Recap / Eureka HOUSE Rules

A hug won't fix this but it's worth a try.

Henry: Fargo turns a relic of war into something beautiful and life affirming and then gets chastised, because it's actually trying to help us avert disaster!
Stark: He got chastised, because it's holding us hostage!

SARAH responds to Carter's plans to leave Eureka by luring some key members of the town into a trap to force them to work out their differences.

Attempts to escape only make things worse, as SARAH's other persona BRAD takes over. Meanwhile, Jo and Taggart stage a rescue mission.

Tropes

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: While SARAH is trying to help by reconciling people so Carter and Henry won't leave, BRAD tries to kill everyone.
  Carter: I can't believe I survived holes in time and Cold War death rays just to freeze to death in my own dang house!
• Bizarrchitecture: Downplayed. BRAD isolates everyone in pairs by shutting walls of shatter-resistant glass across the room. It's not clear why those walls are there and Carter doesn't appear to know about them.
• Butt-Monkey: Fargo. He didn't build in a backdoor in SARAH and built her on top of BRAD, almost causing everyone to die.
  Stark: Fargo, please tell me you laid in a back door?
  Fargo: I'd really, really like to?
• Broken Pedestal: Inverted. Henry is disappointed with Nathan, who was once his mentee, for going into politics.
  Henry: I'm leaving Eureka, because I'm tired of watching noble ideas being turned into weapons, and here we are, here we are at the mercy of a weapon that had been turned into a noble idea.
• The Computer Is Your Friend: SARAH thinks it's perfectly reasonable to lock everyone in in order to force them to resolve their problems.
• Fanservice: When BRAD has the people in Carter's house split up and isolated in pairs, he cranks up the heat in one section and drastically lowers the temp in another. The hot section happens to contain Beverly, who removes her dress due to the heat, showing a very fancy slip that emphasizes her chest.
• Everyone Knows Morse: Jack and Jo do, using it to communicate by tapping on the bunker's walls. When Henry gives Jack a string of instructions to relay to Jo, Jack replies "you know we'll die before I can Morse all that."
  Stark: Crack. Pipe.
  Jack: Two words I never thought I'd hear you say.
• Heterosexual Lifepartners: Carter and Henry are so close that Carter doesn't want to live in Eureka without Henry.
• Ironic Echo: Jo gets Taggart good in their paintball game with a paint grenade. When Taggart protests that they didn't discuss grenades, she tells him "War is hell." Later, Taggart gets her while she's distracted by an emergency call, and brushes off her protests with, "War is hell!"
• Noodle Incident: Taggart explains how he became so familiar with the tunnels he and Jo use to access SARAH.
  Taggart: Smart mice. IQ's through the roof. Little varmints used vector formulas to keep me off their tracks.
  Jo: How'd you catch them?
  Taggart: Smart cheese.
• Red Shirt: The pizza delivery guy is only there to demonstrate what happens to those who make a break for it. Appropriately, his delivery uniform has a red shirt.
  Carter: In a town full of super geniuses, why is it that the pizza guy is the only guy with the presence of mind to walk out the door?!
  [A cannon appears out of the ground. The delivery guy gets vapourised]
• Shout-Out:
  • With an AI taking people hostage, 2001: A Space Odyssey references are a given.
  Fargo: SARAH's gone HAL on us!
  • At one point, Taggart comments, "For a moment I thought we were in trouble."
  • To WarGames.
  SARAH: Shall we play a game?
  Everyone: No!
• Shown Their Work: Downplayed. SARAH is powered by a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. Carter is distressed to learn lives with a "nuclear reactor," Stark corrects him to "generator," and the abbreviated explanation (tye oxygen is being removed) is accurate to the dangers of RTGs. It is not a "reactor," electricity is generated by the waste heat of the decay of radioactive isotopes, not through nuclear reactions, and it's perfectly safe. . . unless the shielding containing the isotopes is breached.
  Jack: Then, Chernobyl.
  Henry: No. Lethal, yes.
• Single-Issue Psychology: Defied and lampshaded by Beverly.
  Beverly: If a simple hug could resolve all of our issues, I'd be out of a job.
• That Came Out Wrong: Jo is irate when she finds Taggart's paintball battle plans that involve a sneak attack on her rear flank. Taggart's reply? "You'll know when I attack your rear flank!" Cue a very awkward silence.

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