Cast: · Colin Ferguson · Salli Richardson-Whitfield · Joe Morton · Erica Cerra · Neil Grayston · Niall Matter Grade: A

Tweet

Just when I'm getting used to one alternate reality, Eureka opens with what seems to be yet another one, as we see Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) buttoning up his tuxedo and fiddling with his tie, when Henry (Joe Morton) comes in to tell him the bride is getting cold feet. Jack immediately goes in to talk with Allison (Salli Richardson-Whitfield). Did I miss something? Did I fall through a wormhole into the future, or an alternate Eureka?

To say more about that would be telling too much. And it's not even the main plot of the episode (although it's an important part of the resolution).

The meat of this episode involves the interactions between Fargo (Neil Grayston) and Zane (Niall Matter), who -- through miscommunication -- find themselves launched into space in a Cold War era Mercury space capsule. The capsule was being prepared for a later launch to test a device Fargo and Henry had created and, since it was meant to be unmanned, there are no functioning systems for communications, navigation -- or life support. With no way to communicate that they're aboard the capsule, Allison has no choice but to initiate the usual protocols for an unscheduled launch -- firing interceptor missiles to shoot it out of the sky. Because, wouldn't you know it, the capsule is on a collision course for the International Space Station.

Of course, we're pretty sure that Fargo and Zane are going to be saved somehow, someway. But that rescue is made all the more difficult when events related to the reason for their accidental launch take the residents of Eureka back to the technology of Little House on the Prairie. As Jack, Henry, Allison and Jo (Erica Cerra) scramble to save their friends, Fargo and Zane are forced to spend some cramped, quality time together playing "Apollo 13" -- a situation which finds their roles reversed, as Fargo is the calm and competent contrasted to Zane's fatalistic pessimism. And in the dark of space, staring down death... certain secrets are brought to light.

Someone's about to have a "Eureka" moment of their own.

Eureka, "Liftoff," debuts Monday, July 11, 8PM ET/PT on Syfy.