Pete Wilder

Peter "Pete" Wilder was a character on the Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice. He is played by actor Tim Daly.^[1] Dr. Pete Wilder's first appearance was in an extended episode of Grey’s Anatomy, The Other Side of This Life. In Season Six episode 1 (Aftershock) it is revealed by Violet that Pete had suffered a fatal heart attack while on a run.

Character History

Season One

Pete works at the Oceanside Wellness Center as a naturopathic doctor and licensed herbalist. He graduated from medical school and practiced traditional western medicine for a number of years before spending five years in China studying alternative medicine. Pete’s medical practice combines eastern and western medicine in an integrative approach, and he is often asked to provide expectant mothers with holistic birthing plans.^[2] Pete has also lectured locally and internationally on the subject of Oriental and Eastern Medicine.^[2]

During Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery's first visit to Oceanside Wellness, Pete and Addison establish a teasing and often flirtatious relationship. Addison initially labels Pete a “quack,” but she allows the “cute hippy boy” to treat her with acupuncture. Although Pete is immediately attracted to her, he promises their mutual friend, Dr. Sam Bennett, that he will stay away from Addison. However, after finding Addison crying over her newly discovered infertility, Pete kisses her to prove that she isn’t “dried up.” Addison seems open to pursuing a relationship with Pete, but is warned off by Sam. According to Sam, Pete is a serial monogamist, unable to emotionally connect with any woman since the death of his wife. Pete's last foray into office romance was apparently disastrous, and resulted in the unnamed OB/GYN's sudden departure from the practice. In response, Oceanside Wellness instituted a strict "no consorting" rule.

Pete's relationship with his wife is somewhat mysterious and he appears reluctant to discuss their marriage. During a visit to her grave on the anniversary of her death, we discover Anna Wilder died in 2001, at the age of 40. (In "The Other Side of This Life," Sam stated that Pete’s wife had died eight years prior. However, in a subsequent interview, Tim Daly said that there is some confusion as to whether Anna died six or eight years prior, which was finally decided to be six years prior.) In a discussion regarding a patient, Pete hints to the other doctors that he stayed in an unhappy marriage because his wife was sick, and that they were unable to make the marriage work. Pete eventually tells Addison that he went to bed with his wife on a Tuesday night and when he awoke the following Wednesday morning, she was dead. He further states that no night was perfect during their marriage, not even their wedding night. This information was the most that Pete has ever divulged to any of his co-workers about his wife. During a second visit to his wife's grave, Pete unleashes his pent-up anger to his wife's headstone. After stating that Anna was "a mean, cold bitch" and that he hated her, Pete softens and apologizes for not being able to save her. Pete later reveals to Violet that at the time of Anna's death, they had been trying to conceive a child.

Season Two

In the fourth episode, a mysterious woman from Pete's past appears in the clinic and reveals surprising facts about his past. Meg Porter (played by Jayne Brook) is a Doctors Without Borders physician and Pete's former lover. They met when they were both residents and later worked together with Doctors Without Borders. Meg reveals to Pete's surprised co-workers that once, during the war in Bosnia, Pete (whom Meg calls Peter) refused to evacuate and, despite the mortar fire, stayed with sick children for the whole night saving the lives of most of them. Later Pete told Meg, who has a smoking habit, that his wife was a smoker and she didn't quit the habit before she died. Despite their renewed relationship, Meg decides to go back to Ghana, where she works in an anti-malaria program, but Pete asked her to come back to him because she makes him happy. Meg returned later to L.A. and even tried to give up smoking for Pete, but despite that, the relationship didn't work. Meg wasn't sure if she wanted to live in L.A., and Pete admitted that ever since his unhappy marriage he doesn't trust women anymore. When Pete and his Oceanside Wellness Center colleague Violet hooked-up, the relationship with Meg was definitely over.

The relationship with Violet started with just sex, but Pete later realized that he wanted more. When he asked Violet if they could move to the next level and begin a real relationship, she turned him down, saying she doesn't trust him because of his past. But it was Violet's behavior that really put an end to things when she started secretly dating Sheldon, the therapist from the rival practice, The Pacific Wellcare. Pete ended their relationship because of Violet's infidelity. Afterward, Violet reveals to both Pete and Sheldon she's pregnant, and was willing to raise the child, but preferred to ignore who the father is. In the Season Two finale, Pete confronts Violet and says that he loves her and they could be a real family. Violet turns him down, but later she kisses him and confesses her feelings towards him. In the end, Violet's patient, Katie, thinks Violet's baby is her own. Katie kidnaps Violet, ending the finale as a cliffhanger.

