Founder’s Day airs July 9 at 8 PM Central (9 PM Eastern). The fourth-season premiere finds the quirky town poised to celebrate its 60th anniversary. Sheriff Carter, still reeling from the departures of Zoe and Tess in the last episode, goes for a jog and runs into the enigmatic Dr. Trevor Grant (James Callis). Since this is Eureka we’re talking about, you can go ahead and assume that Carter wasn’t supposed to meet the man who played Baltar in Battlestar Galactica, and that something has gone very, very wrong while Carter was out jogging. – From TVGuide.com

You can even interact with Eureka tonight at 8 Central / 9 Eastern at Syfy Connect. Why would you want to interrupt the show though? I can’t imagine.

My cable is down so I’m not as happy as I should be, but I’ll have it back up before next week, and I’ve looked at the Syfy schedule so I know I’ll have my chance to catch the episode as soon as I can get my Syfy channel working again…

Frankly, I still have internet. I might have to take things into my own hands. Amazon is the best deal online for commercial free episodes and I’m not afraid to use it! :) My computer hooks up quite nicely to my TV and I’ve watched my share of TV that way.

I really don’t want to miss this show.

You can find more of the Season Three episode titles on the episode downloads page.

In the meantime, I want to talk about From Fear to Eternity…

I had my moment in the sun when I realized they were following up on the Jo Lupo and Zane Donovan moment I talked about in my comments about Here Come the Suns.

Now Zane on the other hand, I adore. However, I think there’s trouble to come between him and Jo Lupo. That relationship would certainly be on the skids if Jo were able to see the look on Zane’s face when she made certain serious overtures toward him. No secretive smile from him–he wants to run away. That’s the only way I can describe that look. So look out Jo! Maybe you’ll decide Tag’s the better man after all!

Did you notice how nothing really changed from the beginning of the episode to the end, even if they seemed to have resolved their temporary breakup? So look out Zane, because I hear that we’ll be seeing Taggart again sometime in the upcoming season three episodes.

From Fear to Eternity has Zoe facing repercussions after her slip in the goo in the underground government facility beneath Eureka (Phased and Confused). Although Henry gets to work right away trying to find a cure for Zoe’s deteriorating condition, only Eva Thorne knows what’s going on—and Carter is running out of time to get the answers Zoe needs.

Throughout this season’s episodes, Eva Thorne has been walking a fine line of villainy and goodness. Her actions in the early episodes made it hard to decide if she was out to get Eureka, or if she was just misunderstood.  I’m so glad this plot was wrapped up before the break!

Of course, they left us with another big question to have answered and that’s whether or not Carter will still be Sheriff come the second half of the season. Personally, I want Carter as Sheriff Carter, but I’m sure the writers can convince me otherwise if they try! :-) Uncle Carter though? I’m really not sure about that one! What about you?

I’d really love to know if you think you’ll like where they’re going with the new baby thing. With Lexi and Allison, that’s going to be a load of kids running around underfoot! What were they thinking?!

• Season three episode downloads
• Buy the From Fear to Eternity download

In Here Come the Suns, it’s election time in Eureka. There’s been no mayor for months, and they’re ready to vote someone into office. Since it’s Eureka, it’s not a stretch to note that there aren’t any age limits on candidates, so the hopeful politicians include Zoe’s boyfriend Lucas. Vincent and Paul Herrera round out the list. Zoe gets so caught up trying to insure Lucas’s success that she ignores her science parter, who is forced to work alone on their science project.

When a second sun pops up into the sky, the heat is on.

Here Come the Suns is a great episode and I loved it, but that’s not to say I don’t have something to say about it. :-)

Lexi Carter has taken her place as a regular in this episode. She’s been as prominent, if not more so, than Henry Deacon in the last few episodes and in this one, she’s pivotal–and it has something to do with Henry. I just wished I liked her more. She seems kind of like a silly addition to the show. I love the show and I love the people of Eureka. So far there hasn’t been anyone I would like to see gone, with the notable exception of Eva Thorne, and I’m hoping that won’t be too far into the future.

