Fringe Producers Jeff Pinker and J.H. Wyman — A TV Guide Interview

Our partner site, TV Guide On-Line has a new interview with Jeff Pinker and J.H. Wyman, producers of Fox’s Fringe.

If you haven’t seen Friday’s pivotal episode, you may want to bookmark this one and come back later.

TVGuide.com: Why make Bolivia pregnant? Was this your way of humanizing the other universe?

J.H. Wyman: Yes. It’s what the alternate universe is doing and who they are really is why they’re human to us. There will be some much larger things to come, definitely.

TVGuide.com: It seems as though Walternate is going to use Bolivia’s pregnancy to get Peter back to the alternate universe.
Jeff Pinkner: Well, actually, I’m not sure that’s what’s going to happen. It’s implied that he’s going to use the baby to get Peter back, but I think that the baby will provide Walternate with a means to his end, but it’s not limited exclusively to getting Peter back.

TVGuide.com: Since the baby has the same DNA as Peter, does that mean it could be used to activate the machine?
Pinkner: That’s a possibility. So, as Joel said, it has been our intent from the beginning to complicate the viewers’ [main] interests. By exploring this alternate universe, we’re trying to, over time, allow people to realize that they’re not the bad guy. Walternate is the biggest victim in this entire saga. He had his son stolen from him.

TVGuide.com: Bolivia seems to really be in love with Peter, so how is he going to feel about Walternate’s plans, whatever they might be?
Pinkner: Bolivia is just a citizen of that world who, heroically, like the fireman, is trying to put out the flames and is now involved in this much larger saga and genuinely fell for Peter. You’ll definitely see repercussions of that line of thinking. All of this will drive the storytelling towards the back end of the season, for sure. She’s also just discovered she’s pregnant. There’s a whole saga that goes on with that. It causes her to ask questions about herself.

TVGuide.com: Peter and Olivia’s relationship is already so strained. Once this news comes out, will it cause a bigger break in their relationship?
Pinkner: This has been a year of self-actualization. People are starting to ask a lot of questions: what they stand for, what they’re doing here, what their involvement is and what they’re experiencing. I’m looking also at [them] going through changes that may bring their complex relationship to a whole other level. I can definitely assure you that it’s not going to fall out in a way that you would expect.

TVGuide.com: Peter has become a machine in a lot of ways. Will this news bring back his humanity, or might it destroy him all together?
Pinkner: We were not trying to suggest that Peter was becoming a machine. The machine is clearly tapped into the darker side of his nature. This is a character who, because of Olivia and Bolivia,who he thought was Olivia, has become more vulnerable and more willing to allow somebody into his heart and to know him, both good and bad, since he was brought to our world. We were using that episode to show Olivia is actually getting through to him… we’re trying to earn their relationship in a way that isn’t like, “Oh, pretty TV actor, pretty TV actress, they belong together.”

TVGuide.com: How Peter feels about a particular universe will effect which universe is saved by the machine. So, in learning about this pregnancy, should we all be really worried about the regular universe now?
Pinkner: There’s always peril for this universe because it is going to start to break down like over there. I think that as the cards are being laid out for you, you’re going to have certain assumptions, but our job is to make sure that we turn over some cards that you didn’t even expect to see. So, right now, you may assume that, but it would just be an assumption.

TVGuide.com: Will Bolivia return to the normal universe?
Pinkner: Eventually, I think the characters will all meet up again. But, we’re not, at this moment, prepared to say when or where.

TVGuide.com: Each season finale has had a big “what the heck just happened?” moment: showing us the Twin Towers, Olivias being switched… What can we look forward to this year?
Pinkner: There are always going to be big revelations, hopefully earned revelations that you’re like, “Oh, my gosh. I never saw it coming and I’m so intrigued and compelled.” It’s going to be a big event, which will propel us into Season 4 and, hopefully, have you look at the show through a completely different prism and say, “Oh, wow, I never saw that coming.”