Spoilers as always

Last night’s episode of Eureka was a time loop/travel/anomaly type episode. Carter was the only one who was effected by the time loop. The day started normally, it was the day of the wedding of Allison and Stark. This was their second go round and the wedding had all the trimmings. Most of the major players were invited to the wedding including Henry as the minister. I should have known that the minister would be one of the main characters.

Carter’s day started fairly typically with a shower, cutting himself shaving and then spending some time with Zoe. Carter’s sister Lexxie arrives in Eureka to help put her life in order. She also arrives with cats, two of them and one apparently has the spirit of their dead grandmother in it. Lexxie is a total opposite of Carter. She is a free spirit, believes in astrology but she is also his sister and they have a history. They’re family.

Carter then has to go to GD to help Allison with some redactions. It is Thorn who has now cut 12 more people from GD in an effort to keep Allison busy on her wedding day. Carter takes a few of them and Allison takes a few of them. One of the people that Carter needs to redact is a guy named Leo but when he goes down to Leo’s office he is bathed in a blue light, partially blinded too and so he stumbles out and says he will come back the next day.

Carter heads to the wedding, his job is to walk Allison down the aisle… awkward. I can’t seem to remember is carter has memories from the alternate timeline, I know Henry does and I was looking for something in his eyes when he said “If anyone knows why these two should not be married, speak no or forever hold your peace.” I didn’t get time to noticed because suddenly there is some weird light int he sky and Carter is back in his shower. The day starts over.

So now I am thinking that this is right out of groundhog day were Carter will need to get the day right and win Allison in order for it to stop repeating. However this is Eureka and things are rarely that simple. Carter goes about the day trying to anticipate what he should do differently to make this stop. He talks to Stark and Fargo and they blow him off. Then he talks to his sister in Cafe Diem and she tells him to kiss Allison and things will work out fine because of their chemistry. This doesn’t go well. And Carter loops back again.

I can’t remember how many times he repeats the day, I should have kept notes but many of the themes were things that he said to Allison and things Allison said to him especially, “Things will work out as they should.” This was very telling in the grand scheme of things.

Along the way to figuring things out Carter pulls a gun on Fargo and has him destroy the new atomic clock that will make Eureka the new standard for time. Since Carter was involved in a time loop he figured it was this machine. Then another time around he thought that Thorn was doing something and making time reset, he even tried to take her back with him. I was fully expecting Carter and Thorn to end up in the shower together, for the sheer humor of it.

There was a Dr. Who reference many times by Vincent in Cafe Diem, I’ve never watched that show but I wonder if it had some specific significance. Carter learned many things each time through and it is interesting how his actions each time made small changes in what was happening. He also learned more about his sister, who is pregnant, and through multiple times through the time loop he learns to be more self aware and compassionate. So I still thought that Carter personally had to make something right with someone.

I also thought that all this time jumping would make Carter remember the alternate timeline. The first jump with all the images flashing made me think that he was remembering what had happened to him. I think that Henry is still the only one who remembers the other timeline. I really wish Carter would remember.

Carter finally figures out that Leo is the one behind the time loop. Carter learns that because he was coated in pure indigo light he was unaffected with time going in reverse (I think that is how Leo explained the anomaly). Carter attempts to help Leo fix the mess but find that he loops back again. So the next time he is taught a specific formula or equation so that Stark would believe and help him. Time cannot loop forever though and each time back through Carter gets more and more banged up. And on one jump Leo is fried to a crisp.

So the final loop jump Carter must enlist the help of Stark, Fargo, their atomic clock and some luck. Carter proves that the time loop is happening by reciting the equation. Fargo and Stark set up for a sync with the atomic clock. However the remote sync doesn’t work. So Stark volunteers to set things right. Fargo also volunteered in a very heroic gesture. With less than 60 seconds to go Stark tells Carter to give Allison the necklace and not to forget to give it to her. He then couples the two devices and time is set right once again. Fargo and Carter start to celebrate but then realize that Stark is frozen in time and then disintegrates. Stark performing a selfless act, remarkable.

So it is no up to Carter to tell Allison the news of Stark’s death. Will this make things harder or easier for Carter and Allison to finally become the couple that they should be? Is Stark really gone? Anything can happen in Eureka.