Fringe: Producers Tease Olivia’s Sticky Situation

by Roco on July 28, 2010 · 3 comments

If you watched the season 2 Fringe finale (and you really should have) you’ll know that poor Olivia found herself in quite a pickle. Trapped in the alternate universe, her brand new love unaware that she’s even missing, and unable to rock her own color. Who said being an inter-dimensional gate-keeper was easy? Not me!

In an interview with SFX, executive producers, Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman spoke about Olivia’s situation and what challenges lie ahead for the intrepid agent. Mild spoilers.

Wyman reveals: “We had conversations with Anna about how we were constructing roles for her. We know we’ve written Olivia as a character who’s burdened by her job, and the Cortexiphan experiments done to her as a child are really in one way or another a form of child abuse.

“They robbed her of a lot of choices in her life. She’s grown up in that shadow and to subconsciously be prepared, like a soldier, for an oncoming something.

“She wears the dark clothing and doesn’t form relationships easily as she’s very protective of herself and her emotions, while at the same time being a protector of everybody else. We knew we wanted to create her doppelganger unburdened by those same responsibilities.”

He went on: “We’re always trying to broaden her emotionally, since a major part of our storytelling, especially about the alternate universe, is about the choices that we make. We talk about Olivia and the concept that she’s the way she is because of what happened to her in her own life.

“When Olivia gets there and starts to see all these things that weren’t in her own life, it’s going to cause her to look at herself. And hopefully we’ll break her down to build her back up and she can self actualise.”

Pinkner also offered the following perspective: ”We’re not shying away from exploring the other universe and we left Olivia in a condition that it would feel like a shame if the very first thing we did was bring her home”. What, like Peter? (I kid. kinda).

[via]

Fringe returns for its third season Thursday, September 23rd, on FOX.

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Tagged as: Fringe, jeff pinkner, joel wyman, olivia, Spoilers

Story by Roco

Roco is founder and editor of Seriable.com -- the serialized TV community. You can also find him around the web at Fringe Bloggers and on Twitter.

Roco has written 5555 seriable articles.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

mlj102 July 30, 2010 at 12:23 AM

I loved this interview and the analysis of Olivia's character (I'm surprised you haven't mentioned it on Fringebloggers). I thought they did a great job of describing her character, and it's comforting to know that they have such a strong understanding of who her character is, and to know that they discuss that and do everything they can to stay true to that and to make sure that is conveyed.

“When Olivia gets there and starts to see all these things that weren’t in her own life, it’s going to cause her to look at herself.”

I love this concept and all that it implies. I think it will be fascinating for us as viewers to get that kind of character analysis, and to see Olivia herself taking a good hard look at who she is. It will be neat to see how she grows from that and I'm really looking forward to it.

“We’re not shying away from exploring the other universe and we left Olivia in a condition that it would feel like a shame if the very first thing we did was bring her home”

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, it's good to know they don't intend to resolve this story cliffhanger in the premiere… It's bigger than that and deserves better than that. But on the other hand, I'm cautious about the idea of leaving her over there too long. For one, it just doesn't sit well for me to think of our beloved Olivia trapped over there for any large amount of time. Also, I can't see alternate Olivia fooling Walter and Peter and the others for too long… And I imagine that once they figure it out, they will do everything possible to rescue our Olivia. Another thing is that I can't figure out what they would do with Olivia over there for an extended amount of time. They can't just keep her locked in that cell. But if she escapes, she can't just be on the run and try to go into hiding/blend in over there indefinitely. And I can't see her cooperating with them. Nor could I see them just assigning her to alternate Fringe Division. In other words, I'm very curious to see what kind of scenario they have come up with to keep her occupied.

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seriable July 30, 2010 at 10:26 PM: mlj,
I too am curious to see what they do with Olivia, and I'm looking forward to the introspection that the character will receive. I'm probably slightly more enthused by the idea of her possibly remaining in the alternate universe for an extended period, since I was so at a loss when Peter hopped, skipped and jumped his way back home after barely 1 episode! Like you say though, I can't see Altlivia going undetected for too long, so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out!
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SF July 31, 2010 at 11:32 PM

“He went on: “We’re always trying to broaden her emotionally, since a major part of our storytelling, especially about the alternate universe, is about the choices that we make. We talk about Olivia and the concept that she’s the way she is because of what happened to her in her own life.

My heart gave a jump when I read those words, and I am so delighted! They are going to let Olivia grow and change because of what she sees in the AU! Of course, this also gives hope that AltLiv will also have the same thing happen to her. I'm just so thrilled though for Olivia, and that the producers are staying with the theme of choices, and especially that new choices can be made by the characters. Oh please put this on Fringebloggers! it should get some interesting thoughts too.

Do you think we'll ever see Olivia in a bright colour again???

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