The Equation
While helping fix a woman's car engine on the side of the road in Middletown, Connecticut, Andrew Stockston (Adam Grupper) sees a sequence of red and green flashing lights and is hypnotized into a suggestive state.
Upon 'waking up', he does not have any memory of what happened while hypnotized, but sees that the woman and his son Ben (Charlie Tahan), a young musical prodigy, are missing.
Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) reveals that similar cases have ended with the victims being returned, but left insane from the trauma of the incident.
When interviewing Andrew, Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) learns that nine months previously, Ben survived a car accident with a new, extraordinary ability to play the piano, despite never taking lessons.
While trying to dredge up the old memories, Walter recounts a previous unsuccessful mind control experiment he had worked on for an advertising agency, who wished to compel customers to buy their products using flashing lights.
He deduces that someone succeeded in producing the lights using wavelengths, and these caused Andrew to sustain a "hypnagogic trance" that allowed his son to be abducted.
Andrew's sketch leads to the identification of the kidnapper as Joanne Ostler (Gillian Jacobs), a MIT neurologist who was previously believed deceased.
Joanne tricks Ben into helping her complete an unfinished equation by using the image of his mother, who died in the car accident.
[1] Both would go on to separately write other first season episodes, including Orci's "The Transformation"[2] and Goodman's "Safe", which resolved the fate of the eponymous equation.
The first centers on Walter waking up in the middle of the night, explaining to a disgruntled Peter that he's attempting to "shift my circadian rhythm to the nocturnal cycle."
The other scene shows Olivia and Peter playing poker, which leads her to realize an important part of the episode's case.
[7] Flashing multicolored lights, specifically red and green, are a consistent theme of the first season, with Into the Looking Glass: Exploring the Worlds of Fringe author Sarah Clarke Stuart calling them "noteworthy recurring images.
Although he does have some wonderful moments earlier in the episode, when he goes back inside he turns into this incredibly fearful, stuttering fellow that we saw when we first met him.
[15] He liked Walter and Peter's actions in the asylum, and concluded "At this point, whether a solid single episode is enough to keep you watching Fringe likely has to do with your overall patience with the series and whatever its ultimate goals might be.
"[15] Erin Dougherty of Cinema Blend called it the best episode since "The Same Old Story" since it contained "suspense and drama and a minimal amount of conspiracy theories", making her feel "seriously giddy".
