The Equation

The Glyphs

This episode's glyphs spell: T-A-K-E-N

Ben Stockton was one of many victims taken by Joanne Ostler to solve her equation, and she used the memories of loved ones taken too early from her victims to coerce them into compliance.

The Observer

The Observer can be seen while Olivia and Charlie are out looking for Ben Stockton.

Episode Clues

Previous Episode Clue

In 'In Which We Meet Mr. Jones' Mrs. Loeb handed Olivia a piece of paper hidden in a copy of A Christmas Carol. In 'The Equation', Walter sings Christmas carols over and over to try to jog his memory about the pattern of green-green-green-red lights.

Next Episode Clue

A butterfly is painted on the side of a white trash can in 'The Equation', foreshadowing the fatal, drug-induced butterfly hallucinations seen in 'The Dreamscape'.

Items of Interest

A pattern of green-green-green-red lights is used to temporarily hypnotize people.

Fringe Division Case File

U.S. Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation

121 105th Street • Washington, DC 20735
Phone: (202) 555-2100 • Fax: (202) 555-2101
E-mail: washington.fbi@fbi.com

FRINGE DIVISION CASE FILE #108-111808

FRINGE EVENT: Hypnagogic trance with David Robert Jones/ZFT connections

CLASSIFIED CASE CONNECTION(S): Dr. Bishop's flashing lights experiments for advertising agencies

AGENTS ASSIGNED: Dunham, Francis

SUPERVISING AGENT: Broyles

FILE ARCHIVED BY: Mica Dulfano, Angela Klein

WITNESSES/CONTACTS: Jeremy Stockton (father), Maureen Stockton (sister), Dr. Bruce Sumner

LOCATION: Clarksboro, MA

VICTIM(S): Ben Stockton, Dashiell Kim, Joanne Ostler (deceased)

CASE REPORT SUMMARY:

Jeremy Stockton reported that he and his son, Ben Stockton, stopped to aid a woman with car trouble. The father claims that while he was looking at the woman's car, time jumped, and his son, the woman, and her car disappeared. Nine months earlier, Ben Stockton had survived a car accident, woken from a coma, and suddenly was able to play piano perfectly. Two weeks later, he was composing his own music and became fixated on one piece.
Three other unsolved FBI cases dating back ten years also matched this case, with witnesses seeing the same woman. The first victim was found wandering the shoulder of I-91 near Northampton. The second was in the supermarket curled up in the freezer bin. The third tried to lobotomize herself using a butter knife. All were incapable of recalling what had happened during their abduction. All victims were academics and mentioned seeing peculiar flashing lights, which they determined put them in a hypnogogic trance.
Mystery woman ID'd as neurologist Joanne Ostler. She supposedly died ten years ago, when her car went off a bridge in November of 1998. The car was recovered, but her body was never found.
Dr. Walter Bishop remembered a light-pattern connection with former St. Claire's patient Dashiell Kim, who had a psychotic break and bludgeoned his wife to death with a tire iron. Kim repeated a mathematical formula that was the musical equivalent of Ben Stockton's composition. Agents determined that Ostler had mentally tortured Kim, too. Agent Dunham found Ostler, but she escaped.

*File addendum—Ostler killed by Agent Mitchell Loeb.

Glyph Sightings

A butterfly can be seen painted on the side of a white trash can.

Walter's Food

Walter drank coffee and ate butterscotch pudding.

Connection: Coffee — Coffee
Timestamp: 12:15

Connection: Butterscotch pudding — Butterscotch pudding
Timestamp: 39:34

Walter's Lab Notes

- Project 577 - Exploration 5 -

It happens all the time: Newton and Leibnitz inventing calculus. Darwin and Wallace discovering evolution by natural selection. Jevons, Menger, and Walras elucidating marginalism in economics. And yet. Dashiell and the boy -- with nothing in common -- not even working in the same medium -- not even knowing what they were trying to find --

YOU SHOULD HAVE SOLVED IT YOURSELF! IT IS JUST MATHEMATICS, A SIMPLEMATTER OF CALCULATION, NOTHING MORE

Every iteration of the main theme of the composition corresponds to a further expansion of the central function in Dashiell's equation. And with each iteration, he comes a step closer to a closed-form solution. Yet the expansion is infinite, implying a potentially endless composition -- small wonder the boy was obsessed --

EXCUSES. EXCUSES TO RETURN TO WHERE YOU KNOW YOU BELONG.

