Though it is not long before Peter (Joshua Jackson) returns to the Fringe Division, fans of the FOX sci-fi drama might not want to get too excited too soon. After all, it’s not like he’s going to return and magically so will Walter (John Noble) and Olivia (Anna Torv)’s memories of him. Though both characters are seeing Peter’s face, they don’t understand how, why, or who he is. But he does. He remembers them, and more importantly, he remembers how important his relationships with them were. Putting people in a room together isn’t enough to tug on deeply ingrained emotional pulls, though-- not even in Fringe. So someone’s bound to be disappointed. In fact, when LA TV Insider Examiner sat down with Torv on the Vancouver set* of Fringe last week, she said flat-out that the homecoming is “not the reunion that Peter would be hoping for.”
“The next episode to air, you’ll get a little bit of a taste of what kind of pull there is for Olivia and for Walter, too, actually,” Torv teased when we asked if Olivia would still feel a connection to this man we all know her to have once loved-- even if she doesn’t understand the how, why, or what of the pull.
“I think the changes that are there are really on Peter’s side because he’s the one who’s entering this and no longer has a place or things are different, whereas Walter and Olivia and Astrid have just kind of, like, made due, as ‘This is how we’ve always known it to be’.”
But in the next breath, Torv pointed out that “Lincoln’s here to stay, you know…all of a sudden there is another man in Olivia’s life” and that is going to affect the dynamic, as well. Anything Peter hoped to rekindle, or at least spark anew with memories that he already has, may have to wait awhile. And that’s how Torv might prefer it.
“I was surprised that they made it so domestic at the end of the last season. I kind of thought it could have been strung out a little bit more to become so epic,” she discussed Peter and Olivia’s romance.
(You can hear Torv talk a bit more about Peter and Fringe in our video chat to the left.)
Thus far in season four, it certainly seems like Fringe producers are setting Olivia and Lincoln Lee (Seth Gabel) up for this universe’s version of an epic romance, as well. The two have been slowly getting closer while working together in the Fringe Division, and just last episode they shared an extremely close encounter while trying to take down some quite fatal fungus. Fans haven’t forgotten what Olivia and Peter once shared, but this Olivia is a very different character, and you will certainly find yourselves just as conflicted as she may be, innately pulled between both guys.
But how will the other Olivia fit in? As episodes go on, Torv has found herself working side-by-side with herself more and more, which she enjoys, but she admits her alter ego, not so much:
“They don’t really get on at all, the two of them, and so yeah, I couldn’t imagine that. I think that would be such an awkward working situation to be working with a person who’s kind of like you but not really, so I think there will always be that little-- and I think that’s true of all of the alternates,” Torv smiled.
“Olivia, God bless her, has done me good, but there’s a few things…One of the big things is that in the alternate universe alt-Lincoln is the head of the Fringe Division, so he has to carry that burden that Olivia has to carry on our side, and you know, you have to be very serious; you have to be straight; you get all of the stuff that’s, you know, straight up. So when I’m not playing that, you can just be more free because the responsibility isn’t yours anymore, and that’s why playing characters that are a little bit on the periphery are the best!”
Fringe airs on Friday nights at 9pm only on FOX.
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* travel accommodations provided by WBTV
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