FRINGE: Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman Tease the ‘Mind-Bending’ ‘Welcome to Westfield,’ Olivia’s Fate, the Lincoln-Olivia-Peter Triangle, Their Fans and More
February 9, 2012 by Marisa Roffman
It’s hard to talk about Friday’s brand new episode of FRINGE, “Welcome to Westfield,” without spoiling too much, but at risk of over-hyping the hour, it’s safe to say it’s good. As in, canIhavethenextepisoderightnowplease?, good.
But again, at the risk of spoiling too much, I probably shouldn’t say much more.
Thankfully, FRINGE executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman were willing to tease a little bit about what viewers can expect from the hour, as well as just how dire September’s prediction for Olivia really was, Peter-Olivia-Lincoln, their awesome fans, and more…
The description for “Welcome to Westfield” — Peter, Olivia, and Walter get trapped together — is very interesting. Is it a bottle episode of sorts?
J.H. Wyman: No, no bottle episodes, but I think that one is going to go over really well. I really believe people are going to love that one.
Is there anything you can tease about it, specifically?
JW: It’s a fantastic episode, really mind-bending in the best FRINGE-ian kind of way. It’s going to answer a lot of mythological questions. It’s going to answer one very large mythological question, which we believe is of paramount importance, the answer to that question. It’s a big one as far as stakes are concerned.
Very interesting. You guys teased that answers are going to be coming in waves over the next few episodes. Is that going to come partially in the return of September?
Jeff Pinkner: September’s a piece of the puzzle, for sure.
Are we going to be finding out a little bit more about how he got shot and whether it was due to his actions in the season premiere?
JP: Without spoiling it, obviously the questions that are on your mind are the questions on everyone’s minds and we’re going to answer those questions and others and pose new ones. Hopefully like we always do.
Well, we did have his warning to Olivia that she had to die. Now, that sounds dire –
JP: It is!
But if you really think about it, everybody has to die eventually. Are we reading too much into this where he wants her to live forever, or is this a morbid thing where the message is, “You’re going to die soon.”
JW: The Observers, don’t forget, they’ve already experienced the future. It’s not an issue of him wanting her to live forever; he knows…there’s something tragic in the mail for her.
JP: It’s not like he’s saying, “Hey, you’ve got to age.”
That’s true. She just does not have the best luck. Everyone keeps wanting her dead or thinking she’s going to die.
JP: She’s a hero.
Yeah. Poor girl.
JW: She said as much [in last season's "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide"]: ” I saw the man who is going to kill me.” So these things might be connected.
Would those two things still be connected in the new timeline?
JW: That’s what’s really interesting — fate and destiny and things like that, they cross timelines, they cross who knows, right?
Okay, then I have a super-nerdy question: If this man is destined to kill her, why did Walternate kill her in the future Peter saw?
JW: That’s another time.
JP: That future will never happen. What Peter did at the end of last season –
JW: Altered the course of it.
JP: — altered the course of events. Peter’s sacrifice, getting into the machine and ultimately disappearing from the timeline, was specifically to avoid that future.
JW: Don’t forget, there’s many different possibilities of the future, many different versions. So one of them, maybe Walternate kills her, in another one, maybe the guy from the Zeppelin kills her, in another one, she can get hit by a car, and in another one, she can miss that car, in other, she can pull a gun and shoot Walternate — there’s all kinds of different versions. It’s precarious.
Speaking of precarious, there’s this weird triangle forming with Peter, Olivia, and Lincoln. How is the triangle going to play out in the next batch of episodes?
JW: The struggle is being around someone that [looks like the person you love]…Peter knows what he’s destined for, and it’s not [this Olivia], and that’s difficult for him. She’s there and she’s serving as a painful reminder every time he sees her of what he’s missing and what’s waiting for him. Biologically and chemistry-wise, she’s the same girl, really, so it’s very difficult.
Him watching another person dealing with her on another level that might be construed as romantic is also hard. So, it’s there for a reason. You’re going to see — that’s what it’s designed for — to show us that, “Wow, I really want to be with her.” And ultimately, you just want him to get his Olivia back. And that’s the whole key. You will watch some painful moments and some beautiful moments and hopefully you’ll be down there with him with his struggle.
Read Marisa Roffman's entire GiveMeMyRemote article here.
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