The Hubby and I have been watching Eureka – I know, I know, late to the party – an episode or two most nights of the week, enjoying the adventures of Jack Carter, Jo Lupo, and the rest of the residents of Eureka.
We just watched two episodes (4×17 and 4×18, “Clash of the Titans” and “This One Time at Space Camp,” respectively) that brought to mind how resolutions need to be satisfying throughout a story , not just at the climax and ending.
Spoilery discussion ahead – but, really, the show’s been off the air for ten years. Still, you have been warned.
(What’s the statute of limitations on spoilers, anyway? I mean, I get that something will be somebody’s first time, sometime or other – but after a certain point, it becomes ridiculous to expect others NOT to talk about something they enjoyed. But I digress.)
In “Clash of the Titans,” an investigator from the DOD comes to, well, investigate Jack and Allison’s relationship. Leaving aside the absurdity of that, and leaving aside that Jack and Allison worked well together to contain/solve the crisis of the week, said investigator disapproved of the relationship, saying that Jack and Allison would have to either give up their relationship or give up their positions in Eureka. (Which is dumb; only one of them should have to give up their position in that situation. I digress again.)
At the beginning of “This One Time at Space Camp
,” Jack and Allison have appealed the decision and a supervisor will be coming to evaluate their relationship – who turns out to be the original investigator (delightfully, gleefully, portrayed by the excellent Wallace Shawn). Jack rightly calls out the conflict of interest, and it’s hand-waved away, and Jack and Allison will be sharing their memories of their relationship via the gadget of the week.
Watching this, I thought, okay – the investigator didn’t think one example was sufficient to authorize the relationship, but surely four years of examples would be. I figured that would the be B-plot of the episode, and everything would wrap up neatly with the investigator saying, “I stand by the decision I made before based on my observations then. Now, however, I realize that I only saw part of your relationship. Approved.”
Instead, the gadget of the week malfunctioned, and the investigator began to believe he was actually Jack and was living out some of Jack’s memories. Eventually, that crisis is resolved, and the investigator blesses Jack and Allison’s relationship, thanks at least in part to a holdover of affection for Jack and Allison that was a result of the gadget malfunction. He departed Eureka, and Jack and Allison are free to continue their relationship.
Only…I as a viewer wasn’t satisfied by this resolution – because Jack and Allison didn’t actually earn the blessing. The investigator didn’t say anything to acknowledge how well they’d worked together for those four years, or how their affection for each other hadn’t gotten in the way then, so it shouldn’t get in the way now. In fact, the investigator’s short-term memory (including the memories he saw of Jack and Allison) was suppressed, so no such acknowledgement was possible.
As a viewer, this not-resolution left me frustrated – and it’s not the first time Eureka has left a storyline feeling incomplete. Thankfully, the show is otherwise good enough that I’m still watching (as opposed to doing whatever the streaming equivalent of throwing a book at the wall is), but in a way the show’s overall quality makes the lack of satisfying resolutions throughout even more irritating. Clearly, the showrunners know how to write good stories, so why have they let these few fall by the wayside?
What I’m saying is, let your characters earn their victories, however small. On very, very rare occasion, a victory may come through other means (a modern deus ex machina), but those occasions should not be the final resolution of the story and, ideally, should be a springboard to more complications or troubles.
