Eureka – Water water everywhere

It was a bit of a rough week in Eureka. For me, “Shower The People” unfortunately had more misses than hits. The potential was there, but nothing seemed to really work. The idea behind the compressible water was good, but the case it was key to wasn’t all that exciting. Billy Campbell made an appearance as Dr. Manlius, which felt like they didn’t have the time to do what was originally intended. Henry struggled with losing Kim 2.0, and that was an awful lot like what we’ve already seen him go through. And we’re back to the Carter and Allison shenanigans, which is working on my last “F Moonlighting” nerve.

Too harsh? Maybe. The episode just didn’t really work for me. Starting with Manlius… Billy Campbell is a pretty big guest star for Eureka, right? But didn’t this feel like a huge chunk of the episode got lost in editing? It was either that, or the whole thing was just poorly conceived from jump street. I’m thinking particularly of that scene at the beginning where he is introduced. Tess is just beside herself. Almost giddy at seeing him again. Clearly this is going to present some form of roadblock for Tess and Carter, right? No. It’s just going to be ignored, and Campbell is just there to refer to Kim as an “it” in contrast to Henry. Weird.

Speaking of Kim, perhaps this was all supposed to offer some kind of closure for Henry, but I feel like we’ve all been down that road already. Henry dealt with it, and didn’t need re-closure. And if it wasn’t that, then what the hell? Why even bother bringing Kim back if this was all that was to come from it. Unrecognized computer created humanoid that data has to be pulled from would work just fine. Someone, perhaps the exceedingly pregnant and emotional Allison, could still question the idea of destroying the body to retrieve the data. With the data being Kim, it only served to re-walk a path that has already been traveled.

Now, Carter and Allison. It’s time to fish or cut bait. The will they or won’t they drama had some bite when Nathan was still in play. There was a real argument for Allison choosing him over Carter. You might not have agreed with the choice, but a case could be made. Now that Nathan is gone, does anyone get why either of them would be so hesitant? That is, other than the ridiculous Moonlighting buffoonery that blames Dave and Maddie getting together for the downfall of the show. It wasn’t Dave and Maddie getting together. It was the fact that every other piece of the show went to hell at around the same time. I can’t get past the idea that Carter and Allison aren’t together because someone has decided they can’t be, not because it makes any sense for the ongoing story. The show would be just fine with Carter and Allison together.

Of course, now they do have a plausible reason, with Tess in the picture. Assuming you ignore that she’s a guest star, and not a series regular, and the fact that Allison is pushing them together one minute while gazing fondly at Carter the next… Absent those quibbles, Tess and Carter are very cute. I enjoy their scenes together, but they always come with the nagging thought that Carter wants to be with Allison. Allison wants to be with Carter. And there is a whole lot of wheel spinning going on here.

So, not my favorite episode. I like the idea of the compressed water and the baby shower was fun. Ultimately though, it’s going down in my book as a mostly forgettable episode that mixed some poor choices with some missed opportunities. Let’s try it again next week and see what happens.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Aug 22, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT