Eureka “You Don’t Know Jack” (Season 3, Episode 16) #316

Original US airdate: August 28, 2009

Summary:

Everyone’s up for sharing their favorite Eureka memories for Tess’ Eureka Time Capsule Project except Zoe because she doesn’t feel like she’s got a good memory to contribute.  Carter has also yet to contribute to the ‘story nest’.

Meanwhile, Carter and Allison prepare for the yearly sonic cleaning of Global Dynamics.

A dissatisfied Fargo sneaks into Tess’ lab to replace other people’s less flattering memories of him with ones that paint him in a better light.  Strangely, people who have been using the ‘memory balls’ have been experiencing selective memory loss, including the scientist in charge of the sonic cleaning!  Carter and Allison are trapped inside GD with the countdown to the sonic cleaning and cannot communicate with the outside world except for the pager with the super signal that Allison gave Carter to alert him if she were to go into labor.  Luckily Zoe gets the page at Café Diem where Carter left the pager and she and Tess set out to help them since everyone seems to be affected by this rapidly spreading amnesia.

Carter is unaffected since he did not use a ‘memory ball’ yet, but Allison starts to forget, so Carter shows her memories from Tess’ project to help her remember, using the halo (pictured right).  To complicate matters, Allison starts to go into labor and cannot help Carter try to stop the sonic cleaning.  Tess starts to lose her memory as well.  Carter jogs Tess’ memory by kissing her. Tess stops the sonic cleaning with seconds to spare and they retrieve Fargo to try to fix what he broke and restore all the memories of everyone connected to the ‘storynest’.  For the first time in Eureka history, Fargo is hesitant on pushing a button for fear of erasing everyone’s memory permanently.

Allison gives birth to a beautiful baby girl, Jenna Stark, named after Nathan’s mother. Luckily, everyone will be able to keep their memories, especially this one of the birth of Allison’s daughter.

Points to Know:

• Fargo’s silly pride trumps his scientific mind again in this ep!  Sometimes I just want to thwack him upside his head, but then the show would be less funny without his crazy antics.
• Tess’ storycatchers create a wireless neural connection through the optic nerve to record memories as you recall them.
• Allison will be on a six week maternity leave and instates Tess as her replacement for the time that she is gone.
• Allison and Carter acknowledge that they had wished things had gone differently between them but it was a case of bad timing for them both.
• The experience with helping deliver Allison’s baby has shown Zoe her ‘path’.
• Carter will submit the birth of Allison’s baby as his memory to the Time Capsule project.
• Vincent has a PhD in molecular gastronomy.

Commentary:

• This was an interesting way to do a clip show to recap the entirety of “Eureka”.
• This storycatcher idea is very interesting, but doesn’t everyone remember a single incident differently?  What happens in the storynest when there are conflicting accounts?
• How are some of the memories that we see being recorded only of Fargo and Carter when it’s a memory of Fargo that he wouldn’t have recorded and Carter hadn’t used the storycatcher yet?
• Even though this show sometimes has flaws in its storylines, I still find it endlessly amusing.  It’s a fun and light show that never fails to deliver its goods.  I’m really glad it got renewed for a fourth season, but I can’t say I’m surprised!

This week on Eureka:

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