Insane in the P-Brane:
Written by: Thania St. John
Directed by: Steve Miner
Original airdate: July 24, 2009
Synopsis:
Jack meets a visiting friend of Alison’s named Tess Fontana whose parked car has somehow ended up in the middle of the road and is also tasked with trying to wrangle control of Dr. Murray Drechmeyer, a scientist at GD who, until his recent divorce, was working on a project with his now ex wife, Mary Beth, and whom he has kicked out of their shared lab, citing paranormal incidents that must be studied with his TIRD meter. Indeed, he even shows up at Cafe Diem, tracking the TIRDS there and much to everyone’s surprise, objects start moving and flying off the shelves, even hurtling through the window, threatening the aforementioned Tess who was using the restroom. Drechmeyer asks everyone to come back to the cafe tonight where he will hold a seance to contact these forces from beyond while Henry theorizes that magnetic fields could be responsible for the disturbances, leading Jack to accuse Mrry Beth of trying to set up her ex to discredit him but she denies it.
Drechmeyer holds his seance and they start to see glowing green light in front of them. At the same time, Jo, was researching Drechmeyer’s mother, discovers that she was a famous medium, and suddenly things start flying around moving inside the sheriff’s office. Drechmeyer feels vindicated but Jack later finds energy displacement sensors that were placed around the town, with Drechmeyer saying they record disturbances, despite it being against GD’s procedures. Mary Beth does confirm though that the tiny boxes are just for gathering data and couldn’t have caused the disturbances.
Allison confides to Jack that the disturbances seem to have coincided with the reopening of Section 5, of which her old friend Tess is now the head of. She asks Tess to work with Jack to figure out what’s causing the disturbances and how it relates to Section 5. They investigate the area but it’s uneventful until they go to the Alternate Propulsion Systems lab. Jack hears a strange noise and Tess rushes them out of the room, accidentally tripping into Jack’s arms.
They part ways and Jack tries to talk to Henry but he is intent on talking with Alison, telling her that the disturbances have nothing to do with the signal but they signal is getting stronger. Jack tries to ask Fargo something but he seemingly ignores him. Drechmeyer shows up and stands right in front of Jack, detecting a strong spirit energy before moving on. Both Tess and Jack soon realize that no one can see or hear them.
They return to the APS lab and discover the person in charge of it, HJ Johnson, the man who another lab Tech said was out traveling, passed out on the floor with a burn mark on his face. Tess theorizes that HJ managed to find a way to travel between dimensions along with a portable platform to return but something went wrong with the machine, not being calibrated correctly. They decide to try and contact Drechmeyer, reasoning that the disturbances thus far have been HJ trying to cross back to his regular dimension.
They use the platform and try to yell at Drechmeyer, who picks them up on his TIRD, but mistakenly thinks it’s his mother. He gets Allison to let him use a more powerful machine but HJ shows up to warn Jack and Tess to try and stop it as it could kill them. As Drechmeyer powers it up, HJ pushes Tess and Jack out of the way and the machine overloads, leading Alison to fire Drechmeyer.
Tess tries to help HJ with his recalibrations but he resents it, stating that he and most of the scientific community has a problem with her. When Henry shows up with Mary Beth and Alison, they discover HJ’s machine is still running and determine that it must be shut down to stop the disturbances. HJ is adamant that he uses the platform now before that happens, with Tess saying it’s not ready, but he proceeds and ends up being torn apart and dies. Seeing the way HJ’s body slid across the floor, combined with Tess’s parked car that slid across the road, she realizes how to set the machine correctly.
In order to stop Henry from shutting the machine off, Tess sets the machine to a lower strength, enabling Jack to try and contact Alison, to which she does, feeling his energy and gets the message, needing to sit down, stopping Henry. Tess finishes her calibrations and activates the platform, just as Henry shuts the machine. Jack and Tess end up back in their dimension albeit outside of town.
Meanwhile, Lexi is surprised to see her ex, Duncan, the doctor from the World Health Organization, has come to town to talk to her, hoping to win her back. When he jumps to conclusions and assumes that Lexi left town and is seeing someone, she quickly ropes Fargo in as her “boyfriend.” Zoe admonishes Lexi for not revealing to Duncan that she’s pregnant, using her special Invisiclothes to hide her baby bump. Duncan however invites Fargo to join them for breakfast, wanting to pick his brain and get to know the man who stole Lexi’s heart. Zoe tells Lexi she should tell Duncan about the pregnancy, giving him a chance to decide what he will do. Duncan concedes, wishing Lexi well and she tells him the truth about her babies, and he says she needs to think about this information, leaving her heartbroken.
Jack checks in with Alison, and reveals Drechmeyer and Mary Beth are back working together, taking over HJ’s research. Jack asks Alison about the signal she and Henry are working on, realizing that Tess comes from the SETI project, but she is tight lipped about it.