With Lexi, my problem is that she’s not that fun to watch. She kind of depresses me. I don’t know if that was the intention–that Lexi become a grounding force that takes the extraordinary and makes it boring, but I sort of doubt that was the goal. However, they’ve done just that. Lexi is pregnant. She’s alone. Her laughter seems forced and her situation seems grim. Not to mention that her missing boyfriend, who hasn’t been told about his future child/children, is being done a terrible disservice. Maybe that’s the entire problem with Lexi. She’s not someone I can relate to. Her choices seem…childish. She needs to grow up and she’s competing with Zoe as the teen in need of guidance.

I’ll just have to keep watching and have faith that Eureka’s creators understand this and plan to grow Lexi.

Now Zane on the other hand, I adore. However, I think there’s trouble to come between him and Jo Lupo. That relationship would certainly be on the skids if Jo were able to see the look on Zane’s face when she made certain serious overtures toward him. No secretive smile from him–he wants to run away. That’s the only way I can describe that look. So look out Jo! Maybe you’ll decide Tag’s the better man after all!

I think this episode marks the tipping point for Degree. Cute and funny is quickly turning sour. Though we might finally be over the biggest part of the commercial hump with this episode. I found the following comments about the product placement and it’s especially relevant because it looks as though this was “the big one.”

It all began way back in October 2007 when the Sci Fi Channel announced to the Eureka staff that…we would have an official commercial sponsor this season, one that was kicking in a lot of dough and would therefore…require tons of product placement throughout Season Three.  We were also told that…ONE EPISODE in Season Three would have to incorporate a storyline in which the actual product HAD to save Eureka somehow, or at the very least, be INDISPENSABLE to Carter’s Act 5 solve….“Here Comes the Suns”…would become that episode.

Ellipses are skipped parts, so if you want to see what I cut out, read the blog post by Eric Wallace, the episode’s writer.

What some others thought of Here Come the Suns

• BlogCritics Magazine TV Review: Eureka – “Here Come the Suns”
• FilmSchoolRejects TV Review: Eureka 3.7 – Here Come the Suns

Oh, and I found this complete recap of Here Come the Suns if you want all the hot details about the episode.

I liked the way several stories played together in this episode to move the larger story of Eva Thorne closer to a climax. Hopefully, I’ll discover her secret agenda before it’s too late! I certainly don’t want to have to wait until after the mid-season break, but I have a sneaking suspicion my wishes on that might be ignored.

Phased and Confused played up two main stories. One, about Captain Eureka and his apparent crush on Lexi Carter. The other, the story that actually seemed to take the central position in the episode, was about Zoe, her friends, and Zane, and this story is the one that’s interconnected with Eva Thorne. I loved the bits the writers/producers left for me to ponder, including Zoe’s slip, which seemed much more sinister than it played out in Phased and Confused. I really think this one’s coming back for me, especially if the trailers for the next episode, From Fear to Eternity, are an accurate indication of things to come!

The one moment I can’t pass up mentioning from the show, when Jack Carter makes an oh-so-understated remark about Captain Eureka follows.

Looks like Captain Eureka gave us the finger…

–Jack Carter, Phased and Confused

Taken in context, this very literal statement was able to pull a startled laugh from me while I watched. What did you think about it? Too juvenile? Not unexpected? Some of Jack’s comments, I can see them coming, but they always seem to catch me off-guard anyway. :-)

Bummer.

I had it all worked out how Nathan Stark wasn’t moving forward in time like the rest of Eureka—so the backwards part I get. I also understand that since Stark wasn’t bathed in the Indigo Light, he wouldn’t be returning to the normal flow of time when he pushed the button to reset the out-of-sync photon that started the whole time loop. There were consequences and he suffered them.

I figured he might be in an alternate time-line somewhere doing just fine. I was sure the day would come when he would show up at some inopportune time to wreak havoc on whatever Carter was up to with Allison. I guess I was wrong. He dissipated. He is gone, dead, destroyed, ended, nonexistent. He is one with the universe. And there’s just a little bit of him left in that logic diamond of Ally’s for the rest of them—us—to mourn over.

Although…this is Eureka. It’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility someone will invent something that’ll pull all of Nathan’s scattered photons back into a cohesive unit and bring Nathan Stark back to life.

Until then. :-)

But there were a few things about the otherwise great episode that I couldn’t get out of my mind later.

