207 Convergence

The analysis finds all kinds of links …


Summary: A series of home invasions escalates to murder; could the man’s cell phone have marked him as a target?


Original Air Date
: November 11, 2005 (US)

Written by
: Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci

Directed by
: Dennis Smith

 Opening numbers:
7: Home invasions
2: Murders
3.6: Million stolen
2: Antique lamps

Family Concepts: (character development)
  • Don and Charlie play Frisbee golf
  • Charlie’s greatest math work took five years and is called the Eppes Convergence
  • Charlie was the youngest person to publish a major paper
  • David went to high school in the Bronx
  • Alan is starting a consulting firm with Stan Fisher
  • Alan was forced to retire when Mrs. Eppes got sick
  • Alan does not enjoy being retired
  • Alan likes the design and planning aspects of architecture
  • Charlie likes lemon meringue pie
  • Alan has a cell phone, Larry does not
  • Amita is not sure she wants a social relationship at this time
  • Amita is one of the best coders on campus
  • Charlie’s new math theory is called “Cognitive Emergence Theory”
  • Mrs Eppes enjoyed working jigsaw puzzles

Episode Quotes:

  • Charlie: The only keg party I ever threw, he stole the keg.
  • Larry: You’re a talented theortician with an ego problem.
  • Larry: Wisdom and genius rarely present in equal abundance.
  • Colby: You’re brother is starting to freak me out a little bit.
    Don: What just a little?
  • Colby:  Oooo, math fight.
  • David: Maybe you ought to rub it three times and find out where it’s about to send you.
  • Charlie: [referring to his cell phone] Do you two realize what’s in here?
    Don: In your case a whole lot of unanswered voice mail, I can tell you that.
  • Megan: Shut up! Can’t you tell the baby’s sleepin?

 


Episode Synopsis:

A series of robberies in the LA area has escalated to murder when a doctor is killed.  The thieves seemed to know exactly what to take, including a pair of rare, expensive lamps.  Charlie thinks he can find something through data mining and starts work only to have his thoughts side-tracked in the form of Marshall Penfield, a fellow Princeton graduate.

Megan gets a lead on a fence who sold one of the stolen lamps and she leads a sting to arrest a man named Roley.  Roley tells her he gets merchandise from two guys, a Mr Brown and a Mr Grey.  He doesn’t know anything about them as they came to him.

Charlie’s work reveals several dates where crimes should occur, but aren’t part of the investigation; he suggests Don look into other crimes where the suspects match the description of the robbers.  He also predicts another robbery should take place in three days.  Megan does some checking and finds there were three car-jackings on the days Charlie thinks some sort of crime should happen, they get lucky when one of the car-jackings also involves gun fire.  David and Colby set out to find the bullet fired from the gun hoping to get some sort of match.

Charlie’s life is further complicated when Marshall presents a lecture on Charlie’s greatest work so far, the Eppes Convergence.  Marshall proves the theory has a fatal flaw and Charlie realizes he hasn’t done much work within his field since he started helping Don.  While he doesn’t’ think his applied work for the FBI is wasted, he feels he needs to do something relating to his field.

The data mining reveals two connections for the victims of the robberies, they all have expensive items that have been insured and they were all tracked using their cell phones.  Charlie and Larry figure they tracking must be through the GPS systems in the phones, but the other connection remains elusive until Marshall mentions work he is doing in set theory.  He shows Charlie his idea concerning deep current sets which leads Charlie to look deeper at the similarities.  He finds that while the insurance companies were different, they all used the same underwriting company.

Roley two connections, Mr Brown and Mr Grey are really Maynard who works for the underwriting company and Herbert Quilty and cell phone company employee.  They lead the FBI to the gang that did the robberies and the leader Wallace “Demento” Gordon.

Charlie comes to Marshall to thank him for the deep current idea and let him know the insight solved the case.  He also shows Marshall a solution to the flaw in the Eppes Convergence that Marshall found; he offers to call the solution the Penfield Variation.  Charlie also starts work on a new mathematical theory, Cognitive Emergence Theory, or the math of the brain.