Eureka: Bad to the Drone (Episode 301)

Eureka - Carter 

Welcome back to Eureka, the smartest little town in America.  What could possibly go wrong?  Well, everything.  We resume season three without a clear indication as to how much time has passed since the season two finale.  We’ll get some clues, but no straight answer, so let’s cut right to what’s happening. 

Café Diem is the place to be.  Sheriff Carter and his daughter Zoe are on their way to the local eatery when Carter expresses concern over Zoe taking a waitress job.  Sure, things go wrong over town, but Carter is afraid of Vincent’s “nuclear oven”.  Of course his oven isn’t nuclear, Jack…it’s fusion powered.  Oh, much safer.  Zoe asks if he’ll be making his weekly visit to see Henry.  Henry is still in prison for taking Global Dynamics hostage last season, plus a laundry list of other misappropriations.  His hearing is coming up very soon, but are they really going to convict him?  Inside the café, Deputy Jo Lupo and punk-rock hacker Zane are still hot and heavy.  They talk about today’s demonstration of the “Viper”, the first of many “Battlestar Galactica” references this week.  Keeping the name recognition in-house, huh SciFi?

Nathan and Allison are also at the café, and it turns out Allison is dragging her feet.  Still no answer to Nathan’s season finale remarriage proposal.  She’s more concerned about the representative the Department of Defense is sending – a “Wall Street legend” nicknamed “The Fixer”, Dr. Eva Thorne.  A quick stop is made to the Viper testing area and we are introduced to Dr. Ethan Edison and his robotic drone, “Martha”.  Dr. Edison’s drones will be used in today’s test. 

Thorne shows up at G.D. to meet the team, Larry the ever-present suck-up included.  She’s there to streamline both G.D. and Eureka – if the bottom line is costing the U.S. government too much, she’s going to have to make some changes. 

At the weapons testing facility, the stage is set.  The Viper is an anti-missile defense system, but much more effective than the Cold War-era “Star Wars” ever could be.  Capable of taking down up to a dozen targets, Dr. Edison’s drones will be the lambs brought to slaughter.  Zane is introduced to Thorne via video monitor, and she recognizes him as the man who crashed the NY Stock Exchange.  “Allegedly”, says Zane.  That’s why Jo loves him!  The test begins and the Viper takes down 11 of the 12 drones.  All that’s left is Martha.  Martha is ducking and weaving, and even manages to take a few hits, but doesn’t go down.  What’s she do instead?  Well like all good out-of-control killer drones do, she turns on the Viper.  Edison goes to activate her failsafe – uh-oh!  It isn’t responding.  Just another day in Eureka. 

Carter goes to see Henry in jail, who, by the way, has shaved his head!  They play chess and have generic “best offense is a good defense” banter.  Henry has fired his lawyer and plans to represent himself in court.  Frankly, he doesn’t expect to win, but accepts everything wrong that he has done, and is willing to face the consequences.  Unfortunately, that’s all we get to see of Henry for the week.  He puts Carter in checkmate without even looking at the board. 

Carter heads to Henry’s old garage where the D.O.D. is looting the place.  Everything needs to be confiscated for the trial.  Jo tells Carter about Nathan and Allison (courtesy of Vincent’s snooping), and naturally he’s stunned.  He offers a rather fake “good for her.”  Poor Jack.  Just then, there is a whole lot of noise outside.  Carter reaches for his phone before it even rings – he knows when there’s trouble afoot. 

Carter goes to G.D. and meets Thorne. Suck-up Larry, or SUL, is so eager to prove himself to Thorne that he’s even taken to carrying a copy of Thorne’s book around with him.  To quote Fargo, “I really hate him.”  All things aside, there’s a killer drone on the loose.  Dr. Edison might be trying to protect Martha, so Nathan tells Carter to “sheriff him up.”  Good idea.  Carter and Allison have quick chat regarding marriage and yeah, it’s awkward.  In the lab, Zane blames Edison for the whole mess, and that his drones were supposed to be just “fancy clay pigeons.”  Too bad they’re more than that – they’re advanced learning computers, much like The Terminator.  The worst thing to do is to make it…er…”her” feel threatened.  The good news is that the electromagnetic field put in place around Eureka should keep her within city limits. 

