The smartest small town in the world is back! Opening with a wedding between Deputy Andy and SARAH – catered by Vince, of course – it feels as though we never left. Unfortunately, SARAH gets cold feet and calls the ceremony off, breaking poor Andy’s power cells.
Jo is having relationship issues, since Zane discovered that she had his grandmother’s engagement ring and couldn’t explain why. Speaking of relationships, Jack and Allison are still in the honeymoon phase of theirs.
The main story of the episode revolves around an old rocket that Fargo brought into GD. Zane and Fargo lock themselves in to have a conversation about Jo’s behavior and accidentally launch it. It’s all very reminiscent of the 80s comedy ‘Spacecamp,’ a personal favorite of mine. The two of them find themselves in low orbit, trapped in a capsule that only has functioning life support, artificial gravity…and nothing else.
The capsule does, however, have an experimental FTL (Faster Than Light) drive. What? It’s Eureka. You were expecting conventional rocket stuff on their rockets? The only way they can maneuver it is with faster than light speeds, so it’s not the best way to get back to Earth. Henry, of course, points out that they have a BCE – a Boson Cloud Exciter – that is designed to catch things coming in from space and it could catch the capsule in FTL. Yeah, it’s pretty convenient, but this is Eureka. They have something for everything.
Firing up the BCE proves a bit unfortunate, as it ends up generating a huge EMP and blowing out all the power in town. Everything mechanical shuts down. On the plus side, it does finally give them a chance to ride horses in Eureka.
Using their patented rapid-fire techno-babble, Henry, Allison and Grace determine that they can fix the BCE, but they need a working power source. That proves a bit difficult, considering that all power in town has just been blown out. Enter Deputy Andy with his copper shielding. He’s the only functioning power source in town. So, we learn you can jury rig a Boson Cloud Exciter, plug in an android and you’re good to go!
After getting safely to the ground, Fargo is taken by the DOD to Washington to meet with Senator Michaela Winn (Ming-Na), the senator in charge of the money GD gets. The episode ends with her telling Fargo that Eureka’s future is about to get “very complicated.”
This was an excellent and fun episode. While it is primarily stand-alone, as is the case with most of ‘Eureka,’ we did still have some interesting developments for the long term. If this premiere is any indication, the rest of Season 4 should prove to be very fun indeed. Me personally, I’m looking forward to Felicia Day guest starring next week.
