Jack's radio is on the fritz and that model has long since been phased out. Zoë wants to visit an ashram, but despite Lexi's undermining, Jack's not going to let her ditch school for three days just because she's just going through some Yoga phase. Fargo and Alison no longer seemed phased by Stark's death. And Lexi's the belle of Eureka's ball because she's gone head- on into a recycling phase. Confused?
Lexi keeps getting in dangerous situations. She's nearly crushed by a security force field, but Captain Eureka rescues her (after a mishap). She and Jack stop to investigate a roadside pumping station that's leaking some explodium. Captain Eureka rescues her (after a mishap). He wears a shiny superhero costume and rocket boots that let him fly away at least 50% of the time. Lexi is impressed. Jack knows no good will come from a full-grown scientist wearing blue Spandex, and realizes Captain Eureka is setting Lexi up, in order to rescue and impress her with his ability to walk through walls.
At Eva Thorne's bidding, Zane cracks the code to the Cryptex gigamahoogie, and opens up the side of a cliff, which leads to a top secret elevator shaft, into which Thorne has Zane descend to find another entrance. Duh duh duh. Back in town, Jack takes his radio to Henry because Eureka's like most families -- chock full of "geniuses" and yet only one guy does anything useful. At school, Zoë, Pilar and Lucas make their way through a newly crumbled hole in an old lab wall, and into some secret facility composed mostly of rat-filled hallways. Of course they're in the same dump as Zane, and after Zoë slips and falls they run into him. When Lucas can't not touch an ancient computer, he puts the whole joint into lock-down mode and they all get trapped. Lucas needs to keep his hands busy though, because Zane and Zoë have more chemistry together in five seconds than he could dream of.
Jack and Lexi finally realize Zoë is missing and do their best to hunt her down. Jack apprehends Captain Eureka, a.k.a. Chuck, the recycling majordomo with a crush on Lexi. The problem is, he's being phased out -- not from his work in Eureka, but from our astral plane/frequency/dimension/science-magic place. He's spent so much time in his special, scientific superhero suit that now he phases in and out of our frequency even when he's not wearing it.
Henry receives a numerical message on Jack's radio. He recognizes the first set of digits as the longitude and latitude of the site where Thorne had him test for radiation, but he can't make out the last four. Carter finally does -- it's Zoë's birth date. Zane had found a ULF transmitter and powered it by the kids' cell phones, which were out of range, and sent the message to Jack's radio. Jack decides to wear the Captain's magical suit so he can walk through the locked-down walls and save his daughter, at great danger to himself. Allison has an actual emotional response to this idea. Whoopee!
Jack saves the kids and saves the day, but starts phasing out, too. Henry works out a permanent fix for that problem, saves Chuck and Jack, and all is right in Eureka, except Eva Thorne, who doesn't even flinch at the exquisite guilt trip Jack books for her, as he tries to suss out her agenda.
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At the Sheriff's office, Jack Carter is fiddling with his two-way radio which is giving no signal, just noise. Jo Lupo snaps that he should chuck the dinosaur. Chuck the XL44 he got when he was a rookie? That's just crazy talk. He shakes his head and looks down at it with such fondness that I'm a bit jealous. There's no sense spending 8,500 words pretending otherwise, unless you're Jo (who would be lucky to get 50 words in an episode, these days). She suggests Carter shut it off. Jack's loyal and lovely and why don't you shut yourself off, Jo? Besides, if we're hearing so much about the radio now, you know it's going to come into play in the episode's resolution.
Vincent enters the office and he's in almost as much of a tizzy as Jack's radio. "Sheriff, you got a minute?" Over a shot of the Café Diem exterior, we hear him ask Jack to talk to Lexi. I ask about my Shiraz. Don't judge. I'm increasing my flavonoid consumption.
Lexi's sitting with Fargo, sorting a bunch of junk on the lunch counter. They identify items and categorize them. I identify my glass of wine and lift it to my lips. I'm pretty sure the stress of having this much Lexi in an episode is going to cause my body to burn off antioxidants at an alarming rate. Don't get me wrong, Carradine acquits herself of the role well, but the character grates.
Fargo is oblivious to the fingernails that run down the blackboard every time Lexi's on screen. He's smitten and tries to impress her by pointing out he was recycler of the month. Lexi congratulates him and the pitch of her voice blasts the glass out of Café Diem's window, like when Martha busted all the glass out of Jack's car. The characters seem to be ignoring the shattered glass, as though were all in the mind of a thirsty substitute recapper. Dangerous! Jack tries terribly hard to be cheerful. "Hi, Lex." Lexi explains that they recycle everything in town and talks about Vincent like he's not standing right exactly there; as she says she wants to get Vincent to be a smidge more conscientious. Jack asks her to do it elsewhere, noting that "eggs over garbage" isn't on the menu. In the background, the casting directors hustle in a new nerd to scoff at Jack. "Garbage? What century are you from?"
Jo may only be the town deputy, but she's the series exposition queen, so she introduces our geek du week. "Chuck's the majordomo of the new recycling program. Why throw it away when..." everyone finishes with her, "...you can Chuck it." Zane's not here, Jo. Put your pocket dictionary away and just say steward, foreman, manager, or another nickel word, instead. Jack laughs, and I hope it's at them, not with them. Vincent makes an understandably pissy face, as Chuck snitches that the trash can is full of violations. He wants Jack to issue Vincent some hefty fines and I think the jerk used the word "hefty" on purpose. Jack talks him down, suggesting a warning this time. Chuck and Vincent exchange dirty looks, and Chuck turns threatening. "Ho-kay, but ha-I'm wat-ha-tching you." Oh, puh-lease, newbie! You're no Dr. Cox, Chuck. He bids a gentler goodbye to Lexi, because he's sweet on her.
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