FRINGE Showrunners J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner Talk “The End of All Things” and Thoughts on Renewal

Fringe show runners Joel Wyman and Jeff Pinkner recently participated in a conference call with media and bloggers about this Friday‘s episode “The End of All Things” and gave their perspective on the show’s less than certain future.

What about the “The End of All Things” were you most excited to share with viewers?

Jeff: “It was designed to tell a few things that all interacted in the story between Olivia and Nina, and any time Jared Harris (who is David Robert Jones) is on the screen is just fantastic. “Allowing us, and Michael Cerveris (as our observer) to peel back some layers and reveal some truths about what his agenda has been and to really use that as an opportunity to revisit some things we’ve done before in the show. ”

Is the observer intel something you’ve been wanting to let loose?

Joel: “We’ve always said that you’d find out about the observers this season and that we‘re going to investigate them a lot more.” “We’re excited about it all, but that’s a highlight. The observers are a highlight. For us to kind of constantly break what you think you know and sort of reset and have people go ‘wow, I didn’t see that coming,’ that’s kind of why we get up in the morning.”

This episode is mythology heavy and speaks to the larger arc this season. What can you say about how it will affect what we see in the final stretch?

Jeff: “It‘s definitely as they say a game changer, in that our characters learn a lot more and the audience will learn a lot more about the uber plot of our bad guy David Robert Jones.” “The character arc for Peter, Olivia, and Walter will unfold in ways that will hopefully be both satisfying and challenging to our characters.” “This is the 14th out of 22 episodes and it’s very much a hinge episode that will launch us into the back end of the season.”

How soon is it going to become evident what David Robert Jones’ uber plan is and how Olivia fits into it?

Joel: “I think that David Robert Jones, just remember that on Fringe we try to make it that nothing is as it seems that there’s always a little more to the story-behind-the-story.” He’s definitely a large point going forward and I think a lot of things will come full circle and will…I hate to use the word, recontextualize a lot of what you’ve seen.”

After this Friday, there is a month break then eight more episodes. Did you know this episode was a breakpoint?

Jeff: “We did not know that this was going to be a break, we thought that the break was going to come after the next episode which also is a wonderful episode to take a break on.” “We’re sort of in a zone of episodes right now where each one is pretty amazing and each one either turns the story or resolves something important, or it’s a cliffhanger.” “Each is pretty awesome in itself but also very important to the overall patchwork of the season.”

What are you hearing from Fox about next season?

Joel: “We can only do what we do. And that’s make the show that we love, continue to follow the path, the stories that we want to tell, great compelling stories that interest our fans.” “Meanwhile. Conversations are ongoing. Everything is running the way things usually run.” “We don‘t fret about it because it‘s really out of our control.” “We’re hoping for the best and just doing what we love. ”

Jeff: “One of my favorite stories when I was a little kid was “The Little Engine that Could.” I think I can, I think I can. We’re always struggling and struggling and struggling and hoping and hoping and hoping.”

 “We just hope that the dollars and cents can make sense and we get to continue doing it.” “But, if this is the last season I would feel, obviously, incredibly upset because I know how much story there is to tell and we love to tell. In the same breath, I would feel that I can take care of the fans and that‘s most important to us. That we feel like we have an ending that would leave people feeling “Wow, I feel sad but satiated, and I feel like that was definitely worth my four years of investment, and I really love these characters and I can see where it would have gone. But I feel good” and that‘s all we‘re concerned about.

Fringe airs Friday at 9/8c on Fox.