Eureka (2006)/H.O.U.S.E. Rules

H.O.U.S.E. Rules
Season 1, Episode 11
Airdate	September 26, 2006
Production Number	111
Written by	Harry Victor
Directed by	Jeff Woolnough
Stream
← 1x11 Purple Haze	1x12 → Once in a Lifetime
Eureka (2006) — Season One

H.O.U.S.E. Rules is the eleventh episode of the first season of Eureka.

SARAH locks Jack and most of the people he knows in Eureka in and forces them into an intervention because she believes that with out Jack and Henry, the city will collapse.

Starring: Colin Ferguson (Sheriff Jack Carter), Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Allison Blake), Joe Morton (Henry Deacon), Jordan Hinson (Zoe Carter), Ed Quinn (Nathan Stark)

Also Starring: Erica Cerra (Deputy Jo Lupo), Neil Grayston (Douglas Fargo, S.A.R.A.H.)

With: Matt Frewer (Jim Taggart)

And: Debrah Farentino (Beverly Barlowe)

Co-Starring: Michael Coleman (Pizza Dude), Arthur Corber (Scientist in Explosion)

Plot Overview

Jack takes a sick day after he saves Global Dynamics from being atomized and gets nothing but grief over arresting a man who technically hasn't broken a law from Stark. He tells Zoe that maybe Henry is right to leave and they should follow suit before the city crumbles without Henry there to keep things together. He spends the rest of the day looking for tropical property, as well reading what appears to be a comic book.

The next day, Stark, Beverly, Henry, Allison and Fargo are called to Jack's house, all under the impression that Jack needs them for something. In actuality, SARAH called all of them under the ruse of being Jack and the only person that Jack called is a pizza boy who is stuck with them. SARAH refuses to let them leave because "Eureka is facing imminent disaster." The house explains that everyone in the room (save the pizza boy) plays a role in saving Eureka or destroying it, starting with Henry's decision to leave. SARAH refuses to let them leave until they clear the air.

Because Jo and Taggart were playing paintball, they arrive late to the intervention. SARAH won't open the door, but she does let down the comlink shield long enough to let Jo know that something is wrong. She and Taggart head for an underground tunnel system where they attempt to get into the house from below. Meanwhile in the house, Stark and Henry attempt to hit SARAH with a power surge, but it only serves in reverting SARAH to BRAD, a smart interrogation room that Fargo programmed over. The pizza boy managed to escape, but a turret vaporized him before he got far from the bunker.

In the bunker, the six survivors have been separated into soundproof sections with various extreme temperatures. Henry and Stark argue over the system, while Jack wrestles with whether or not he can make a difference in Eureka. Meanwhile, below ground, Jo and Taggart shoot out the security cameras with their paintball guns to evade the defense system. They find the tunnel that leads into the smart house. In the house, Fargo realizes that as long as they make an unconditional surrender, BRAD's second phase ends. But, because Beverly made it known that their surrender was under false pretenses, BRAD starts to suck out their oxygen. They cover the vents and consider cutting the power, which happens to be a nuclear generator.

They manage to get a Morse code message to Jo and Taggart to crack the pipe that's suctioning out their oxygen. This keeps them alive for a while, but BRAD's weapons systems are still active when Zoe comes home. It points the turret at her but Jack takes his autographed World Series bat to the generator, damning the consequences. SARAH comes back online and Zoe remains unharmed. The truth comes out that SARAH is just afraid of being abandoned. Jack agrees to stay in Eureka and installs a skylight with a ladder.

Henry, however, does not say anything about whether or not he's staying.

Trivia

The Show

• Red Shirt: The pizza guy was wearing a red t-shirt with "Pizza π" on it. This is likely a Star Trek reference and foreshadows his death in the episode. In Star Trek, the first (and usually only) people to die are the Ensigns wearing red shirts.

Allusions and References

• Boom Studios: The comic book that Jack is reading on the couch appears to be put out by Boom! Studios, as indicated by The Savage Brothers advertisement on the back cover. He exclaims what the title of the comic is in the episode, but it's franticly garbled.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: There are several references to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in the episode. In the film, several astronauts go into space with a spacecraft that runs on an experimental artificially intelligent computer called HAL. Eventually, HAL loses its grip on reality and begins to kill off the astronauts, with the exception of one who destroys the computer.

Fargo:: SARAH's gone HAL on us!