Eureka: “In Too Deep” or “Feinman’s Day Should Be Abolished!”

Welcom back Eureka fans!

This week in a little town called Eureka… So, while I know that Syfy’s Eureka does not end for another few weeks, (on a day that will be dark and sad for all, I am sure), did Monday’s last episode feel like a rehearsal or was it just me?

Given the events at the end and of course the closing dialogue, I was half thinking the network or the producers had decided to run the series closer a few weeks early to soften the blow.

I was listening for the phrase: “just another day in Eureka,” which to me would be the perfect closing line of the series, and when it did not come I decided this was just another episode until the series finale named “Just Another Day”.

Before continuing my review we include the sneak peek and promo trailer for the next great episode of Eureka “Smarter Carter” courtesy of Syfy for your enjoyment.

In Too Deep:

Regardless, this episode was pretty action packed.  The underscoring theme of ‘April Fools’ Day’ made for a brilliant comedic effect.

We all loved to play pranks on each other and our parents, (or our parents loved to play pranks on us – my mother did a doozy on me one year – (okay, off-topic….).

Adding a genius brain into the equation added a level of hilarity that lasted through the entire hour. Seeing Holly Marten (Felicia Day), even virtually  was wonderful!

in the house with SARAH was also quite hilarious!

Plus, it balanced nicely with the deep drama of this episode, (see what I did there?) going on with Jack Carter, (Colin Ferguson), and Alison Blake, (Salli Richardson-Whitfield).

EPISODE SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

Morning in Eureka dawns with Jack deciding that he has way too many people in his house. Douglas Fargo, (Neil Grayston), and Deputy Andy, (Kavan Smith), both emerge from SARAH’s closet.

Fargo looks exhausted but happy having spent most of the night working on Holly Marten’s, (Felicia Day), program to make her as integrated as possible.

In the meantime, Alison Blake is the subject of the first prank of ‘Feinman Day’ by her son Kevin, (Trevor Jackson).

She expresses relief at not having to deal with the madness sure to be roaming the halls on Global Dynamic’s version of April Fools’ Day, and heads out to work.

Quietly, Jack pulls Andy aside to try to get him to convince Fargo to leave.

Jo Lupo, (Erica Cerra), is having the time of her life cataloging pranks as approved or unapproved. Seriously, the woman loves being in charge!

We quickly oberve that Lupo is stunned to find the joke’s on her when Zane Donovan, (Niall Matter) changes her conservative suit into a sexy skintight leather outfit – and hands her a riding crop to complete it.

That is just the start of the hilarity, (okay, a cafeteria floor as a trampoline is genius, I wish someone had found a way to do that at my school).

The day proves not to be so soothing for Alison as she descends into the mobile lab only to have it seal and take off. Jack has surprised her with a romantic lunch, complete with underwater tour let by Virtual Vincent, (Christopher Gauthier), but Alison, stressed from the problems wheeling around in her mind, is unwilling to truly unwind and relax.

Eventually, the tension between the two of them is so palpable that Jack calls off the lunch and attempts to return the lab to its original docking station. Before he can do this, however, the ship is slammed by a mysterious vortex spinning through the waters of the lake. It sinks to the lakebed…and then begins to tilt over into the Archimedes Trench. If they fall, the lab will be unable to survive those pressures, and Alison and Jack realize they are trapped.

Back in Global Dynamics, the pranks are going too far, and Jo is stunned to discover water from Lake Archimedes in electrical conduits, causing shortouts and explosions. She traces the problem to Doctor Fowler, a recently re-redacted member of Eureka who is on his last chance. Fowler insists the problem is a prank played on him, but before the end of the episode it is revealed that his creation is faulty and he alone is responsible for the events that took place.

Still underwater, Alison reveals that she is hesitant about the marriage to take place because of multiple fears, including breaking her childrens’ hearts if things should not work out, or losing the relationship she has with Jack to begin with.

Jack is not very consoling when he confesses he had not thought of it that way, but is still determined to carry through with it. Alison fights him on it even as the lab around them begins to buckle under the pressure. Finally forced into the airlock, Jack and Alison realize that Virtual Vincent is their key to the outside world, and manage to get a hold of Jo and Henry Deacon, (Joe Morton), to communicate their situation.

Blending together projects from around Global Dynamics, Henry puts a plan into action to save Jack and Alison, but not before Alison realizes that she is ready to get married to Jack, despite her hesitations.

With Henry officiating, the two are wed as the airlock fills up with water, and kiss as the last of their air vanishes. A few seconds later, they are transported out of the airlock and into Global Dynamics – saved again!

The episode ends with what almost feels like a curtain call of life at home with the Carter family. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Poignantly, Jack redacts his earlier desire to have Fargo leave and Holly go into sleep mode, and insists that Andy remain home to hang out for a little while. Alison chimes in saying that she wants her kids at home for the day as well, and the episode closes with everyone sitting down to play a role-playing game, We are left wondering how Jack and Alison will handle their new life together with their new outlook, (after all, they did face death).

