Give Me My Remote #1 featured 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

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

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.

Are there moments for Peter and Olivia fans to look forward to outside of those dreams we’ve seen?

JW: Yeah. Like I’ve said, Jeff and I believe in Olivia and Peter. And we say it a lot, but the truth is a lot of people sort of doubt that. We’ve said it before, no great love story is worth telling without bumps in the road and a difficult journey. If it’s an easy journey, there’s no love story or it’s kind of boring. The harder it is for two people to end up together, the more satisfying it is for when they finally get there.

JP: If they get there.

Assuming they don’t get killed off by cartoon men, or their boyfriend’s biological father, or hit by a car.

JW: There are love stories that end beautifully, and there are love stories, like Romeo and Juliet, that end tragically. But they’re still love stories.

Oh gosh. FRINGE is going to make people cry this season, isn’t it?

JW: Let’s see. We hope you feel something, that’s all we care about.

I’m sure we will. Right now, there are a lot of open-ended storylines that we’ve been exploring this season — the Observer’s prediction for Olivia, David Robert Jones, etc. Are you planning on tying up those loose ends before Peter returns home or is it possible some of those threads will be left dangling?

JW: We don’t like to keep any threads hanging. We’re still endeavoring to answer threads from season one, which is really fun for us. There will be a lot of answers from season one that are hanging out there. We can definitely say that…we’re not interested in leaving any stone unturned or leaving anything hanging in the wind, because we’re telling these stories for a reason and every single thread has its purpose. We will pursue that accordingly.

Good to know. Any plans to dip into the Bad Robot pool of actors for another cameo spot, a la Jorge Garcia’s appearance last year?

JP: Maybe.

JW: Maybe. We’ll try it!

Obviously there’s been a lot of talk about the show’s future, with Fox President Kevin Reilly laying out that the show is losing the network money. It seems like the show’s fate may rest in the hands of Warner Bros. at this point, so is there something you think the fans should be doing? Or are you confident in where the fates are going to take you?

JP: No, we’re never confident about where the fates are going to take us.

JW: Making noise is the best thing.

JP: Look, again without being crass about it, watching the show live is the most important thing. The last couple weeks, the fans have been tweeting, causing FRINGE or FRINGE-related topics to trend worldwide during the airings of the show Friday nights, which is obviously incredibly flattering. The numbers have gone up, the DVR numbers continue to remain really solid and/or rising. And Fox sees that. So the short answer is, they’re well aware. Our fans are incredibly loyal. Watching live is obviously the most important thing. Joel and I will never come out and say, “Hey, please watch this show live,” because we know what people’s viewing habits are like.

JW: But if you don’t have a Nielsen box, it can have an adverse reaction, because if you watch it live and you don’t DVR, they take the DVR numbers away. So DVR and watch live.

And buy it off iTunes.

JW: [Joking] Yeah, do it all!

JP: Just trust us, I guess is really the answer. Trust us that we’re aware of the questions the audiences’ are asking; they will all be attended to. Just continue to support the show in all the awesome ways that you guys have been. If it weren’t for the fans we wouldn’t be able to tell these stories. And we’re so grateful…Just trust that the process works and we have great hope and confidence that we’ll continue to tell these stories for some time longer.

JW: It’s always nice…them being vocal is a good thing. They’re the greatest. We’re always amazed at their enthusiasm, love and support.

–

Guys, I know it’s easy to be skeptical that answers are coming, but I had the chance to screen “Welcome to Westfield” recently and they weren’t BS-ing when they said it’s big. This is one you’re going to want to watch yourselves, versus get spoiled on it, so you’ll all be tuning in Friday night at 9 pm on Fox, right?

Related:

FRINGE’s Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman: ‘Answers Are Coming Very Soon!’ Plus, Teases For the Astrid-Centric Hour, Episode 19, and More

FRINGE’s Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman: ‘Answers Are Coming Very Soon!’ Plus, Teases For the Astrid-Centric Hour, Episode 19, and More

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