Eureka "Mirror, Mirror" Review

Ever wonder what a random blogger thinks about your favorite show? Well, wonder no more. During the slow summer months, I'll tune into random shows and write about them. This continues with tonight's episode of Eureka, a show on Syfy that I know at least one person watches and understands. 

Admittedly, the 11th episode of Eureka's final season on television is not the best time to drop-in. I didn't know what the hell was going on. I wasn't completely lost in the woods, though. I mean, I understood something called smartdust turned the town of Eureka into an invisible ball. I understood the stakes of the situation. I learned about an espionage plot that tugs at the heart strings of Eureka's principal characters. The character Fargo, who I've seen in previews during my Smackdown and Lost Girl viewings, annoyed me as much as I thought he would. A third of the way through the episode, I learned about another timeline existing along with alternate versions of the characters I've been watching. I then ate ice cream and drank milk, uninterested in trying to connect the dots.

I've known about Eureka vaguely. For instance, I listened to Amy Berg talk about the show on the Nerdist Writers Panel podcast. I didn't absorb any of her stories about the show. I know she's proud of the work she accomplished on the show. I seem to confuse Eureka and Caprica for no reason whatsoever. I had to remind myself that Jane Espenson ran Caprica and not Eureka. If I forgot, I'd be devoting two paragraphs about Jane Espenson-as-showrunner. Eureka is, of course, separate from the Battlestar Galatica universe. I wouldn't even make insightful points about Caprica, because I never watched the Battlestar prequel or spinoff or sequel or whatever it is. I watched ANGEL with a friend for three months or so. During these viewings, I tried to figure out what other genre shows she secretly watched, so I rattled off a bunch of shows. She admitted to following Eureka, but I didn't follow up with any questions about the show. Actually, 'vaguely' is a terrible word to use to describe my knowledge of the show. I know what those irritating previews showed.

I'd like to commend the post-production unit on the musical cues in the episode. The musical cues were hands that guided me through scenes, contextualized relationships, and showed me what this scene means to the characters involved. Musical cues aren't discussed often in the new-wave of weekly episodic reviews. TV critics and bloggers like to describe their reviews as deconstruction even though the use of the word deconstruction is wrong. The collective internet reviewers talk about what works, what doesn't, what one's supposed to feel, what one isn't supposed to feel, what the themes are, what tropes are used, and what they feel about the episode being reviewed. Music is written about, though. Mad Men's use of The Beatles excited the corner of the internet devoted to Mad Men. Actual songs are written about more than little musical cues, but musical cues are part of the fabric of an episode.

Joss Whedon deliberately kept music out of "The Body." Whedon thought music was too easy for the viewer. He wanted them to actually feel instead of being manipulated into feeling by sad chords. The TV business, like all of Hollywood, thinks the audience is full of morons who can't understand the beats of story. Eureka's musical cues aren't amazing. It's not as if Michael Giaccino is scoring the episode; there isn't even a score. The use of music didn't evoke any feelings from me. The heartrending scene between Henry and Grace must've been meaningful for long time fans of the series, but I spent the scene half-listening and half-thinking about what kind of line Jarrod Parker will have tonight in Oakland. I understood scenes through the music, though. The exposition bored me, but not the music, because I understand music.

"Mirror, Mirror" began with a light scene featuring a crazy older male who was irked by an astronomer doing work during the night. I knew the scene was light and inconsequential because of the merry notes moving through the scene which essentially communicated to the audience that the scene was light and inconsequential. Two characters had a chat and one sensed it had warmth and affection because of the music. I thought, "This scene has warmth and affection; these characters care a great deal for one another." The aforementioned Henry watched a film clip of himself. He looked away as his other self talked about something. I gathered that the scene was foreboding and ominous, serious and consequential, because of the musical tones. Later, the Sheriff walked through a darkened lab as ominous notes played to add to the sense of danger and tension. The rest of the episode built to this moment of tension; the smartdust was playing with the minds of the residents, the other timeline was bleeding into the current timeline or something, and the alternate characters showed up with devious smiles plastered on their faces like creepy toy dolls.

I don't have any specific thoughts about the show beyond the music. The series is nearly over. The threat to the town of Eureka was nice set-up for the final two episodes. The return of Felicia Day (it was a return, right?) was fine, though she's the least threatening evil girl. I enjoyed Erica Cerra's performance as Jo Lupo. I'm respectful of any genre show on TV, because genre shows are simply more interesting than endless
amount of procedurals and bland sitcoms.

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