Genre: Sci-Fi | Comedy | Action

Air Date/Time: July 25th, 2011 at 8/7c

Network: Syfy

Creators: Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia

Director: Michael Robison

Writer: Ed Fowler

Eureka stars Colin Ferguson (Sheriff Jack Carter), Salli Richardson–Whitfield (Allison Blake), Joe Morton (Henry Deacon), Erica Cerra (Jo Lupo), Neil Grayston (Douglas Fargo), and Niall Matter (Zane Donovan). Co-creator Jaime Paglia and Bruce Miller are executive producers.

Episode Summary:

This week in Eureka, Zane has created predicted algorithm lenses that help to forecast potential risks before they happen.  He tests them out on Jo and she immediately can detect that there’s a short circuit in the lab that needs to be fixed.   The lenses can also determine factors that exist in humans like heart rate, perspiration, and much more.  Zane encourages Carter to try them out which leads to the whole group laughing at his expense of claiming he’d rather remain a “real cop.”  Tune in on Monday at 8/7c on Syfy to see if the new lenses are able to help immensely. (from Syfy) Scientists compete to be on the Astraeus mission crew for the trip to Titan.

Better! Yes, this is more like it. The camaraderie that was missing last week returned this week, so it was back up to the usual Eureka standards. Felicia Day is here again and is just as delightful as last week. She’s a nice addition of quirky, though again, that type of quirky can tend to make the show teeter dangerously towards the adorable. It would appear that they’re attempting to balance that out with the dark arc that was first revealed last week and to which we refer as “the Beverly story.” Speaking of teetering dangerously, I’m not sure about using Beverly yet again. That character is in danger of becoming the Moriarty of the show, always causing trouble but always escaping, at least eventually.

Actually, given the tone of the show, maybe it’s more like she’s becoming the Simon Bar Sinister of the show. Or is an Underdog reference too obscure? If the “dark” element of the show becomes too predictable it could start to become cartoonish, and not in an awesome way. Still, it’s not there yet. It’s kind of funny that the life-in-danger plotlines that come up aren’t what I’d consider dark. As a friend of mine has pointed out, it’s not exactly dark when you know that they’ll pull it out at the last second. And this isn’t spoiler talk; it’s an element of almost every single episode.

Nevertheless, this is Eureka. If a death comes it is cataclysmic, and its sparing use makes it all the more effective. I’ll therefore not knock off points for their you-know-they’re-probably-not-going-to-die-but-it’s-still-exciting weekly danger device. So, a return to its strength of battling a common enemy, a nod to an ongoing mystery, and nice use of adorable guest star puts this episode squarely back in its usual rating category, for being what it is when it’s at its best: a fun, science-y, quirky, cozy sci-fi show.

I give Eureka Episode 4.13 “Glimpse” Four Out of Five Stars.