Season Three

Season Three starts just twenty minutes after the Season Two finale, when Pete finds Violet lying unconscious on the floor of her house, bleeding to death. Katie cut the baby out of Violet and ran away with him. Pete saves Violet and, together with Naomi, rushes her to hospital, where Addison and Naomi perform surgery on her. In the meantime, Katie appears in the hospital with Violet's baby, and is apprehended by Pete, Cooper, and the security team.

While waiting in the hospital during Violet's surgery, Pete thinks back to their first meeting. They met just four days after Pete's wife death when Sam and Naomi, Pete's friends who had just opened their private practice, recommended that Pete see Violet for therapy. Pete at first was reluctant to talk with Violet, but he finally opened up to her and admitted that he hated his wife and argued with her all the time, even the night she died. The next morning, he continued yelling at her when he woke up and only a few minutes later he noticed that she wasn't answering because she was dead. Pete admitted that he was relieved after his wife's death and felt free. After that. Pete, who owned an Infectious Diseases practice in Beverly Hills, decided to change his job, and started working in Oceanside Wellness Centre as an Alternative Medicine specialist, where he still works eight years later.

A month after the Season Three premiere, Violet is still trying to recover and get over her trauma. Pete lives with her and takes care of her and the baby, Lucas. Violet is not leaving her house and has panic attacks every time the doorbell rings. After getting advice from Sheldon, Pete decides to move out, to help Violet recover and push her to go outside. Violet realizes that after the traumatic events in her life, she can't bond with her baby. She gives Lucas to Pete to care for.

A couple of weeks later, Sheldon requests a paternity test and it is revealed that Pete is the biological father. Pete continues to be a single father and takes care of Lucas, hoping that some day Violet will come back to him and be able to bond with their child. To give Violet more space and time to recover, Pete decided to leave his job in Oceanside Wellness and accept Naomi's offer to work as physician in Pacific Wellcare.

When Pete found out that Violet slept with Addison's father, he was so hurt, that he declared it the definite end of their relationship. Later on Pete forgave Violet, but she still wasn't ready to move on and re-unite with Pete and their son, Lucas, who was already 6 months old. After that Pete and Addison started a "friends with benefits" relationship together.

Pete and Addison eventually took their relationship further, becoming a real couple. They pursued this even after Violet had returned and was ready for a real relationship with Pete and Lucas. In the Season Three finale, Addison tells Pete that he should be with Violet, and he seems to initiate a newfound relationship with Violet again.

Season Four

In the Season Four premiere, Pete popped the question to Violet after a morning of passion. The wedding was set for the following weekend. Violet bolted from the ceremony halfway down the aisle, but was wordlessly convinced by Pete to come back and the two were wed. In the Season Four finale, Violet finds out that her license is being suspended and Pete tells her that maybe they should split. The final scene of Season Four shows Pete, alone with Lucas, having a heart attack with no one around to help him.

Season Five

No one is around to help Pete. Cooper arrives and finds him unconscious. He's rushed to the hospital where Sam and Amelia work to save his life. Violet returns shocked at what has happened. Pete has an emergency quadruple bypass. Amelia operates on him under the influence. The surgery is a success. Afterwards, everything seems fine between Violet and Pete until Pete begins lashing out at Violet and she becomes his verbal punching bag and he offers her no support as she struggles to return to the practice. Sheldon becomes Pete's unofficial therapist. Pete begins treating Violet as though he hates her. Sheldon warns him that he will lose her and Lucas if he continues this behavior. Violet and Pete try to make it work but Violet doesn't want him to hate her as he did hate his deceased wife. The two agree to amicably separate.

Season Six

In the season premier Violet is left wondering where Pete is as his court date has arrived and he was not there. Throughout the episode Violet and the rest of the practice debate whether he has fallen into some trouble or he decided to make a run for it. The only clue available is a text message from Pete to Violet stating, "No matter what happens, know that I love you. I'm out on a run". Speculation flies as Violet considers whether Pete meant a jog or a flight out of the country. In the last minutes of the episode it is revealed by Violet in a conversation with Cooper that police have informed her Pete had fallen off a hill while on a run and suffered a fatal heart attack. Since he was out of immediate sight help was not able to arrive on time and he passed away. Violet is in shock, stating she could hardly believe it was Pete and she did not know how to break the news to their three-year-old son. Per his will, Pete's body is cremated and he insists on a party rather than a funeral. At the event, Violet hears various people talk of how Pete saved their lives or helped family members, Violet having a difficult time dealing with it, including getting high in the bathroom. She tries to celebrate with singing but breaks down to scream over Pete leaving her and their son alone.

Trivia

• Pete rode a Triumph motorcycle.
• Before settling on the name Pete Wilder, the creators of the show considered and rejected "Pete Finch" and "Pete Fisher."^[3]

References

External links

• ABC Bio of Peter Wilder