For good or bad, better or worse, EUREKA is done with episode 513 “Just Another Day”. The series finale aired last night. And for true fans, I think it gave us the satisfaction that the show has lived its life. Though season 5 was very entertaining, I’m sure many fans would have loved to see it go on. I wouldn’t have minded another season myself, but I would rather see the series end on a high note and make room for more ‘good’ Syfy shows. The network seems to be getting their act together after years of hitting and missing (remember ‘Flash Gordon’?).
In this very last episode, the residence of Eureka get the word that they are getting ‘shut down’. Everyone is sad, and Sheriff Carter and the others are making plans to move on.
SPOILERS BABY, SPOILERS
This wasn’t a high energy climactic ending to a roller-coaster ride of a final season. The series finale was a touching epitaph to remind viewers of the ties that bind.
Eureka was just as much about relationships as it was about science gone wrong. And it’s from that position that the writers and actors gave us a final look at all the players that have made the show a success.
I’m not saying that there wasn’t some dangerous scientific anomaly going wrong in this last episode. On the contrary, worm-holes started sprouting up, threatening to tear Eureka apart. But seeing the characters moving on together and cameos of past stars was the main gist of the story.
Cameos included Zoology prof. Jim Taggert (Matt Frewer) chasing his smart dog, Beverly the spy (Debrah Farentino) redeeming herself one final time, and Dr. Trevor Grant ( James Callis) from season 4 coming back to save the day.
There were plenty of silly moments, like Parrish (Wil Wheaton) expressing that he wasn’t just ‘disgruntled’ but ‘Fully Gruntled’ at the thought of leaving Eureka. And then later he steps through a worm-hole from his sauna into the cafe butt naked. I believe the word Vincent used was ‘Mantastic’ (Vincent played by Chris Gauthier). In fact, Issac carried most of the comedy, with him trying to ‘mack’ on Fargo’s girl Holly.
One aspect of these ‘relationships’ that the creators and writers focused on was diversity in age and race. The most innocent and recently developed was that of Fargo and Holly (Neil Grayston and Felicia Day), the two young genius’ that fell in love. In recent past episodes Holly died, but was brought back, and then lost her memory of Fargo. But they quickly mended that thread.
Lupo and Zane (Erica Cerra, Niall Matter) were playing tag with their emotions all season long, but Lupo finally asked the question that she said ‘no’ to in another timeline.
Henry and Grace finally got together by the end. Truthfully, it was pissing me off that Joe Morton‘s character had lost his love (and lovers) twice in the past and it looked like he was going to lose Grace (Tembi Locke). But things turned out even better than expected by the end, and Henry gets more than his wife back.
That leaves Carter and Allison, the two characters played by Colin Ferguson and Salli Richardson-Whitfield. Their union was probably the most special of all. Both were parents and from two different worlds (and part of my generation I might add). These characters defied the usual ‘young hot’ couples of other sci-fi and fantasy shows. It wasn’t that you didn’t see their relationship coming a mile away in the beginning of the series, with the typical rocky start to their working relationship, but the actors and writers gave us a genuine building of a love story.
I know I’m making this show and last episode seem like a gushy soap opera to those that haven’t seen it yet (you shouldn’t even be reading this), but as the series progressed, it gave us more than just people chasing down robots and mini-black holes.
It was nice to see Zoe, Carter’s daughter, come back. Carter is one of the stellar and real fathers of sci-fi. His pride for his Harvard Graduate daughter came through with the line – ‘Look at you and your book learnin’ – They had a sweet father daughter moment that closed the show.
To sum it up, it’s a fun and almost wholesome science fiction series. One of the few that a family of nerd parents with kids can watch together. Because, when it comes down to it, EUREKA is all about family. There are many people who couldn’t get into it because it wasn’t their sort of thing. But Sheriff Jack Carter and EUREKA are a modern-day ANDY GRIFFITH and MAYBERRY. Even though Carter walked around with a gun, I don’t believe he shot one single person in the entire series. The writers summed it up best for Ferguson‘s character when they had Holly make an astute observation about Carter – “You guys are Smart, but the sheriff is the strong force, he holds it all together.”
I’m 100% sure the Syfy channel will be showing the series in syndication, but you can also check it out on streaming or get the DVD sets if you’re a collector. You can also catch up to some recent episodes on SYFY.COM. Later I’ll feature EUREKA in my ongoing series of ’10 Reasons Why I Like…’. Did you see the finale? What did you think about it and the series as a whole?
Eureka: Season Five
only $19.99 (as of this post)
Or you can get the whole series…
Eureka: The Complete Series (Amazon Exclusive)
(Though they may come out with a box set, who knows!)
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