Eureka: Series Finale

I must say that, for a series finale episode, the writers of Eureka did a pretty damn good job. I’ve never seen such a classy representation of a clips retrospective…ever. Somehow they managed to corral some of the more well-loved characters that had moved on in earlier seasons so that we all had a chance to say goodbye (Taggart!). Those things were in addition to maintaining the weekly “must handle a crazy science disaster” convention while satisfactorily tying up a few loose ends that had been hovering in and around the show for years. AND they meshed all of that in with a successful resolution to the main tension that had been building in just this last season, while also really hitting home the underlying and fundamental point of the show by the end. Apparently all the writers of this show did their MFA’s at Eureka U.

Now, there are wormholes that appear in this episode, and I think that is an extremely fitting plot device and catalyst for theme. I ain’t no science genius, but I *believe* it’s true that where there’s wormholes, there’s simultaneous yet exclusive universes of space and time where everything that has happened, will happen, or is happening experiences a confluence. Now just imagine all the events of each alternate universe as all of those universes collapse onto one another while their time streams are wide open like that! Not only is it simply a cool thing to think about, but it is also a fitting metaphor for nostalgia. A full mind looking back in a moment of contemplation—if that’s not a confluence of open-time-streamed universes, well then I don’t know what is.

So what happens on our last day in Eureka? Well it appears that the Department of Defense has had enough of Eureka’s shenanigans and has decided to pull its funding. You’d think that after 65 years of weekly disasters, and a lot of them worse than some of the more recent events, that the DOD would have been used to it by now. But it looks like smart dust was the last straw (who knew)?

Our beloved quirky scientists are instructed to pack up their stuff and go, but before they’ve even finished boxing everything up, a wormhole appears on the road and Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) drives straight through it with his daughter Zoe (Jordan Hinson) who he had just picked up from the airport. His entire truck is suddenly speeding across the main lobby of Global Dynamics. Lucky for him he’s got good brakes. And it’s also lucky for Global Dynamics Director Douglas Fargo (Neil Grayston), as he was sitting directly in the middle of the lobby in an attempt to persuade the DOD to reverse their decision through means of peaceful protest—you know, like Gandhi.

And so it starts. Everything is chaotic already since this, the world’s most advanced scientific development campus, is in the process of being dismantled and shipped away. But adding wormholes, well, you get the idea. And while all of this is going on, Carter has pissed off Allison (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), Zane (Niall Matter) and Jo (Erica Cerra) are mad at each other, Henry (Joe Morton) can’t think but to try and figure out a way to save Grace (Tembi Locke) from a lifelong prison sentence, and all the people of Eureka who had come to know each other as family are suffering from the grief of being forced to say good bye.

The complexity of it all is really quite satisfying.

And there are fun bits of joke thrown in for good measure as well. The ever-wonderful Wil Wheaton, who plays Dr. Isaac Parrish, is excellent as always with his acerbic wit and timing. And even though the shtick is yeeeeaarrss old, the good ol’ Sheriff Carter freak-out is still as charming as ever. And it’s especially cute when he coos at his daughter for coming up with a good idea.

This last episode tied things up in a way that made me comfortable in the knowledge that the good people of Eureka would continue on together in their pursuit of innovation and exploration, but now there’s the added bonus of being able to follow those dreams within the safety of the ideals upon which the town was originally founded. And so I am content.

In short, watch it. It’s good. Kudos writer, kudos actors, kudos everybody.