Advanced Research:
We’ve seen director Steve Miner before, he directed Friday the 13th Part 2-3, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, and 4 episodes of Dawson’s Creek. He also directed the movies House, Warlock, Forever Young and Lake Placid among many other credits.
Tess Fontana was played by Jamie Ray Newman. Most recently she was in 8 of 17 episodes of The Hunting Wives (Sophie O'Neil moves to deep East Texas and succumbs to socialite Margo's charms. Her life is soon consumed by obsession, seduction, and murder), 4 of 6 episodes of Don Cheadle’s series The Big Cigar (Black Panther founder Huey P. Newton escapes from the FBI to Cuba with the assistance of famed producer Bert Schneider in an impossibly elaborate plan that goes wrong every way it possibly can), and a lead in the movie Tatami (the Iranian female judoka Leila is at the World Judo Championships, intent on bringing home Iran's first gold medal). Other notable credits include The Time Traveler’s Wife (series), Valley of the Gods, The Punisher (Netflix, season 1), Drop Dead Diva, Eastwick, and Midnight, Texas (Midnight is a safe haven for those who are different, but with the presence of outsiders, the residents band together and form a strong and unlikely family).
Jeff Pangman played Duncan. He has a few roles to his name like Man Seeking Woman (7/30, a name romantic goes on a desperate quest for love when his longtime girlfriend dumps him) and Step Dogs (when a pampered Hollywood pooch is sent up North to live with a wise cracking farm-mutt, all leashes are off).
Brendan Beiser played Drechmeyer. He had a recurring role in Pretty Hard Cases (14/32, Guns and Gangs detective Sam and Drug Squad detective Kelly. By day, they are heroes in their particular way: skilled, tough, determined, and entertaining, fighting to do good in a broken system), Star Trek: Discovery as Eli the EMH, an episode of Orphan Black as “Friendly Guy,” and an episode of Nightman! He had a recurring character on The X-Files series and video game as Agent Pendrell (9 episodes), and did 13 episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam as Oscar Dublin.
Mary Beth was played by Chelah Horsdal. She has many credits to her name, such as 12 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery as the Federation president, and 36 episodes of The Man in The High Castle as Helen Smith. She was the lead in Ash (a small town news reporter is accused of unspeakable crimes while he follows a massive forest fire that threatens his community), Candiland (failed tennis star loses his career faster a car accident and meets up with a recently divorced woman and begin a one night stand but when they wake, decide to stay locked in the apartment and create their own reality called Candiland in order to reach a higher existence that is threatened by the tennis star’s father who wants to save him, Gary Busey plays the father), and Pretty Little Addict (teenager Jennifer Phillips loses her father in a long battle with cancer. She's devastated and one night, after heavy drinking, she crashes her car into Colin, a college bound track star, who now may never walk again. Jennifer is taken into rehab, and when she thinks that the worst is over, Colin's brother is looking for her and ready to take revenge). She was also in Stargate as Lt. Womack.
The song the guy in the elevator is singing along with is “Car Wash” by Rose Royce
It's Not easy Being Green:
Written by: Curtis Kheel
Directed by: Sarah Pia Anderson
Original airdate: July 31, 2009
Synopsis:
Jack is called to GD by Alison and Tess to collect all of Eureka’s Globidium supply, a locally made fuel source that has been used by a number of residents.
Meanwhile, Fargo and his bowling team are gearing up to face off against the Bingonians, or actually… the Area 51 scientists, led by Fargo’s arch rival, Bismark, in their annual, not so friendly, bowling championship. Bismark and his team is shocked to discover that Fargo has Big Ed Fowler, the former PBA champion who happens to also be talented biochemist and works for Eureka as their cleaner, having a reposition of being to clean just about anything of not just physical uncleanliness, but extending to even difficult types of radiation. As their game begins and Fargo executes a prank on Bismark’s bowling ball, he offers Fargo a truce and shakes his hands. However, within seconds, Fargo’s team begins turning green.
As Jack and Henry head out to start collecting the Globidium, they find that Seth’s supply, used in his car, has gone missing. Further investigation reveals that Vincent’s freezer has also been deprived of its supply of Globidium as well. Returning to GD, they discover Fargo and his team there, emitting some elevated levels of gamma radiation, but should be ultimately fine, assures Henry. Jack puts the kibosh on any more pranks and talks to Bismark about the missing Globidium but he assures him that they had nothing to do with it.
Meanwhile, Lexi is busy making a book for her babies containing pictures and experiences from her life, when Duncan shows up. They start to come to an understanding but when she tells him that things have changed and she would do anything for her unborn children, he balks and Lexi (and SARAH) tell him to go on with his life. He goes to Cafe Diem and runs into Zoe and he sees what happened to Fargo’s team and tells her he has a way to possibly help them get back to normal, applying a special mixture to Lucas, tuning his skin to normal. Lexi goes to Allison and the two share a moment talking about the joy of being a parent and how Allison wishes Nathan was still here to share that joy with her. Duncan tries to appeal to Lexi but she doesn’t think there’s anything else to say and leaves.