Eureka must be getting lax with its security

Lexi is an interesting character, but considering what Jack Carter had to go through in the first episode to get “in the know” about the town, I’m a little amazed at how easy it is to get people in these days.

Does she not know what’s going on? Did she have to sign a confidentiality agreement? Was there any red tape to getting her settled in the town? I would love it if the show addressed this as some point. Maybe they can allude to how she got clearance to live in Eureka when her beau comes ’round—because you know at some point in the future, he’s going to come ’round. :-)

Whether or not they eventually address the security issue isn’t going to make or break the show for me, but it would be a nice touch.

The law of attraction is not absolute

Show Me the Mummy was a good episode. I don’t know about the validity of the science involved, but I do know about common sense.

My common sense tells me that no music, no matter how attractive it is to the bugs, is going to draw every single bug right to it, right away. That one short moment, when Carter is rushing to get those bugs into the fusion-powered mega-freezer, was the moment I knew I couldn’t call Show Me the Mummy a EurekaFAN Favorite. :(

What did you think about the episode? Am I being too hard on Eureka?

Phased and Confused
Episode 306
Carter’s job is made more impossible when a superhero begins “saving” the day around Eureka with disastrous consequences.

Phased and Confused Video Trailer at SCIFI Channel

There’s been the virus shows and the artifact shows, shows about genetics and a great many shows about out of control technology. Now we’re venturing into the monster shows. First that was What About Bob?, now there’s been Show Me the Mummy.

What About Bob? might have technically been a genetics episode, but the title guy, Bob, could have been Voyager’s Tom Paris. Tom just happened to devolve (or was it evolve?) into a lizard. The episode was Threshold and it wasn’t one of my favorites. I’m a forgiving viewer. If I like a show I’ll let it get away with just about anything… But that’s not to say I don’t raise my eyebrows and wonder what the heck the show-runners are thinking.

I actually liked What About Bob? but Show Me the Mummy didn’t make my list of can’t-miss episodes. You might think it was the Mummy I objected to, but it wasn’t. The bugs bugged me.

No, that isn’t even right. The bugs didn’t bother me until the music entered the picture. I have no problem believing the frequency of Lexi’s music could have attracted the bugs, but to believe that it was possible to round up every last bug in that freezer in a one shot deal just boggles my mind. So, an otherwise interesting episode lost a lot of luster for me right then and I downgraded my rating from a 4/5, possible 5/5, to a 3/5.

I hope Show Me the Mummy is the last organic/biological villain show we have for a while. I do like monster shows, but I prefer technology over biology any day!

The next episode to appear on Scifi’s schedule is Phased and Confused. The title inspires me to speculate wonderful things. :-)

If, like me, you’re still worrying over Nathan Stark’s future in Eureka, you might want to read an interesting blog post about the issue.

One of the series writers has written a post entitled “Goodbye, Nathan” that sums it all up nicely. I particularly appreciate knowing that the writers aren’t stupid–they didn’t write Nathan Stark out of the show of their own accord. That’s great news as far as I’m concerned. I can much better understand why they let him go out the way he did, because he was a strong character and I loved the strong ending for him.

Now, all that said, I’ve decided this particular Eureka writer is evil. Just look at this bit from the post.

And now for the answer to the only question you probably care about right now—Is Stark Really Dead?—the answer is YES.

For now.

Why would he say this after thoroughly explaining why Nathan Stark will not be coming back?

Huh?

That’s what I thought. He’s evil. He wants me to hope Nathan will return–or he’s setting me up for Nathan’s return, because maybe there’s some big secret about Nathan coming back that no one will know until it happens…

Sorry, I went off into la-la land again. I really will miss that character.

However, now that I’ve had some time to think about it and separate myself from the emotions of that killer episode “I Do Over” I’ve realized that to bring Henry Deacon‘s character back to greatness, Nathan had to go.

Henry has been relegated to the background lately, because there just isn’t enough room in the show for three strong males. Of course Jack Carter can’t go away, and there’s too much animosity between Nathan and Jack for them to consistently find themselves working together to solve problems. Henry must return to Jack’s side because I love Jack but even I realize Jack needs intellectual assistance with some of the stuff that goes on in Eureka. It’s a town of geniuses, after all.

So, even though I’m going to really miss Nathan Stark, his absence might just make sense for the show. For now.