No! I have the boy now, he is the key, on some level he understands, even if he chafes and bristles -

BECAUSE YOU ARE A BURDEN. AND THE VISITOR CAME AGAIN, DIDN'T HE? ALWAYS PRESSURING YOU FOR THE NUMBERS, THE NUMBERS!

I couldn't stop him, he knows my combination. He bumped my head and I went to bed and I couldn't get up til morning --

ENOUGH RHYMES. THE QUESTION 1S, WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE LEFT?

It was still there, my box of secrets, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma within a lumpy mattress. I should have left it there --

FOR THEM TO TAKE? FOOLISHNESS. IS IT SAFE OR NOT?

I have it now. The box is safe, but my secrets are not. My visitor whispered to me: thank you. No more pearls in this oyster, he said.

Notable Quotes

PETER: "The best lie - the one that's easiest to remember with consistency - is the one that's based on the truth."

Connection Chart

A visualization of all the ways this episode connects to other episodes. Scroll down to see the actual connections.

Episode Connections

S1E01 - Pilot

The canoe in Olivia's dream state in 'Pilot' has the green-green-green-red pattern on it from 'The Equation'.

Connection: Canoe — Canoe
S1E01 - Pilot
Timestamp: 51:20

S1E04 - The Arrival

The Observer's binoculars have the green-green-green red pattern at the bottom left corner.
John Mosley's beanie has the green-green-green-red pattern.

Connection: Green-green-green-red dots — Green-green-green-red dots
S1E04 - The Arrival
Timestamp: 01:17

Spoilers for future episodes below!

S1E10 - Safe

The mathematical equation completed in 'The Equation' is used vibrate matter in a way that lets objects effectively move through walls, as seen in 'Safe'.

S2E08 - August

The 'green-green-green-red' pattern from 'The Equation' is seen on Donald's Observer communication device in 'August'

Connection: Green-green-green-red lights — Green-green-green-red lights
S2E08 - August
Timestamp: 15:31

S2E13 - The Bishop Revival

Right before Alfred Hoffman grabs an apple from the Bishops' refrigerator in 'The Bishop Revival' there is a Rubik's Cube with three greens and one red on its side, a reference to the 'green-green-green-red' pattern from 'The Equation'.

Connection: Green-green-green-red — Green-green-green-red
S2E13 - The Bishop Revival
Timestamp: 21:33

S2E15 - Peter

WALTER in 'The Equation': "Every moment that passes is another moment that little boy's life is in danger."
Walter's often not too interested in the personal aspects of cases, but this reminds him of what happened to Peter in 'Peter'.

S2E20 - Northwest Passage

PETER in 'The Equation': "The best lie - the one that's easiest to remember with consistency - is the one that's based on the truth. Whenever I would do this, I would base it on my own last name. Bishop. So Peter King. Peter Knight."
Peter stayed under false names related to Bishop (Stewart) and Gene (Gene Cowan) in 'Northwest Passage', like the villain did in 'The Equation'.

S3E05 - Amber 31422

The Franklin St. Station subway sign in 'Amber 31422' shows the numbers 6-9-5-5 in the 'green-green-green-red' circle pattern from 'The Equation'.

S3E14 - 6B

The 'green-green-green-red' pattern from 'The Equation' appeared on the Amber dispersal device when it was initially activated in '6B'

S4E03 - Alone in the World

In 'Alone in the World' Walter was evaluated by the director of St. Claire's, Dr. Bruce Sumner, who tried to get Walter readmitted in 'The Equation'.

S5E05 - An Origin Story

The End Dock Stabilizer's lights in 'An Origin Story' flashed the 'green-green-green-red' pattern from 'The Equation' when Peter finished assembling it.

S5E11 - The Boy Must Live

September's security system flashed the 'green-green-green-red' pattern from 'The Equation' before exploding in 'The Boy Must Live'.