The Equation - Rewatch/Speculation & Analysis

[MassivelyDynamic]

Glyph Code: TAKEN (Foreshadowing of Olivia's kidnapping in "Bound"? Maybe it is meant to show how John Scott took information from Z.F.T. when he was undercover.)

I hate to say it, but I just did not have enough to note in this episode that isn't pretty much common knowledge, like how the equation is going to be used in Loeb's machine to break into the Safe in "Safe."

The Colored Lights

Green, Green, Green, Red. (The same sequence was on Olivia's canoe, Moseley's hat, Septembers phone, and Donald the assassins communicator. This is old information, I know.)


The Kidnap Victims

Probability theorist, structural engineer(they were all academics, has ZFT has been trying to figure out this equation for ten years?)


Walter in Saint Claire's



Was that Walter's guilt of taking Peter from the other side personified in the version of himself that he saw while in Saint Claires? It may have been meant to be Walternate, not really him, but just the guilt Walter is feeling about taking Walternate's son. This is my perception at least, pretty sure Walter does not have schizophrenia.


Broyles' Contact

Broyles: "I've got a contact in Justice, I'll tell him it's urgent."(Sanford Harris? I think this is most likely the case.)

[phx219]

I'm going to just quote a chunk of a post that tricked posted in another discussion we were having, concerning this episode, the disappearing kid from the prequel comic Fringe #0 and a comment from Broyle's concerning Pattern cases. It seems like this would be the most relevent thread to place this discussion in.

* Have you ever stumbled across this old thread here ?

http://fringe-forum.com/forums/showt...ringe-Universe

If the dates in that timeline are reliable, there are some rather interesting connections one could make concerning the missing kid/Germany thing (prequel comic). For instance, he went missing around 1998. His name was Adam Sears. In the Pilot, Broyles mentions a kid named John Thompson going missing that same year. I'm assuming Adam and John were part of the same group of 47 children Broyles references. 10 years later, in 2008, Adam Sears shows back up. Over several months, John Thompson and the others start showing up as well. Alive, having not aged a day. Adam Sears had no memory of a single moment of time from the moment he was taken to the moment he was returned .... his memory seemingly ERASED.

Now, when we look at Joanne Ostler, the kidnapper from The Equation ... we see her own personal dates all match up to the above dates. Her "car accident" where she "died" took place in 1998. Same year the kids started going missing. Now, she kidnaps Ben Stockton in 2008, and manages to get the equation out of him. It's in 2008 that Ben Stockton gets into a car accident, and his mother dies. It's also in 2008 that the other children who went missing a decade ago start showing up.

I think the connections are rather obvious lol .... Joanne Ostler was involved in the abductions of the children 10 years ago. They didn't give her all she needed however, they only gave her parts. When she was done with them, she returned them. Ben Stockton managed to give her the final pieces of the puzzle. No more need to abduct children, the Equation works, and Loeb kills her.

Thus ... we see not only Broyles mentioning the cases in the prequel comic directly in the show (the Lisbon incident, the Sri Lanka tsunami), but we've arguably figured out who was involved in the taking of the children he mentions in the Pilot as well as the account in the comic. This is one reason why the canonicity of the comics during that time were sort of grey .... but anyway .... back on track:

We learn that children are the least "diminished" concerning the "limitation" concept of Bell and Walter. So it might make sense they want to use children in order to get their Equation and such. Likewise, the longer you can keep them children, the less diminishing might take place, yes ? So why not make them immortal lol .... find a way to stop their aging alltogether. Enter the missing children: they were used as "receivers" to funnel the equation data, and perhaps kept from aging in order to keep their young brains fresh and unlimited as possible. For a decade if necessary. Since we see non-aging Nazi's in the show, I might guess the Nazi's discovered the method to stop themselves from aging, and it was this method that Ostler used on the abducted children. Perhaps the Inner Child was a test subject of this.

Now, while I'm rambling with connections ..... we see that Ostler was involved in a "car accident" and "died". Bell was supposedly in a car accident too (a lie). Olivia was in a car accident in the old timeline ... it's how she was ripped from one universe and put into another. And Ben Stockton wasn't channeling the equation information until he was in a car accident as well.

now not all of that is relevent to this episode, but the first chunk of it was, and i didn't want to be the one to "edit" someone else's rant, so here it is in its entirety. some very interesting connections to this episode, for sure.

[MassivelyDynamic]

now not all of that is relevent to this episode, but the first chunk of it was, and i didn't want to be the one to "edit" someone else's rant, so here it is in its entirety. some very interesting connections to this episode, for sure.

Yes, although tricked's theory can be put into question when you consider that Ostler kidnapped adults from various scientific fields. They make no mention of other children other than Ben in the episode. It is a good theory, I won't deny that at all, but it has some flaws in it.

[phx219]

Yeah, but this is still the most relevent place to discuss the flaws. The missing children is an interesting Fringe event, that has similarities to a lot of things that we see on screen, but is basically an unanswered question. They may not have mentioned it on screen because the characters never realize it themselves. It just raises some interesting questions, and I think this episode (as much of Season 1 does) needs much additional context.

[cortexo-fan]

I really enjoy these, are you not doing them any more? I'm up to The Transformation on my rewatch/intro of Fringe to my wife and I've been checking these threads everyday hoping for an update. If not, is there anywhere else people are discussing old epi's as we wait for next season?

[MassivelyDynamic]

I really enjoy these, are you not doing them any more? I'm up to The Transformation on my rewatch/intro of Fringe to my wife and I've been checking these threads everyday hoping for an update. If not, is there anywhere else people are discussing old epi's as we wait for next season?

No, no, not at all. I am still doing these, just took a bit of a break for a bit. My next one is up.

[cortexo-fan]

No, no, not at all. I am still doing these, just took a bit of a break for a bit. My next one is up.

awesome