Recap / Eureka The Story Of O 2

Space Week in Eureka.

Jo: Andy, can you go out to the launch site and check for crows? They may be acting drunk.
Andy: Drunk crows, I'm on it!

Carter visits Zoe at college. Meanwhile, there is a rocket race in Eureka.

Tropes

• Calling the Old Man Out: Zoe and Kevin each have a moment like this with Carter and Allison respectively. Zoe yells at Carter for just turning up without warning and ruining her aggression experiment while Kevin yells at Allison for nearly destroying the town by cheating on his behalf. Both have a reconciliation moment later: Zoe helps Carter catch the cat instead of going to a party and Allsion and Dr Grant help Kevin with his plan to disperse the O2 buildup.
• Cats Hate Water: The only way to de-camofluage the cat is to lure her into a shower cubicle, close the door and turn on the water. Poor Mildred is not amused.
  Carter: You wanted aggression.
  Zoe: [Nods]
  Carter: I think you're gonna get an A.
  Zoe: Ya think?
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Allison added something to Kevin's rocket fuel that causes the whole race to be called off and the rockets to be remotely detonated. Except Larry's because he removed the self-destruct to save weight. Larry still expects to win by default... until his rocket demolishes Jo's house.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The camofluage spray Pilar adds to Zoe's care package. It turns a cat invisible.
  • General Mansfield wants the town's EM dome recalibrated to hide the rocket race. The recalibration is apparently to the right frequency to send the O2 fluid into overdrive.
  • The O2 fluid Dr Kennedy shows the General. It's designed to create breathable atmosphere on Mars. Under Eureka's EM dome, it causes such an oxygen buildup that things that usually don't burn (like Andy) catch fire.
• Foreshadowing: Dr. Grant is the only person not cheering Kevin as his rocket is declared the leader, signalling that he knows Kevin's victory isn't honest.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: As the rockets head back to Earth, the lead rocket's flare is clearly a different colour to the others'.
• Important Haircut: Downplayed. Carter visits Zoe to check that she hasn't suddenly changed with the timeline, and is startled to see her hair is shorter and darker. However, this is a recent change and nothing to do with time travel.
• Inspector Javert: General Mansfield wants Zane arrested for crashing the hoverbike while apparently drunk, even after it's proved he wasn't drunk and the incident is part of a pattern.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Deputy Andy 2.0 reacts to being on fire.
  Andy: Huh. I appear to be conflagrating, weird. [Beat] Oh dear.
• Mundane Utility: Pilar's spray creates functional invisibility. She uses it for colour co-ordination.
• My Beloved Smother: Allison for Kevin. She's so desperate to connect with her son now that she can, she messes with his rocket's fuel and causes all the episode's problems.
  Kevin: I would rather lose than win like this! [Storming out] Cross out my name, put my mom's!
• Noodle Incident: Last year's rocket competition apparently caused a small problem when North Korea mistook it for a missile attack.
• The Nth Doctor: The robot Sheriff-later-Deputy Andy was played in his first two appearances by Ty Olsson. Here, he's replaced by Kavan Smith, better known as Evan Lorne in Stargate Atlantis. He changed his appearance. He likes the new cheekbones.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Zane acts drunk, although according to Jo he's "anti-anything that damages his brain." It turns out he's suffering from hypoxia (too much oxygen).
  • Zoe accuses Carter of acting "nostalgic" after he spends their lunch together going over their history together in obsessive detail. She has no trouble working out that something's happened.
  • Zane is weirded out that Jo is hearing him out and being fair.
• Red Herring: Dr Kennedy seems a little stoned when explaining the O2 fluid to the general, implying he's involved in some way with Zane crashing a flying motorbike while apparently drunk. Nope: Zane was hyperoxygenated, and Dr Kennedy is apparently just like that.
• Reveling in the New Form: Deputy Andy is first shown examining his new face in his car's wing mirror.
  Andy: I am really enjoying the higher cheekbones.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: Since the rockets' plumes will ignite the oxygen and destroy the town if they return before the situation is resolved, Fargo uses the self-destruct mechanism to destroy all the rockets before they return. But Larry's doesn't explode, because he left out the destruct mechanism to save mass, so one rocket can still blow up the town.
• Shout-Out:
  • The title obviously references The Story of O.
  • Larry's rocket is called Blue Steel.
  • Dr Kennedy assumes the O2 fluid was taken by "Those meddling kids."
• Spotting the Thread:
  • Deputy Andy notices one of the rocket plinths is rusted, which it wasn't before the launch. Unfortunately, he doesn't make the connection between rust and oxygen before trying to call Jo...
  • Dr Grant realises the plume from Kevin's rocket is the wrong colour and does some sleuthing, which reveals that Kevin's fuel was not within allowed parameters for the competition, and apologetically tells Allison Kevin is cheating. In fact, it was Allison.