The Steven Spielberg executive-produced miniseries continued on 10 December, 2002 with the seventh episode of the ten-episode series.

The episode, God’s Equation, was written, as all the rest have been by Leslie Bohem, and it moves the narrative to 2002.

Charlie’s (Adam Kaufman) nightmares are becoming worse, even as he conducts interviews with possible alien abductees to figure out what is going on. And things take a turn for him when he joins a therapy group and meets Lisa (Emily Bergl).

When they both elect to undergo hypnotherapy, they recall their encounter together aboard a ship. This encounter led to Allie (Dakota Fanning, making her first physical appearance in the series; she’s served as narrator to this point).

And of course, both Eric Crawford (Andy Powers) and his daughter, Mary (Heather Donaue) are already aware of Allie, and are watching her. Mary is as cruel and vicious as her father. She and Wakeman (Matt Frewer) have discovered a way to block the implants that abductees have been implanted with.

They also find a connection between the aliens and God’s Equation, commonly known as the Fibonacci sequence.

There are a couple of familiar faces in Charlie and Lisa’s therapy group: Gabrielle Rose (as the group’s doctor) and Brian Markinson! Markinson’s Ray is a little unstable, and things turn troubling when he takes the group hostage.

Mary ends up being on site to see over the situation, but Allie is there as well. The young girl may be able to save the group members, but it may require a deal to be made between Allie and Mary. Crawford has inserted herself into the negotiations as a way to grab Allie.

She doesn’t care about keeping anyone safe; she is just determined to continue her own investigations and research. In fact, she’s willing to have the rest of the group killed. Unfortunately for Mary and her secret government organization, they weren’t ready for the young girl’s abilities.

But in the end, Allie goes with Mary after keeping her friends and family safe.

This episode isn’t quite as VFX-filled as previous episodes; it’s a little more grounded, though we get a glimpse of some of Allie’s abilities. There’s also a knowing nod to The X-Files, which Mary references, making sure to tie the narrative into the real world. We’ve seen the alien therapy group before, not only in The X-Files, but in the real world as well.

Despite the hostage sequence dominating the majority of the episode, the story isn’t quite as tense as you would expect it to be. There’s a dose of melodrama, something the entire series dances with, but the series continues to be well executed.

The story continues with Dropping the Dishes.