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110 free Fringe trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Fringe trivia quiz covers all five seasons and 100 episodes of the Fox science-fiction series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, which ran from 2008 to 2013. The easy questions are the ones any viewer will know: who plays Olivia, Walter and Peter, the name of the company run by Nina Sharp, the drug Walter tested on children, and what the bald men in fedoras are called. From there it digs into the mythology: the Pattern and Reiden Lake, ZFT and David Robert Jones, the shapeshifters and their mercury blood, the amber, Walternate and Fauxlivia, the Machine, the First People, the alternate timeline of season four and the Observer occupation of 2036. There are episode questions on the pilot, "Peter", "White Tulip", "Brown Betty" and the finale, and behind-the-scenes questions on the $10 million pilot, the glyph code, the Friday night death slot, the move from New York to Vancouver, Leonard Nimoy's William Bell and the show's awards. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the series, its mythology, its seasons, its characters and its cast before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our X-Files and Lost quizzes next.
30 of 110 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which three people created Fringe?
J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci
Kurtzman and Orci were working with Abrams on the Star Trek film at the time.
Q 02What is the name of the cow Walter keeps in his Harvard lab?
Gene
Walter's lab cow is named Gene; she arrives in the pilot and remains a fixture of the Harvard lab for the rest of the series.
Q 03How many episodes of Fringe were made?
100
The shortened 13-episode fifth season pushed the total to the number needed for syndication.
Q 04How many episodes were in Fringe's first season?
20
Fringe's first season ran 20 episodes, opening with a two-hour pilot and closing with a finale in May 2009.
Q 05What style of hat do the show's bald, pale men in grey suits wear?
Fedoras
Fedoras are part of their unchanging uniform, worn with a grey suit, white shirt and dark tie in every appearance across the series.
Q 06Who plays Peter Bishop?
Joshua Jackson
He was the last main character to be cast, after auditioning for Kirk in Abrams' Star Trek.
Q 07In which city is the prime universe's Fringe Division based?
Boston
The prime universe's Fringe Division works out of the federal building in Boston, a short drive from Walter's Harvard lab.
Q 08What is the name of the biotechnology giant founded by Walter's former partner?
Massive Dynamic
Its exterior was filmed at 7 World Trade Center.
Q 09Who plays Nina Sharp, the executive who runs Bell's company?
Blair Brown
Blair Brown plays Nina Sharp in all five seasons; the actress won a Tony Award in 2000 for the play Copenhagen.
Q 10Which Star Trek legend plays Walter's former lab partner?
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek's original Spock, plays Walter's old partner, first appearing in the closing moments of season one.
Q 11What is the name of Olivia Dunham's younger sister?
Rachel
Rachel Dunham is Olivia's younger sister, who moves in with Olivia along with her daughter Ella during season one.
Q 12What pet name does Walter use for his old lab partner?
Belly
Walter calls his old partner Belly throughout the series, a pet name from their days sharing a Harvard lab.
Q 13Who plays Astrid Farnsworth?
Jasika Nicole
Jasika Nicole plays Astrid Farnsworth, the junior FBI agent whose name Walter mangles into Asterix, Aspirin and Ostrich.
Q 14Which nootropic drug did Walter test on Olivia as a child?
Q 21What government post does Walter's counterpart hold?
U.S. Secretary of Defense
The other Walter serves as U.S. Secretary of Defense on his side, using the post to build and run that universe's Fringe Division.
Q 22What nickname does Walter give the parallel universe's Olivia?
Fauxlivia
Walter adopts 'Fauxlivia' for the other Olivia after she impersonates ours in season three, a name fans had already coined online.
Q 23What is the name of Peter's son with the parallel Olivia?
Henry
The baby, Henry, is born in the other universe; his blood is used to power the Machine before the rewritten timeline erases him from existence.
Cortexiphan
Cortexiphan was the drug Walter and his partner gave to children in a daycare trial; in Olivia it leaves a latent ability to cross between universes.
Q 15Which body of water in New York state is the geographic center of the Pattern?
Reiden Lake
Reiden Lake, upstate, is where Walter crossed over in 1985 and where the Pattern's events are centred; the Bishops' lake house sits on its shore.
Q 16What does the German acronym ZFT stand for in English?
Destruction through Advancement of Technology
ZFT stands for Zerstörung durch Fortschritte der Technologie, Destruction through Advancement of Technology; Walter typed its manifesto before his committal.
Q 17Who plays ZFT leader David Robert Jones?
Jared Harris
Jared Harris plays Jones, who is cut in half crossing between universes in the season-one finale yet returns alive in season four's altered timeline.
Q 18How many years did Walter spend in a mental institution before the series?
17
Walter spent 17 years institutionalised, from his committal after a 1991 lab fire until Olivia secured his release in the pilot.
Q 19Why did Walter cross to the parallel universe in 1985?
To cure the other side's Peter
Walter crossed to cure the other side's Peter after his own son died of the same illness; he then brought the boy back with him.
Q 20What nickname do the prime-universe characters give Walter's parallel counterpart?
Walternate
Walternate is the name Peter and the team give the other Walter, a harder man whose son was taken from him by our Walter.
Q 24What year does Peter's vision inside the Machine show him?
2026
Inside the Machine, Peter sees 2026, fifteen years ahead, where the other universe has been destroyed and ours is collapsing.
Q 25What does Peter use the Machine to create at the end of season three?
A bridge between the two universes
Peter uses the Machine to open a bridge between the two universes so both sides can work together; he then vanishes from the timeline.
Q 26Which agent, played by Seth Gabel, is part of the season-four Fringe team?
Lincoln Lee
Lincoln Lee, played by Seth Gabel in both universes, joins the prime team in season four after transferring from the FBI's Hartford office.
Q 27In which country is David Robert Jones imprisoned when Olivia first visits him?
Germany
Jones is held in a maximum-security prison in Frankfurt, Germany, when Olivia first questions him in season one; he later teleports out of his cell.
Q 28How does Walter stop Bell's plan in the season-four finale?
He shoots Olivia
Walter shoots Olivia to stop her powers fuelling the collapse of the two universes; the drug still in her body heals the wound.
Q 29What is the title of the season-three finale?
The Day We Died
The Day We Died closed season three in May 2011; its title refers to the ruined future Peter lives through inside the Machine.
Q 30In what year did the invaders from the future arrive and begin "The Purge"?
2015
The invaders arrived from the far future in 2015 and began the Purge, wiping out much of humanity to secure their rule.