Expected revisits of the start state

A symmetric ±1\pm 1 walk on {0,1,2,3,4}\{0,1,2,3,4\} has 00 and 44 absorbing and starts at 22. What is the expected number of times it is at state 22 before absorption (counting the start)?

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  1. Expected visits before absorption are the entries of N=(I−Q)−1N=(I-Q)^{-1} over the transient states {1,2,3}\{1,2,3\}.
  2. You need the start-to-start entry N22N_{22}; invert the 3×33\times3 matrix.

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