Once in a Lifetime (Eureka episode)

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Eureka episode
“Once in a Lifetime”
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 12
Guest star(s)	Tamlyn Tomita (Kim Anderson), J.R. Messado (Kevin Blake), Keith Wilson (Baker Twin #2), Bryan Wilson (Baker Twin #1), Moeko Ezawa (Walter Perkins), Christopher Gauthier (Vincent), Neil Grayston (Douglas Fargo)
Writer(s)	Jaime Paglia, Andrew Cosby
Director	Michael Lange
Production no.	112
Original airdate	October 3, 2006
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"H.O.U.S.E. Rules"	–

"Once in a Lifetime" is the twelfth and final episode of Season 1 of the American science fiction television series Eureka.

[edit] Plot synopsis

Stark is given the opportunity to investigate "the Artifact." After it is tested, time is warped to 2010 and the town is a very different place.

Jack Carter is married to Allison Blake, who changed her name to Carter and is pregnant with Jack's child. Zoe Carter is about to graduate as valedictorian of her class. Nathan Stark left Eureka after being fired from Global Dynamics for the improper handling of the Artifact with Henry taking his place as head scientist. Henry is also in a relationship with Kim Anderson, the scientist who was working with Stark on the Artifact. Also, Jo and Taggart's relationship that started in H.O.U.S.E. Rules is still strong.

Shortly after Zoe's graduation speech, something strange happens in Section 5. Carter, Jo, and several Section 5 personnel are sent to investigate. They find a charred and distorted body that wasn't there before. Allison suggests using Kim's DNA-reconstruction program to "unscramble" the body's DNA, as there are no other possible means of identification. While Kim is working, strange(r) events happen all over town, including earthquake-like tremors, flashes of light and time "hiccups". Carter figures out that these things are somehow brought from the past when his sheriff's Jeep shows up in the middle of the street with a 2007 sticker on it and his lucky charm in it (the same lucky charm as in his pocket). They begin to suspect Walter Perkins, the only scientist in Eureka who ever experimented with the space-time continuum (Pilot). However, Walter is under permanent house arrest and is prohibited from owning or using any complex device (he had to petition just to get an Xbox 360). Carter has Jo compile a list of all people who have access to Walter's device and know how to use it. Stark is one of two people on the list. When Kim finishes reconstructing the dead body's DNA, she discovers that it's hers, presenting a dangerous time paradox. Carter confronts Henry with the information that Henry is the only one besides Stark with the knowledge and access required to use Walter's device. Kim realizes that she was supposed to die in the failed experiment with the Artifact. Henry used the device to send his consciousness back in time and save her. However, this has created an alternate timeline which is beginning to come into conflict with the "original" one.

As if on cue, a tornado that struck Eureka several years before reappears to wreak havok on the unsuspecting town and disappears just as quickly. The new timeline is unraveling, and the only way to stop it is to stop Henry from saving Kim. Henry refuses to help Carter with this, so Allison asks Stark for help. While Stark is attempting to reactivate Walter's device, Kim tries to convince Henry of the necessity of her death. After much tenderness and mourning, Henry relents and hands Stark a piece of the Artifact that he had retained to prevent anyone else from attempting to change what he had done. Stark sends Carter's mind back to the day of the experiment. Carter intercepts Henry as he is hurrying to save Kim and holds him in place until the energy surge from the Artifact kills Kim.

At the conclusion of the episode, Carter is looking at a photo of Kim's charred corpse as Allison walks in. Fearful that he cannot reveal future details to anyone without risking another paradox, he is encouraged when the Allison of the original timeline tells him to "Have a little faith," one of the last things he said to the Allison of the paradox timeline before he jumped back in time. He decides to embrace the idea of reliving the last four years and pursuing a life with Allison again. As he told the paradox Allison before he jumped, "No time, no space, no way that we don't end up together."

[edit] Trivia

• The date that the experiment on the Artifact is performed is the actual date of the original airing, October 3, 2006.
• Walter Perkins is shown as wearing temporal stasis armband, which keeps him from rapidly aging in reverse.
• The Artifact in Section 5 was apparently created billions of years ago in the universe that existed before ours. It is unclear if Stark's earlier statement that it was made on Earth is still valid. It survived the collapse of its universe and the creation of ours by existing in another dimension. Perhaps by saying that it was created on Earth in the previous universe implies that it will eventually be created in ours as well.
• The Consortium finally managed to obtain data on the Artifact through the use of a subdermal chip implanted into Stark by Beverly.
• It is also revealed that Beverly's contact within the Consortium is somebody within Global Dynamics, as witnessed by the vidscreen at the end of the scene. Point by point comparison, between the vidscreen shot in the "Once in a Lifetime" and 1x08 "Right as Raynes" demonstrates that, perhaps through reuse, perhaps through intent, it is the same vidscreen as in Stark's office, right down to the lights in the background.
• Within the alternate future witnessed during the episode, Beverly has sinced stopped working for the Consortium. However, she continues to pursue extra-legal routes to determine the secrets of Global Dynamics, indicating that she might have a personal interest in discovering the secrets of Eureka.

v • d • e  Eureka
Characters	Beverly Barlowe | Allison Blake | Colonel Briggs | Jack Carter | Zoe Carter | Henry Deacon | Douglas Fargo | Jo Lupo | Nathan Stark | Jim Taggart
Other	Episode list | Eureka (Town) | Global Dynamics | Artifact