“The Equation”

While “The Equation” doesn’t quite match up to it’s predecessor on an overall level, there was something about it I really enjoyed. It’s an episode whose importance you don’t really get until the end of the episode and even then you don’t fully get it until later on in the season.

The story is about a single father and his young boy who meet a woman on the road with a broken down car. When the man looks under the hood of the car he is greeted with flashing green and red lights. The next thing he knows, he is in alone on the side of the road, and the woman, the car, and his son have vanished.

We learn that the son became a child prodigy on the piano and with music in general after an auto accident that claimed his mother’s life. He began writing a piece of music, but was having difficulty finishing it.

Walter, of course, has heard of the flashing lights – attaching Christmas to it, but can’t quite remember where or when. For the first part of the episode he continually tries to jog his memory by singing Christmas Carols. And in true Walter fashion, Jingle Bells leads to Dashing Through the Snow which leads him to Dashiell Kim, an associate of Walter’s from St. Claire’s hospital. It turns out Dashiell was fixated on an equation that he couldn’t finish and if you put the music in mathematical terms, the unfinished song and equation were one and the same.

Walter discovers that the flashing patterns can induce a hypnotic state.

This sets up three basic storylines. Walter going back into St. Claire’s to talk to Dashiell, setting up a slightly melodramatic subplot whereupon the warden tries to re-commit Walter. It’s a little much as Walter’s mental capacity and struggles as he returns to the asylum is dramatic enough.

John Noble is terrific as always but especially during the episode as Walter questions his own sanity and wonders that if the struggles he has trying to reach Dashielll mirror his son’s struggle to reach him. It really is a great character moment for him.

The second storyline involves Charlie and Peter as they search down the woman who took Ben, from a sketch. Peter uses his skills and experience at changing identities to narrow down the search to Clarksburg.

The third storyline is the tricks and manipulations the woman uses on the child to get him to complete the song. She makes the child see his dead mother, telling him that she can save her if he finishes the song.

The crew do track down the chid, but not before he was able to finish the equation. Dunham almost stops the woman but is mesmerized by the flashing red and green lights and she escapes.

She brings the equation to Agent Loeb who demonstrates what it is…Placing an apple in a safe, and attaching a device to the safe, Loeb is able to reach through the back of the safe and pull out the apple. For good measure he shoots the woman after it works.

Overall another great episode as Fringe has found it’s groove.

A-

OBSERVER MOMENT: The Observer is seen behind Olivia as she talks to Peter about Walter getting released.

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