Jack Carter (Eureka)

Infobox character
name = Jack Carter


first = "Pilot"
last =
cause =
alias =
species =
gender = Male
age = 43 years old
occupation = Law Enforcement
title = Sheriff, former U.S. Marshal
family = Lexi (sister)
spouse = Abby (ex-wife)
children = Zoe Carter (daughter)
relatives =
portrayer = Colin Ferguson
creator =

Jack Carter is a character on the American science fiction drama "Eureka". He is played by Colin Ferguson.

Description

Jack is assigned out of the office of the U.S. Marshals Service, and is currently the Sheriff of Eureka. Accordingly, Jack would be a GS 1811, grade 12, with a 25% Law Enforcement bonus. However, since this position is a "promotion" over Jack's previous position, and Eureka being Eureka, it is possible that Jack's pay is actually one grade higher, which would be consistent with the show's overall character. Jack has presumably maximized his experience, and so his pay should be just over $100,000 according to the 2007 OPM pay charts.

Jack is a street-smart cop who sees connections where others do not. His I.Q. is 111, 46 points lower than that of his daughter Zoe. In typical Carter fashion, he boasted over "scoring over one hundred percent" to others, not understanding that places him in the slightly above-average standing. His high school GPA was also revealed to be a 2.6, or C average. He tends to focus on his career to the detriment of everything else, which led to the divorce between him and his wife, Abby. Jack's unorthodox (for Eureka) style and manner has led to some friction with Deputy Lupo, although the two share a deep unspoken respect for each other.

As demonstrated in "Many Happy Returns," Jack enjoys baseball, as S.A.R.A.H., his new house's "personality", reveals as she is dispensing beer for him. Another reference to his love of sports is given when SARAH explains her ability to call up many magazines, and the first couple of which are sports magazines. In "Blink," he attempts to recruit a baseball team, much to his later dismay as he learns they play "virtual baseball".

Jack's birthday is May 13, 1969.

Character history

Jack and his daughter Zoe stumbled upon the town of Eureka just as Walter Perkins was conducting his tachyon experiments. ("Pilot") When the previous sheriff was crippled as a result of this, Jack was promoted.

Throughout the series, his uncanny ability to connect what others do not see has helped him save the world over and over. He explains to Allison in "H.O.U.S.E. Rules" that the reason why he does what he does, why he chose his job, was to make a difference. And sometimes he feels he can't do that in Eureka.

In the first season finale, it is revealed that by the year 2010 Jack and Allison are married, and she is expecting his child. However, when Jack learns of Henry's meddling in time, he is forced to travel back to 2006 to prevent it. After this Jack had detailed knowledge of the next four years . ("Once in a Lifetime") Jack lost his alternate memories after Henry uses a specific long term memory device to erase the knowledge ("Phoenix Rising"). Jack has displayed some latent knowledge of what happened, as he displayed an interest in a book that was important to him in the alternate timeline, and he had a flash of memory during a dream but dismissed it. However, it is still unclear at this point how much he may remember.

In the episode "Family Reunion" it is revealed he was teaching his high school sweetheart, Angela Fairfield, to drive. They were involved in an accident, which killed her. The police assumed Carter was driving and he was charged with reckless endangerment. (This is referred to in the pilot when Carter first goes to Global Dynamics: at the bottom of his identity scan readout, there is a note of a class 1 misdemeanor.) As of "From Fear to Eternity", Carter has been fired from his position as sheriff of Eureka.

Family relationships

Jack is divorced from his wife Abby even though he continues to wear his wedding ring. At the end of "Primal", Carter removes his wedding ring, an indication that he is finally ready to move on from his failed marriage. However, in the episode "Purple Haze", he is once again wearing his wedding band. This is most likely due to the fact that "Purple Haze" was originally intended to air before "Primal".

His teenage daughter, Zoe Carter, has used brushes with the law in order to get his attention. (In fact, it is one of these brushes that brings Jack to Eureka.) Recently, Zoe has moved in with him and SARAH after running away from her mother.

While the two do joke around a lot, his deep and protective love for his daughter Zoe is proven on many occasions. The most risky being when he took a prized World Series baseball bat to a small nuclear core in order to disable it and prevent a weapon from killing her.

Jack also has a sister named Lexi, who first appears in "I Do Over". She differs greatly from Jack in that she is much more outgoing, energetic, and slightly less level headed than him, which leads to somewhat strained and awkward relations between the two siblings. However, during the course of the time loops, Jack discovers that Lexi is pregnant, and that she came to Eureka to find some stability in her family. After this revelation, Jack's feelings toward Lexi soften significantly and he warmly welcomes Lexi to Eureka.

He dislikes the nickname Lexi has for him - Monkey.

Living arrangements

Address: 3 Coriolis Drive

In "Many Happy Returns", Jack begins living in a "Super-House" named S.A.R.A.H. (Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat), located in an old fallout shelter. SARAH was designed by local scientist Dr. Fargo on top of an older AI, BRAD. As is the case with everything in Eureka, S.A.R.A.H. has a few quirks. One evening, she locked Jack out because he was late for dinner without calling ahead. In Purple Haze, Jack and his daughter Zoe are unaffected by the pollen as S.A.R.A.H. regulates their air supply. In H.O.U.S.E. Rules, S.A.R.A.H. determines that, with Henry leaving town and Jack threatening to, the entire town was in danger, leading her to lock several key Eureka citizens (and one pizza boy that she later killed) inside. Jack then had a manual escape hatch installed.

Quotes

* "That can't be good." (said whenever something bizarre happens)
* "Let's not shoot the crazy end-of-the-world machine just yet." (when Lupo is about to shoot the Tachyon accelerator)
* "Listen to me. There is no time, no space, no way that we don't end up together. You just gotta have some faith." (when asked by Allison from the alternate timeline if he was even a tiny bit afraid of losing her, them, their life, together)
* "You don't see "that" every day."
* "The reason I do what I do, why I chose my job, is so I can make a difference. And I don't think I can do that here."
* "It's a ray that causes instant death. Why don't you just say death ray?"
* "Aw, crap!"
* "Why can't you people just "say" ice funnel of death?"

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/eureka_carter Jack Carter] on MySpace