Numbers (season 3)

Numbers
Season 3
DVD cover
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 24
Release
Original network CBS
Original release September 22, 2006 –
May 18, 2007
Season chronology

The third season of Numbers, an American television series, premiered on September 22, 2006 with the episode "Spree" and had its season finale "The Janus List" on May 18, 2007. Charlie and Amita intensify their relationship, as do Larry and Megan. Amita has troubles adjusting in her new role as a CalSci professor, and Larry announces his leave of absence—he will be on the space station for six months, which greatly distresses Charlie. Dr. Mildred Finch, the newly appointed Chair of the CalSci Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy Division, initially troubles Charlie and his colleagues, as Alan dates her. Don dates Agent Liz Warner, questions his ethics and self-worth, and receives counseling. Charlie sees Don's therapist and the two understand one another more. Alan engages in some FBI consulting with his knowledge of engineering, and Larry returns from the space station, although disillusioned. The finale wraps up with a revelation that shakes the whole team.

Cast

Main

Recurring

Guest

Episodes

No.
overall
No. in
season
Title Directed by Written by Original air date Prod.
code
US viewers
(millions)
38 1 "Spree" John Behring Ken Sanzel September 22, 2006 301 11.35

Don is on the trail of a criminal couple consisting of a 30-year-old teacher and a 17-year-student who are committing crimes across the country. Charlie and Amita's relationship changes and Alan decides to move out. The episode ends in a cliffhanger with Crystal Hoyle, the 30-year-old teacher, taking Megan hostage.


Mathematics used: Pursuit curves and geodesic sphere
39 2 "Two Daughters" Alex Zakrzewski Ken Sanzel September 29, 2006 302 10.69

The team jumps into action after learning that Crystal Hoyle has taken Megan hostage and work against the clock and ever-decreasing odds to save Megan before it's too late.


Mathematics used: Polar spirals and parametric equations
40 3 "Provenance" David Von Ancken Don McGill October 6, 2006 303 11.07

A famous Nazi-looted painting is stolen from a museum and a related murder surfaces.


Mathematics used: Linear diophantine equations, curvelet analysis, Craquelure and discriminant analysis
41 4 "The Mole" Stephen Gyllenhaal Robert Port October 13, 2006 304 10.89

The death of a Chinese interpreter outside a nightclub who was knocked down and fatally injured by a car at first appears to be an accident but Charlie's theory later suggests that it was murder and the resulting investigation leads Don and his team to investigate a possible mole from within the Department of Justice. Colby covers up information on Don's case for a friend (Shawn Hatosy) and is left stunned when he finds evidence suggesting that his old friend is the mole that Don and the team are looking for. Charlie is upset when Larry publishes a paper without his help.


Mathematics used: Steady Motion Algorithm, Curtate cycloid, symmetry and combinatorics
42 5 "Traffic" J. Miller Tobin Nicolas Falacci & Cheryl Heuton October 20, 2006 305 11.95

A series of violent highway attacks which appear to be random leaves Don and his team deeply puzzled.


Mathematics used: Randomness, partial differential equations and traffic flow
43 6 "Longshot" John Behring J. David Harden October 27, 2006 306 11.09

The team investigates the death of a man armed with a sophisticated statistical analysis that can identify the winning horse at a race track.

First appearance of: Aya Sumika as Liz Warner


Mathematics used: Probability, arbitrage betting and data mining
44 7 "Blackout" Scott Lautanen Andrew Dettman November 3, 2006 307 11.08

After an attack on a power station which left parts of Los Angeles in the dark, the team must find the assailant's real target.


Mathematics used: Set Theory, Center of mass, harmonic series, directed graph, Load flow analysis and Dantzig-Wolfe Decomposition
45 8 "Hardball" Fred Keller Nicolas Falacci & Cheryl Heuton November 10, 2006 308 11.76

A minor league baseball player is found dead of steroid abuse, leading the investigators to an unusual chain of suspects. Jay Baruchel portrays Oswald Kittner.


Mathematics used: Sabermetrics and Shiryaev-Roberts change-point analysis
46 9 "Waste Not" J. Miller Tobin Julie Hébert November 17, 2006 309 10.73

Mysterious cancer clusters are found around a number of elementary schools whose playgrounds were all paved by the same company. A new CalSci administrator annoys Charlie and his colleagues, while Alan dates her.


Mathematics used: Groundwater flow equation, cancer clusters, seismic tomography and Kac–Moody algebra
47 10 "Brutus" Oz Scott Ken Sanzel November 24, 2006 310 11.73

A California State Senator and a psychiatrist—neither have much in common with the other except for one thing...they both turn up dead on Don's watch. While the circumstances of their deaths are different, Don thinks the two murders are related, and tries to prove his hunch right. What he finds may bring to light a deep secret the government has been hiding for years.


