Games People Play:
Written by: Johanna Stokes
Directed by: Michael Rohl
Original airdate: July 31, 2007
Synopsis:
Jack and Jo respond to a noise complaint, meeting a Dr. Babajanian, working on a Quantum Mechanics experiment. He gets snarky with Jo when she asks for his permits, but as Jack and her leave to go double check on his permits, Jack takes a knock on the head from Babajanian’s machine’s spinning appendages.
Henry goes back to work at GD using Kim’s old lab, investigating every inch of it, eventually finding the table that Beverly was at on the security footage but he finds no trace of the gizmo.
Abby prepares to head back to LA, checking that Jack will be ok with her coming back to get Zoe at the end of the semester, and he tells her yes. When he goes to talk to Zoe about it, Zoe is angry that he isn’t fighting for her and takes her ATS, a therapy device that Beverly gave her before heading out of town, and throws it at Jack.
Back at the office, Jack finds Jo moving the desks around but he asks her if she got the filed permits for Babajanian, only she has no idea what he’s talking about. Jack sees a flash of light and when he turns around, Jo is gone. He asks Vincent about Jo but neither he nor Cafe Deim’s patrons have any idea who Jo is. Jack confides in Henry about what he’s experiencing, and he tries to help Jack figure out what is happening, recommending an MRI.
When Jack goes to GD for help with an MRI, Stark is shocked when Jack mentions that Stark was fired weeks ago. They decide to do an MRI to hopefully figure out why Jack is remembering things that didn’t happen. When Jack mentions Beverly being out of town, Allison says she was at the cafe earlier and Beverly was there.
After talking with Fargo, he learns about class 8 projects which puts a Jack onto a new hunt, which Henry confirms could be a possibility if it was a project dealing with trans-dimensional travel. Unfortunately, as they talk, another bright light occurs and Henry, along with all of the gizmos in his garage, disappears.
Jack tells Stark about Henry but he has no recollection of knowing Henry and corrects Jack on giving Eureka’s population of 3000 when it’s only half that. Jack calls Zoe telling her to stay away if she sees a bright light. He asks Allison to go with him to see Babajanian but she’s confused that he thinks he works with quantum physics, and also seems to have no recollection of who Fargo is. Upon arriving at the cabin, Babajanian’s research is very different from what it was earlier. When the two go to leave, Babajanian also suddenly disappears and Allison has no clue why they even came up there to see an empty lab. Jack panics as they go back to his office and Allison sedates him and puts him in the jail cell to try and protect him.
When he awakes, she talks to Jack and soon it becomes clear that she has no idea who Stark is. The light starts to appear again and suddenly Allison disappears. Jack manages to grab the keys and get out. Sarah tells Jack that only two people live in Eureka, him and Zoe. Zoe says she doesn’t remember her mother ever coming to Eureka, and Jack starts to figure out what happened, remembering that he caught Zoe’s ATS but never put it down, but rather put it on, which caused him to start interacting with it, making an alternate reality for him to deal with his psychological issues.
In the real world, Zoe, Stark, Abby, Allison, Fargo, Jo and many others look over Jack, under medical monitoring on a hospital bed. They can’t figure out what is happening but need Beverly in order to figure out how to save him but she is incommunicado. Henry starts searching her house for clues and ends up finding her hidden wall safe and the gizmo he saw her with on the security footage.
Abby is shocked to see all the support that Jack and Zoe have from the town. Jack tries to get Zoe away from the bright light but to no avail as the light takes Zoe away. In real life Jack begins spasming as he fights until eventually, he wakes up, safe.
Jack talks with Henry about how the therapy device was trying to help him deal with his fear of losing Zoe and his abandonment, entitlement, and intimacy issues. He thanks Henry for always helping him. Jack tells Abby that he is happy in Eureka, and she agrees that Zoe also belongs there. She tells Jack she loves him and leaves for LA. Zoe and Jack talk and she thanks him for fighting for her.
Advanced Research:
One of the doctors and a townsperson were the two actors of note in this episode. Michael Kopsa has done a ton of voice work for animation projects from Littlest Pet Shop, to Mobile Suit Gundam, and X-Men Evolution. He was also General Kerrigan in Stargate SG-1.
Sharon Taylor played Faora in Smallville, Amelia Banks in Stargate: Atlantis, and Cynthia in Jann.
