When ‘Eureka’ does a clip show, they tend to give it a unique spin, and this episode is no different. Warren Hughes returns to hear Carter and Allison’s appeal to his decision that they can’t be together. Using a technology that maps a person’s memories, Warren’s follow-up interview with them takes less than a second for him to download the relevant memories. But when a glitch happens, Carter’s memories take over Warren’s brain, and he begins reliving past moments. Carter and Henry have to try to bring Warren in and unscramble his brain while he runs around Eureka, reliving some of the more interesting crises of the past and generally freaking everybody out.

Meanwhile, the final phase of the Astraeus selection process is underway. The remaining candidates must be interviewed by Senator Wen with the assistance of the same memory technology. Everybody is notably scared as they are forced to relive crucial moments of their lives in front of the senator. We see that Zane’s hacking abilities go back to when he was a kid and forging NASA records to make his classmates think that his absent father is actually part of the space shuttle program. We see how Jo has had to challenge herself at every turn to compete with three older brothers. We also learn just how far back the rivalry between Fargo and Parrish goes: all the way to Galaxy Camp. Galaxy Camp is the much nerdier version of Space Camp. Ten year old geniuses are given the task of designing and building rocket engines from scratch. We also learn that Holly was at Galaxy Camp too, which I find a little strange. While I can understand Fargo’s memory being a bit fuzzy about it since he comes from an alternate timeline, the fact that Holly never seemed to recognize either Fargo or Parrish from the Galaxy Camp days is a bit suspicious.

In the end, the final team members for Astraeus are chosen, and it’s really more a question of which of the main characters didn’t make the cut rather than who did. Parrish doesn’t make the cut, and Jo removes herself from consideration at the last minute. When confronted by Zane about it, she tells him that Astraeus was just another challenge to her, and traveling so far needs much stronger motivation. She was never as passionate about going into space as everybody else.

And then there’s Warren. After finally getting caught by Carter and Henry, his memories are restored. His emotional memories, however, are still there. Suddenly having a strong and inexplicable connection to Allison and Carter, he reverses his previous decision and gives them permission to continue their relationship and that charmingly goofy way that only Wallace Shawn can do.

This was a nice change of pace from the “what horrible disaster will befall our town this week?” scenario…not that I’ve ever minded it in the past. Still, as we’re about to enter the two-part season finale, it’s good to lead in with a light hearted episode that has very little mortal danger for the town.

‘Eureka’ will be taking a break next week, but the two-part finale starts up in two weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens on Titan. If you missed last week’s episode you can read our ‘Eureka: Clash of the Titans’-Episode 417 recap to catch up.