“Fringe” Cast Discusses Upcoming Developments

At long last, the baseball playoffs are over and we can (finally) turn our attention back to one of the best shows on television, “Fringe.”

The series returns to Fox tonight at 9 p.m. EST with an all-new episode that focuses on the character of Broyles.  According to reports, tonight’s episode will reveal a few clues about Broyles and his background.

But don’t expect the revelations to stop there.  As the series gears up for the rest of its second season, the cast of the show says there are a lot of questions lingering that can and should be addressed.

If you’ve not seen the second season yet or don’t want to know potential SPOILERS for the rest of season two, please stop reading now.

One of the biggest questions on the show this season has been about Peter, played by Joshua Jackson.  At the end of last season, it was revealed that Peter in our universe had died and been replaced by Walter.  Did Walter go to the alternate dimension to get Peter and did that decision create the coming confict between the two dimension that William Bell told Olivia about a few weeks ago?

And will Peter ever learn the truth about what happened?

“The big [question] that gets raised is, when he finds out the truth about his origins, where do his loyalties lie?” Jackson tells SciFi Wire. “I truly am excited to play it either way. Maybe the decision’s been made—they haven’t told me—but I think it’s just as interesting to have Peter freak out, have his moment outside the flock, and then come back and say, ‘I forgive you, but this is where I belong.’ And I also think it’s quite interesting to have him freak out and say, ‘No, burn it all down,’ and have Peter actually become some version of the bad guy going into season three.”

Another question lingering is that while we’ve seen alternate versions of Broyles and Charlie, we’ve not yet determined if there is another Walter or another Olivia lurking out there.

The cast has begun referring to the other Walter as “Walternate” and Jackson says he’s convinced there has to be one.

His co-star John Noble, who plays Walter, agrees with the assessment and that when we meet the “Walternate” he won’t be happy.

“He’s going to be awfully angry,” Noble says. “That’s my summation. We’ve sort of hinted this, haven’t we? We’ve had little hints of other Walters around the place, and you’ll see that. My guess would be that there has to be a confrontation between the two men. That’s not the writers again, this is just me projecting forward.”

As for another Olivia, Anna Torv says she’s not heard either way but that she looks forward to the opportunity to play her.

“I’m hoping that there is [an alt-Olivia]. But then I don’t know … which I would prefer if she ends up coming. I don’t know if I would prefer her to be just, like, fractionally off, ” Torv says. ” I would love to see … she’s completely, you know, 180 [degrees different]. … My pitch would be, and I think that’s what a lot of people are saying, too, … with the discovery of the fact that the Peter here is clearly not from here, then it makes sense that maybe the Walter over there is angry with the Walter here, and that’s kind of the whole thing behind [the Pattern]. But I don’t know. They do sometimes surprise. Sometimes they put these clues in and then they flip it on its head and you’ve been wrong all along. But that’s where I’m going.”

As for what fans can look forward to in the coming weeks and months, look for an episode that centers on the mysterious Observer and one that sees Walter and William Bell crossing paths.

“We’ve introduced William Bell as a major player now, and Leonard’s been back a couple of times,” Noble says, revealing: “I did a lovely scene with him the other day. A very interesting scene which I’m not going to tell you about, but it was amazing. What it revealed. The revelation in that was shocking. It was shocking to me when I read it.”

Noble adds: “What we’re dealing with is, we’ve been told that there’s a breach, that there will have to be a repercussion for this breach. And so as we build through now, we’re coming towards what they’re calling a war. … [If you] break the laws of nature, you will pay. That’s going to happen. So we’ll build through season two up to that point. In the meantime, we’ll continue to do stories that are interesting, and we’ve done some, I think some of our very, very best scripts. Last, this year, we’ve done some amazing [things]. Just what we’ve been shooting for the last five episodes is extraordinary.”

“Fringe” airs tonight on Fox at 9 p.m. EST.