Eureka – Welcome Back, Carter – Season 3.5

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Eureka and Sheriff Carter are back!  Wait a second, if we remember from the first half of the season we pick up this episode right after Carter has been fired by the general, so he has been job hunting. 

 After firing Sheriff Carter, General Mansfield adds insult to injury by replacing him with “Sheriff Andy” the latest and greatest in robot technology. 

Ouch, Carter is actually replaced by a machine that comes in a small box.  The robot, while looking human, has a huge task ahead of him by dealing with all the craziness that happens in the town of Eureka.  Is he really able to process all the information and make the complex decisions necessary to keep Eureka from blowing up, or for this episode being sucked into some sort of gravity well?

Henry begins running scans and discovers that gravity wells are forming randomly around Eureka.  No sooner than Sheriff Andy is rebuilt (more or less) and back on the job, he’s crushed in his own jeep. Suddenly they realize that these wells of super-gravity may not be random. Determined to find answers, Carter, Henry and Jo team up to find out who hates the new Sheriff enough to mess with gravity and put the entire town in grave danger.

I always found that Eureka was at its best when it was being a bit campy, but at the same time light and fun.  In the past three seasons we have hit a few rough spots where the show gets bogged down a bit with the drama aspect, Eurekathough when it is hitting, finds a happy medium between drama and comedy.  The first episode of season 3.5 brought that cool, fun Eureka back and I am very happy for it.  So back to the story.  I mean we all know that Carter will get his job back, the question now becomes how and how long will it take.  I thought the wait of time between the first and second half of the season was long enough, and it seems Syfy writers agree, so everything gets wrapped up in a nice package during this episode. 

So many different things going on though.  This episode was a bit lax in our amount of Fargo which is always a disappointment, but it makes up for it a bit with Sheriff Andy and S.A.R.A.H., both which have heavy Fargo ties.    With all these machines that have some sort of emotions, it seems lucky that Eurekais not already overun by them in some Wargames or Terminator type ending.  Carter shows the town that they really do need him, he digs in places that a computer would just not think about.  In the end it did not matter as Henry, who is now the town mayor in case you have forgotten, had to sign off on the firing of the sheriff.  What that means is that in reality Carter was always the Sheriff, he never was fired.  I would have thought that the reason he got his job back was because Sheriff Andy just proved he could not do the job, while in reality Sheriff Andy made a very Carter like decision in the end to save the town.  Good way to wrap that up.  The gravity wells, it seems that a scientist who was really in over his head was not the only cause of the situation.  S.A.R.A.H. (smart house) seemed a bit jealous of the new sheriff and decided she/it was going to have a hand in trying to get Carter back in the game.  It went a bit wrong from there, but hey that is why we have a story.  I like that Henry is back to his old self as he is a strong secondary character that brings the rest of the players together as a team.  Zoe was regulated to a complaining teenager role this week, but really there is not enough time to showcase everyone each episode, so I am ok with her getting a few story-lines through out the season to make up for it.  Vincent is always funny and I love the characters charm and the Café Diem setting.

In the last few minutes of the show Henry is talking to Carter and Allison telling them how somebody or something is coming to Eureka based on some signals that they sent.  I would venture a guess that this will be the overall story arc for the second half of season three.  Eureka does a damn good job at keeping the larger story arc for the season (half season) in the viewers mind without overwhelming them with it.  That is the balance that keeps this show fun and entertaining.  Let us hope the “aliens” angle is written good, because it seems like when you start to talk about aliens you really are taking a chance with going too campy and cheesy if not done right.  We shall see what those signals bring the people of Eureka, maybe it will not be “aliens” at all.

Welcome Back, Carter was a good episode that shows new viewers what they are missing, while keeping long time viewers happy by bringing back the Eureka we know and love.

- For all the scientists and scientific nerds, you have to suspend a bit of belief on some of the scientific areas that Eureka travels into, because if not you may find yourself frustrated.   

- We could have used a bit more Jo and Zane interaction, they are an interesting couple and need to at least be kept on the radar.  On the same note, Jo did not seem to be her semi-crazy self, ie rushing into things guns blazing screw the consequences.  Hopefully that is just something that we don’t see in the episode.  Or if Jo is becoming a bit more tempered make sure we do not lose her altogether to a role that is not necessary.

- Really I do not get why Carter’s sister is still around, what is the point?  With a full set of characters, one of which is already pregnant, what purpose does she serve?

-  While I miss Nathan a bit, I think freeing up Allison will be a good thing.  Plus the way the writers were going with Nathan it was becoming a bit too much drama.