E=MC...?:
Written by: Bruce Miller
Directed by: Tim Matheson
Original airdate: August 28, 2007
Synopsis:
Former particle physicist turned criminal, Zane Donovan, ends up getting caught and recruited by GD to work for them, much to Jack’s annoyance. Jack locks up Zane and, at Lupo's suggestion, fits him with a high-tech tracking bracelet that can also deliver mild electrical shocks and activate a restraining field if the prisoner tries to escape. In response, Zane cheerfully makes mischief, first grossing Jack out about Vincent’s grilled chicken, flirting with Lupo and hacking the sheriff's office computer to order a bunch of items on Jack’s dime.
Stark and Henry activate a device they've been working on that could reveal information about the start of the universe. The next morning, however, Jack finds Henry laughing at cartoons while the protective fields weaken, and Allison, Stark and most of GD goof off, acting like kids. Henry even starts to tell Jack that he thinks Beverly did something to Kim but can’t think straight enough to tell him more.
Jack gathers whatever scientists he can, and one, a veterinarian named Dr. Glenn, determines that the affected scientists have critically low levels of G.A.B.A. — gamma-aminobutyric acid which can cause Alzheimer's-like symptoms. They reason that Zane must have tweaked the controls to cause this but he has unfortunately escaped after tricking Jo into revealing a way out of his tracking/stun bracelets. Jack calls Zane’s mother and manages to track him down, appealing to his better nature and wanting to be part of a community. They manage to contain the field by repurposing the bracelets but people are still acting dumb, with Dr. Glen confirming that the GABA wouldn’t be affected by radiation.
They discover that all the people affected ate Vincent’s chicken, which comes from an organic farm where they grow chicken from stem cells, and that a G.A.B.A. inhibiting substances had been injected into them, therefore finding the cause of the dumb epidemic.
Henry reflects to Stark how happy and unburdened he had felt while being affected by the G.A.B.A. inhibitor while Stark smiles due to the fact that he and Allison seem to have started to rekindle their relationship. Jack notes that the Spadaro Organization received an anonymous 3.1 million dollar donation enabling them to start giving out their award once again, remembering that Zane had been arrested due to stealing 3.1 million dollars from the U.S. Border Patrol accounts for drug Interdiction.
Advanced Research:
Tim Matheson is mostly known as an actor, and has been in the business since he was a kid in the 1960’s. His big break out most people know him for is National Lampoon’s Animal House. He was also in Fletch, Drop Dread Fred, Black Sheep and A Very Brady Sequel. He does a lot of television too and often directs episodes, we’ve seen him before in the Quantum Leap revival season 2 episode “The Lonely Hearts Club” (save a washed up Hollywood actor from dying), and he was also in the Child’s Play reboot movie.
Zane was played by Niall Matter. He was a main character in the Hallmark mystery series Aurora Teagarden with Candace Cameron Bure, as well as other Hallmark movies throughout the years. He did have a small role in the reboot of 90210, a small role in Watchmen (movie, with Matt Frewer as well), and a supporting cast role in the teen drama The Best Years. He also appeared in Warehouse 13 as a different character for one episode. Most recently, in 2025 he was in the Hallmark movie We Met In December.
Dr. Glenn was played by Allison Hossack. She’s got a good run of Hallmark movies to her name as a higher on the list supporting cast member. She’s made appearances in shows such as Supernatural, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Heartland and Fringe. She’s been a main character in Hope Island (a church reverend going through a terrible loss reopens a church on an island where many have turned their back on religion years ago), Cobra (when the traditional judicial system fails, there is an alternative: a special government agency that focuses on the victims, with James Tolkan of BTTF fame), and a supporting character in shows like Reaper, Falcon Beach, and Kingdom Hospital. She was also in 128 episodes of soap opera Another World. We’ve seen her before as Dr. Eileen Stanley in Sliders (Fever).
Jo Lupo’s licence plate reads SPBI-46. The letters used as chemical symbols give you sulfur (S), Phosphorus (P), and Bismuth (Bi). Mixing them at high temperature creates Bismuth Thiophosphate, a dense, nontoxic, and semiconducting ternary chalcogenide. These compounds are highly prized for their tunable band gaps, strong optical absorption, and thermal stability, making them vital for advanced optoelectronics, next-generation batteries, and infrared photonics.
A mangabey is a group of slender, long-limbed Old World monkeys native to the tropical forests of Africa. Known for being highly social and vocal, they are easily recognized by their expressive, often bright white eyelids and specialized cheek pouches used for storing food.