Back at Café Diem, we finally get to see how Vincent is able to cook anything and everything – he’s got a walk-in refrigerator the size of a Best Buy.  There’s even a shuttle!  Zoe is overwhelmed, and much like Red Ridding Hood, she’s sent with her basket into the forest.  Sure is chilly. 

Carter is on the phone with Jo as they each drive to the center of town.  Aside from the crazy mini-plane on the loose, Carter’s worried about Zoe.  The cops meet up in town, only to see that Martha has been stalking the sheriff.  Jo makes the mistake of pulling a big, Men In Black sized gun, and Martha retaliates by blowing out the windows to Carter’s SUV.  The cops head into their office and Martha follows.  Now that Martha is “trapped”, she decides to turn invisible.  So let’s add up the tally – she only attacks when provoked and can turn invisible.  Martha is a Predator!  Carter uses his super hearing to locate the drone, and he and Jo throw a blanket over it.  Carter jumps on top and gets taken for a ride.  This is about as effective as Dr. Venkman’s “Go get her, Ray!” from the first Ghostbusters.  Carter rides Martha into the cell and locks her in.  Mission accomplished.  That is, until the KILLER ROBOT blows a hole in the side of the building and escapes.  “That ought to do it, thanks Ray!”

Nathan Stark isn’t happy, but really, when is he ever.  Thorne isn’t happy either, but her negativity is pointed directly at Carter.  Turns out that it’s cost the down an arm and a leg ever since his appointment as sheriff.  Plus, she thinks that there’s too much of an issue with him, Nathan, and Allison.  Man, she hit the nail on the head with that one.  However, she does like Nathan’s take-charge attitude.  

Off to the Edison homestead.  Turns out Ethan married his lab assistant Mina, who is at the door popping open a bottle of champagne.  Too bad it’s the cops.  Ethan arrives shortly thereafter.  He takes the cops to the barn where he’s got a lot of missiles. Martha’s becoming smarter by the minute. We find out that Martha wasn’t programmed with the ability to cloak, but past models could – it just uses too much power to do so..  The photon charge from the Viper must have supercharged her, but she would need to come home to recharge.  Good thing Martha is actually there, hiding out, and she’s able to hear all of this.  And it’s a good thing that Nathan arrives with the cavalry.  G.D. teams bring snatch up all of Edison’s gear.  Turns out the Fixer thinks Martha is a threat, so Edison’s going to be out of a job.  Zane’s on the horn and says that the Viper photon wouldn’t supercharge Martha’s hardware, and that she still needs power.  Fusion power, in fact.  Good thing Carter paid attention when talking with Zoe this morning. 

Zoe is lost in the fridge, until she spots Martha.  Martha is attempting to recharge off of the fusion reactor.  However, Zoe mistakes it for the shuttle the Vincent spoke of earlier.  She offers Martha some assistance in recharging and hops a ride to the store.  My favorite line of the night was when Zoe referred to Martha as the “Cylon shuttle-thing.”  Brilliant.  Martha’s invisible in the café, so Carter tries to use mustard to tag her.  No luck.  Vincent is a mess.  Thorne and SUL enter and Martha spots them – now knowing that Thorne wants to shut down Edison’s department, she is now a threat!  Martha appears and goes to zap the crap out of Thorne, only to have SUL jump in front of the blast – ouch, right in the book clutched to your chest, Larry!  Now that they can see Martha, Carter and Jo use what can only be described as Ghostbuster proton packs to bring Martha down.  But so’s Larry. 

EMT’s take SUL away – he’s unconscious but alive.  Zoe and Carter have more trust-issue chat and he sends her home.  Upon inspection of Martha, a remote transmitter is found.  Let’s go see Edison.  Carter immediately figures out that Mina was helpful in the operation – her husband is “only allowed to fail” – his drones are meant to be shot down.  So she upgraded the system.  She was just so happy that he could build one that couldn’t be taken down.  However, it’s not her remote transmitter.  She finds it odd though that Martha considered Thorne a threat and didn’t finish the job – Martha doesn’t miss. 

