Olivia Dunham

Olivia is a 29-year-old FBI Special Agent assigned to a multi-agency task force of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called the Fringe Division,[1] after her partner and lover, John Scott, is exposed to a flesh-dissolving agent. Both Agent Broyles and Nina Sharp consider her to have much potential and talent, the latter even hoping to bring her on as an employee of Massive Dynamic. An experiment by Dr. Bishop to link her to the dying John Scott's mind in order to learn what he knew about his condition results in Olivia gaining part of his consciousness, causing her mind to begin integrating and purging the foreign consciousness. This results in Olivia mistaking John Scott's memories for her own.[2] With help from Walter, Olivia finds a way to communicate with John within her own mind, eventually allowing the memories to fade completely.[3]

Olivia is revealed to be linked to the drug Cortexiphan, a chemical developed by William Bell, which supposedly allows children injected with it to retain higher brain functions which would normally deteriorate with age. Olivia was one of a group of preschool-age children who served as subjects of the experiment in her childhood home of Jacksonville, Florida. As a result, Olivia is capable of unspecified psychic abilities, as demonstrated when she shuts off a series of lights wired into a bomb as a kill switch simply by thinking it.[4] Walter has a video of Olivia as a child, ostensibly recorded during the drug trials, which shows her curled up in the corner of the room next to a badly charred bed with Walter saying: "It's all right, you didn't mean it."[5] We later learn that Olivia started the fire with her mind. Olivia also had the ability to discern if an object originated in the alternate dimension due to a "glimmer" that only she could see.[6] When trying to reawaken this ability in her as an adult, Dr. Bishop hypothesized that this ability was partially derived from Olivia's fear about seeing into the alternate dimension. When Olivia regains part of her memories of her meeting with Bell, she is told that she is the only successful subject suitable to pass through dimensions without many known negative side-effects. She has been called the guardian of the gateway by Bell, who will prevent the invasion by the alternate dimension.[7]

Olivia is given permission by Nina Sharp to meet William Bell, who currently resides in another dimension, with his office in the World Trade Center's South Tower.[8] Having left her universe moving at a high speed, she returns at the same speed, crashing through the windshield of her now stationary car, leaving her in an almost fatal condition. She ends up in a short coma and wakes up in an incoherent state and in shock. Olivia apparently loses her memories of her meeting with Bell and whatever information he may have told her.[9] She regains part of those memories and learns more about the invasion between dimensions.[7] Following the transition to an alternate reality, Olivia meets her doppelganger "Fauxlivia", and ultimately shares a kiss with Peter Bishop. She is trapped in the alternate universe by Walternate, Walter's alternative self, while Fauxlivia replaces her in the prime universe.[10] She is captured and drugged, brainwashed into believing that she is the alternate Olivia, complete with traits such as superb marksmanship skills which prime-universe Olivia did not possess.[11] Olivia tries to escape her imprisonment and travel back to her own universe, but in doing so, she inadvertently goes to Fauxlivia's mother's house where she finally accepts the new memories as her own. It is revealed that the alternate Walter plans to use Olivia's Cortexiphan-derived abilities to find a way to safely cross universes, for which he needs her willing assistance. However, Olivia begins to regain her past memories after she has hallucinations of Peter Bishop, who comes to her in a vision and tells her that she doesn't belong there before kissing her. With the help of the alternate universe's Agent Broyles, she is able to escape from custody and make it to alternate Walter's Harvard lab, where she uses the tank to return to her own universe. Meanwhile, Peter realizes that he is with alternate Olivia, causing her to flee and return to her own universe as well.[12] After returning to work, Olivia is dismayed to discover that Peter had become intimate with her doppelganger.[13]

After Olivia tells Peter she no longer wants to be with him, even though that's not what her heart wants, she tries to remain distant and impassive. However, they continue to work together and her time with Peter reminds her why she fell in love with him, and she tells him she wants to see him happy with her.[14] They begin dating and their relationship is progressing when Walter realizes he has brought back William Bell, who died in the alternate universe, by using soul magnets and he now resides in Olivia's mind.[15] Initially, Bell and Walter think Olivia will just be a host for Bell while they find a way to move his consciousness to another entity, but they find that Olivia is losing herself and her personality will soon be gone. Peter, Walter and Bell use LSD to go into Olivia's mind to locate and save her, but Bell is lost forever when he helps Olivia come to grips with her hidden fears and she regains consciousness.[16] Olivia and Peter are soon caught up in Walternate's scheme to destroy their world using the doomsday machine and Olivia tells Peter she loves him before he steps into the machine to stop it.[17]

By the 4th season of the show Peter is erased from both universes. Olivia in the Peter-less universe was adopted as a child along with her sister by Nina Sharp whom she considers a surrogate mother. Though she has a working relationship with Walter and Astrid she retains no memories of Peter though she begins to develop visions of him. When Peter resurfaces Olivia is surprised to see him but believes he comes from a parallel universe. As they spend more time together Olivia begins to remember her time with Peter and gradually comes to realize that she is "his" Olivia while her memories from the readjusted timeline begin to slip. Olivia later learns that she is pregnant with a daughter, Henrietta "Etta" Bishop (Georgina Haig).

