Recap / Eureka Jack If All Trades

Carter, thinking hard about baseball.

Fargo!Carter: I was in here, in my body, playing laser tag. The next thing I know, I'm in you!
Carter!Fargo: Never phrase it that way again.

Jack is the focal point of several body swaps, as everyone is still dealing with the aftermath of the Astreus kidnapping.

Tropes

• Call-Back:
  • Warren, the assessor from last season, is back.
  • Only Fargo would respond to finding himself in another body with, "Holy socks!"
• Canon Discontinuity: Dr. Fowler is working on a teleporter, which previous episodes have established as illegal.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Right before each swap, Carter copies whatever the person he's about to swap with is doing.
  • He shoots up the Infirmary as he swaps with a paintballing Fargo.
  • Makes scrubbing motions at his arms just before swapping with Zane in the shower.
  • While having brain surgery, he copies Allison's hand movements as she controls the nanoprobe, even though Allison is behind him and he can't see her. She tells him to keep still as Grace calls out a warning about increasing zeta activity...
• Foreshadowing: Carter!Fargo learns that Zane's assessment with Warren is next day. Guess who he swaps with next, and when?
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Carter swaps bodies with Fargo, Zane and Allison. It's referred to as "neural transfer."
  Fargo!Carter: Sheriff Carter?
  Carter!Fargo: Whoa. This is beyond creepy. Fargo?
  Fargo!Carter: Holy socks! We've swapped bodies!
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The bathrooms in the new Café Diem are labelled "XX" and "XY" instead of "Ladies" and "Gentlemen."
• "Just Joking" Justification: When Warren is perplexed by "Fargo's" answers to a Rorschach-style test ("Butterfly-dog?"), Carter!Fargo pretends to have been kidding.
• My God, You Are Serious!: Invoked. Allison is understandably skeptical at "Carter's" claims that he's really Fargo, until "Fargo" appears with the same story.
  Allison: Oh, my God. You're not kidding.
  Carter!Fargo: Is this my joking face? No. This is not my face at all!
• Not So Above It All: Allison gets mad at Jack for not telling Jo that he and Zane swapped bodies (the Lotus-Eater Machine incident having portrayed Jack and Jo as married is something she has yet to get over). When Allison gets swapped with Jack, she proceeds to talk to an (again) ignorant Jo as if she's Carter.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Fargo is playing laser tag with Warren ("recreational therapy") when he swaps bodies with Carter. People in the Infirmary are... pretty startled when "Carter" whips his gun out and suddenly shoots the place up.
  • Neither Zane nor Fargo are happy that Carter is taking their assessments for them.
  Fargo!Carter: Accepted by MIT, my Sophomore year. Got my PhD at 22. Recruited by Global Dynamics the next year. And now my entire scientific career is at the mercy of Sheriff Carter.
  • Carter swaps bodies with Allison... as she's performing brain surgery on him.
  Allison!Carter: Breathe easy, Jack. It's okay.
  Carter!Allison: I'm probing my own brain, Allie. It's so not okay!
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: The screwing-around potential of body-swapping proves too much for some people.
  • When Zane wakes up in Carter's body, he decides it's time to mess with him. Step one is harassing a woman at a traffic stop so she lodges a complaint.
  Zane!Carter: You showered with my girlfriend. You're lucky I didn't punch myself in the face!
  Carter!Zane: Don't push me, Six Pack, or I'll pound another bacon-cheese scone!
  Zane!Carter: Another? It's going to take me a month to work that off!
  • Jo tries to clear the air with Carter, not realising he's currently Allison. Allison uses the chance to find out if Jo and Carter really are attracted to each other. When Jo says she's "thought about it," Allison!Carter says "It's never crossed my mind." Humiliated, Jo makes her excuses, leaving Allison!Carter looking a little ashamed of herself.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Warren is not impressed that the team hid the neural transfer issue from him and decides to redact the lot of them. However, he changes his mind after seeing Carter and Allison deal with unexpectedly swapping bodies during brain surgery.
• Rule of Three: Carter swaps bodies with three people (Fargo, Zane and Allison), and the interference affects three machines; Dr. Fowler's teleporter, some lady's Smart car and Martha.
• Ship Tease: There are still hints of the Jo/Carter thing from the matrix, especially when Carter and Zane swap bodies right before Jo gets in the shower with Zane. However, in the real world Jo and Carter are devoted to Zane and Allison respectively, and Carter and Allison even get engaged.
• Shout-Out:
  • Carter derides Zane's sunglasses with, "Nice shades, Ponch."
  • Sophie's Choice is mentioned by name when Allison might have to decide between Fargo!Carter or Carter!Fargo.
  Fargo!Carter: Wow, Dr. Blake. Either you'll have to date me in Sheriff Carter's body, or date Sheriff Carter in mine. It's quite a Sophie's choice.
  Allison: GRACE! We need to fix this!
  • Carter's reaction to jumping into Zane's body is to say, "Oh boy!"
  • After returning to his own body, Fargo's response to a Rorshach-style test is "Buffy high-fiving herself!"
  • Fargo!Carter is instantly recognisable through his use of, "What the frak!?"
  • Carter objects to people being described as "inside" him with, "Phrasing!"
• Something Else Also Rises: Carter switches with Zane as he's in the shower, seconds before Jo joins him, naked and wanting... well, guess. Carter!Zane makes a bunch of excuses and says, "I can't!" to which Jo looks down and says, "Beg to differ!"
• Technobabble: Plenty of it, which sounds all kinds of weird coming out of Carter's mouth.
• Toilet Humor: After Carter and Fargo switch back, Fargo expresses relief because, "You really had to go to the little boys' room." Carter is not happy about the implications.
• Wham Episode: Carter and Allison get engaged. Holly may still be alive in some form inside the matrix mainframe.
• Wham Shot: Zane has been working with the matrix, and shows Fargo that Holly is still considered to be logged in.
• What the Hell, Hero?: For the first day, the gang cover for the Fargo/ Carter swap with Warren. Next day, with the Zane/ Carter swap, they feel they have to come clean. He tears them a new one for concealing a serious security problem to protect their jobs.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: While posing as Zane, Carter has to rock-climb for his "recreational therapy" with Warren. He's not happy, especially when an out-of-control Martha makes him fall.
• Working the Same Case: Zane has the matrix mainframe in the basement, and discovers something strange on there. It turns out the neural transfers are caused by the mainframe trying to find the minds it thinks should be inside it. Carter was connected wirelessly, so it's using him to access the others and causing the transfers. Shutting down the mainframe stops the transfers.