's death. However, he must not because he can't anticipate all the consequences of altering the timeline. Walter informs him that he did something similar by altering destiny and bringing the other Peter across to this world, and that he feels he betrayed God even though he wasn't a religious man. Now, Walter is hoping for a sign from God that he has received forgiveness. The sign is a white tulip, and Alastair notes that they don't bloom this time. Walter notes that's why it would be a true sign, and that if God can forgive him, then he can accept that Peter can also forgive him. Alastair insists that their only god should be science, who exists in all the benefits science can bring. Walter disagrees, and insists that there's no way that they can anticipate all the consequences. As the FBI team smashes their way in, Alastair jumps back into the past.

This time, Alastair jumps to his apartment, killing four residences and two policemen in the vicinity. The team gets word of the deaths, traces them to Alastair, and learns that he is working in his home lab. As the FBI surround the building and prepare to kill him, Alastair finishes the last set of implants that will allow him to go past the 12-hour limitation. He then draws something on a piece of paper, puts it in an envelope, and addresses it to Carol. He notices a sniper's targeting laser trained on him and ducks out of the way just in time to avoid being killed. The FBI break into the apartment as he teleports once more.

Alastair arrives in the empty field on the day of Arlette's death. He runs to her car, sobbing, gets in, and tells her that he loves her. The other car smashes in to Arlette's car and kills them both.



Several months later, Carol receives Alastair's letter. Per the instructions, she waits until a ten months have passed from the day of Alastair's death, and then mails it to Walter per her friend's written instructions.

Walter finishes his letter to Peter, considers it for a moment, and then throws it into the fire. Peter comes home and informs his father he's fixed his favorite turntable for playing records in the lab. As Walter thanks him, Peter asks if there's anything he wants to talk about. Walter says that he has a decision to make, and Peter goes up to bed. Walter checks the mail and finds the letter from Alastair. Inside it is a drawing of a white tulip.



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