James Callis on Eureka: "Just Another Day"

So James Callis' role on the fifth season of Eureka was limited to the finale. I'm not that surprised, considering James tweeted to Colin Ferguson on Twitter about coming, and that was around the time they were tweeting about the finale wrap party and all that. So I assumed he was in one episode, but I had hoped his scenes would last more than two minutes (and not even two consecutive minutes!). Well, what's done is done, and Eureka is done with this episode. EDIT: OK, it has come to my attention that James only had 48 hours, including travel time, to do this episode because he was working on a movie in the UK (Austenland? That might explain the moustache). This is from Jamie Paglia in this article. (WTF, "Henry Grant"? I saw that in a couple of posts and I don't get it. Do your research if you haven't watched the show!)

I'm sorry for not being sentimental, I never was a big fan. It's almost my cup of tea, yet not quite. Still, it's a delightful show; watching it makes you feel cozy and warm, and the actors look like they had fun shooting it. I got a lot of good moments out of this show, and many fine screencaps with James' facial expressions. So I'm not exactly griping. I ended up loving this role, after all.

I felt a bit strange when I saw the trailer for this, and also when I first watched the episode. James kind of.. doesn't look like himself. I couldn't put my finger on it earlier, but I think it's a very simple matter of hair, on his head and his face. He's had a mustache and short hair, and beard and long hair, but I've never before seen him with a mustache and long hair. (He's also thinner, not that I pay attention to such things.) He's wearing a new suit, a black one this time, with a considerably more modern air, but he still has the hat and he's still wearing it the same way. So you recognize him right away, even with the slight style difference.

Predictably, people are going on about his accent again - saying it's worse than ever, at that - but I must say it didn't bug me. Maybe it's because I'm not American and have an accent myself (I'm told I sound European, but I'm not sure what that means). Maybe it's because I've heard James do a number of accents - London, Yorkshire, Southern, Italian, and in this case 40's American. Maybe I'm such a fangirl that birdsong and angel chanting fills my ears whenever he speaks, but the accent just doesn't distract me at all. James himself didn't seem at all bugged by this criticism, so perhaps he overdid it on purpose. In fact, given his sense of humor, maybe he really overdid it here to give people something to talk about. Hmmm. OK, but that's my final word on his accent, and moving on.

Grant makes a grand entrance, having the Café Diem waiter offer his friends some fancy wine - from the year 1947. Turns out he has bought Eureka, thus saving it from destruction, and renamed himself Trent Rockwell. (Should I know who that is? The Google searches give a bunch of non-Eureka results.) He's a billionaire, due to good investments (i.e. going back to the past and buying some stocks, which he did the last time we saw him). Fargo has given him a recommendation about the new head of GD - Grant keeps staring at Jack, so that Jack starts, "I would be honored..." Everyone's like "bitch please". "..to respect your wishes." Heee! It must be noted that right before this, Jack told Grant Allison is married, "so no indecent proposals". (He's forgetting that Grant zoomed right past the 90's and thus never saw that horrible movie.) Grant looks a bit taken aback, but wouldn't he know they're married? I hope he's got a nice lady with nice gams waiting for him somewhere.  Anyhow, that was a nice bit of mutual teasing there. 

The new head of GD is Henry. What I like best about this scene is Grant's tender look at him. They were good pals before, so it was nice to see a callback to that. Henry's look at his wife, and her eager and proud look back at him, were also utterly sweet.

And as Henry accepts, Grant is SO proud of him. Awww!

The music in this scene reminded me of BSG for a moment. Then I remembered that Bear McCreary, who scored BSG, also did the music for Eureka. A nice reminder.

And then they all celebrate and hug - Jack and Grant even hug. (I've seen bromance fanfic about them, so I imagine this will inspire even more of that).

Like ZOMG so hot, their gona b a copule and Grant wil have Jacks baby!!11 ..Um, there are no slashfic writers here, right? I'm just saying, some fanfic is... weird. Seriously speaking, that's a lovely bear hug Jack gives Grant. Probably has a lot to do with the actors' camaraderie. Always nice to see that.

And.. scene. That's about all. There are two more silent scenes: James working a jukebox - hey, I've never seen him use one before, have I? I'm not super excited abut these firsts anymore, but then I've been a fan for four years now, and am all seasoned and jaded. It's still cute though.

Finally, we see him waving and getting into a car as people cheer, and it reminds me of his con appearances, so I guess I never saw him do that in a role either. This kinda was exciting, because everyone's cheering at James, look at our man being the town hero.

That's a pretty grand way of ending your role on a show. I'm glad he didn't just visit the town randomly, but there was a larger meaning for it. Like he mattered for the show and just had to be in the finale. I'm not sure how non-fans approached his character, but it's nice to see the writers at least saw him as important enough to bring back. They could have done more with him, but all in all, Grant was loveable and I will remember him fondly. It was, after all, James' second-longest-standing role on TV.

Farewell, Trevor Grant. You were a fun character, and we'll miss you.
Sport.