Rachel Blake (née Dunham) is Olivia Dunham's younger sister and the mother of Ella and Eddie Blake. In the Original Timeline, she comes to visit Olivia from Chicago after she suffers from marital issues with her unseen husband, Greg. She is accompanied by her then-only child, Ella.
She later moves back to Chicago to be closer to her ex who took a new job there. In the Alternate Timeline, she was largely raised by Massive Dynamic Executive Director Nina Sharp. She still married Greg, whom she is still married to, and they also have a second child, Eddie Blake.
Original Timeline[]
Background Information[]
Rachel is the youngest daughter of Marilyn (née unknown, previously Dunham). She was born around four years after her older sister, Olivia. At around 10 years old (1994), her mother died and she was brought into foster care.
Season One[]
Olivia cooks for her sister.
Soon after Olivia Dunham had escaped captivity by the hands of Mitchell Loeb, she receives a phone call from her sister Rachel, who needs a place to stay, because she is going through a rough patch with her husband, Greg Blake.
Olivia agrees, and Rachel and her daughter Ella Blake moved in with Olivia, though they claim it is only temporary. ("Bound")
Rachel adapts well to living with Olivia. However, one day Ella uses Rachel's computer when she is attacked by the brain-melting computer virus which nearly kills Ella, without the intervention of Peter Bishop and Olivia Dunham.
Ella and the Dunham sisters.
Rachel later observes Peter and Ella playing together, and seems to be attracted to him. When Peter later arrives to speak with Olivia, he and Rachel share a look that alerted Olivia to the chemistry between the two. ("The No-Brainer")
Rachel's husband Greg Blake later files for divorce. Though Rachel expects this, she does not expect Greg to file for sole custody of Ella Blake, which Greg did, on the grounds that Rachel was an "unfit mother." ("Midnight")
Season Two[]
After Olivia Dunham was declared braindead as a result of a car wreck, she informs Peter Bishop that Olivia had a living will, and admitted her sister's romantic interest in him. She is later relieved to discover Olivia is still alive. ("A New Day In The Old Town")
Rachel tells Peter that Olivia had a will.
After a serious Fringe case shortly after, Peter asked Olivia if she called Rachel, but Olivia stated that Rachel was in a state of shock after believing Olivia was dead. She did not want to scare her, which Peter saw as Olivia's way of protecting her younger sister. ("What Lies Below")
Rachel leaves Ella with the Fringe Team as she handles personal affairs in Chicago at one point. ("Brown Betty")
She is last seen in the series saying goodbye to Olivia before she enters the Alternate Universe. She is worried about what job she has to do, unaware she is crossing over to the Other Side. She gives a look of concern when she discovers Olivia has given her daughter, Ella the necklace belonging to their mother. ("Over There: Part 1")
Season Three[]
Peter's hallucination reminds Olivia that Rachel had moved back to Chicago off-screen. She lives with her ex, Greg who has found a new job there. It is implied they have worked out a co-parenting situation after he previously sought sole custody of Ella. She lives at 1934 Sherman Way. ("Amber 31422")
2026[]
In the future of 2026 (the end of the original timeline which will never happen due to the re-written timeline), Rachel and her husband are nowhere to be seen. Ella is under the custody of Olivia, and even shares her mother's maiden name.
It is implied that both Rachel and Greg have died, as neither are seen at Olivia's funeral nor the aftermath where Ella seems to be staying and taking care of Walter Bishop. Ella also claims that she doesn't remember much "before it got bad", a possible nod to her parents' fate in the dying world of the future amid End of Dayers terrorism and the decay of the Prime Universe after its inextricable link with the Other Side was destroyed due to the Vacuum sucking the other side into a black hole. ("The Day We Died")
Alternate Timeline[]
Adjusted Background[]
Rachel and Ella appear in a photograph in "Subject 9".
Instead of going into foster care, Nina Sharp raised both Olivia and Rachel as a result of being responsible for the drowning of Peter Bishop from the Alternate Universe as a boy. ("Novation") Olivia says that while they're close, they don't talk much due to the nature of her work. ("Nothing As It Seems")
Season Four[]
Rachel does not appear in the Alternate or Final Timeline, but details of her history have changed significantly.
Broyles informs Olivia that Rachel is married with a second child.
In the new timeline, when Olivia's memories began to get overwritten by her memories of the original timeline, she inaccurately remembers Rachel's separation from her husband and forgets the existence of her nephew.
This was used as grounds to attempt to have her removed from active duty and declared mentally unfit. Olivia inaccurately refers to Greg as Rachel's ex, who she spitefully calls a "bastard", and did not remember Rachel's second born child, a son named Eddie (named after her grandfather). ("Nothing As It Seems")
It is never directly explained how Peter's death as a child changed the course of Rachel's marriage through the Butterfly effect. It is possible that because Nina Sharp raised Rachel and Olivia, her different upbringing possibly shaped her into having a better marriage life.
The other possibility is that she still had a troubled marriage, but Rachel was no longer a close confidant of Peter, as she was in the original timeline, where she was even flirting with him. This may have led her to return home sooner and work out her issues with Greg where they would have reconciled off-camera within a few years from her last appearance.
Alternate Universe[]
Rachel Dunham is the deceased younger sister of Olivia Dunham and daughter of the still-living, Marilyn Dunham. Rachel died during childbirth as she and the baby's hearts gave out. ("Over There: Part 2") Several photos of Rachel appear in Marilyn's house in a photo shrine. ("Olivia")
Quotes[]
"Go, save the world."
- - Rachel to Olivia (Bound)