I didn't really care for this episode, but probably for different reasons than others may have mentioned.
First, some data points. This episode is really just an "early" Christmas special, which dropped 2 ½ months after the previous episode, and four months before the following episode. As others have said, it really doesn't add anything to the Eureka story arc. In fact, it is so disconnected, that in some places it is listed as a season four episode (e.g. here on IMDB, and also on Amz streaming), but on media releases, it showed up as the first episode of season five. And lastly, as is described in the IMDB Storyline, it is (almost entirely) animated, using numerous differing animation formats.
My problem with the episode is that the prior episode ended with the (dire) fate of many core characters (including Allison, Fargo, etc.), left totally unknown, something not resolved until four months after this episode (in season five). And yet, the first person we see, when this episode opens, is Allison, and soon thereafter, Fargo. Even though Eureka is obviously "SciFi lite", and this episode's production effort was "clever", it just seemed a bit too bizarre, and certainly, misplaced in the episodic timeline. It felt like something that the showrunners had been hankering to do, and probably knowing that Season 5 was the end of the line, they indulged their urge, shot the episode (story arc, be damned), and shoehorned it in, even though it made no sense. For me, in a series that already (knowingly) "stretches the science", needing viewers to accept that, this just felt like "a bridge too far". I don't "despise" it, but owning the media, when I re-binge the series, I just skip it.
First, some data points. This episode is really just an "early" Christmas special, which dropped 2 ½ months after the previous episode, and four months before the following episode. As others have said, it really doesn't add anything to the Eureka story arc. In fact, it is so disconnected, that in some places it is listed as a season four episode (e.g. here on IMDB, and also on Amz streaming), but on media releases, it showed up as the first episode of season five. And lastly, as is described in the IMDB Storyline, it is (almost entirely) animated, using numerous differing animation formats.
My problem with the episode is that the prior episode ended with the (dire) fate of many core characters (including Allison, Fargo, etc.), left totally unknown, something not resolved until four months after this episode (in season five). And yet, the first person we see, when this episode opens, is Allison, and soon thereafter, Fargo. Even though Eureka is obviously "SciFi lite", and this episode's production effort was "clever", it just seemed a bit too bizarre, and certainly, misplaced in the episodic timeline. It felt like something that the showrunners had been hankering to do, and probably knowing that Season 5 was the end of the line, they indulged their urge, shot the episode (story arc, be damned), and shoehorned it in, even though it made no sense. For me, in a series that already (knowingly) "stretches the science", needing viewers to accept that, this just felt like "a bridge too far". I don't "despise" it, but owning the media, when I re-binge the series, I just skip it.