TV Review: Eureka 4.06 – “Momstrosity”
Episode: Eureka 4.06 – “Momstrosity”
Original Air Date: August 13, 2010
Screencaps by rawr_caps.
This installment continues Season Four’s trend of bucking traditional Eureka episode formats. We open with a late night car chase, and spend the rest of the episode finding out what led to this creepy moment. At least, creepy by Eureka standards, as Fargo drives himself, Carter, and Kevin down that lonely, pine-surrounded road we have all come to know and love as Eureka’s go-to set for setting up plots without having to spend a lot of money on making a new set.
“Did we lose her?” asks Carter. The answer is no, as a giant robot (identified as “Tiny” two episodes ago) comes out of nowhere. Fargo twists and swerves, trying to avoid certain death, and runs off the road. They have to abandon the car. Will they make it as they run towards the police blockade that was awaiting them, the monstrous giant robot “Tiny” chasing after them?
We’ll have to wait until the end of the episode. For now it’s time to reward fans who like to see naked silhouettes of totally sexy women who happen to also be great actresses. Translation: Jo is taking a shower. If you read my reviews with any modicum of regularity, you’ll know that I consider Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Dr. Blake) to be basically the hottest woman of Syfy original programming. But that doesn’t mean I’m blind to Jo’s appeal. I mean, she’s got a body! And look at those…
Actually, I’ll let that thought trail off just in case my wife reads this. You’ll recall Jo is staying with Carter, since one of the rockets from a previous episode destroyed her house.
She’s showering, and something is sneaking up on her. It turns out to be Kevin’s homework assignment — a miniature robot assigned to him to so he can learn to be a parent (Eureka’s version of making kids carry an egg around so they can learn the responsibilities of caring for children). Carter promises to talk to Kevin and explain to him you are not supposed to reprogram your robot to get footage of super hot security chiefs when they are naked and wet and soaping themselves up. At least, not on basic cable.
Deputy Andy arrives at Carter’s house, but Jo has had enough robots this morning. In his “so polite it’s hilarious” way, Andy explains that he received a call to this location, but SARAH sent no such message. Andy sticks his finger into SARAH’s socket to download information and figure out whether she has a glitch. It’s not as dirty as it sounds. Well, considering Andy’s polite smiley expression, it is a bit dirty, but in a hilarious way, not a creepy way.
Over at Global Dynamics, Carter arrives just in time to explain the problem to Dr. Blake. Perhaps it’s time for someone to have “that talk” with Kevin. Carter and some of the other guys are going camping this weekend, so they can bring Kevin along and tell Kevin about the things that, as a teenager, he probably already knows but it wouldn’t hurt for some father figures to make sure.
Carter tracks down Henry to let him know Kevin is coming camping, but Henry has decided not to go because he needs time to bond with his new (to him) wife. Speaking of which, Henry hijacks the conversation, and asks Carter when he’s going to stop being a total doorstop and make a move on Dr. Blake. After all, Dr. Grant has great hair and likes to dress in suits, which means Carter has a limited window of opportunity before “Dr. Oldspice” puts the block on him. But Carter remembers that Dr. Grant is contracted for a few more episodes, so he’ll have to continue acting like a spineless coward in all things Dr. Blakean.
Speaking of Dr. Blake, since Fargo will be gone camping (and is, in typical Fargo fashion, dressed for the part), he is leaving her in charge.
Meanwhile, Henry and his wife are having fun — where else, but in the lab? The problem is that they are testing a device that will read Henry’s short term memory. You probably see where this is going: Henry confesses that in the original timeline, he and Grace had never met. Grace, understandably, doesn’t like the news that she is a total stranger to her own husband, and storms away. Henry tries to go after her, but the memory reading device goes haywire and he collapses in pain.
Grace leads an investigation to figure out what happened, but is completely cold towards Henry. Jo figures it must be a security breach. She leaves the troubled couple and tracks down clues, only to discover the miniature robot (Emo from Kevin’s homework assignment) is getting into mischief. It was caught trying to stow away in Tiny’s storage bin (she’s being shipped to NASA for a nine-year mission to Titan).
Meanwhile, Carter is gearing up for his big talk with Kevin. Deputy Andy is there too, getting some last minute instructions as acting Sheriff. When Carter stops to see if there are any questions, Andy takes the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity regarding other areas: “Sheriff, when wooing women, do you find it best to come bearing flowers, poetry, or a small pet of some kind?”
Dr. Grant invites himself along. Dr. Blake also arrives just in time to remind Kevin he has to take his miniature robot Emo homework assignment thingy, and also to give Kevin a big hug and fawn all over him and totally embarrass him like a typical mom.
After that, the men are off. Finally!!!
After the requisite confiscation of Fargo and Kevin’s respective electronic geek gadgetry, Carter tries to bring up the misuse of the mini robot to spy on Jo. This is a bit embarrassing, considering that Fargo and Dr. Grant are also around and talking about the birds and the bees is totally awkward when you’re Kevin’s age. Dr. Grant one-ups Carter and invites Kevin on a private walk where they can discuss things away from prying ears.
Meanwhile, Dr. Blake is conducting some research into a new type of brain scan, when the computer malfunctions and tries to perform a brain dissection on her volunteer. Disaster is averted, but there is definitely a problem.
