I am not OK with the death of Dr. Holly Marten on Eureka.
Sure, I get that — in order to create a proper feel for the high stakes of Eureka season 5 — someone had to die. With no death, we might have just assumed that the computer-generated world was all fun and games. Death makes it clear that this is bad. Very bad.
But I’m still not OK with Holly’s death. And here’s why.
I like Dr. Holly Marten.
I fully and completely admit that an awful lot of my indignation and disbelief comes from a personal place. That’s because I kind of adore Felicia Day’s portrayal of Dr. Holly Marten. As an oft-awkward female with academic tendencies (and more than enough university degrees to qualify for residence in Eureka), it’s been awesome to have a heroine I can relate to.
Holly isn’t cool. She’s not hip. Holly has a hard time relating to boys. People think she is weird. How many geeky girls and women had to watch this more-awesome version of themselves die this week?
But I suppose the death of Holly Marten is not just about me (and others of my ilk).
What about Fargo?!
Bad things happen to Fargo. A lot. I will grant that many of those bad things are of Fargo’s own making, but still the guy has had a rough go of it in the town of Eureka. His relationship with Dr. Holly Marten has been one of the only purely good things to happen to Fargo throughout Eureka‘s run.
What is he going to do now?
I don’t mean that in an emotional, can’t-go-on sense either. Fargo will definitely have some sad emotions, but we have to worry about more than psychological breakdown following any Eureka death.
We’ve all seen what happens when a character on Eureka is denied love. Clones. Altered timelines. Angst with the potential to make scientific experiments go haywire. Is this really where we want the already disaster-prone Fargo to go?
Actually, that might make for some awesome plots in Eureka season 5. Hmmm…
Is Holly even dead?
Think about it. What did we see?
In the Matrix world, Pseudo-Jack didn’t do all that much to Holly, nothing that looked fatal anyway. Back in the real world, Senator Wen disconnected electrodes and we heard a flat-line noise. And then we heard the Senator say Holly Marten was dead.
That’s all.
Most of the time, when a TV series really wants to kill off a character, we get a certain amount of fanfare. Gruesome deaths, poignant last words and noble sacrifices are standard. Holly, on the other hand, just died. There was little drama and no obvious injury. We didn’t even see what happened to her body.
Add in the fact that Holly’s death was witnessed by the increasingly mutinous and always resourceful Beverly Barlow, and it’s actually pretty easy to believe that — somehow — Holly Marten survived her ordeal and will return to Eureka in the future.
Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part…
What do you think? Did Dr. Holly Marten die? Are you OK with her death? Leave your comments below!
(Image courtesy of Syfy)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Laurel grew up in Mamaroneck, NY, Grosse Pointe, MI and Bellevue WA. She then went on to live in places like Boston, Tucson, Houston, Wales, Tanzania, Prince Edward Island and New York City before heading back to Seattle. Ever since early childhood, when she became addicted to The Muppet Show, Laurel has watched far too much TV. Current favorites include Chuck, Modern Family, Supernatural, Mad Men and Community. Laurel received a BA in Astrophysics (yes, that is possible) from Colgate University and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History of Science from Columbia University before she realized that television is much better than studying.
