Townspeople – including Zoe, home from Harvard – are transformed into concrete statues when their skin comes into contact with a compound developed by an archeologist trying to falsify the results of a dig. On the romance front, Henry attempts to win Grace’s heart with a grand romantic gesture and Jack surprises Allison by asking her out on a date.
Review: There was too much going on in this episode. It was entertaining, don’t get me wrong, but with Zoe and Zane’s secret flirtation, Jack asking Allison out, the petrification, and Dr. Grant discovering that he’s been discovered, the episode just had this relentless quality about it. And then, if all of that weren’t enough, Henry breaks into song in the middle of GD. Joe Morton is a fantastic singer and as amazing and unexpected and adorable as that moment was, it just underscored the fact that there was too much happening – it was like an unnecessary exclamation mark at the end of a run-on sentence, written entirely in caps. Jamming that much into one episode really did a disservice to each of the storylines that the writers were trying to juggle. It would have been nice if, for example, all of Henry’s wooing had been incorporated into another episode – that storyline, in particular, felt the most out of place.
The two events that seemed most important, though, were (1) Jack kissing Allison and (2) the return of Beverly Barlowe – she knows Dr. Grant’s secret. The Jack and Allison thing, well, if they were ever going to get together then it was going to happen in this bizarro world and it was satisfying to see them kiss so passionately. But Beverly Barlowe. Ugh. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see a character leave this show than when she teleported away during season 2. (I associate her with the Artifact story arc, which was painfully drawn out.) What I wonder, though, is if she’s the alternative timeline Beverly Barlowe or if she’s the original Beverly Barlowe. Either way, her presence usually means that some conspiracy is afoot and even though she is a total nuisance, it will be nice to have an episode or two where the major conflict isn’t about some robot malfunctioning or experiment gone awry.
Odds and Ends
Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn) is in next week’s episode! I literally cheered when I saw him in the preview.
Does anyone else think that there should be at least one episode that revolves entirely around Larry? Right now he just seems like a weird, immature man but I think that there might be more to him.
