Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories

'Fringe' takes a closer look into Olivia's life

by jmaloni

Sci-fi drama back with six new episodes

Sat, Apr 4th 2009 09:00 am

Behind the Screens with Joshua Maloni

"Fringe" returns Tuesday to begin the final chapter of its first season. The heart of the story will focus on FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and the superhuman abilities she may possess.

When "Fringe" last aired in February, the villainous Mr. Jones (Jared Harris), having used a teleportation device to escape a German prison, was in the U.S. and looking for Olivia. A bomb containing an orifice-closing substance would explode and spread throughout Boston unless Olivia managed to pass his test, and shut off a light box detonator with her mind.

The device was deactivated, but Olivia wasn't entirely convinced it was because of her "Professor X"-like mental acuity. However, as the episode ended, Olivia learned she was likely the recipient of a brain-powering injection at the age of 3.

"Fringe" will explore what effect that shot had on Olivia, and if it somehow leads back to Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) who, with his son, Peter (Joshua Jackson), aids the FBI in getting to the bottom of unexplained phenomena related to something called "The Pattern."

"We slowly start to discover some -- I never know what I can and what I can't say -- but we start to discover some things that sort of happened to her when she was really little that she doesn't really remember, but they start to kind of - you start to see the stories or the lives of Peter and Walter and Olivia kind of begin to interlace a little bit, and you sort of see how their paths have crossed before," Torv said in a phone interview.

"We do start to find out what was done to her when she was little, and we also start to figure out what -- I think that the episode where she turns the light box off ... when you find out that she maybe has some special ability. And you start to delve; we do get to delve a little bit into that, to work out why she has that ability or superpower or if it's something that's been done to her," Torv said.

Moreover, there may be a connection between Walter and Mr. Jones' group, followers of the ZFT ("zerstorung durch fortschritte der technologie" or "destruction by advanced technology").

"I'm really excited, and things kind of like, I think because we're gearing up for the end of the season, we sort of started to, I guess, things sort of started to get a little bit more cemented," Torv said. "We shot an episode a little while ago, one of the last ones directed by Akiva Goldsman (Oscar-winning screenwriter of "A Beautiful Mind," who wrote and directed the episode "Bad Dreams," airing Tuesday, April 21) and I think that kind of pushes it into a different direction, but not into a different world. It sort of pushes us a little bit deeper into some of the things that we've been touching on. And we're shooting the season finale at the moment, and I'm really excited. I'm excited at the prospect of where the show could go. If we're lucky enough to shoot a second season, I think it's going to be really great."

"Fringe" airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.

Hometown News

View All News