Eureka, Season 5, Episode 10, “The Honeymooners”
Written by Eric Tuchman
Directed by Joe Morton
Airs Mondays at 9pm ET on SyFy
After the several-episode struggle to save Holly, she finally gets a chance to be a physical, living being again…with complications. This episode provides some of Felicia Day’s best work of the series as Holly, allowing Day to work with a range of emotions. Zane, Henry, Fargo, and a recently-returned Grace work together to construct a body identical to Holly’s in order to upload her virtually-trapped conscience into an actual living human being. After the upload, the recurring troublemaker in Eureka for the past several episodes pops up again, zeta waves. The zeta waves, leftover in the brains of those previously trapped in the Matrix, have been wreaking havoc week after week. The writers continue to keep the Matrix story arc relevant with these small references in order to keep viewers aware that there is more to come.
There are two other storylines going on throughout this episode, and the one indicated by the title “The Honeymooners” is the least important. The third storyline revolves around an old espionage investigation that is discovered in a previous sheriff’s secret safe. After a series of amusingly poor investigative events, it is revealed that Grace, Henry’s wife, is or was once a spy working for Beverly Barlowe. It is smart by the writers to stir the pot among the beloved main characters leading to some potentially shocking revelations before the series ends in three episodes. The real bomb comes later when Grace tells Henry he was also a spy before the timeline shift replaced the Henry this Grace has always known with the Henry the viewers have always known.
Special praise needs to be given to Joe Morton for “The Honeymooners.” He not only performs one of his more emotionally-driven episodes as Henry, he also directs it. The way Henry reacts in discovering his wife is a spy is almost chilling. He is clearly in shock and brilliantly doesn’t cry or show too much anger. All of his emotions are bottled within and it’s impressive and scary thinking he could blow at any moment, though of course that would be out of place for Henry. Morton has been a staple of Eureka since the beginning and though his character Henry has always played an integral role, he doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to take the spotlight.
This entire espionage plot is a clever continuation to the Beverly Barlowe story that has plagued the people of Eureka for a long time. It also successfully makes reference to the time shift that placed Jack, Allison, Henry, Jo, and Fargo into a new timeline that changed many things. Though there were some major differences, like Fargo replacing Allison as the head of GD and Allison’s son Kevin no longer being autistic, there was never much emphasis on how different the “old” selves that they replaced could have been. It was implied that they were probably similar, but now there’s some definitive proof that there were significant differences.
The final three episodes will hopefully delve into the espionage plot and “old” Henry’s connection with the Consortium. It will be interesting to see if his involvement led to any major events effecting Eureka. Maybe he helped with the technology that eventually captured the Astraeus crew. Maybe the higher-ups who oversee Eureka are actually corrupt and the Consortium is doing something good. Beverly and Senator Wen should make a final appearance hopefully bringing closure to the storyline. The quality of the episodes this season is continuing to improve with “The Honeymooners” as one of the best of the season. One thing can be sure; the creators of Eureka will end the series with a bang.
-Christopher Laplante