By John Keegan and Henry Tran

This episode, "Awake" made full use of its police procedural format. It might be the simplest of episodes the show has aired so far. It's also one that didn't put Detective Britten in the spotlight very much. Instead, there's focus on an accountant for a Russian mobster and his wife. They suddenly need to be protected by the police when the mobster tries to kill the accountant. It's not the worst plot the writers can think of, but I constantly had the feeling of detachment with these people, probably because we're never going to see them on the series again. I also had this nagging feeling throughout that US Marshals should be protecting these people instead of the LAPD. But the episode does seem to further a theory about the show's overall story arc that has been building for some time now.

By John Keegan

This far into the season, I’m still of the opinion that the writers are struggling to shove the narrative towards some semblance of a grand unifying conclusion, even if the various plot points don’t necessarily gel very well. We finally get a resolution to a long-standing mystery, and there’s some clarification to the overall generational conflict, but all the meandering, fits, and false starts of the season have left me cold.

By John Keegan

I mentioned in the review for the previous episode that it felt like the third season arc had been poorly conceived, and that what should have been a clear path to the season finale endgame was becoming a muddled mess. I was hoping that this episode would resolve that problem, but for the most part, it just continues along the same path.

By John Keegan and Henry T.

Pete Campbell has everything anyone could ever ask for. A successful job, a doting wife, a child, a house in the suburbs. So why is he looking for more instead of accepting how good he really has it? It probably has something to do with his stunted growth and adaptation to his adult personality. He is, in essence, a spoiled rotten child in an adult body.

By John Keegan and Henry Tran

One of the things I really dislike about seasonal television is the tendency to employ the "Reset Button Plot." Season premieres are the most prominent offenders of this. Returning the plot to the current status quo and essentially rendering the events that occurred in the episode moot can make it so that the viewer stops investing in what happens to the characters, plots, the very heart of the show itself.

By John Keegan and Gregg Wright

This ought to be the first episode of the second-to-last season of "Eureka", preceding a final six-episode season. But as most "Eureka" fans know, this was not to be. The impression I got was that the fifth season was virtually all "in the can" when the cancellation news hit, so there was a very real danger that "Eureka" would end without a real ending. Only one additional episode was produced to make up for this. It's a paltry victory, but it's better than no ending at all.

By John Keegan and Henry Tran

The whole of this episode did not quite gel as I would have normally expected from this show. I think it's that everyone waited until near the end of this season to decide on the direction of Peter's gubernatorial race. The show hasn't spent a lot of time building to the decision made at the end of the episode so while I found it interesting to see where it goes, there's something of a hollow feeling behind it.