Fictional character
Olivia Dunham is a fictional character and the main protagonist from the science fiction television series "Fringe", which aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States from 2008 to 2013. The character was created by series' co-creator J. J. Abrams, and is portrayed by actress Anna Torv. Olivia is the series' protagonist, and was introduced as an FBI Special Agent, working for a multi-agency task force of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called the Fringe Division, dealing with supernatural events that are linked to experimental occurrences. Having grown up with an abusive stepfather, Olivia struggles with the unexpected changes in her life, following her encounter with mentally unstable scientist Walter Bishop, and his son and an eventual love interest for her, Peter Bishop.
Olivia's perspectives and inner feelings seemed to make her life harder for her but very often serve as the focal points for episodes of the series that directly focus on her development as a human being and a member of the law enforcement community. Critically acclaimed for an evolving storyline, Olivia has highlighted determination and focus as her main traits, according to Abrams. Following a plot line in the second season, viewers are introduced to Olivia's doppelgänger from the parallel universe, which develops an alternate reality for each character. Torv has received several awards for her portrayal of Olivia.
Arc.
Olivia is a 29-year-old Northwestern University-educated FBI Special Agent assigned to a multi-agency task force of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called the Fringe Division, 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 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. With help from Walter, Olivia finds a way to communicate with John within her mind, eventually allowing the memories to fade completely.
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 of it. 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." We later learn that Olivia started the fire with her mind. Olivia also could discern if an object originated in the alternate dimension due to a "glimmer" that only she could see. When trying to reawaken this ability in her as an adult, Dr. Bishop hypothesized that this ability was partially derived from Olivia's fear of 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.
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. 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. She regains part of those memories and learns more about the invasion between dimensions. 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. 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. 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. After returning to work, Olivia is dismayed to discover that Peter had become intimate with her doppelganger.
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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
Development.
Casting.
After looking at many auditions "well past the 12th hour" for the role of Olivia Dunham, Australian actress Anna Torv was selected for the part. Casting director April Webster commented, "What we were looking for in Olivia was a woman who was believable as an FBI agent but yet had some vulnerability. And definitely had depth and a history behind her eyes." Not having seen Torv before, they came across an audition tape of hers for another movie, and were "immediately intrigued". Executive producer Bryan Burk later said "there was just something really special about her and really smart". Webster called a friend in Australia, and were able to arrange an audition with Torv, who was camping in the Outback at the time she received the call from her agent. Torv read for a few scenes over the Internet, and was told the following day that she had won the role, embarking for Toronto soon after to begin shooting. One later called her casting "the miracle of the whole thing". Production team member Alex Graves commented on Torv's casting:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;What Anna brings to the project is that she comes into the world of Fringe with all of its edge and mystery, and she brings this sort of elegance and poise to it that makes you just love her and want to make sure she's OK and gets through it.
Characterization.
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What's interesting about this show is that in many ways, Olivia has the masculine role, and the two guys are the women. She carries the gun, they sit around and talk. I think that's pretty cool.
 – Anna Torv
The character of Olivia has been described as "an incredibly driven, incredibly brilliant agent with her own complicated past that will be peel[ed] back over time." She is a loner and dedicates almost all of her time to her work. She has a strong sense of justice, which drives her to solve a case by any means necessary. It is this quality which both impresses and irritates Broyles, as it makes her a good agent but also makes her prone to biting off more than she can chew when it comes to pursuing suspects. Olivia had an abusive stepfather, and shot him several times in defense of her mother and herself. She was unable to finish him off, and so he recovered and disappeared, leaving her to blame herself for not exacting retribution against him, contributing to her determination to bring criminals to justice. She was nine years old when she shot her stepfather, and she states in an earlier episode that she knew what she wanted to do for a career "pretty much since [she] was nine", indicating a direct link between the childhood abuse and her job.
In the reset timeline for the series' fourth season, Torv explained that "The Olivia we meet and know has known about Fringe Division and had all this time to get used to it and work out that this is her life," rather than becoming familiar with it after the attack on John Scott. Consequently, "when Lincoln comes in, she's a little more open to him [than she was with Peter] and working with someone again."
Olivia has few close relationships. She has little family, as her mother died when she was in her early teenage years. Olivia's is close to her sister Rachel, and Rachel's daughter Ella. Olivia