Zane investigates, realizing that the computer was trying to assist Dr. Blake’s research by taking over her experiment. It turns out Zane has been trying to fix this type of issue for people all over Global Dynamics. But that’s not all the trouble. Jo arrives at Café Diem to find that “Virtual Vincent” is refusing to serve unhealthy dishes. Also, Deputy Andy has decided he’s in love with Jo, and recites a horrible love poetry to prove it.
The poetry is horrible enough to jump-start Jo’s brain. She figures out that all the AIs — Andy, Virtual Vincent, Emo the miniature robot — are acting funny. She takes Andy and virtual Vincent back to Global Dynamics to figure out what’s going on. There must be a connection.
Meanwhile, Grace and Henry are trying to figure things out between them. Grace is realizing that the Henry she knew – that she fell in love with – is gone forever. Her husband is actually a stranger.
Back at the camping trip, Dr. Grant has been trying to start a fire with a stick and some leaves, but Carter had a change of mind and decided to allow the use of technology (probably in order to make Kevin think he’s cool). Now comes the moment we have all been waiting for: Dr. Grant and Carter get into an insult match, with Grant pointing out that Carter’s relationship with Dr. Blake is amazingly unmanly, while Carter points out that Dr. Grant is a smug, selfish Einstein wannabe.
After a while, they notice Kevin has disappeared.
In other news, Fargo has trouble with his tent. It’s a special Eureka tent complete with an Artificial Intelligence unit. Of course, the AI won’t let him leave because “the woods are dangerous.”
Meanwhile, Zane, Jo, and Dr. Blake have figured out what’s happening. They haven’t figured out where it came from, but they have found an emotion program which has infected all Artificial Intelligence in Eureka. The emotions program is overriding the AI programming. This is a problem in Eureka, where everything is run by AI. It’s also a problem because Tiny — the robot that is super dangerous if it ever went on the rampage — is run by AI as well.
Jo finds the truck that was shipping Tiny. The drivers are missing, and so is Tiny.
Just then, SARAH calls Jo in order to ask whether Andy is thinking of her. Jo realizes that SARAH is the only AI in Eureka that is supposed to have emotions. She must have infected Andy with some kind of emotion virus. SARAH confesses she infected Andy that morning with an emotion program to make him like her. But she didn’t create the program, she just copied it.
This also explains why Tiny is missing. If she downloaded the same virus, she probably got cold feet about her nine-year mission to Titan. Dr. Blake tries to call the campers to let them know Tiny is on the loose and they should come back to Eureka, but the gang had put away their electronic devices in order to get a better camping experience, so nobody is answering.
Speaking of camping, Carter and Dr. Grant are hiking through the forest, trying to find Kevin, and blaming each other for his disappearance. They find him as night falls. It turns out he’s angry at Carter for liking his mother but not telling him about it. He asks Carter whether he loves Dr. Blake, but Carter can’t answer.
As Carter tries to figure out what just happened, Kevin stumbles across Fargo wrapped up in the tent that wouldn’t let him go. that’s when Tiny shows up. Fargo tries to talk her down, but Tiny remembers that they have history… and it’s PAYBACK TIME!
Carter acts as a distraction as the rest of the gang run for their lives. They make it to their car, and we are left to finish the scene we opened this episode with.
They contact Dr. Blake who tells them about Jo’s SWAT team. Fargo almost gets them out of trouble, but he crashes with yards to go and the team has to make a run for it. Tiny grabs Kevin. “Get away from him, you bitch!” shouts Dr. Blake, desperate to save her son.
Tiny plays back the same statement. Carter notices that Kevin has the Emo robot in his backpack. He remembers that the robot had tried to stow away with Tiny before being shipped to NASA. “Give her Emo!” orders Carter.
Once Tiny has Emo in her hands, she changes from creepy monster robots into cute motherly robot. Carter has saved the day once again.
Now that all the excitement is over, it’s time for Zane to scrub the emotion program from all the AIs, including Andy. But Zane has a tradition of flaunting authority, so he leaves Andy to pursue his romantic interests with SARAH. Zane suggests, “Let her do most of the talking. You don’t even have to listen most of the time.”
Meanwhile, Henry is trying to set things right with Grace. He recognizes that he is not Grace’s Henry — at least not yet — and gives her his wedding ring.
The next morning, Jo and Andy are getting ready for work, telling SARAH they’ll just grab an espresso on the way, when Andy emerges from the elevator looking like he needs a cigarette. I’m not sure how an artificial sheriff’s deputy and a computerized house are supposed to get it on, but by the look on Andy’s face, they have figured out a way.
The only loose end left is Kevin. Carter apologizes for making Kevin uncomfortable, and that he is always available. The other thing is that he loves Kevin’s mother. In that case, replies Kevin “I guess she could do worse. Just don’t screw it up.”
Carter — in a move that shows he’s starting to grow a pair in his love life that’s as big as the pair he has in his professional life — walks up to Dr. Grant and lays down the gauntlet. “Don’t plan the wedding just yet.” Says Carter. “Oh, okay. Good luck with that, Sport,” replies Grant.
Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
