I have noted before and often that I am not a fan of time travel. But if it has to be done, then this is the way I like it, and is the only way that makes sense to me: that when incidents in the past are changed, it alters the original timeline. The time travel stories I hate are the ones that involve paradoxes of any kind. I prefer Back to the Future II’s temporal theory to that offered by Bill and Ted (and don’t even get me started on the morass if inconsistency that is The Terminator chronology). None of this “I guess I did steal my Dad’s keys” or somehow being the cause of your own conception. I like pure, straightforward, someone steps on a butterfly and now dinosaurs still rule the Earth. It gives me way less of a headache.

Which is why I’m gonna roll with this Mirror Universe Eureka quite happily, ‘cause for all that time travel annoys the hell out of me, at least they’re doing it right. Of course, Eureka has done the alternate timeline thing before, when Henry, distraught over the loss of brilliant scientist and love of his life, Kim, changed the course of human events in order to bring her back from the dead and then almost caused the fabric of the universe to unravel entirely.

So… ah, are we worried about that, here, at all? Apparently, not too much. So, okay.

We open right at the end of the previous episode, when Carter comes home to find Tess -- the brilliant scientist who went to Australia at the end of Season 3, and more recently dumped him -- happily ensconced in his house, the two of them clearly still a couple. This is particularly irksome for him, as it was just seeming as though he finally had a proper shot with his true love, the brilliant scientist Alison Blake, who happens to be one of Tess’s best friends. Awkward.

In other awkwardness, Deputy Jo’s near-fiance, the brilliant scientist Zane, all but hates her in this reality; brilliant scientist Fargo’s girlfriend has never even met him, and brilliant scientist Henry is married to a woman he barely had an acquaintance with before. (Oh, and I just figured out how I know this woman: she’s Tembi Locke! She was Grace in the final season of Sliders! I hated the final season of Sliders! Not her fault. Just giving you my thought process.)

But on a brighter, upwardly mobile career-y note, Jo is head of Global Dynamics security (having been replaced as Deputy by the genial, jovial artificial entity that is Andy, who once replaced Carter as Sherriff last season and is a welcome addition to the recurring cast), Fargo is head of Global Dynamics itself (watch out, world!), and Alison is merely head of the medical department.

On the plus side for Alison, her son Kevin, the root cause of all of this wackiness -- as he fiddled with the “bridge device” built by Einstein and made the travel back to 1947 possible – is now a typical teenage boy who is utterly bewildered by his mother’s sudden fascination with his every word and deed (remember, he’d been autistic the whole time she’d known him; hearing him say “love ya” or even look her in the eye is something of a revelation). Also, the follow-on cause of a lot of the changes, the 1947 hitch-hiker Dr. Trevor Grant, proves himself to be less of the helpless victim of circumstance and more a conniving, calculating master of everyone else’s destiny, with a serious case of the hots for Alison.

Jack doesn’t like him.

But having dealt with all the differences in this “new world”, let’s deal with how, as Henry and Carter put it, “The more things change…” “… the more they stay the same.”

Tess is excited, because she is field testing a dearly beloved project, “Tiny”. Tiny, of course, is not so tiny, but a huge mechanoid spider-like thing which is pretty much the coolest looking experiment to ever go awry in this town of awry-going experimentation. And why does she go awry? Why else? Fargo -- but not the Fargo we know, the alternate timeline, pretty much kind of an asshole Fargo -- was conducting a secret experiment in generating clean electricity and/or advanced weaponry, and the upshot of this is a) Tiny went haywire, b) the bridge device dies a sad and unrecoverable death and c) Dr. Trevor Grant risks his life alongside Jack to save the town, and thus becomes a more fully integrated, not-so-much-to-be-hated denizen of this rebooted Eureka.

We end with three certainties. The alternate timeline is here to stay, the six affected parties -- Carter, Alison, Jo, Fargo, Henry and Grant -- have to keep their adventure a secret (to avoid being “isolated and sanctioned” by the military), and Jack and Tess are moving in together.

Hmmm. Look forward to seeing where you go with all this, Eureka! It really is quite ingenious. But really no less than I’d expect from America’s smartest little town.

The Checklist

Jack/Alison angst:	Yep. Alison is none too happy to hear that Tess is still in town, and Carter isn’t quite sure what to make of their forthcoming co-habitation.
Jo kicks ass:	Career-wise, yeah. “You’re head of security for this whole place? I’m so proud of you,” Carter gushes paternally.
Fargo causes mischief:	Yep. “I made positronic lightning, baby!”
Or a Global Dynamics experiment runs amok:	Check.
And/or a newly-implemented technology malfunctions:	Check.
Henry comes up with a solution:	Check.
Carter saves the day:	Check, though Deputy Andy and Trevor Grant are in on it, too.
Damage to the Sherriff's car:	Check. The door is blown off by a maddened Tiny.

  -- Rachel Hyland

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