| Alienated | |
|---|---|
| |
| Air date | August 8, 2006 |
| Written by | Harry Victor and Dan E. Fesman (teleplay) & Varina Bleil and Betsy Landis (story) |
| Directed by | Marita Grabiak |
| Episode guide | |
| Preceded by "Before I Forget" |
Followed by "Invincible" |
| Cast | Transcript | |
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| Season 1 | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |
| Season 2 | ||||||
"Alienated" is the fourth episode of the first season of Eureka.
Synopsis[]
Spencer is apparently abducted by aliens and then returned to Earth the next day inside a crop circle. Also, the town is visited by the congressman whose committee is responsible for its government funding.
Plot[]
Spencer (Shayn Solberg) is having "movie night" in his trailer with Fargo, Taggart, and Vincent as guests. The sound is so loud from his home cinema equipment that Deputy Jo Lupo is sent to quiet them down. Jo becomes engrossed in the movie about aliens invading Earth and stays to watch it to the end. After everyone has left, Spencer is apparently abducted by aliens and then returned to Earth the next day inside a crop circle. Meanwhile, Congressman Arnold Faraday (Garwin Sanford), whose committee is responsible for Eureka's government funding, visits the town. When Stark introduces their latest project, it proves less than successful, and the congressman hints that the funding may not be approved unless he sees something more convincing, say, in Section 5. So, Stark grants him access.
In the meantime, Dr. Fargo also turns up missing, and as Carter sets out to investigate, he is left unconscious in his office. The congressman, on his way back to Washington, is captured by those who suspect he is an alien out to invade the world and held captive inside Taggart's house. Henry finds Carter, and the two try to rescue the abducted Faraday from the odd mob. Through some investigation, Carter finds out that Jo and the others were hit by a Eureka-made weapon that makes its targets paranoid. The signal inducing paranoia using infrasonics was supposed to be transmitted on a restricted Global Dynamics satellite, which Spencer hacked so he could secretly steal access to the movie without being traced. Consequently, the humans watching the movie, instead of the intended test subjects, the lab chimps, inadvertently received the infrasonic signal. With their heightened paranoia, Jo and the rest of the mob linked together a series of coincidences and concluded that it was an alien invasion.
Stark and a rapid-response team have already arrived, and are preparing to move in, when Carter informs them that everyone in the building is armed, and if they are provoked, the situation may "go Waco." Carter manages to convince Stark to let him reason with the armed mob. After a heated standoff, Carter manages to persuade Jo and the mob to surrender and accept treatment for their heightened paranoia. The congressman is rather disturbed by the day's events, but is convinced that whatever he saw in Section 5 was worth funding.
Memorable Quotes[]
- Jo: Well...It's a crop...and there's a circle in it.
[The group's watching a very loud movie.]
- Jo: (screaming) What's wrong with you people?! Turn it down!
- Spencer: What? Why?
- Jo: Your neighbors are complaining about the noise.
- Spencer: Which neighbors?
- Jo: The state of Idaho! Turn. It. Down.
- Taggart: Vinnie, get Jo a beer.
- Jo: I'm on duty.
- Taggart: I can respect that. Like it to go?
- Spencer: Wow. I mean, that is like...
- Fargo: Unbelievable. Yet... believable.
- Vincent: Definitely.
- Taggart: Like being there.
- Jo: Oh man, I've gotta go. Hey, you guys keep it down, okay?
- Taggart: We'll walk you out. You know, in case of alien invasion. Strength in numbers.
- Jo: Right.
- Carter: Henry, You don't believe in aliens, do you?
- Henry: No, I believe in Occam's Razor. It's the basis for methodological reductionism.
- Carter: ... Oh, Yeah. So... still dizzy...
- Henry: Okay, so, given two equally predictive theories, you choose the one that has fewer assumptions. So, a tree falls after a storm. The first hypothesis holds that the tree was blown over by the storm. The second - rival hypothesis - claims that the storm forced an alien spaceship to crash into the tree. See?
- Carter: Y-no.
- Carter: Okay, who gave Fargo a gun?
- Allison: So everybody's okay?
- Carter: Oh no... they're freaking bug nuts! (to soldier) Restraints now!