Well, Eureka’s mid-season finale was really very good. After a rocky season start with some eps that missed the mark, the last several have been solid. I do have a few nitpicks, but some good news first: Degree deodorant was not even mentioned in this episode.

We had an outside contractor (a Dr. Hendricks) arrive in town to help Eva Thorne seal off the underground military facility, using remotely-triggered canisters of some sort of super-strong polymer foam (“instantaneum”) that hardens instantly and of course is nearly impenetrable/indestructible. And we had Zoe waylaid by the same disease that killed those people whose bodies Thorne whisked out of the underground facility (the cause: that purple goo, called Element X and apparently a by-product of the atomic bomb testing that was done there).

It was great fun to watch Sheriff Carter, Allison Blake, and Henry Deacon working quickly and secretly to solve the mystery of the bunker bodies and the Element X-triggered rapid-aging illness. Plus Carter’s big run-in with Thorne was a charged moment (and made us feel so very smug) — he went over her head by calling General Mansfield, the tip-top brass. (Altho that move completely backfired for Carter at the end, in a nice twist.)

We also watched the re-ignition of the Jo Lupo-Zane Donovan romance, but not before they almost came to blows as they struggled to literally get away from each other (temporarily joined at the ankles by an exploded canister of instantaneum). I like to see Jo get more screen time; she is underused.

And what a ride for Eva Thorne. As we suspected, she was alive and grown up back in 1939 (she’s now 107 years old), and she was part of the experiment in the underground facility that went so horribly wrong. We learn that it was always Thorne’s plan to seal the facility off for good from prying eyes (and seal herself in to perish, to boot).

When she and Carter became trapped there, and not only their lives but the welfare of the entire town is threatened (as Element X seeps into the water supply), it’s a pivotal moment for Thorne, and she breaks. A compelling crisis in plot that triggered character change and growth for both Thorne and Carter, it was nicely done, and surely not only Carter but also the viewers came to feel sympathy for her position and her actions. So it’s a no-brainer that they would sneak her out of town at the end of the episode, rather than arrest her and turn her over to Mansfield.

Curveballs at the end: Allison is pregnant, and Carter is fired by Mansfield (“Eureka no longer requires your services”).

In addition to all those story points, the episode was just fun to watch, for these reasons: There was only one storyline (everything serviced Plot A), and the fast pacing matched the growing tension. Carter was rather punchy (anyone else notice?), adding humor and lightening the tone in a really nice way to keep it from feeling all too cataclysmic.

My quibbles? Allison is pregnant? How unimaginative, and lame. (Why is it that whenever a crisis in story is needed for a woman, she turns up pregnant? But OK, that’s a rant for another time.) Plus we already have a pregnant character on the show; why do we need another one? I can only hope that either (1) this will lead directly to the return of Nathan Stark (Henry: “If only I had some of Stark’s DNA, I think I could bring him back.” — of course, I’m sure they could have found his DNA in another manner by now), or (2) there will be some wildly clever storyline that requires two pregnant women to solve, and Lexi and Allison will save the day.

I think the tentative air date for the next episode is January (shooting for the back-half of the season was slated to start mid-September, so it will be a few months at least). Meantime, let’s take the break to ponder what storyline could possibly require two pregnant women to resolve, what other Eureka job Carter could actually do (none), and what the appropriate bounds of product placement really are.

Reviewer rating: 4 out of 5 S.A.R.A.H.s