Sight Unseen:
Written by: Charlie Craig & Thania St. John
Directed by: Donna Deitch
Original airdate: September 4, 2007
Synopsis:
As Zoe drives to school alone, she picks up a classmate she has a crush on Jasper and while they drive he makes a pass at her, causing Zoe to crash into nothing. Her windshield is broken but there is nothing within sight that they could have hit. When she tells her dad later, Jack reprimands her for breaking his rule of no one else in the car, and has her leave the car parked while he drops her at school.
Meanwhile Jack and Jo are investigating the theft of polyethylene glycol from the pharmacy, and a noise complaint about a dog continually barking in the woods, while Allison, Henry, and Stark investigate their moon rocks which have suddenly changed their chemical composition, being drained of AL-26 but for no apparent reason.
At school, Zoe is passed over by Jasper as a potential partner for their Robox Car project and eventually gets paired with Lucas, the class nerd/geek/loser. They have an adversarial relationship at first but he eventually gets through to her about not judging books by their cover and they kiss and finish their project.
Henry talks to Stark about Jack, explaining how he told him about Beverly being involved in Kim’s death and Stark tells Henry to let him help because Jack won’t let an investigation go unsolved.
Downtown, Jack discovers Zoe’s car gone but before he can go find Zoe there’s an explosion at the dry cleaners, run by a woman named Callie that was earlier flirty chatting with Jack. He saves her and she proposes dinner as a way of thanks. Henry analyzes Callie’s dry cleaning formula while Allison reports they are finding 18 different traces of radioactivity throughout the building that keeps moving around.
Upon reviewing the security footage, Jo finds out an invisible person seems to be responsible for stealing from the pharmacy. Jack gets Zoe’s keys and finds that Zoe’s car is indeed where she left it but that it is invisible as he presses in on the glass and feels it break, cutting his finger. Henry and Fargo are called in, explaining that Invisibility was outlawed and they take the car in for studying.
Henry reveals that the moon rock’s missing AL26 is related to the missing PCE from the pharmacy and that Callie is a suspect having used both when she worked at GD before invisibility was outlawed. Jack confronts her and she’s hurt but gives him the information about her old project and fellow scientists, exposing one person who still works at GD, a cia operative named Frank.
Upon investigating his lab, they discover an empty cage that the GD Poop Guy confirms use to contain 18 mice. He finds the invisible mice using Fargo’s invisibility detector glasses, and the team decides that Frank must have used them as test subjects. Jack reveals he has started to become invisible due to the cut he received after touching Zoe’s car. Fargo and Jack go to Frank’s secret hideaway and discover not just the formula he was using to try and recreate invisibility, but also Frank, having died from the toxicity of the invisibility formula.
Callie is brought in to try and reverse the formula so that Jack can be saved and eventually they use Zoe’s car’s organic wrap to develop a method to bring him back into view and remove the toxicity. Henry later gives Stark the device he found at Beverly’s, telling him he’s discovered it messed with Kim’s computers, giving her inaccurate readings.
Later, Allison sits with Stark and Kevin for dinner and she feels bad that she didn’t realize it was Jack’s anniversary of arriving in Eureka, Jack and Callie have their date at a table nearby, with her having remembered his anniversary.
Advanced Research:
We’ve seen Donna Deitch before, she directed Heroes season 1 episode 7 “Nothing to Hide.”
Vanya Asher played Lucas, and Eureka is his claim to fame. He also had a run of 17 episodes in the show Scandal (a former White House Communications Director starts her own crisis management firm only to realize her clients are not the only ones with secrets, 124 episodes).
The teacher was played by Adam Bergquist and he has only a handful of roles as an actor, and about a couple more as a dialect coach.
Iris Pauley was the neighbor.
Sonja Bennett was Callie and she was a main character in Godiva’s (Bistro, young people, drama). She had a few appearances in Cold Squad, Blade: the Series, Battlestar: Galactica, and Mistresses.
Zoe's new car is the Smart Fortwo W451-build series, the second of three generations as of 2024. It is a two-seater city car launched in 1998 and manufactured and marketed by the Smart division of Mercedes-Benz in collaboration with Swatch. It uses a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout and a one-box design.
Zoe’s licence plate is TKO-671. TKO most commonly stands for "technical knockout" in combat sports.
The spelling difference traces back to the element's discoverer, British chemist Sir Humphry Davy. In the early 1800s, he switched between "alumium" and "aluminum" before finally proposing "aluminium" to match the classic (-ium) suffix of other elements like sodium and potassium.
The split occurred because the US and UK adopted different historical preferences:
- In the US: Lexicographer Noah Webster popularized the shorter, simpler spelling "aluminum" in his highly influential 1828 dictionary. This spelling stuck and was later formally adopted by the American Chemical Society.
- In the UK (and rest of the world): British scientists favored the "-ium" ending because it sounded more classically Latin and matched other metallic elements. This eventually led to international bodies like the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) adopting aluminium as the global standard.
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