By Brandon Nolta

Holy cyclotron, fellow geeks and freaks, it’s season finale time in Eureka, and things are off to a nice tense start. When we left off last week, an experiment in alchemy unleashed a Midas bacterium on our favorite high-IQ abode. Unfortunately, the gold left in its wake turned out to be unstable, quickly degrading and leaving all Eureka at risk. As with all diabolical coincidences, this turns out to be the moment that Beverly (Debrah Farentino) returned to town via Gitmo, where she received the usual hospitable treatment. With the help of Henry (Joe Morton), she returned to GD with a specific goal in mind: Kevin Blake, the son of Allison (Salli Richardson).

Again with the coincidence: Just as Carter (Colin Ferguson) and Stark (Ed Quinn) arrive to get in on the fun, the Midas bacteria mutates into an airborne flesh-eating pathogen, tripping the biohazard alert, sending GD into lockdown and trapping Kevin, Henry, Allison and Beverly in a “panic room” contingency bunker. Damn, that’s a lot of sentence. Now, we pick up with Stark and Carter heading back into GD to re-establish contact with Allison and find out what the hell is happening. Since Fargo (Neil Grayston) had to stay behind as their outside world contact, they take Taggart (Matt Frewer) along for comic relief.


While Fargo, Jo (Erica Cerra), Zane and a good chunk of Zoe’s class is stuck at Carter’s house, Stark, Taggart and Carter don biohazard suits and head into GD, whereupon they discover that the flesh-eating bacteria was a hoax perpetrated by Henry, who seems determined to turn Kevin over to Beverly’s mysterious employers thanks to an emergency teleportation system. This is all bad enough, but the GD facility is now on high alert, and the security mainframe is damn near as smart as the people of Eureka, and determined not to let anyone out. Since the DOD is about to order a thermal cleaning, that falls under the heading of piss-poor news. But, there are a couple more twists to spin through before we reach the end, and not everybody’s allegiances are where we think they are.

For a season finale, EUREKA has gone out on a darker note than expected. While there aren’t any grim ends in store, some of the characters end up in places we didn’t expect, and a few comeuppances fail to materialize. It’s actually a solid ending to the season, and since regular readers of the site know that the Sci-Fi Channel has already renewed EUREKA for another season, we know things aren’t going to be left in gray limbo like, just as an example, SLIDERS.  The relationship between Carter and Stark broadens out a bit, as the two begin to understand that they really do make a good team. Ferguson and Quinn seem to be having a lot of fun together, and their fun is infectious. Beverly and Henry also take on some added dimension, though it’s Henry that gets the most brushstrokes, thanks to Morton’s always good work. Why Morton doesn’t headline his own show, I can’t even begin to fathom.


Long and short, EUREKA goes out on a solid note for another season, setting up more fun and games for next time while remaining true to its quirky roots. Thanks to Ferguson et al, season 2 was a satisfying ride, and this reviewer is eagerly looking forward to season 3.