EUREKA Plays Jacks
Episode 505 “Jack of All Trades”
OK. Time for a little fun as Eureka winds down to its finale. After so much drama and angst, it’s nice to see a little of the “mad scientist” town surface for a bit. And Colin Ferguson gets to play just about everyone else.
SPOILERS – YOU’VE BEEN WARNED
It begins rather innocuously, with the return of Vizzini — Zek — Rex — Warren Hughes, who’s there to evaluate the crew of the Astraeus and determine if they’re all fit to return to their jobs at Global Dynamics, or if they get “redacted” (such an ominous word. Why not just fired? Suspended?).
And still he doesn’t say it.
The evaluations start down in the labs where a Throwaway Doc of the Week is working on a matter transporter. Which, since this is Eureka, doesn’t quite work up to spec, blowing up the test meat in Jack’s face. Tasty.
This is not the best start to the evaluations, as Dr. Redshirt is immediately redacted. (fortunately, this doesn’t mean he gets blown up or disintegrated or anything…)
After this first event, when Carter gets a bunch of meat thrown in his face, things start to get a little crazy, as Carter starts swapping bodies with various members of the Astraeus crew – first Fargo, then Zane, then Allison. It’s a great showcase for Colin Ferguson, who has to play Jack Carter and everyone with whom he switches bodies.
Carter as Fargo is, to me, the best imitation. It’s a little exaggerated in the physical performance, yes. But Ferguson just eats the dialogue up and delivers it so well.
And who can pass up the “Spock’s Brain” moment?! Seriously! Throw in the “Oh, boy” wink at Quantum Leap, and it’s almost a picture-perfect episode that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Of course, it’s been noted that the idea of Carter acting as an antenna for the virtual environment computer could have been nipped in the bud with a Faraday cage, but that would only be a temporary fix because Carter’s brain would still have the neuron cluster ready to receive a wireless signal. And what happens when he picks up a signal from a different virtual reality and starts fighting witches and ogres?
The one hiccup for me was when Allison was in Carter, and Jo spills her guts about her feelings, and Allison just sits there and takes it – pretending to be Carter and being a total ass to Jo – totally out of character for Allison. I mean, she’s just made the point of asking Jo to stay in Eureka last episode, so why take this giant leap backward into Jealousville over something that still never happened? It’s time to get off this crazy train, methinks.
Zane’s having an easier time of it than Allison, maybe due to the fact that the body swap put him and Carter both in awkward situations with the other’s girlfriend. So Zane got a taste of his own medicine, a bit. Although is that a little disappointment on Jo’s face when Carter and Allison get engaged?
And then to find that Holly’s engrams may still be floating around in the virtual world… the door is open to some version of Holly to return. Because it’s science fiction, and nobody stays dead in science fiction.
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[Official Show Site at Syfy] [Previous Episode “Friendly Fire”]
