I can suggest a wank that lets future knowledge be there without causing too many unwanted plot bunnies. Take advantage of difference between short and long term memory. Mental time travel sends knowledge into the pasts short term memory. So most of it fades but not all. Bascially the most important things, plus what you go through in the "front of your" mind before short term memory fades. In short a fraction of the the four years gets into the long term memory, the rest fades before it can be kept. Which means that you can have Jack and Henry remember as much as you need them to for plot purposes but not more. Plus this is a different time line, so given the lack of detail the memories are not of much practical use - except occasionally if you can get a good plot out making something of use stick.

Oh and as for this being a third time line. The whole problem was a second timeline that diverged significantly from the first. The second timeline, being unstable to begin with has been eliminated. The third is so close to the first that any minor divergences can merge non-destructively. But maybe it leaves the area around Eureka a little more vulnerable to space-time disturbances.

Since Eureka more or less use magic science anyway these are close enough. I mean the short term vs. long term memory thing is actually the current science. And Time Travel, well you are pretty much making up your own rules anyway - so what I came up with is good if it serves the story, bad if it doesn't.

"Yay!" for the pickup! "Huh?" for the short summer season.

It would be great to see a more "normal" length arc. It feels like some critical plot development got cut out, especially regarding Bev. I'm glad she finished with a bang. She must have got hold of a copy of the memory wipe device from Anderson. That will be a pretty handy way for the Consortium to cover their tracks.

I like the ambiguous ending about whether Carter remembered the alternate timeline. He'd at least remember waking up that morning knowing he needed to stop Henry, but he may not remember how he knew. The "have a little faith" exchange with Allison leaves it open as to whether he actually remembered or just had an unexplainable moment of deja vu.

Poor Henry. This will decidedly make the next season darker. We'll need Carter's lightness to keep the quirky humor from being entirely purged from the show.

I'm a bit mixed on the whole going darker. This was a fabulous episode, and the darkness made it more moving. Kim's anguish at realizing she had to cease to exist, Henry's at being kept from saving her, Carter's choked voice when he wakes up in the 'past'... really wonderful.

But the Bev subplot has grated on me all the way through. Maybe it's scarring from the X-Files years, but ubersuperior conspiracies lurking the background, always able to magically escape discovery/justice, annoy me these days. And it looks like we'll get a lot more next year.

The bit that really made me sniffle was thinking about Carter thinking about the child he'll never see. Nice delayed payoff on the ultrasound line there.

always able to magically escape discovery/justice

We'll see a lot more cover-ups. The consortium had to have reverse engineered the mind wipe device that Anderson had in order to create more.

We never did see who the original device was left with at the end of "Before I Forget". Maybe Henry took it back? He built it before his GD days, so he should still be the owner.

Oh the lightness will still be there. Absolutely. We're talking about making it funnier and darker and just giving it more of itself. If that makes sense.

Heard more fun ideas about next year but at this point all the ideas are so divergent that it's all clearly conjecture.

I guess long story short, the guys wanted 13 episodes because they want the show to be around for 5 or 6 years and they want to be able to set it up properly. They definately demonstrate more self control than I have.

I guess if the BBC can make great stuff with 8 episode seasons then 13 is generous.

Hope you and littlebug are able to pop in now and again between seasons CFerg. It's been great having you here.

Yay for season 2! Yay for darker!

How could Carter keep from making decisions in the future based on what he knows? He would have to be creating little rifts in the timeline all the time.

I'm sad that Kim is dead and that we didn't get more episodes with her when she was alive. Where was she when Henry was considering leaving Eureka? Was she involved in the decision at all? Was she going to go with him or stay in Eureka?

I want to know how AU Zoe could have been at the top of her class. Does she have hidden genius that we don't know of yet?

Yay for next season.

I laughed when I saw that CISCO was running The Consortium

I remembered seeing the logo on Stark's computer in one of the earlier episodes. So, who's desk was it? Stark's? Fargo's? Allison's?

but ubersuperior conspiracies lurking the background, always able to magically escape discovery/justice, annoy me these days.

Yeah, I was half expecting them to pull back to reveal Claire's father from Heroes was the one talking to Beverly. (Speaking of which, how great would it have been to have had Hiro show up after one of the paradox quakes, just walking through the background with a silly grin on his face?)

Yes, indeedy! I think we would have liked Eureka just as much, but sharing your experience and insight sure heightened the fun for me.

We should patent this. Call it a threadcast™ or somethin'.