Eureka: The Honeymooners

... in which Carter attempts to take Allison on a honeymoon, which turns into a far more rugged experience than either of them wanted. Meanwhile, the efforts to restore Holly continue, and the return of some familiar names and faces leads to surprising reveals.

This episode triggered an incredibly wide range of reactions while I was watching. No seething anger this time, but I still managed to veer from gooey happiness to mildly disturbed, to genuinely tense and distressed, to confused and befuddled, to downright irritated, to intrigued, and then back around to the happy fuzzies. Whoa. I was a little exhausted when it was all over. How to even begin discussing everything? I think I’ll break it down by couple.

Carter and Allison. Their story this week was mostly just a funny series of mishaps, but I really enjoyed the opening when Carter explained to Allison why they were at the cabin. “Ally, um, my first marriage failed, because I didn’t put down roots. I’m not gonna let that happen again. And this … [puts on her wedding ring] is how we’re gonna build a future.” The exchange of rings and the talk about building their future together gave me all those gooey, happy feelings I wasn’t able to feel during the marriage proposal and the subsequent quickie wedding. I even got slightly choked up. The rest of their plot didn’t do much for me, but it was still nice to get those sweetly satisfying opening and closing moments. And, I suppose it was really nice to spend time with Carter and Allison facing run-of-the-mill disaster together and sorting out legitimate couple conflicts, such as differences in vacation preferences. I really enjoyed the way Allison tried to get into fixing the cabin for Carter’s sake, and how he finally agreed to take a nice, relaxing trip somewhere tropical for hers. “What I was trying to do, was do something romantic, and --- and nothing turned out the way I wanted.” “I know you did, honey. I know you tried.” Better luck with Fiji, Carter.

Fargo and Holly. I’m very glad they decided to go the “disturbing and unsettling” route with this story, despite a few schmaltzy touches (Holly being awoken by true love’s kiss had me rolling my eyes). I don’t want to lose Holly. I really don’t. But bringing her back from the dead in Frankenstein fashion is seriously disturbing stuff. I’m really glad that Holly seemed mildly freaked out when observing her new body. “It’s … it’s … me.” And I appreciated everyone’s acknowledgment that attempting to transfer Holly’s digital consciousness to organic form was something significantly not “normal.”

Henry: “We are about to give her new life.”
Zane: “I’m a little nervous.”
Henry: “Good. You should be.”

The subsequent turn of events with Holly believing they were still in the Matrix was also very interesting and actually put me on edge for a good bit of the hour. I wasn’t overly thrilled with the simple “reboot” solution for Holly’s degradation --- I’m getting fairly tired of them trying to milk drama out of the “Holly might die!” plot, only to give her a last minute reprieve --- but they still managed to create some genuine tension with her psychological duress. Her absolute terror and panic at Carter approaching her, and her determination to not let him hurt her again was very effective. “Not this time.” I was actually concerned someone might get injured before Fargo stepped in front of the gun and talked her down. And I was moved by her sobbing, apologetic breakdown after the fact. How awful it must have been for her to lose her grip on reality.

I’m still not entirely sure about what’s real and what’s not. Holly kept saying “They’re coming for us.” What does that mean? Are we about to have the rug pulled out from under us the same way Henry just did? I can’t decide if that would be a really cool and totally unexpected twist, or something to get really angry about. Probably the latter.

Grace and Henry. Oh boy. This story had me fairly disgusted until the final reveal about Henry. When it looked like they brought Grace back after her extended absence only to unexpectedly reveal her as a Consortium stooge, I was working towards “rather pissed” (no matter how well Joe Morton played Henry’s reactions to her betrayal). It just didn’t fit with all we had seen before, and I was angry that the writers were once again sabotaging Henry’s love life. But when Grace said the reason she left was to find Beverly, I started to calm down. Her sudden and lengthy departure never quite made sense to me. It just didn’t seem like her experiences would require that much time and space for recovery. So learning that she had actually been doing something else all that time was a plus.

And her final reveal that she was protecting Henry, and that she and he had been Consortium spies together was a wonderful twist. “We both shared classified information, together. You taught me everything I know.” This makes sense in so many ways. When we first learned about what drove Grant and Beverly’s father to form the Consortium in the first place, I noted that their original goals lined up with Henry’s long-established philosophy on how Eureka should be about scientific discovery, not turning noble ideas into weapons. As such, I’m thoroughly delighted to learn that in this timeline he was part of their watchdog group and recruited his wife to the cause, even though they eventually left when the Consortium’s “tactics became destructive.” The timing of the revelation is also quite interesting, given that what they just did in resurrecting Holly could be viewed as an abuse of science that the Consortium was initially aiming to prevent. I can’t wait to see where this goes next.

Other Thoughts

I love that they went back to the beginning with Sheriff Cobb and his cabin. And returning to the changes in the timeline was a good idea, too. Plus, the holographic communiqués reminded me of Beverly’s mysterious glowy head contact back in Season 1 (‘Invincible’ and ‘Once in a Lifetime’). We never found out who that was, right? I remember speculating it could be an alternate version of Henry, and now they’ve got me wondering again. Could they possibly wrap this back around to the beginning? The would be kind of cool.

Andy’s delight at hunting a potential spy ring was infectious. His sheer joy at all things great and small always manages to make me smile.

When Holly got into bed with Fargo, all I could think was “Sex with robots is more common than people think.” It’s kind of creepy, right? The not-quite-humanness of it all keeps bothering me.

Fargo: “People are gonna freak if they see her back from the dead.”
Zane: “It’s Global Dynamics. They’ve seen worse.”

Jo purposely using Vincent to spread false information was a great little twist and very well played. I totally bought her irritation with Vincent. “I am the eyes and ears of this town.” “And the mouth, apparently.”

Allison’s reaction to Carter’s reveal that the cooler seal wasn’t airtight cracked me up. Her irritated laugh was too funny.

Allison really looked like Beverly when she walked up to Grace’s cell with her arms folded. Creepy.

Allison: “Is it true?”
Grace: “In this town, what’s true can be a very tricky concept.”

Nice touch to have Henry retreat to his garage, his coveralls, and his hat when Grace’s apparent betrayal pulled the rug out from under him. A subtle acknowledgment that he was trying to find his bearings in a safe, familiar space.

I find it difficult to believe that Grace and Other Henry could just quit the Consortium. They don’t seem like the kind of group that would just let their assets walk away. Moreover, would they really continue to let them live and work in the town where they had been spying? Wouldn’t their continued presence present a security risk to the Consortium? Was there enough compartmentalization in the organization to prevent a threat?

Also, why didn’t Henry already learn about this past when he and Grace shared memories? Was she able to hide certain things? I guess she did design the device, so she had a lot of control over the process.

A new outfit for Holly! Yea! I was getting tired of the yellow blouse. I’m sure she was, too.

Final Analysis: Some interesting developments in this episode. I’m curious to see where they take us.

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

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