Archimedes just couldn't keep it
Spoilers Ahoy! A few thoughts about Eureka Season 4 :
Okay, that was an interesting way of doing a character reset. I like what they're doing with what was previously the secondary cast; Fargo and Jo are definitely main cast now, and Zane almost is. Unfortunately, other members of the secondary cast - Vince, especially - seem to be being pushed farther into the background. Larry is stepping up into the buttmonkey slot nicely, and while I can't tell you quite why I think he makes a better buttmonkey than Fargo, Chris Jacot is certainly hamming up the role with gusto. The show seems to be deliberately 'shipping Jo with everybody in sight; she's had chemistry scenes with Zane, Fargo, and Jack, and I'm intrigued by the relationship this-universe's-Jo has with Deputy Andy. And the Taming Of The Jerk storyline is going interesting places.
I'm faintly annoyed by what they did with Tess - bringing her back just to send her away again. I don't even like the character very much, and I think that was kind of crappy. Similarly, I'd really like to find out more about Grace - this is the woman who got this-universe's-Henry over Kim, and is obviously brilliant in her own right. She's going to figure everything out Any Minute Now, and I can't imagine what sort of hell there will be to pay. And yet, the show seems more than content to just let her linger in the background.
All that being said, I have some Big Honking Questions:
1) Kevin's autism, and the fact that he reacts unusually well to Jack, are key points in the plot of the pilot. How did TU!Carter come to Eureka? Was it still Walter's End-Of-The-World-Machine? Did TU!King still get sent to Alaska?
2) Is TU!Henry a returnee from Yet Another Erased Timeline, like this one is? Or did Grace mean either that the first season plotline with Kim didn't happen, or that TU!Henry didn't need to obsess over her death the same way?
3) If it's the first, did the accident with the artifact happen at all? If not, is it still down in Section 5?
4) Where is TU!Beverly? (For that matter, what happened to Beverly Prime? I'm still angry at them for not ever resolving that end of the artifact storyline.)
5) If the artifact accident did happen, but TU!Kevin wasn't in the building - as he would have no reason to be, not being autistic and thus not needing therapy - where did it go? Did it grab someone else? Escape into the stratosphere? That's the plot for the entirety of Season 2 gone, there.
6) Did the Fixer ever come to Global in this timeline? Hell, was Allison ever head of Global?
7) The question we've all been waiting for: if the Fixer didn't ever come to Global, then Weinbrenner didn't get redacted. Did some version of the events of 3.04 happen anyway? If not, then is Stark still dead or not? And why have neither Allison (who has his damn baby, for crying out loud) nor Fargo explicitly checked this yet? If Stark is still dead, how did it happen? Did TU!Fargo call for the redactions in this universe? If so, does TU!Allison blame him for Stark's death? Or was TU!Stark in charge at the time, and his death the reason why there was a vacancy for TU!Fargo to be made figurehead?
8) Where is TU!Taggart, damn it? Did he and TU!Jo date? If so, did they split up, or does he think of her as his hometown girl?
9) How much of the personnel makeup of Global is the same in this universe? Does Dr. Hood still work here, for instance? (Related to 1 and 6, again: is TU!Carl Carlson still dead/merged with the artifact?)
10) Just for grins: is Kevin's father dead in this universe, or is Allison just divorced from him? Similarly, where are Abby and Lexi Carter?
I don't expect answers to all of these, but I'm going to be damn upset if the writers clearly haven't thought about them.
Okay, that was an interesting way of doing a character reset. I like what they're doing with what was previously the secondary cast; Fargo and Jo are definitely main cast now, and Zane almost is. Unfortunately, other members of the secondary cast - Vince, especially - seem to be being pushed farther into the background. Larry is stepping up into the buttmonkey slot nicely, and while I can't tell you quite why I think he makes a better buttmonkey than Fargo, Chris Jacot is certainly hamming up the role with gusto. The show seems to be deliberately 'shipping Jo with everybody in sight; she's had chemistry scenes with Zane, Fargo, and Jack, and I'm intrigued by the relationship this-universe's-Jo has with Deputy Andy. And the Taming Of The Jerk storyline is going interesting places.
I'm faintly annoyed by what they did with Tess - bringing her back just to send her away again. I don't even like the character very much, and I think that was kind of crappy. Similarly, I'd really like to find out more about Grace - this is the woman who got this-universe's-Henry over Kim, and is obviously brilliant in her own right. She's going to figure everything out Any Minute Now, and I can't imagine what sort of hell there will be to pay. And yet, the show seems more than content to just let her linger in the background.
All that being said, I have some Big Honking Questions:
1) Kevin's autism, and the fact that he reacts unusually well to Jack, are key points in the plot of the pilot. How did TU!Carter come to Eureka? Was it still Walter's End-Of-The-World-Machine? Did TU!King still get sent to Alaska?
2) Is TU!Henry a returnee from Yet Another Erased Timeline, like this one is? Or did Grace mean either that the first season plotline with Kim didn't happen, or that TU!Henry didn't need to obsess over her death the same way?
3) If it's the first, did the accident with the artifact happen at all? If not, is it still down in Section 5?
4) Where is TU!Beverly? (For that matter, what happened to Beverly Prime? I'm still angry at them for not ever resolving that end of the artifact storyline.)
5) If the artifact accident did happen, but TU!Kevin wasn't in the building - as he would have no reason to be, not being autistic and thus not needing therapy - where did it go? Did it grab someone else? Escape into the stratosphere? That's the plot for the entirety of Season 2 gone, there.
6) Did the Fixer ever come to Global in this timeline? Hell, was Allison ever head of Global?
7) The question we've all been waiting for: if the Fixer didn't ever come to Global, then Weinbrenner didn't get redacted. Did some version of the events of 3.04 happen anyway? If not, then is Stark still dead or not? And why have neither Allison (who has his damn baby, for crying out loud) nor Fargo explicitly checked this yet? If Stark is still dead, how did it happen? Did TU!Fargo call for the redactions in this universe? If so, does TU!Allison blame him for Stark's death? Or was TU!Stark in charge at the time, and his death the reason why there was a vacancy for TU!Fargo to be made figurehead?
8) Where is TU!Taggart, damn it? Did he and TU!Jo date? If so, did they split up, or does he think of her as his hometown girl?
9) How much of the personnel makeup of Global is the same in this universe? Does Dr. Hood still work here, for instance? (Related to 1 and 6, again: is TU!Carl Carlson still dead/merged with the artifact?)
10) Just for grins: is Kevin's father dead in this universe, or is Allison just divorced from him? Similarly, where are Abby and Lexi Carter?
I don't expect answers to all of these, but I'm going to be damn upset if the writers clearly haven't thought about them.