EUREKA Gets Fired Up
Episode 504 “Friendly Fire”
[photos: Eike Schroter/Syfy]
We’re almost (but not quite) back to the formula that has made Eureka so successful (to the point where the network has cancelled it as a reward… erm.. )
- Name guest star – Wil Wheaton (because, you know, Felicia Day’s dead)
- Experiment at Global Dynamics gone awry
- Fargo being his usual obnoxious self
- Carter stumbling around into a solution
Right. Did I miss anything?
I’m not complaining. This was a bit of fun after the arc where the Astraeus crew got kidnapped, their minds hijacked by an ambitious senator with delusions of grandeur… it was dark, so now we get to lighten up a bit. With bunnies.
Fargo, of course, has to do the mandatory grief counseling. And Fargo being Fargo, he’d just rather ignore the fact that the love of his life is dead, and just get back to work to take his mind off of everything. Except he has to grieve. Any mind shrinker worth his salt will tell you that the grief process – while different for everyone – is a necessary cathartic process after a death. Speaking from experience, I can say this is so. Because to deny your grief only serves to make you crazy as a loon. With a furrowed brow and a shotgun in your lap…
[No. I never had a shotgun in my lap. I speak metaphorically.]
Fargo’s troubles are only a distraction, however. Because the real problem this week: Parrish Fireflies.
Apparently, Dr. Parrish developed a cluster of nanobots that can put out fires. Except (of course) something goes wrong when Zane starts dumping all the tech from the Astraeus into Parrish’s lab, thus causing the Firefly to become a Firestarter. Something’s giving off weird EM signals and it throws the Firefly into a tizzy.
You’d think Wesley would remember what happened with the Nanites, but nooooo….
Those EM signals are also interfering with S.A.R.A.H. as well. And that’s never good. Especially when this time, it interferes with the message to Kevin to shut down the reactor, because one of the Fireflies (one becomes two during the attempt to capture them) is coming to the house, which is now the only thing radiating energy in the town.
So, out-of-control tech that causes explosions and fire. Kids in jeopardy. Fargo using a patch to accelerate himself through the stages of grief.
Just another day in Eureka.
And it turns out that the source of the EM signals is the crew of the Astraeus – and Carter. All of the folks who were pre-animate matter caught in a matrix now have an electromagnetic field around them. What’s that going to do?
In the resolution of the story, we get some closure between Allison and Jo. Hard to stay angry at her boyfriend’s virtual-girlfriend-who-never-really-was-a-girlfriend when the real one saves your daughter’s life. Zane and Jo, too, make some progress getting over the month in the Matrix.
Not so much with Grace, who still has to clear the air with Henry.
Fargo and Parrish get a nice moment at the end, finding common ground in their loss. It’s touching, poignant, and very well written, giving Parrish a heart (though it may be three sizes too small still) and letting Fargo have an outlet for his grief that allows him to still be Fargo.
[Official Show Site at Syfy] [Previous Episode “Force Quit”]