Duck, Duck, Goose:
Written by: Ethan Matthew Lawrence
Directed by: Michael Lange
Original airdate: August 7, 2007
Synopsis:
Jo informs Jack that it is the most dangerous day of the year, the high school science fair. Zoe is nervous not just about the science fair but also the results of her IQ test, to which Jack tells her he once took one and scored very high with a 111, a score that most Eurekans know is average.
Jack goes to work out at the Eureka Gym which shows magnets to simulate different weights but the workout is interrupted when something falls from the sky and crashes into Jack’s car. Henry and Jack retrieve the object, a small twisted piece of something, and Henry suggests taking it to GD’s NEAT lab, with Jack being driven there by an autonomous car that Allison sent to him, complete with SARAH downloaded into it to help navigate.
Upon arrival, Jack gets pushed to the floor because of new security measures involving a light based immobilization field developed by Jane Harrington, an employee at GD.
Jack and Henry soon discover the object is not a piece of an asteroid, but part of a space toilet, information they get with an assist from Dr. Finn, a somewhat bitter scientist working on a telescope with a camera, strong enough to pierce Eureka’s electromagnetic umbrella. After a second object falls and crashes nearby, they decide to look into the incidents. They find out that the objects that normally fall from space usually follow a trajectory that won’t harm Earth, but in this case, something has changed the trajectories and actually have started to pull objects towards Eureka.
After Taggart’s robot birds go off kilter during their migration and looking into Finn’s last science fair win, they realize magnets are playing a part in the problems. Jack even goes so far as to accuse Finn of causing the problems as revenge but that theory is dispelled quickly.
Zoe’s science fair project is ruined due to a group of bullies named The Heathers, and she gets revenge by messing up their project, causing everything metal in the area to start to gather and swirl like a tornado right above their project when they turn it on. One of the Heathers, Megan, is brought in for questioning along with Zoe and the truth comes out. Jack mentions seeing something like Megan’s experiment on top of GD, leading to the realization that Megan invented the machine, but it was taken over by her mother to use for a power source for the new GD security system because they were falling behind their deadlines.
Finn reports that things are getting worse with the falling debris, and Allison realizes that the beam interacted with Eureka’s electromagnetic umbrella and turned it into a giant magnet, which is the reason for Taggart’s bird drones going off course and the debris crashing in town. Jack comes up with the idea of using the gym’s magnetic field to repel the debris, but they need Zoe and Megan to work together to increase its power, citing Zoe’s great job of rewiring Megan’s project. After Finn convinces them to make a difference, they agree to work together but they need to hook up the SARAH car to guide the debris away safely so it will burn up in the atmosphere.
With the town safe, Megan wins first place which is an internship at GD, and she chooses to work with Dr. Finn, who makes things weird for a moment. Zoe wins second prize for showing the importance of teamwork and earns herself a new car as her prize. Later, Zoe opens her test results which shows her at a genius level but she lies and tells her dad that she’s at the same average level as him.
Advanced Research:
Megan was played by Elise Gatien. She was in a couple episodes of Supernatural and Smallville, a few movies lower on the cast list like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, as well as some made for TV Hallmarks type movies. Most recently she was in Virgin River as a supporting cast member (seeking a fresh start, nurse practitioner Melinda Monroe moves from Los Angeles to a remote Northern California town and is surprised by what and whom she finds there).
Dr. Jane Harrington was played by Anna Galvin and she was also in Syfy’s Van Helsing for a few episodes, Unspeakable (which a few of the other extras this week were in as well), and Mr. Young.
Matreya Fedor was the young girl, Tina, in the Heathers. She was also in Mr. Young for 80 episodes playing Echo. She was in the movie/series Electra Woman and DynaGirl.
The principal was played by Brenda Crichlow. She is basically a character actor, but has played a reporter a number of times in shows like Smallville, Fantastic Four, and NightMan!
The bullies nickname is a reference to the 1989 film Heathers, starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannon Doherty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22xeNf5o--Y&list=PLCCB7F248CFECFA43
IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient.The IQ test measures cognitive abilities like problem-solving and reasoning. A score of 100 indicates that an individual's performance is exactly at the median level compared to their peers. Tests typically use a standard deviation of 15, meaning 95% of people score between 70 and 130. 115–129 is considered bright or high average, and 130+ is considered gifted. Below 70 indicates a developmental or intellectual disability.
The car that SARAH is programmed into is called The Kurrent, a neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) that was built between 2006 and 2007 by the now defunct American Electric Motor Vehicle Company.
No comments:
Post a Comment