My most happy, shiny, most favorite show has ended. The final season of Eureka began awesome enough. Part of the crew was going to space. It was an exciting set up that led to a disappointing thread for the whole season. Instead of being in space, part of the crew was in a simulation of Eureka while the other half of Eureka thought the crew was on a mission. In the simulation, something went wrong with the trip, they returned to Earth and 5 years had passed. Allison came back to learn that Jo was in a romantic relationship with Jack, Andy the Android deputy had turned dark and Eureka was under martial law. Grace, the wife that Henry never wanted in the first place, revealed that she was working with evil Beverly and took part in the simulation. Even worse, it was all Henry’s idea.
I was extremely disappointed Ed Quinn didn’t make a surprise return. I was never a fan of the Zane/ Jo Lupo relationship. I just never *got* Zane. I loved the Fargo/Holly relationship. I even loved it when her consciousness was put into an artificial body. Wil Wheaton was awesomely awful in the best way possible. I really hope he gets a permanent gig somewhere. What I did not love was the heartache involved with Allison and Jack. We’ve spent 3 years seeing her go through hell and back including losing Nathan Stark. I would have enjoyed seeing them wrap up the final season happy the whole time. Now I can’t look at Jo Lupo without feeling little sour grapes. She was my one of my favorite characters prior to this season. One of the best moments this season was Dr. Trevor Grant swooping in at the last minute and saving Global Dynamics from shutting down thus keeping Eureka from becoming a ghost town. The biggest payoff was Henry Deacon becoming the director of Global Dynamics.
No, the final season wasn’t my favorite but Eureka is one of my all-time favorite shows. Everyone did an excellent job on the show and they should be proud of the entire run. Thank you all for giving us a show that made me love, laugh, cry, and smile.
Eureka aired its final season on Syfy.
I agree with you about season 5 being weak…
(1) It would have been so much cooler if half their cast had actually spent several episodes in space. There are currently no space-based sci-fi shows on TV for the first time in decades, and Eureka could have at least temporarily filled that void.
(2) I agree with you that once Jack and Allison were together, they didn’t need to throw another obstacle in their way.
(3) The fake future timeline story went on a little too long. Even after the immediate problem was solved, the after-effects (Jack, Jo, and Allison all being awkward around each other; Holly being disembodied) lingered too long.
(4) I didn’t like the disembodied Holly storyline. As much as I didn’t want Holly to be dead, I still would have preferred she stayed dead.
(5) What was Jack thinking with his honeymoon in the shack in the woods idea?!? I know he’s a guy, he meant well, and was trying to be romantic. But, even Jack is not that naive, and even as a guy, I don’t see why Allison was *that* patient with the idea. If it had been a log cabin with working electricity & plumbing, that would have been okay, but it was a *shack* with visible gaps between the wall planks.
(6) The twist with Grace was a bit weird.
*However*… Despite how much I was disappointed with the rest of the season, Eureka’s series finale should be a model for how series finales should be done. I believe that a series finale doesn’t need huge battles, new twists, revelations, last-minute mysteries, artsy-fartsy endings, or ambiguous cliff-hangers that have to be resolved in our own imagination. All that should be done before. All a series finale has to do…is say goodbye. It should feel like a welcome back party, a family reunion, a going-away party, or everything all at once. Eureka did that.
Its series finales had people coming and going, characters’ relationships and family situations going to the next level, everybody having reason to be happy, one character returning, characters reminiscing, characters having a party, and a really nice callback to the pilot episode which bookended the entire series. Everything a series finale should do, Eureka did it. Considering the lackluster season up to the point, I was pleasantly surprised. I still have the episode saved on my DVR because I’ve been meaning to watch it again. I hope to watch Eureka’s two season 4 Christmas episodes in the next couple days too.
Well said Todd, well said! In my overall ambivalence towards season 5 I forgot how satisfying the season finale was. I totally forgot about the Jack/Chloe book end. It was expertly done.
lol @ artsy fartsy
Oh, and I forgot to make the point that they wrote & produced that finale in a small fraction of the time they usually have to prepare episodes. They had to ask (possibly beg) the network for one more episode to wrap things up, and they got it but with hardly any time to pull it off. For a rush job, that just makes it that much more impressive.
I never heard about the finale’s rush job but now that you say it, it is impressive indeed.