FRINGE: Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman Talk Peter’s Return, William Bell, Ratings and More

Happy FRINGE Friday, guys! And guess what? No baseball is going to stop tonight’s episode from airing!

It’s been a few weeks since our last original episode, but as you may remember, Peter has  returned to the series in solid form — but, um, no one knew who he was.

So where do they go from here? I talked with FRINGE executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H Wyman about Peter’s return, whether William Bell is still alive, if they have something special already planned for episode 19 and what the ratings means for a potential fifth season…

Now that Peter is back, we know it’s not the reunion he was hoping for, but how is everyone else taking things?
Jeff Pinkner: I think that some of our fans were expecting-slash-hoping that Peter would return and suddenly everything would return back to their version of normal, the way things were. And, of course, that’s both emotionally and logically impossible and would have been dishonest.

Peter is returning to a world that developed without him. He died at age 8. And Walter knew that boy until he died twice at age 8, but Olivia has never met him. So for them to suddenly remember a history with him and a timeline in which he existed would have been dishonest. So, the truth of the matter is, Peter is much more of a fringe event as far as they are concerned. He’s an impossibility and yet he’s here. And watching them deal with him and him deal with them in his new circumstances, it’s sort of driving our storytelling in a way that we’re really happy with.

Given all the weird stuff they deal with on a weekly basis, is there any part of them that thinks, “Hey, maybe this guy is telling the truth?”
J.H. Wyman: Oh, yeah, I think any version of the Fringe team, when you’re dealing with this sort of phenomenon on a daily basis, they understand there’s two universes, so they’re going to be accepting of an idea that perhaps there’s something out there that they don’t know. It’s not such a crazy thing to say, “There is another version of you guys and I was a very big part of that and in your timeline it’s in this way, but the truth is, I had a lot of impact in my timeline.” They will look at him and say, “I can see how that would make logical sense.” They know about parallel extreme theory and parallel universes and all that stuff. They’re going to look at it at face value and say, “I can totally understand.”

How far are you guys into the writing process of the season?
JW: We’re writing 12 right now.

You guys personally are writing that episode or the show is up to there?
JP: As a staff.

Have you given any thought as to what you’ll do for episode 19?
JP: [Laughs] We’ve given thought to every episode.
JW: We have a couple ideas in mind.

Is it going to be able to top what you guys have done the last couple of years?
JW: I don’t know. If you look at it that way, it’s like — as long as it tickles us, we hope it tickles the fans. That’s how we’ve been looking at it: “This would be really fun for us to do this kind of episode.” And in the past episodes, it worked. People have responded. So we’re going to try and keep it real and whatever entertains us — and the ideas we have really do entertain us, so we hope the fans will feel the same way.

Speaking of your last episode 19, is William Bell still alive in this new timeline?
JP: Um, interesting question.
JW: We don’t know.
JP: He’s retired, so, yeah, he’s dead

You managed to lure Leonard Nimoy (William Bell) out of retirement once before…
JP: He’s been fairly firm about enjoying his life at the moment.

Okay, fair enough. Is there anything you guys wish you could do that you haven’t had the chance to do yet?
JP: The truth is, we’ve been incredibly fortunate. Obviously, we loved writing episodes for Leonard. Had he been more available, we would have pursued that story more, but it probably was the perfect dose. I think we’ve been really, really, incredibly fortunate, given the limitations of production and economically producing a TV show. We’ve been wildly fortunate in what we’ve wanted to do and what we’ve been able to do.

You know I don’t want to ask this question, but given the ratings, have there been any conversations with the network and the studio about when they would have an idea about a potential fifth season? Have you said to them, “Look, we need this much time to wrap up the series if this is going to be it” or anything like that?
JP: Not at all. And obviously you have to ask that question, but from the moment we moved to Friday nights, Fox has been by all account — both direct and indirect –both Fox and Warner Bros., they’ve been thrilled with the number we’re getting. We can’t control the numbers other shows are getting and what else they might put on the air. And obviously they have to be responsible for their own game plans, but we always figure out a season. Each season, as we’ve said before, is sort of like the ending of a chapter and the opening of a new one. We always know that in this business, things change quickly and you can be taken off the air at anytime. However, we’ve had absolutely no indication that it’s something we need to be wary of and we keep working our plan.
JW: With that being said, you know what, Marisa? We’re so dedicated to our fans. And we’re both huge fans of television and we would not want people to invest so much and then be left cold or ripped off. So, we understand very well where the series ends. If we get word that the worst case is going to happen, we feel confident we could leave the fans very satisfied. And maybe do a little something extra for them, whether it’s a comic book or something like that. It’s a big part of our concern, because we want to show the loyalists and the fans that we really think about that and we really care about them. And we don’t want them to come to the end of the series and go, “Wait, what?”

I mean, even if worst case scenario, you guys hadn’t gotten renewed for season 4, the season 3 finale could have technically worked as a series finale. It would have been insane, but it would have worked.
JP: Absolutely. Which we knew. We knew it would have been the conclusion to a story. It wouldn’t have been satisfying on all levels, but how many stories are? But it certainly would have appropriately ended the journey of Peter getting pulled reluctantly into this team and ultimately sacrificing himself to save all of them and the two universes.

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As full circle as that would have been, aren’t you glad we did get a fourth season?

So, will you be tuning in to FRINGE tonight on Fox at 9 PM?

Related:

FRINGE: Jeff Pinkner and J. H. Wyman on Peter’s Memories and Fate Versus Choice. Plus, ‘Witness the Return’ with a New Promo!
FRINGE: Anna Torv and John Noble Tease ‘Subject 9,’ Massive Dynamic, Nina and…William Bell?!
FRINGE Spoiler Alert: Guess Whose Mother is Returning?

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