FRINGE: John Noble and Joshua Jackson Tease Red Herrings and a ‘Game-Changing’ Season Finale

It’s FRINGE Friday!

We’re down to our last three episodes of the season, building up to what all indications hint will be FRINGE’s most shocking finale yet.

I sat down with John Noble (Walter) and Joshua Jackson (Peter) to talk about their “miracle” early renewal, the game-changing season finale, red herrings and much more…

While some people were confident that FRINGE would return next season, Jackson admitted he was pleasantly surprised by the show’s early renewal.

“I think it was a small miracle,” Jackson said. “I think it took a lot of things: I think it took Fox actually being behind the show, which they said and which was true. I think it took Warner Bros. really getting behind the show and really making the deal side of it work. And then it took the fans. None of [the business stuff] makes any sense if the fans don’t show their faith — not just by watching it on DVR, [but] when the call went out and everybody said, ‘Look, if you want to save the show, you have to watch it on Friday just for this window of time to show them there are people here who watch.’ And if that hadn’t happened, I really don’t think we would have come back.”

And yes, they know how passionate the FRINGE fanbase which got them this renewal is.

“[The support we get] is not only a great feeling but it’s amazing that in a world where there is so much information bombarding us at all times and so many options on what to watch and what to read and what to see and hear, that there’s the dedication to watch and respond [to us],” Jackson continued. “Because I know I certainly get a lot [of feedback] out in public and I would guess that John and Anna [Torv (Olivia/Fauxlivia)] and everybody else did as well. That there’s actually a noticeable response from the audience back — that’s unusual thing. That’s pretty special.”

As for what’s coming up on the show, the looming issue for Peter is the kid he doesn’t know he has with Fauxlivia. “He still doesn’t know [he has a son],” Jackson reminded me.

When I informed him FRINGE executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman had already spilled the baby news would make its way over to our side before the end of the season, Jackson paused. “Well, then we should watch the rest of the season and see whether that’s true or not,” he said. Hmm…

As for the original Bishop men, Noble and Jackson were thrilled to report that there was a much bigger emphasis on their relationship in the final batch of episodes. But would it be Walternate and Peter or Walter and Peter sharing the scenes? “Yes,” Noble joked. After a little more prodding, he allowed there were “a couple” of notable scenes between each pair.

Seeing as Walternate has caused significant trouble for an oblivious Peter recently — Walternate risked the lives of both Fauxlivia and her unborn child when he had his people accelerate her pregnancy — would there be fallout from that?

“[Walternate] does something even worse in the episodes coming up,” Jackson teased. “It is not where the story goes to end the season, but it has to be at some point. The season finale this year, it’s so game-changing in the way it will or would allow the writers, depending on [where they go]. I feel like the writers happened upon this idea late in the game. They were searching for what would be the right end to this season and I think when they finally came up with the thing that is the end…I think it fit. I think it was so right and everyone immediately went, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a really good idea’ because it allows season four — it can be what we already know, it can be something completely different. We have an infinite amount of options [going forward]. Even for me, and I’m two weeks out of finishing [filming] the season finale. I have no clue [where the show is going]. You can be as drastic or as light as you want, there are so many different avenues for how next season can begin based on where we finish this year.”

And yes, the finale does include an important death…something the actors just recently learned had been leaked.

“Someone came up to me on the street [to talk about the death] and I was like, ‘Oh,'” Noble admitted.

However, they were very hesitant to talk too much about what goes on in the finale — and both men seemed to be distressed over how much information they knew was getting leaked, given how hard everyone works on the show.

So in the interest of not spoiling the rest of the season, how about some light teases for what’s to come?

The mystery of Sam Weiss: Remember how we all freaked out when Sam told Nina that whomever Peter picked would be from the universe that survives? Turns out, the issue is much more complicated than we thought. The machine isn’t as simple as we were led to believe and the impact of it and what it does is a huge part of the season’s final arc. And even worse, Noble noted that Sam’s proclamation to Nina may very well have been a “red herring and he might not know as much as we thought.”

In other words? Don’t trust Sam Weiss.

A not-so-supersized season finale: According to Noble the original version of the finale ended up being 80 minutes long. He told me he heard the WB “was thrilled with the spectacular season finale…but [the version they saw] was 60 minutes and they’ll need to cut it down to 42 minutes.” The semi-bright side? We’ll hopefully get an amazing DVD set full of deleted scenes.

However, not all the characters are in the finale. “All of the usual suspects [will be there],” Noble told me before noting a few alt-personas won’t be seen. Wonder which ones will be MIA?

Want to know what the season finale is about? Don’t miss the very end of the penultimate episode, “The Last Sam Weiss.” Without giving too much away, it appears the final moments of that episode will be a big key to what goes down in the season finale, “The Day We Died.”

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Are you going to be watching FRINGE live tonight? Fox has teamed up with GetGlue to give some lucky fans actual props from the show, so make sure to check out their site for complete rules and the details on what prizes you can win!

Are you excited to see how FRINGE wraps up season three?

Related:

FRINGE: ‘Bloodline’ Teases, Plus EPs Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman Talk Peter’s Choice and the Other Universe
FRINGE Renewed For Season 4
FRINGE’s Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman Tease ‘Subject 13′ and a Big Return

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