FRINGE: J.H. Wyman Teases the Odysseys He Wants the Characters to Go On in the Final Season

After witnessing the Peter and Olivia reunion in FRINGE’s upcoming season premiere, it’s safe to say I had a few questions about the journey they’re going to take in the final season of the year. Thankfully, to promote this Friday’s season 5 launch, showrunner J.H. Wyman got on a conference call with reporters and I was able to inquire about what’s in store for Peter and Olivia.

“I’ve said a lot that no love story worth telling is easy,” Wyman told me. “The hills and the valleys that make a relationship, in my opinion, really dynamic and worth watching. The harder hill, the more worth the payoff. I’m trying to — everything that came the four years before, I’m really trying to give the characters specific odysseys this year that are singular odysseys meaning for each character, but also relationship dynamic odysseys — things that are sort of growing and shifting and shaping. Peter and Olivia are going to be a very big part of that. Their relationship will shift and grow and evolve, but I think that we’ll be there for every step of the way. Everything will be sort of logical. One of the things that we get to do this year which I found great for telling real, authentic, emotional stories is that the 13 episodes, I’m treating them as a saga, as a 13-episode feature film, so we’ll be able to track their emotional growth pattern and their relationship very carefully. More in store is to really get underneath the hood and investigate those relationships.”

And as we inch closer to the show’s final hours, Wyman told reporters that it was important for him to craft “an authentic story I could stand behind and feel like I was giving the fans the love letter I think they deserve.”

“The only place to wind up is what would move me and what would I want as a closer?” he explained. “If I invested four years of my life in these characters that I’ve grown to love and be interested in and dedicated so much effort into paying attention and following, what would I want? And once I asked myself those real questions, it became clear. And that answer for me was I want the truth, I want to feel like FRINGE made sense, I want to feel that my characters have evolved in a place that they deserve. Maybe unexpected, but I would feel satiated that logically they came to a conclusion that makes me feel satisfied. And most importantly, I wanted to sit down and after I finish watching the [series] finale of my favorite show, I would want to feel like, that was an experience and I cannot believe that stuff is over. I can imagine where my characters going in the future. The hopefulness, I’m very interested in. I feel like that’s what we need. It’s really messy out there, but the truth is there’s a lot to be celebrated and we have to focus on hope. So I just want people to feel, that was satisfying. Of course, right from there I went into what’s the key to that: the emotional relationships. For me, it always has been.”

And as a little bonus, while the show clearly won’t make it to the infamous 19th hour where things traditionally go a bit crazy (animation, musical noirs, etc.) Wyman teased “I have something really special planned” for a different episode. He said it wasn’t quite as out there as what we’ve seen in the past, but it’s “in the same sport.”

Hmm…

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FRINGE returns Friday at 9 PM on Fox.

Related:

FRINGE Final Season Trailer
Exclusive FRINGE Video: Astrid is a Wanted Woman!
FRINGE Season 5 Premiere: ‘Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11′ You Ask, I Answer

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