Episode: Eureka 4.03 – “All The Rage”
Original Air Date: July 23, 2010
Screencaps by rawr_caps.
This episode opens with Carter narrating a montage to remind us what has happened so far as a result of the season opener’s time travel adventures. To the best of my (limited) recollection, this is the first time Carter has narrated the opening to a Eureka episode. It makes sense, of course, since a lot has changed because of the time traveling.
To summarize: Fargo is now director of Global Dynamics, Dr. Blake’s son Kevin is no longer autistic, Henry is married, Dr. Grant (one of the founders of Eureka) is now in present day Eureka, Jo and Zane are not together (and Zane never cleared up his mischievous behavior), Jo is now head of Global Dynamics security while Sheriff Andy is back on the show (and he’s the deputy), and Tess is about to move in with Carter. The totally awesome thing is that Andy is a recurring character. The less cool thing is Tess.
At least, that’s what I first thought, since I’m such a Tess hater. But it seems producers understand they can only keep the Carter-and-Blake-always-caught-in-a-love-triangle thing going for so long. So, maybe they’ll have some fun with it in a good way. Last episode, for example, they blew Tess across the room with an electromagnetic shock that had her talking nonsense to imaginary people for half the scene. That’s good stuff. If Tess stays on the show, let’s hope they keep it up. The actress is really cool, for example. It’s just the character that annoys me.
Now let’s get to the plot and see how this alternate timeline pans out. We open with Fargo sitting at his director’s desk, wearing a suit, and acting like an arrogant jerk who has let the power get to his head. But it’s all a façade. As soon as Dr. Blake walks in, the Fargo we all love reveals himself. He flips out and shows how much over his head he is. For example, he doesn’t know what a Non Leth is. It stand for Non Lethal Weapon, and Fargo has to make sure the Non Leth weapon program is ready for the General, or else Fargo’s going to get fired.
Jo accompanies Fargo to the lab of Dr. Parrish, the scientist in charge of the Non Leth program (I would like to take this opportunity to point out that the actor playing Dr. Parrish is a totally awesome actor and an equally awesome blogger, and Syfy should have him guest star on every original program they have in their lineup to make up for changing their name to Syfy).
In a subtle homage to all those scenes with Q from James Bond, Dr. Parrish shows a bunch of non lethal weapons (including a bee experiment mood modulator that is supposed to calm people but, since this is Eureka, has the opposite effect) in various levels of non-workingness. As each gadget backfires, Fargo reacts by showing us he’s not a natural leader, as each mistake turns him into more and more of a self-important screaming jackass (which is hilarious, since this is Fargo we are talking about).
Henry and Dr. Grant, on the other hand, are hanging out at Henry’s garage trying to figure out how to repair Dr. Grant’s time travel doohicky. I should also mention that at Café Diem, Tess is much more excited than Carter about moving in with him. But for this week we’ll file that storyline under the “boring subplot” heading and get back to Fargo’s flailing attempt to be a leader.
He is preparing to tell the General that no Non Leth weapons are working, when a gooey non lethal bomb randomly appears in the hallway and sticks Fargo to the wall. Carter and Jo agree to look into it, after displaying some uncharacteristic aggressive behavior. Dr. Parrish admits — in a grotesquely aggressive way — that he planted the gooey bomby thingy as a demonstration to prove that at least some of his weapons work (and that Fargo totally deserved it).
Back at Henry’s Garage/lab, he and Dr. Grant discover that Henry’s new wife is actually the perfect woman for a guy like Henry: brilliant, understanding, and able to give the right insights at the right moment to help Henry solve his time bending experiments. Despite her help, all they can figure out how to do is make a wrench disappear.
Over at Global Dynamics, Dr. Parrish’s eyes are glowing an unnaturally red hue as he hurls insults and goes on a Non Leth bean bag-shooting spree.
At the infirmary, Dr. Blake has determined that there are no pathogens to explain this strange behavior, although adrenaline levels are abnormally high. Meanwhile, Dr. Grant and Henry have discovered that their doohicky is not causing objects to dematerialize. It’s actually Dr. Grant and Henry. Somehow, they polarized themselves so that anything they touch will dissolve at a molecular level.
Things are not going much better at Global Dynamics. The lights go out, a mob forms in the hallways, and the scientists burn an effigy of Fargo. As the Global Dynamics turns into a scene from a Hammer Films Frankenstein movie, Jo barely resists the urge to shoot Carter in the head. Obviously, something is affecting people’s moods around here, and it’s more than just an afternoon caffeine withdrawal.
Carter and Dr. Blake deduce that the source of all this anger is coming from Dr. Parrish’s lab. They rush to the lab, where Fargo realizes it was the bee calming experiment that caused all this bad blood in Eureka. It turns out that the bees were supposed to be calmed by a compound based on oxytocin. The problem is that oxytocin differs from Vasopressin by only two amino acids.
Carter rushes out of the clinic to help Fargo and Tess, who have been trapped by an angry mob at Dr. Parrish’s lab. Dr. Blake, meanwhile, gets trapped in her lab by another angry mob, and if Carter doesn’t figure out something soon, she’s going to get torn apart.
Carter tries to come up with something, but an outraged Fargo keeps distracting him: “I’m Sheriff Carter, and I’m going to save the day with my everyman logic,” taunts Fargo. Carter tries to respond, but is cut off by Fargo’s cell phone. It’s General Mansfield, demanding an update. “Go Frak yourself, Mansfield!”
This episode is Fargo heaven! Two Fargo-isms in on scene. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Carter decides to use Fargo as a decoy to get the mob away from Dr. Blake. The terror-rage induced zombie image of Fargo fleeing for his life is priceless. Well, not priceless, but it kind of makes up for the product placement crap from the previous season.
Fargo leads the crowd into the lobby, where Tess has set up a properly re-engineered mood modulation ray. Once she fires it into the crowd, everyone returns to their normal behavior (staring at their shoes, mostly).
But things are still freaky back at Henry’s garage. Henry and Dr. Grant are still trying to figure out how to not make things disappear by touching them. Henry’s wife walks in just as they are freaking out and explains that it was her all along. She was playing a joke on them using her super genius practical joking skills. Perhaps it’s not so bad he married this woman in this altered timeline after all.
Over at Carter’s place, Carter finally got the nerve to dump Tess. I admit I am a Tess hater, but I am not THAT much of a Tess hater that I didn’t feel sorry for the woman. I admit it’s a touching scene. But there is only so long you can milk the love triangle thing. Besides, she can make guest appearances as comic relief or something.
Rating: 3 / 5 Stars
