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| “ | She is the redeemer. | „ |
| ~ William Bell about Olivia Dunham. |
Dr. William Bell is the main antagonist of the Amber Timeline storyline in the television series Fringe.
He is a biochemist and billionaire founder of Massive Dynamic, an elite and secretive technology corporation, where David Robert Jones served as his protege. In the original timeline, he recruited Olivia Dunham as a supersoldier to protect the prime universe from Walternate. However, in the revised timeline, he developed more nefarious plans with the loss of Peter Bishop in both worlds. As implied by the revised timeline, he is the overarching antagonist of seasons 1 through 4, and a background antagonist in season 5. His fate is left unknown at the end of the series.
He was portrayed by the late Leonard Nimoy, who also voiced Sentinel Prime in Transformermers: Dark of the Moon, and by Anna Torv in his disguise as Olivia Dunham.
Biography[]
Original Timeline[]
With his company's total wealth in excess of $50 billion, he is considered one of the wealthiest men in the universe. His great technical knowledge and expertise in all things scientific are highly renowned; Nina Sharp says her fully functional robotic arm was built by Bell himself. Since Bell shared a laboratory with Walter Bishop, it is likely he also has an in-depth knowledge of Fringe Science. Walter himself states that Bell was the only other person who really knew what their experiments were about.
Nina shares with Olivia that Bell theorized the human mind, at birth, was infinitely capable. That every force it encounters; social, physical, intellectual is the beginning of the diminishing of that potential. Bell's development of Cortexiphan in 1981 was meant to reduce, or negate that process, and prevent the natural shrinking of brain power. After Bell's allegedly harmless testing on children, he abandoned his research on Cortexiphan in 1983. One of the experimental subject for this drug is Olivia Dunham. A decade-old video cassette tape is viewed where the voice of William Bell and Walter Bishop are heard.
William Bell also been suspected to be involved with the ZFT. In a taped video interview, Dr. Nicholas Boone states he believes that the founder of Massive Dynamic, Bell, is the same man who funds ZFT. Another member of ZFT, David Robert Jones shows an interest of meeting with William Bell.
Walter Bishop vehemently defends Bell reminding everyone that Bell was many things: ambitious, egotistical and temperamental - but that he wasn't a madman. Nina defends him as well to Broyles - William Bell is not a terrorist, and is not the enemy.
After a long search and wait, Olivia Dunham meets him. She is pulled into the parallel universe and greeted warmly, but with ominous subtext. Olivia discovers that she is near the 100th floor of the World Trade Center. The conversation between Olivia and William continues and he briefs Olivia on the state of affairs between universes, and warns of the infiltration of the First Wave into her universe. She is then sent back to this universe and promptly ejected through the front windshield of the car she was driving and soars thirty feet across the pavement in front of her wrecked vehicle. A shape-shifting soldier is then tasked to retrieve details of Olivia's meeting with William Bell.
During a memory recall revelation Walter realizes that Bell uses a fake name - Doctor Simon Paris - during the period of duress that they felt it was essential to remove critical portions of Walter's brain in the grand scheme of their career long hubris. at the time, Bell appeared to be the chief culprit behind Walter's institutionalization. Later, Bell reminds Walter that it was Walter's decision to have him remove parts of his brain.
Nina Sharp is able to send messages to William Bell, but Bell never replies back to Nina's messages. He explains in that the Fringe Division of the alternate universe has a way to monitor all communication networks and possibly this is the reason why he never answer Nina's messages. In a fictional tale by Walter, Bell communicates with Nina Sharp via a campy, film noire, viewing device.
In attempt to save Peter, Olivia was to meet Bell at Grayshot Bridge, in Central Park, in the alternate universe. He failed to show up on time and later met with Olivia outside of Bolivia's house. Bell joined Olivia and recovered Walter from the hospital. He admitted that he helped Secretary Bishop in creating the shape-shifters and the Pulse weapons used by the Fringe Division. He tells Walter that he did not establish a Massive Dynamic in the alternate universe and that his counterpart died in a car accident when he was young. Despite being influential and having a tie to Secretary Bishop he is not recognized by Bolivia and Lincoln Lee. Later, he sacrifices himself to keep the door open long enough for Peter, Bolivia, and Walter to cross to the other side.
In accordance with Bell's Last Will & Testament, Nina Sharp receives an envelope and a ship's duty bell, as a remembrance of their time in Tuscany. Walter receives a note, saying DON'T BE AFRAID TO CROSS THE LINE - - along with the ownership of Massive Dynamic.
Revised Timeline[]
In the new timeline where Peter died as a child, William Bell appears to have died of a brain tumor. However, he is revealed to be alive. He survived beyond his medical pronostic by self-medicating with Cortexiphan. He is revealed to have been the secret leader of David Robert Jones and ZFT, working behind the scenes to provoke the war between the two universes.
For William Bell, this war was a means to an end: breaking the walls between the two universes, collapsing them into an idyllic world without any human (preferably while sparing Walter and himself). Since the bridge between universes created in the new timeline had effectively put an end to the war, David Robert Jones and William Bell sought to damage the walls between universes by performing terrorist acts and by exploiting the powers of the Cortexiphan test subjects. Bell let David Robert Jones die in a way that helped Olivia fully develop her powers.
William Bell had independently discovered the existence of the Observers and had created scientific tools to neutralize them should they try to interfere with his goals. However, this precaution did not stop September from helping the Fringe Division defeat Bell. Walter puts an end to Bell's plan by shooting Olivia in the head, neutralizing her Cortexiphan powers. Bell escaped while Walter was removing the bullet to save Olivia.
In season 5, he makes a brief cameo imprisoned in Amber. He was imprisoned along with the Fringe Division because he wanted to help them against the Observer invasion. When the Fringe Division was released from Amber, they chose to leave him behind except for one of his hands (to use his fingerprints to break into a Massive Dynamic labs).
His fate in the final timeline is unknown, considering that it diverges right before the Observer invasion. He presumably never manages to destroy the two universes.
Trivia[]
- Leonard Nimoy's voice was heard on an old VHS tape before his first appearance on the show, but he was not credited.
 Villains
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