1.08 The Equation

 Easteregg and Clues Round-Up for episode 1.08 “The Equation”.

Red Alert

The green and red dots reappeared in a big way in this episode. They were central to the story-line in which Agent Loeb’s group used green and red flashing lights (A, B) to send their victims into an hypnagogic state. As mentioned, the green and red symbolism has appeared in earlier episodes – “The Arrival” and Pilot episodes, to be exact. In “The Arrival” they could be seen on John Mosely’s hat (C, left) and at the bottom of The Observer’s binocular interface (C, right). In the pilot episode, the green and red dots appeared in Olivia and John Scott’s ‘dream state’, on the “Zeno” Kayak (D) which Olivia referenced as being her Uncles.

What’s Up Chachi?

When Astrid asks Peter “What’s up Chachi?”, she’s referring to his sleeves which have been cut. Chachi is a  character from Happy days and Joanie Loves Chachi, famous for his sleeveless shirts.

A Staggering Display of Patterns

The St. Claire’s rec room featured some interesting patterns. The inset images above illustrate three examples of pictures and dominos being arranged in a particular ‘staggered’ pattern arrangement. Interestingly, this is the same ‘staggered’ pattern that can be seen outside Walter and Peter’s apartment building (main picture, taken from episode 1.04) – an effect created by the lights. No doubt this is intentional. There’s some great discussion here which suggests that there’s a hidden message in these patterns. 

But-He-Fly Away

In the above picture we can see that the Observer (A) made another appearance, keeping up his 100% episode appearance record. Once again he seems to be observing Olivia, whilst he’s also close to the Pattern-event (or abduction) that’s taking place in the “red castle”. Also in the shot is an image of a butterfly (B) – we believe this to be the clue for the next episode (1.09). 

Dungeons & Dragrons

The above screencap is of the “red castle”. We can see from the inset enlargement, that Olivia may made the connection between this building and the information provided by Dashiell, not just because of the buildings color, but also because it’s actually called “Royal Castle Carousel”.

Adam & Eve

For this weeks metaphor, we have Agent Mitchel Loeb and his accomplice Joanne Ostler (Ritz) doing their best to mimic Adam and Eve. Ostler and Loeb seem to be two people tempted by the lure and wonder of scientific possibility (and/or greed). After killing Joanne, Loeb takes a bite out of the Apple he has just pulled through the safe (a remarkable feat), and then declares “It worked” to the ’serpant’ on the other end of the phone. A definite allusion to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, who were tempted by the serpent (Satan) into eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Consequently they were thrown out from the Garden of Eden by God. Many potential parallels to be speculated.

Thanks to Fringe-Forum for the use of some of the images in this post.

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