Jack shows up and questions Fargo and his team about the missing power cells but again they seem to be innocent. He and Jo, having received more reports of stolen Globidium, realize that Big Ed was at all of the locations and go to find him, but instead find his completely drained and melted remains.
Talking with Fargo, they realize Big Ed had a pet, and chats with Allison and Tess, working out that the pet, named Spot, was a microorganism that would eat gamma radiation for nuclear waste cleanups. Big Ed has collected the Globidium to feed Spot but when he ran out, Spot unfortunately saw the gamma radiated Big Ed as its next huge lunch and devoured him.
Fargo and the team start using Duncan’s special cream to get rid of the gamma radiation on their skin, but Spot has sensed it and starts to go after Fargo. Jack shows up in the nick of time and scares Spot off. Jack suggests trying to lure Spot to them out with a big enough sample of gamma radiation to trap it, but they discover that Spot has already eaten their remaining Globidium and is making its way through the building, destroying parts of the system wherever it goes. Jack theorizes that cold might be able to stop Spot but when he goes after it with a cold gun, it only affects the outside of Spot and it recovers and gets away, causing more havoc to GD’s power systems.
Duncan goes to Zoe and tells her he is on his way out of town since Lexi made it clear she’s done talking, but Zoe pushes him to keep trying.
Jack reasons that maybe cold wasn’t the answer as to what made Spot run away from Fargo, but rather, Duncan’s skin crème that was drying out the skin. Tess uses her influence to take Bismark’s camiscope, the device he uses to turn everyone green, and they jury rig it to be a salt delivery system, hoping it will be able to make it inside of Spot and dry him out from the inside, like a slug.
Duncan makes a plea to Lexi at the bunker, telling her he wants to be a sort of her life. Lexi tells him that she always felt her father seemed to want to be away from them and doesn’t want her kids to feel the same way about Duncan. Suddenly, Spot shows up and attacks Duncan. Jack runs in and tries to tempt Spot away, and tosses the camiscope, hidden inside a gamma irradiated bowling ball, towards the slug-like creature, who eats it up as it detonates and dries out Spot, killing it. Lexi and Duncan kiss, happy to be together again, although Duncan does not want to live in Eureka.
At the bowling alley, Fargo manages to use a special bowling ball to get an otherwise difficult 7-10 split and wins the championship. He and Bismark shake on it but Fargo had unfortunately pulled another prank, reining their team bright red.
Tess and Allison talk about the radio signal and realize there’s no way to figure out what it is until it’s right on top of them. Allison tells Tess that Mansfield feels that the signal may not be friendly and has ordered them to be ready to defend themselves against whatever is coming.
Advanced Research:
Sean Owen Roberts played Bismark. He was in 18 of 24 episodes of Billy the Kid, a supporting cast member in The Last Stand of Ellen Cole, a bit higher up on the cast list in Dangerous Lies (when a wealthy elderly man dies and unexpectedly leaves his estate to his new caregiver, she's drawn into a web of deception and murder. If she's going to survive, she'll have to question everyone's motives - even the people she loves), 4 episodes of Critters: The New Binge, and a lead in Painkiller Jane (Jane Vasco is a DEA agent recruited by a covert government agency that hunts genetically enhanced individuals. She discovers that she can heal rapidly from any injury and begins to investigate the source of her powers).
John DeSantis played Big Ed. He’s appeared in 18 of 25 episodes of A Series of Unfortunate Events (with Neil Patrick Harris), 7 episodes of SyFy’s Van Helsing, 3 episodes of Smallville, one of which he played classic character Solomon Grundy, and starred as Lurch in The New Addam’s Family (1998). He also appeared in an episode of Police Academy: The Series, as a thug.
PETA launched the iconic “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign in 1990 and retired it 30 years later in 2020. The movement used semi-nude celebrities and models on billboards during New York Fashion Week to protest animal fur in fashion. The inspiration came when the rock band The Go-Go’s posed in the buff for a "We'd Rather Go-Go Naked Than Wear Fur" poster. Supermodel Christy Turlington brought the campaign massive global fame with her early 1990s print advertisements. Pamela Anderson, Eva Mendes, P!nk, Gillian Anderson, and Dennis Rodman stripped down for the cause over the decades. PETA unveiled massive new billboards in Times Square nearly every year to target designers and buyers. PETA retired the campaign in February 2020 because major designers, regional bans (like California), and shifting public views largely pushed real fur out of mainstream fashion. The organization shifted its awareness campaigns toward other animal-derived materials like leather, wool, and exotic skins.
We also talked about the strange imagery used in the DVD menu for this season, since they seem to have nothing to do with anything in the show...
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