FRINGE: J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner Preview Season 4

Recently Fringe showrunners J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner took part in a conference call to discuss the upcoming fourth season. At the end of season three, Peter Bishop ceased to exist. Naturally there are a lot of resulting questions throughout the fandom that people want answered. Pinkner and Wyman were happy to answer some of those questions, while others they merely teased, not wanting to give too much away.

Peter’s presence
First and foremost, they made clear that Joshua Jackson (Peter) is still going to be very much a part of the show, so no reason to worry.

Wyman assures fans, “There are kind of two things that we want to get across without really ruining anything and that is, number one, yes, Peter is part of the DNA and he’ll always be that. Number two is that just because he doesn’t exist doesn’t mean that the three years that we’ve all invested in and watched does not exist; it didn’t happen. It really did happen and it’ll unfold itself for you to understand in what context I’m speaking of.”

Does that mean we can we expect continuity when Peter returns? In response to questions, Pinkner is clear and concise, “You can absolutely expect continuity.” Wyman elaborates, “What’s interesting for us is like there’s a paradigm shift because now it’s like the audience completely understands what’s happened in the last seasons of the program and they know and so does Peter. That’s going to have its value and there’ll be some good rooting interest there because everything you did know is still relevant and is still valuable.”

The Observers
Wyman tells us we are “going to learn a little bit more about them this year and hopefully will be able to conceptualize them in a way that you’ll be happy with and go, “Oh, that’s really interesting.””

Lincoln Lee
What will he add? Pinkner says Lee’s “coming in and being displaced and a lot of the things that his character will be going through are going to be sort of–they’re going to help tell our story here thematically.”

Returning faces this season
Pinkner seems reluctant to give more than “yes”, but does add “there will be characters that you’ll be delighted to see again hopefully and some that you’ll be surprised to see again.” Wyman chimes in that “some you may have seen before that come back in a completely different context.”

How well and how often will the two universes work together?
Last season there was a lot of switching back and forth. Pinkner says “this year there will definitely be stories where the two universes have to work together. Certainly there’s an implication that Walternate, despite all promises to the contrary, is still a bad guy manipulating things behind the scenes.”

According to Wyman, “right from the get go when we started to decide how we were going to tell the story of that alternate universe. What we realized is the reason we’re doing is to sort of highlight and contrast our characters that we love with versions of themselves that maybe are not similar to sort of highlight some of the aspects and the individual characteristics of our team. So, this offered us a great opportunity to go further with that, to be able to sort of have them in the same frame and actually watch how any or imagine if the two Olivias are looking at a problem very differently and their solutions are very different.”

Out of the Box episodes
Will fans get another special episode like LSD or Brown Betty? Sounds like it. “For sure,” says Wyman. “this year you’re going to see one that definitely is a little off the beaten track as well.”

The Fringe team’s caseload
Pinkner says, “We have a slew of really crazy, hopefully thought provoking, far out cases that deal with time travel and out of control biology and humans who either, for very understandable and sometimes not so understandable reasons, are messing with the rules of nature and the rules of physics.”

Wyman adds, “What’s really cool about the other side and, now, our side being together and working together, we get to tell some really great far out sort of mytholons as we call them, freaks of the week type of thing that are sort of integrated into our larger mythology.”

New to the series? Dive in!
According to Pinkner, “Because Peter has disappeared, the season sort of starts fresh. If you’ve never seen the show before, this is a great place to dive in because everything is new. If you have been watching the show, now you’re watching with the eye towards everything is new and different and it’s making you question or re-imagine what you’ve seen in the past.”

Free will vs. Fate
Pinkner relates that, “We told an episode last season that took place in 2026 and among other things, in a world of details, Broyles had a milky eye because something had clearly happened. Now, because of the choice that Peter made we know that that future specifically will not happen. But maybe, inevitably, the same event will end up happening in this future where Broyles ended up getting injured. So, the notion of fate versus free will, if you try to run away from fate is that going to lead you right to fate’s door itself.“

Time to marathon seasons 1-3
Pinkner allows that it would help. “I think that if you don’t brush up that’s okay too; it’ll still make sense, but I think that the fun for the viewer will definitely be like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I saw that case.'” He then teases, “Imagine there’s a case that happens and you’ve seen it and you’re like, ‘Of course, I know how it ends’ and it doesn’t end that way.”

To get ready for the premiere, Fox has uploaded a video recap of the first three seasons on their Youtube Channel for those who want to refresh their memories or catch up. Also, my fellow FBI (Fringe Benefits Incorporated) podcasters and I have recorded our review of the third season, available for download.

Fringe returns tonight at 9/8c on FOX.