Returning to Café Diem, Vincent is pissed at Carter – there’s mustard everywhere and since sending his waitress home, there’s no one to clean it up.  Jo finds SUL’s zapped book in the garbage, but strangely, it’s melted, and paper doesn’t melt.  Turns out the book isn’t a book at all, but filled with lots of circuitry.  At G.D. Thorne asks Zane to take apart Martha because he is “the best.”  But little does he know, Martha lives – the close up of her Cylon eye glowing proves it!  Larry is a little worse for wear, but good enough to answer some questions.  He wasn’t controlling Martha “all of the time”, but it was part of some screwy plan to showcase his radio frequency skills in front of the Fixer and not get axed.  Naturally, it backfired.  Suddenly, alarms!  Martha’s gone and there’s a big old hole in the ceiling.  Outside of G.D. we see not one but a dozen drones fly out.  Uh oh. 

So Martha’s dozen are making like Tom Cruise in “Top Gun” all over town.  They’re totally autonomous, so there’s no way to recall them.  She must have played possum to get into G.D. and reunite with her fallen drone brethren.  The town goes into full lockdown.  Zoe is home with S.A.R.A.H. and resents being sent home by her dad, but then S.A.R.A.H. shuts down, and the front door ominously opens by itself!  Meanwhile, it appears that the drones are taking out power beacons, or more specifically, the 26 power beacons that control Eureka’s EM field.  These girls want to go out!  Four of the beacons have been hit so far.  Carter calls Zoe and tells her it’s like “War of the Worlds out here.”  Zoe, however, is getting more of a “Jurassic Park” vibe when she turns around and comes face-to-face with Martha!  Carter rushes home but Martha’s gone.  Turns out she was protecting Zoe from Carter!  Them girls gotta stick together!

Only 12 power beacons left.  Nathan wants to increase the power, but Carter sees that Martha is just throwing a temper tantrum like a teenager.  Citing his visit to Henry’s, the best offense is no defense.  Ok, so he fudged the quote but it was still apt.  He thinks that by allowing Martha freedom, she’ll eventually come back home.  Thorne says there’s no way in hell that they should shut down the EM field.  She calls the D.O.D. and has them prepare jets to intercept.  D.O.D. agrees and scrambles a fleet.  However, for once, Nathan agrees with Carter!  He tells Fargo that Thorne thinks they’re all incompetent, so why not play the part?  Fargo “accidentally” presses the wrong button and the EM field comes down.  Nathan hijacks the communication channel and tells the fighters only to fire if fired upon.  Remember, Martha doesn’t like to be threatened.  Edison gets on the line and starts to talk to her like she was his daughter.  Yeah, because teenage girls always listen to their dad. 

Zoe, having bonded with Martha, talks instead, and they have a heart-to-heart.  She says that she’s not really mad, and should just “take a lap, let off some steam.”  Edison adds “Please don’t start World War III.”  Good advice, dad.  Martha listens and comes home. 

Thorne is pissed!  Despite winning the day, she feels that the lunatics are running the asylum, but Carter defends the so-called lunatics.  As D.O.D.’s representative, Thorne makes Nathan Director of Research and shifts Allison’s position to Director of Operations.  Wonderful, co-heads of Global Dynamics.  But Thorne is still their boss.  She’s going to take over, starting with what looks like some sort of sponsorship deal – large crates are moved, but it’s hard to tell if things are coming in or going out.  Carter and Allison share some quick banter, and he says that no matter what (regarding Nathan), he’s there for her.  “Really?”  “Yeah.  No, not really.”  Very cute. 

Café Diem once again.  Guess what?  Allison says yes to Nathan!  Perhaps now we’ll get to see Vincent work his magic on a wedding cake.  Zoe’s back at work and Carter goes to pick her up.  “Sorry I’m late” he says, but she points him in the direction of the newly-engaged and says “Yeah, I’m afraid you are.”  Aww!  Poor Jack. 

We close on an incredibly mysterious scene.  Thorne is sitting in her new office, alone, when she produces a thin metal box, about the size of a checkbook, and from it removes a vial containing some sort of purple liquid.  What the hell is that?  As far as I can tell, there is nothing from past events that will give even the slightest clue as to what that is, so it looks like we’ve got ourselves a mystery, folks!  That’s all for this week, see you back in town next week!