Mathematics used: Network flow, network theory, Euclid's Orchard and target selection theory
48 11 "Killer Chat" Chris Hartwill Don McGill December 15, 2006 311 11.23

Don and Charlie track a killer who has murdered several sex predators. The predators took advantage of teenage girls they met in chat rooms. Meanwhile, Larry is ready to begin an adventure with NASA.


Mathematics used: Statistical Textual Analysis and principal components analysis
49 12 "Nine Wives" Julie Hébert Julie Hébert January 5, 2007 312 12.35

Don, Charlie, and the team search for a polygamist who is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for rape and murder.


Mathematics used: Lévy flights, Inbreeding coefficients and kinship chains
50 13 "Finders Keepers" Colin Bucksey Andrew Dettman January 12, 2007 313 11.58

After an extremely expensive yacht sinks in the middle of a race, Charlie finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place when both Don and the NSA need his help on the case.


Mathematics used: Fluid dynamics, constraint and optimization
51 14 "Take Out" Leslie Libman Sean Crouch February 2, 2007 314 10.91

When two police officers are killed while eating dinner out, Charlie tries to figure out where the killers will strike next while Don's superiors make him see the department shrink to help him deal with the aftermath of the Crystal Hoyle Case.


Mathematics used: Outliers and data mining
52 15 "End of Watch" Michael Watkins Robert Port & Mark Llewellyn February 9, 2007 315 11.23

Don and the team reopen a cold case when a bunch of kids playing in an abandoned empty construction site discover a police badge. When Charlie joins the investigation, they attempt to track down the owner of the badge, a police officer who has been missing for seventeen years but when the team discover that the dead cop was on his way to Internal Affairs, the investigation takes a turn. Meanwhile, Alan is informed that he's being sued.


Mathematics used: Laser Swath Mapping and quantum mechanics
53 16 "Contenders" Alex Zakrzewski J. David Harden February 16, 2007 316 10.69

One of David's closest friends is called into question after a man dies during a mixed martial arts sparring match. When it turns out that this is not the first time such an event has happened, things look even worse. Charlie is busy practicing what little he knows about poker, so he can take Larry's spot in a tournament.

Mathematics used: Kruskal's algorithm and Flow network
54 17 "One Hour" J. Miller Tobin Ken Sanzel February 23, 2007 317 11.02

Don talks to his therapist again, and while he's gone, the team races against time to find an eleven-year-old boy being held hostage on a $3 million ransom.


Mathematics used: 'Cake-cutting' algorithm, logic maze and state diagram
55 18 "Democracy" Steve Boyum Nicolas Falacci & Cheryl Heuton March 9, 2007 318 10.29

Several area murders seem to be tied to voter fraud. Don, Charlie, and the team must find the killers before they strike again.


Mathematics used: Statistics, probability theory, metadata and organizational theory
56 19 "Pandora's Box" Dennis Smith Andrew Black March 30, 2007 319 10.74

When a jet crashes in the middle of a forest, Charlie suspects that there is more to the crash than meets the eye.


Mathematics used: Ito-Stratonovich drift integrals and wavelet deconvolution
57 20 "Burn Rate" Frederick K. Keller Don McGill April 6, 2007 320 10.93

Don and Charlie hunt for a serial letter bomber and disagree over whether a key suspect, a physics professor working as a consultant on explosives for the Department of Defense who eluded conviction once before, is responsible for the latest murder.


Mathematics used: Explosions, paradigm shift, coherence and outliers
58 21 "The Art of Reckoning" John Behring Julie Hébert April 27, 2007 321 10.15

When a former mob hit man on death row suddenly has a change of heart and agrees to confess to his crimes, Don has an uneasy feeling about the whole affair while Larry returns from his NASA mission.


Mathematics used: Probability theory and tit for tat
59 22 "Under Pressure" J. Miller Tobin Andrew Dettman May 4, 2007 322 9.51

Don, Charlie and the team take on an unknown group of terrorists who may be using nerve gas to undermine the city's water supply.


Mathematics used: Social network analysis
60 23 "Money for Nothing" Stephen Gyllenhaal Nicolas Falacci & Cheryl Heuton May 11, 2007 323 10.03

$50 million dollars in medical relief is stolen. Someone other than the FBI wants to recover the shipment. Don and the team find themselves being pitted against blackmarketeers in a race for the supplies.


Mathematics used: Greedy algorithm and Dijkstra's algorithm
61 24 "The Janus List" John Behring Robert Port & Ken Sanzel May 18, 2007 324 10.18

In the wake of a deadly standoff with a mysterious, yet brilliant bomber, Don and Charlie discover that he was poisoned to keep him from exposing a secret while the team are left reeling and stunned after learning that one of their own is a traitor, a revelation that threatens to change the team forever...


Mathematics used: Merkle-Hellman, Wheat and Chessboard Problem, straddling checkerboard, substitution cipher, Bacon's cipher, knapsack problem and Lorentz force