Eureka: Bad to the Drone

... in which the latest Department of Defense liaison, a “corporate killer,” arrives to conduct a performance review of Global, just as an artificially intelligent military attack drone goes rogue.

Not a bad way to kick off the season. We got some attention to lingering threads, an interesting new status quo, and an entertaining disaster-of-the-week. I think my favorite aspect of the episode was the introduction of Eva “The Fixer” Thorne and her shake-up of the Global Dynamics team. The new arrangement with Stark and Allison on more equal footing (and subordinate to Eva) should prove very interesting. The show never really sold me on Allison as the head of Global; she’s just not the “take charge” type required for the job, and she often behaved as though Stark was still the boss. Even in this episode, she pretty much let Stark take the lead with Eva and managing the disaster. Eva should be a much stronger “Chairman of the Board.” She’s tough, smart, and great at her job (even though they outsmarted her in this episode). Her corporate cost-cutting approach might not always be the best fit for Global, but I think some fresh perspective will be a good thing for the research facility and the show. Then again, she appears to be evil, so I guess we’ll see.

In the lingering threads department, Allison finally decided to say “yes” to Stark’s marriage proposal and Henry is in prison somewhere awaiting his board review. I’m glad it took Allison awhile to make her decision about Stark. It’s always been clear that she still cares for him and relies upon him, but there is a lot of water under that bridge, and I think if she’d been willing to just dive back in without giving it some serious thought, it would have felt a bit out of character.

I’m not sure how I feel about Henry’s situation or his conversation with Carter. It seems like they are attempting to undo all the damage they’ve done to Henry’s character by having him recognize that what he did to help Kevin was “the wrong thing for the right reason.” Sigh. Are we ever going to get an explanation for his actions other than “I made a mistake”? At this point, I’m trying to just roll with it, but deep down I still don’t believe he would have ever made that mistake in the first place. The writers made the mistake, and I’m kind of ticked that now Henry has to pay the price. It also seems they were trying to sweep away his other transgressions (attempting to mess with the timeline to save Kim and subsequently wiping Carter’s memory) by having him acknowledge he did the wrong thing. “Some things can’t be forgiven, no matter how much I wish they could.” Or was he suggesting that he still can’t forgive Carter for stopping him? Aargh! A little more clarity in the subtext would be nice.

Other Thoughts

Zoe getting a job at Café Diem is a very good idea. Not only does it allow her character to become more responsible, it positions her to be better integrated into the action on a weekly basis. Lots of stuff happens at Café Diem, so maybe now she can be part of the story in a capacity other than “worried daughter” and “annoying teenager.” Woo hoo!

So, I guess Allison wasn’t still functioning as the DoD liaison.

Aah, we’re remembering that Zane is a character in his own right. Yea!

Loved seeing Jonathan Young as a character named Dr. Edison. On Sanctuary, Young plays Nikola Tesla, the real-life Dr. Edison’s professional adversary.

Henry is bald now. That plus the prison jumpsuit makes him look very threatening.

Fargo (re: Larry): “I really hate him.”
Yeah, me, too.

Carter: “Let me guess: someone lose a UFO?”

Edison: “Martha is a learning computer, okay? And she is developing at an incredible rate. It’s like she went from being a toddler to a teenager overnight.”
Carter: “Well, your teenager just stole a car, a gun, and ran away from home.”

Eva suggesting Carter is to blame for the spike in incidents in Eureka was insulting and way off base. Come on! He doesn’t cause the disasters, he just saves the freaking town when they crop up! Every week!

I always enjoy the Carter-Jo dynamic and they had some really entertaining teamwork this week. “We rule!” “We so don’t rule.”

Martha’s personality amused me, especially all her little noises.

Martha’s POV screen was a font of fun tidbits of information: Carter is 38, Jo is 27, Allison is 37, Stark is 39, Eva’s age is “classified,” Zoe has a 4.0 GPA and her natural hair color is “unknown.”

Strangely, Martha’s screen also indicated that Allison was “Head of Operations” at Global Dynamics and Stark was “Head of Research,” but they weren’t actually assigned to those roles until after Martha had returned home.

Nathan showing up at Edison’s with a strike team to box everything up and take it back to GD didn’t really seem like the best way to prove to Allison that he’s “not that guy anymore.” But apparently refusing to work at GD without her was.

Mina’s reason for tweaking Martha’s capabilities was really sweet. “My husband’s a brilliant man who’s only allowed to fail. For once, I just wanted everyone to see how talented he really is.” Awwww.

The “corporate synergy” product placement with Degree antiperspirant made me chuckle.

So what was in the purple vial? Our new Artifact-like McGuffin?

Final Analysis: A decent start for the third season. I’m looking forward to seeing GD’s new power structure in action.

Jess Lynde is a highly engaged television viewer. Probably a bit too engaged.

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