Eureka “Have an Ice Day” (Season 3, Episode 17) #317

Original US airdate: September 11, 2009

Summary:

Tess is in charge while Allison is on maternity leave and Global Dynamics gets an extra special delivery from the Artic sheet on her first day on the job- the longest ice coring ever drilled!  This core contains trapped particles from the earth’s atmosphere for thousands of years and holds the mystery of the earth before humankind.  This remarkable sample comes from Russian territory and their head of security from that region makes Carter jump through all sorts of hoops to ensure the security of the ice core before he will release the core into GD’s care and study.

Zane returns to Eureka with the ice core after being away for a month, but somehow brought back an icy attitude as well.  He is inexplicably cold to Jo and she’s doesn’t know why.  (Plus, who the heck would blow off Jo? This is Jo, we’re talking about here!)

Tension between Zane and Jo isn’t helped with the return of Taggert to Eureka.  Taggert turns out to be the security team leader of the ice core in its drilling and transit and is warmly welcomed by Carter and Fargo.  As Taggert and Jo used to date, she is still mad at him for not saying goodbye to her when he left Eureka two years ago.

The icy situation becomes threatening when Taggert is attacked by the ice and the ice begins to spread throughout GD.  Could Zane’s jealousy be the culprit?

Carter finds an anomaly with the ice and the Eureka team finds that the ice core has an ancient fungus that’s interacting with Petrotech, a reactive thermal barrier that GD and the whole town is built with.  It is discovered that this fungus is also what is causing Zane to act strangely, but it was indeed the fungus in the ice that grew so rapidly that it ‘attacked’ Taggert.  Taggert was not affected like Zane by the ice because Taggert was wearing animal hides instead of Petrotech that Zane was wearing.

Of course, in his hoop-jumping for the ice core security, Carter finds out that Eureka has an Emergency Pneumatic Communication system built into every building in the town and the Eureka team devises a way to use this as a delivery mechanism to kill the fungus.

Points to Know:

• Tess almost loses the entire building and the West Coast of the United States on her first day as head of Global Dynamics.  Not a bad first day of work!
• Zoe is at odds with her Student Career Assessment Test results.  She wanted to become a doctor after helping Allison deliver her baby but the results say that she has the perfect aptitude for Robotics Engineering.  Her boyfriend tries to be encouraging and gets her a robotics kit to get Zoe to at least try it before turning it down.  He has another motive though- he wants them both to go to the same college and MIT doesn’t have a medical program.  Zoe finds that she can do robotics, but she still loves the idea of becoming a doctor.
• It’s Zoe’s gut instinct that saves everyone in Café Diem from an icey death by hiding in the freezer and her boyfriend agrees with this instinct that she should go to med school.
• Zoe encourages Carter about progressing his relationship with Tess.  Carter is weirded out with discussing alone-time with Tess with his daughter.
• The Russian security official really just wants to shop.  He’s basically on holiday from all that ice at the research facility where he works and he’s making Carter just through hoops to prolong his vacation.  At one point, he gives presents to Carter and Tess- a scarf for Tess and a beer hat for Carter!
• Taggert apologizes to Jo for how he left things between them.  She accepts his apology.
• Henry is away at NASA.  Does this have to do with the data that Kim 2.0 brought home?

Commentary:

• I’m starting to think the same thing about Jo- why does every guy she gets involved with end up in the infirmary?
• Zoe’s gut instinct is just like her dad’s.  Maybe she can blend her desire to become a doctor with robotics engineering?  Nanotechnology perhaps?
• I still think that Carter and Tess are really cute together, but how is Jamie Ray Newman who plays Tess going to juggle her role here with her starring role in “Eastwick”?

This week on Eureka, it’s the season finale!

Check out this clip from tonight’s ep here:

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