In 2015 when Olivia is at a park with Etta and Peter they are caught up in a global attack by observers and she and Peter are separated from their daughter. As part of a plan to defeat the now hostile observers, Olivia and the rest of the Fringe team purposefully trap themselves in amber. They are rescued by Etta in 2036. Olivia learns that while Etta poses as an enforcer for the observers she is actually resistant to their telepathy and is a key figure in the human resistance movement against them. She works with Etta until Etta is murdered. After Etta's death Olivia is mournful and grows apart from Peter, however after he tries to harness observer technology to avenge Etta's death Olivia talks him into abandoning his plan and the two becomes close again.

Once Walter is able to accompany the child observer, Michael, to the future, he erases the time in which the observers are able to travel back and take over in 2015, and Olivia and Peter are once again in the park with Etta as a child. They look around at the same time in which the observers initially appeared and seeing nothing, go back to playing with Etta.[18]

Anna Torv's performance ultimately resulted in favorable reviews from television critics

The character and Torv's performance received overall generally positive reviews, although the response to Anna Torv's performance in the first season was mixed. In his review of the pilot episode for New York, John Leonarwas found Torv "wonderfully played" her character.[34] IGN's Travis Fickett agreed, calling Torv's early work on Fringe "very good" as she "brings a unique presence to the show."[35] MSNBC was equally praiseworthy of Torv and her character, writing "Olivia is the soul of the show — two-fisted and defiant, yet vulnerable. Torv knows how to convey authenticity, even in the midst of an outrageous scene. And sporting sensible pantsuits and just a hint of makeup, she makes Olivia a plausibly gorgeous pro, not a crime-busting tootsie."[36] Conversely, SFScope columnist Sarah Stegall believed Torv's early performance to be "downright wooden",[37] while others criticized the actress and character for being "cold and distant."[38] The New York Observer found her to be the one weak link of the main cast, criticizing Torv for her accent and for showing "less emotion than a piece of plywood."[39]

In a response to some early negative reactions to the actress' performance, Jon Lachonis noted in a review of the first season's seventh episode that "Anna Torv, whose chill portrayal of FBI agent and Pattern investigator Olivia Dunham has come under fire for being too wooden, seems to have reinvented her character to answer the critics. The good news is, Anna's new and more animated Olivia isn't really a departure so much as it is a character who seems to have had a catharsis. She is comfortable in her skin now, and the stillness is pulled back in favor of more humanity."[40] Executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman defended Torv's early Fringe work in a 2011 interview, explaining the character was designed to be "bland, because of her conditioning as a child and everything she's been through. Now, one can argue that maybe that wasn't the best way for us to introduce the main character, but there was a purpose. So Anna had to listen to all these people saying 'She's really doing nothing,' when really it was our issue. We didn't write anything for her because... well, now you know why. But at the time, people were like, 'Wow, this girl really is not much,' which is so not true. Anna was just so professional, and so great. She did it with excellence, and now she's really getting the chance to show people, 'Hey, I'm a really hard worker and a terrific actor.' We're so thankful that people can start to see her for who she really is.[41] Midway through the second season, Sarah Stegall from SFScope believed Torv "had the most progress and the most satisfying development" of all the main actors, stating she "is now carrying this role with grace and strength".[37] Stegall partly attributed the growth of the actor and character to her recovery early in the second season, the introduction of a sister and niece, the removal of John Scott from her storyline, and the "delicate, reserved flirtation" with Peter.[37]

Torv's double duty as Olivia and Fauxlivia late in the second season and throughout the third and fourth seasons received almost universal critical acclaim.[42] TV Guide called it one of the best performances of the year, explaining "Switching Olivia with her alternate-universe self... jump-started the show's interpersonal dynamics — and changed the way we look at Torv. Her take on [Fauxlivia] added many new colors to the characters, including malice, humor and sensuality.[43] In a 2010 list, Time Magazine's James Poniewozik called Torv's performance one of television's best of the year. He explained, "... in the dual role of Olivia/Fauxlivia, Torv absolutely came into her own this year. While some credit goes to the writing, it was Torv's shaded performance that sold Olivia's alternate-universe twin as an actual separate person—not just a cartoon villain version of the original, but a real person, a little more assertive and confident, and just a touch rapacious. Meanwhile, she convincingly portrayed the trauma and confusion of her captured-then-returned Olivia, whose emotional (and complicated) reunion with Peter made an outlandish situation real and moving."[44]

Dunham was named one of TV's Smartest Detectives by AOL TV.[45] She was listed in AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters.[46]

• Olivia Dunham at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website