Eureka: The Ex-Files by Heather M

First off, Eureka EP Amy Berg is an awesome human being and jumpy claps that she Tweeted truthfully when she said Ed Quinn was not back on the show. That said, that Tweet has since been deleted, so, hmmm. It’s true as of this week’s episode, which she wrote, so I'll take it.

In “The Ex-Files,” five of the six time travelers are afflicted with hallucinogenic nemeses after a power surge. Carter gets Nathan, Allison gets Tess, Jo gets AlternaZane, Fargo gets his 5th grade tormentor, Jessica, and Grant gets his 1947 best friend, who happened to be Beverly’s dad.

The hallucinations occur in tandem with various power surges that start to bring down structures and buildings around town, causing environmental havoc to match the emotional havoc. Tess and Nathan nag Allison and Carter with a running narration about their new relationship – Tess from the standpoint of a BFF betrayal and Nathan from the standpoint that Carter will never, ever fill his (size 13, he wants you to know) shoes. It could have been a sad and painful plot point for the foursome, but was actually pretty clever, quick, and sometimes hysterically funny, with Carter immediately exasperated with Nathan and Allison just annoyed. I expected more soul-searching from Allison and a kind of closure where she actually had a chance to say goodbye to Nathan, but she seemed fairly reticent about it. Because there is still a Tess out there in this reality, her appearance had less permanent ramifications.

Jo’s encounters with AlternaZane were a strange sort of mindmeld of current Zane’s discounting his intentions for Zoe overridden by AlterZane being lovey dovey. Fargo’s former nemesis dogs him about being a weak leader and finally forces him to nut up to the general and find his backbone.

The hallucinations turn out to be a side effect of a plot by Beverly and her unnamed collective (which she convinces Grant he founded) to gain custody of a device being tested at GD. She tells him they’re trying to prevent repeats of nuclear weapon-level catastrophes of science, and she sets him onto a “DED device” that renders electronics useless. This leads Grant to repeatedly interfere with testing of the device, which gets the device loaded up for transport out of GD, where Bev’s group steals it. Once they have the device, the power surges and environmental destruction subside, but the emotional issues have to be sorted out individually.

When Grant realizes he’s been played, he is furious with Bev, until she tells him the core from the DED device can power the Bridge device and send him back to 1947 to continue his work. He’s not completely buying it and it doesn’t help that he keeps seeing her father as he was in 1947. We also find out that Bev’s dad is the guy Allison saved with a jumper cable heart boost in the premiere.

Zoe’s left in the lurch in this episode, trying to work Zane up to asking her out so she can figure out what they have, and at the end of the episode, he finds himself embroiled in a sting trumped up by Bev & co, which leaves her at odds with Carter and storming out of S.A.R.A.H.

Henry and Grace are goofy and giddy and happy and in love and immune to the MacGuffin arc because they were wearing transdermal memory-sharing patches, so we don’t get much of them.

Erica Cerra continues to layer her performance as Jo. Her tough exterior softens a bit when she finally processes that she’s been chatting with an idealized version of who she remembers as Zane but who is not exactly her Zane, and that she’d been romanticizing her memories. In a fit of confession, she processes why she turned down the proposal (she tells him they didn't work, which I think was posturing, but we'll see). She gives Zane back the engagement ring and only realizes after he has it in his hands that he’s this reality’s Zane and not her figment. She doubles over, wanting it back and unable to breathe, and her world starts to spin. There’s an interesting chat to come about why he now has two rings. She doesn't have time to really process that, though, because Zane is then suddenly accused of espionage.

The shakeout at the end is that Carter and Allison have to confess their deepest darkest to each other before they can move forward. For him, it’s that he has loved her since the pilot (which I guessed last week – yay!) and for her, it’s that she’s lost previous loves in a permanent and unfriendly fashion and she worries history will repeat. Once they sort that out, their hallucinations depart. They commence with the romance in proper as Allison beckons him to the bedroom and he’s sort of amazed at how well that went. I have to say the casual way Allison calls him “honey” did as much for me as their confessions. The Carter/Allison romance is finally off the bench. Proceed, guys and gals. Let’s see where this goes.

In short, I was very, very pleased. I guessed/hoped that the cast returns of Ed Quinn and Jaime Ray Newman were a riff of some sort and was glad to be right in assuming/hoping that the obstacles to the Carter/Allison relationship were internal and not external. That said, they had a ridiculous amount of fun with their constant commentary on Allison and Carter, and Quinn even froze his ass off, shirtless and strutting (in Vancouver) just to tweak Carter, who tells him to “put a shirt on!”

We’re two weeks from what Syfy is calling the season finale but I think this is still technically a midseason finale, to be followed by a Christmas one off in time for the holidays. Here’s hoping we get the rest of the season back sooner than later.