But we do tend to call that impulse love without thinking it through, don't we?

Indeed we do and...>Walter is learning, slowly and painfully, how to put all of that back together. To be whole, as you say.

He is, and what fascinates me so much is that he's doing so in a context where it is impossible to make it 'right'. There can be understanding of what he did, explaining, but he can't make up for it or justify it. Can't change the damage he's done, not even if the universes were to magically heal tomorrow. I'm not even sure forgiveness is possible. But mercy is.