The Pattern

From FringeWiki, the wiki all about Fringe.

"The Pattern" is the codename given to the sequence of unexplained events happening around the world. The Pattern is under investigation by a special branch of the Department of Homeland Security, of which Phillip Broyles is an active member. Olivia Dunham and Walter Bishop are recruited to help investigate The Pattern in the Pilot episode, with Peter Bishop also agreeing to help. Nina Sharp of Massive Dynamics is also aware of the events of The Pattern, implying that the company founder William Bell knows about them too.

Broyles describes the events of The Pattern as seeming "as if someone out there is experimenting, only the whole world is a lab".

Contents 1 Known Incidents 1.1 Flight 627 1.2 Disappearing Children 1.3 Sri Lanka Tsunami 1.4 Coma Patient Co-ordinates 2 Additional Incidents (Viral Marketing) 2.1 Growing Patient 2.2 Wedding Guests' Amnesia 2.3 Reanimated Husband 2.4 Cruise Ship Mayday 2.5 Transported Man 2.6 Kidnapped Sister 2.7 Four-year-old Linguist 2.8 Sheep Patterns

[edit] Known Incidents

According to Broyles, 37 incidents have been reported and classified as part of The Pattern.

[edit] Flight 627

Flight 627 from Hamburg to Boston was the target of an airborne contagion which infected all the passengers and crew on board within a matter of seconds. The contagion caused the infected individuals' skin to degenerate and rapidly dissolve, leaving their bone and muscle behind. This happened so fast that some passengers barely had time to react to the situation; photographs from the scene show corpses still wearing safety belts and in-flight headphones. The pilot engaged the auto-pilot system before becoming affected by the contagion so the plane was able to safely land at Logan airport, where the CIA and FBI carried out a thorough investigation.

Whilst investigating a lead in the U-Case storage facility in Back Bay, Agent Scott discovers Richard Stieg exiting one of the garages. He gives chase and is ambushed by a series of explosions set off by Stieg, showering him with chemicals which in turn affect him with the same symptoms as the Flight 627 contagion. Walter Bishop later concludes that since Scott came into contact with the raw materials for the contagion but not the finished product, his deterioration would be slower but just as deadly. After communicating with Scott through a Synaptic Transfer, Olivia is able to identify Richard Stieg as the one responsible for the Flight 627 incident, having smuggled the contagion aboard in his twin brother Morgan's insulin pen.

[edit] Disappearing Children

During his discussion with Olivia, Broyles mentions an incident in which an otherwise normal child named John Thompson disappeared in 1998 and was discovered only a month previous to their discussion (presumably in 2008), with no visible signs of having aged since 1998. According to Broyles, nearly fifty other children also disappeared and reappeared under the same mysterious circumstances.

[edit] Sri Lanka Tsunami

More recently, an unidentified plane was spotted by a fisherman off the coast of Sri Lanka, flying low and emitting a high-pitched frequency which caused any glass windows in the surrounding area to shatter. Following this an hour later, a sub-surface earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale hit the area and caused a tsunami, decimating the costal towns and resulting in the deaths of approximately 83,000 people.

[edit] Coma Patient Co-ordinates

At a hospital in the USA a female patient woke up after years in a coma and began writing down a series of numbers which, when cross-checked in military databases, are discovered to be real-time co-ordinates of carrier battle groups on maneuvers in the pacific. These co-ordinates would be considered information classified above top-secret. It is unknown how she was able to produce these numbers or if she knew what they were.

[edit] Additional Incidents (Viral Marketing)

The following seven incidents are not mentioned in the pilot episode; instead they have been broadcast as viral radio spots for Fringe and as secret features on the "butterfly" picture at http://www.imaginetheimpossibilities.com. One of five different audio samples is played when the butterfly is clicked, and most are followed by a deep male voice which says "find the pattern".

One of the samples does not describe an incident; instead it is a radio advertisement for a car dealership called Franklin Auto (which sometimes appears as Abrams Auto for the radio spot) offering deals on 2008-model cars. The ad is interrupted halfway through, all speech and music become reversed, and the deep voice says "find the pattern". The advert goes back to being played forwards and finishes with the line "tell 'em Charlie sent ya!".

[edit] Growing Patient

Radio reporter: "A Dallas area physician reports that a 51-year-old female patient grew over eight-and-a-half inches overnight. Various media outlets have dubbed events like this "the pattern". All government sources are declar-"

[edit] Wedding Guests' Amnesia

Emergency services transmission: "Calling all units, there's a 1022 at the VFW hall at spring and fourth. Over 200 wedding guests are disoriented. All claim they can't remember the last two hours. May be linked to the pattern. Over."

An alternative 'radio spot' version of this transmission is currently being used as a viral marketing asset by Fox. There is only one difference; the road name "spring" has been changed to "Abrams".

[edit] Reanimated Husband

Male voice: "Case number 22. Tell me what happened, Mrs Reid."
Female voice: "I identified my husband at the morgue after the wreck. So I went home to break the news to my son... and then I got this call from the coroner. And he said 'I don't know how to tell you this, but... your husband wants a ride home'. [Laughs] He's alive!"

[edit] Cruise Ship Mayday

Crewman:"National sea rescue, this is the Solara cruise ship Astreya. Come in. "
Operator:"Roger, we read you five-by-five. Go ahead, Astreya."
Crewman:"Mayday, the navigation system's down."
Operator:"We copy, what was your last position?"
Crewman:"Can't find our way out. There's a sudden fog bank off the coast of patagonia. Gonna try and turn her around. Mayday. Mayday!"

The transmission cuts off, and we hear the sound of the tape being rewound. When it plays again, it is spliced so the syllables "find", "the", "pat-" and "turn" are arranged in order. The tape is rewound and played again twice, each time with the syllables closer together.

[edit] Transported Man

Radio Reporter:"A Baltimore family discovered a disoriented man in their back yard today who claims to have been in a London department store moments before. Security tapes confirm his story. Many believe this is part of The Pattern."

[edit] Kidnapped Sister

Radio Reporter: "St. Louis police report that a five-year-old girl's dream has revealed the location of her kidnapped sister. Various media outlets have dubbed events like this “the Pattern”. All government sources are declining comm-"

[edit] Four-year-old Linguist

Radio Reporter: “An Arizona University is studying a four-year-old boy who spontaneously began speaking six different languages. Is his extraordinary ability part of the events now being dubbed “The Pattern”? Government sources re-”

[edit] Sheep Patterns

Radio Reporter: "Case 91: Satellite imaging picked up a rare formation of sheep on a ridge along the Iowa border three months ago. After questioning the owner of the property, we have come to the conclusion that this is no hoax. The coordination and quantity of sheep creating the pattern leaves very little explanation. Reports indicate ten more sheep patterns were spotted throughout the area."

The rest of the evidence related to this case can be found here: http://www.imaginetheimpossibilities.com/77203.htm . Just hit the word next to continue through the list of evidence.