One final point of the episode leave us all also with a sense of hope. As the new head of Section 5, (not a joke as he suspected), Zane reveals to Jo that he intends to embark on a new project: making Holly Marten real for Fargo.

Depth seemed to be a literal and symbolic theme of this week’s episode, which really comes as no surprise as the writers of the show are extremely clever with how they pen each script.

First, there is the literal side of it, based on the main plotline of Jack and Alison being caught in an underwater lab that is slowly sinking to crush depth after being “vortexed”.

Second is the level of pranks being played at GD. Despite Jo’s frenetic efforts, even Zane cannot pull himself away from the spirit of ‘Feinman Day’.

Admittedly this is nothing more than a competition of ‘who can outdo the other in prank creativity and public humiliation’. Jo’s leather catsuit, (meow!), was about the height of her patience, whereas Zane could not resist screwing up entire labs and sections!

Third would be Fargo’s desperate and fearful protectiveness of Holly, (evident clearly in the terror of his voice when SARAH is forced to discontinue her simulation for a moment due to over taxation).

This is to be expected – as I stated near the start of the season, Fargo has grown from a series joke to one of its most complex and solid characters. Fargo even makes this comment, (in character, of course), near the end of the episode as he attempts to convince Zane why he was chosen to be the head of Section 5.

Holly Marten’s untimely disconnection and then the absolute miracle of her consciousness still being alive within the matrix program. I knew she was not dead! I KNEW it!),

Holly yanked Fargo back and forth from one extreme emotion to another, and until he knows for sure whether or not he can truly have her back, he is going to protect her, body and soul. His reasons could be many: he could attempting to build himself up to say that final goodbye after spending a few last beautiful months with her. He could believe that this is as ‘alive’ as she will ever be and is choosing to make the best of what she has.

Or it is possible that he knows it is only a matter of time before a way is created to put her consciousness into an actual body and he is protecting her program until it happens.

Whatever the motivation, Fargo has made Holly a center point of his life, and watching how the series plays that out to its end will be possibly one of the most bittersweet story lines the writers have created so far.

Finally, the last symbolic usage of depth in the episode comes from the slow and frightening breakdown between Jack and Alison, culminating in the full-blown panic attack that takes place in the mobile lab. Jack has always been gifted with a solid belief throughout the series. It is part of what makes him such a lovable character. He follows things through to the very end, remaining as intensely loyal and determined to see the entire journey as he is at the start of every path.

Jack Carter is an example of what every man should aspire to be, if you ask me, and Alison Blake is the luckiest woman on Earth to have him. True to her character, however, she is getting cold feet as her scientific mind is weighing in all the variables of the marriage. Realizing the amount of merging that will have to take place, she sinks into a panic of ‘what if’ that becomes so bad, she does not even tell her family that she is getting married.

Humans in general are afraid of change. We like inertia, (the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion). We like continuing along a set path where we know everything and anything alien to us does not come across as a problem because it is not part of The Path.

Change means we have to adapt to an entirely new set of circumstances that we potentially did not see, possibly putting our bodies, minds, hearts, or souls at risk to do so, (which also ultimately means we can put our very lives at risk – not just the state of life, but the way in which we live life).

For Alison, this means taking the chance that blending her children with Jack’s could make them love each other as a family, and puts added pressure on her and Jack to stay together in order to keep them happy.

She is also afraid that once married, there is the possibility that she and Jack will move from best friends to husband-and-wife, (in truth, that CAN be two completely different relationships, depending on how you view them). She is afraid to lose ‘what they have’ and Jack does not console her when he tells her he never thought of it that way.

In some cases, Jack’s quiet conviction would serve as a life buoy, but for Alison, (who has always made her children a priority), it comes across as ignorant and out of touch with reality.

However, near the end of the episode and with the stakes high, (life and death, ‘just another day in Eureka’), and Jack beginning to panic about having his DNA mixed with fish, Alison loses her temper and bursts out with: “We have to stop worrying about what might happen and start focusing on what we can do right now.”

Right there is her turning point, and it is evident on both Jack’s face and Alison’s subsequent look as she realizes that how she deals with this very situation, (life and death), is exactly how she should be dealing with the upcoming wedding and the life to follow.

In short, she was always prepared to handle whatever happened, she just became lost in the multiverse where she saw all the possible, terrible ways that her, Jack, and their family could fall apart.

Driven by this realization and facing death by drowning again, Alison implores Jack to marry her on the spot, with their unifying kiss taking place underwater, (deeply romantic if rather life-threatening).

The countdown to the end of Eureka continues, but this week we finally reached a milestone of the series: the wedding of Jack and Alison. The wedding is typical Eureka – quirky, fast-paced, and momentous but, in my opinion, could not have been more perfect or true to the spirit of the show. Three cheers for “Doctor and Mr. Carter!”

See you next week!

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Nayari09 (Pam)