Was Peter A Legion?

[IHaveGoodInstincts]

There's a few episodes in season 3 that are so close to making my top 5, but they have quirks or variances that just knock the episode down a few pegs for me. Skull and Bones is one such episode. I would rank it was one of the creepiest in season three (with antipas), but the different characterization they give to Peter Watts here just takes some of the gusto out of the episode for me. It's almost like Peter Watts got caught in a Star Trek transporter accident with an alternative universe !!!

The extent of Mabius's evil nature is somewhat ambiguous at times, but in my opinion, the nature of evil has it's ambigous moments in real life too. The whole shapeshifting thing certainly puts the evil nature issue squarely in the "realm of the truly bizarre," as Cheryl Andrews once said. I can see where adding to the visual "shock value" of evil on television can make evil more visually comparable to the shapeshifting alien bounty hunters in the X Files.

[Guest evil]

Peter was completely out of character. That's why my explanation is the only one that fits, or, it's just complete ignorance from the writers.

Truthfully, I'm sure it's the writer's poop that's how I came to this deduction to cover up a big mistake.

This show has made a few in season 3.

[ethsnafu]

I just think they dropped the ball somewhat with Peter's characterisation in "Skull and Bones". I can appreciative the intention, to provide a signpost to the viewer that Watts is operating at an all new level of darkness to what we have seen before but Dark Watts (for want of a better phrase) lacked a natural progression for the character and was painted with broad-strokes and should have received a subtler treatment. We know Watts is capable of being shady, we know his morals are conflicted by his need to achieve wisdom and gnosis but we had no indication that he could be so vile and so akin to the antagonists of season one in terms of how brutal and bloody he could be. Having such a revelation come out of the blue with no real 'in' for the viewer in terms of how he got to that point was a mistake in my view. It was something that was a hallmark of early season three in my opinion. Marburg was all but waved away as it was considered to complicated to resolve coherently and Watts was also changed quite dramatically without coherence simply because it was felt the plot necessitated the change. Adding to, and taking away, from a shows mythology is all well and good as long as it isn't done with a 'oh never mind the explanations' frame of mind.

On a plus point Dark Watts never reached the nadir he reached as a character in "Skull and Bones" again in that season and his handling was much more competent if a little sparse. If season three suffered from anything it suffered from a little too little Peter Watts.

Eth

[ty7du]

I agree, there was too little of Watts in the third season. The most prominent usage of him was in Collateral Damage when Watts' daughter was kidnapped. Watts was caught between two fires (or is there a better saying than this?) to go with Frank or the Group to solve this personal case.

Well, I never think Watts did anything too evil, I don't think he had much to do with the "slaughterhouse", other than covering it up. He had to keep up appearances, otherwise the Group would just kill him, he was in too deep. And he probably rationalized it with what he said in the episode, that even just knowledge of what they were doing, greater or small was worth eliminating a threat. So the Group could continue its work in peace.

I don't think the performance was over the top, I think that is a spillover from the "slaughterhouse" images we got. It's got to be the work of Legion, we saw what that thing in Gehenna did, so I can totally believe that Legion influenced the Group and created that mess.

[Who Am I?]

I'll raise a thought that might not have been said yet... Perhaps Frank was Peter's balance, that which kept him enjoyable as a character. With Frank being on the opposite "side" now, there was a hole of sorts within him that upset his nature.

[Guest I_am_Jess]

The way I interpreted Peter was that he did have a significant change towards darkness (more blind faith in the Group I feel), but in the end, especially in the episode 'Goodbye To All That' he did show that he still had good inside of him. The way he gave Frank the information that he wanted on Lucas Barr, the way he warned Frank and tried to 'protect' him, and then in the end when he left the Group files on Frank and Jordan in Frank's car hence, letting them know they were in danger.

Or maybe I just wanted to believe in the good in him.

[Earthnut]

I agree with you I_am_Jess, Peter did change, but I have to ask if the change was intentional just to dig for information and gain access to whatever he wanted. Or he could have just got very influenced by the dark side of the group and all of its lust for power and control. Hard to say for sure, but I believe he was a good man and had a good heart.

[IHaveGoodInstincts]

I think developing Peter Watts and maybe using his character conflict in the same ways as Frank's marriage conflict in season 2 would have helped the season. We saw shades of that in Collateral Damage, Matryoshka, and Goodbye, but he seemed rather ominous in Exogesis, Forcing the End, and Burdo Tholdol, not to mention being downright creepy in Skull and Bones. It would have been cool if they could have expounded on Peter's conflicts, but I think there are already a few "What I was hoping to see in season 4" threads that discuss this.

[Guest Ghostmojo]

I think perhaps Peter Watts became the Walter Skinner of MM. I think essentially he was a good man, but he was pulled in different directions, and not always were he wanted to go. He tried to help FB even perhaps when it might have appeared otherwise. There were occasions when it seemed like FB was going off the rails with a manic phobia developing related to PW, which was perhaps often not really justified. They both helped each other regarding protecting family members. Finally, we are left to ponder whether PW paid the ultimate penalty by helping FB - since the MG had proved to be less than forgiving in Season 3.

Ultimately, any concerns we had about Skinner were resolved in XF when we saw just how far he was prepared to go out on a limb for Mulder and Scully. This was not the case with PW unfortunately, although perhaps it would have been. He just didn't have the same scepticism that FB had about the MG and consequently gave them far too much rope to hang everybody else with.

However, despite his faults, and often questionable activities - I never saw him as a truly malevolent force, and certainly not supernaturally evil like Lucy Butler of this Mabius character. He was all too human when it came down to it. To err is to be human.

[Earthnut]

Excellent Ghostmojo comparing Peter with Walter Skinner. Yes, I agree, he was a good man but pulled in so many directions. He proved his humanity and that his heart was in the right place for sure when his daughter was kidnapped and that he would defy the group for family. And helped Frank at other times behind the scenes without the group knowing.