The girls travel back in time to stop Janet Smythe from starting GDD; their plan works but they also manages to stop major events from happening.  In the B story, Barry finds himself attracted to Marci.

I’m glad that BFW is taking time to tell some broader stories beyond “We went back to kindergarten” or “we know the answers to the history text!”  In a previous episode, the girls learn that Shelby’s dad works for GloboDigiDyne and suspect somehow GDD is connected to the Future Lab.  Cheers to seeing the wonderfully-talented Nora Dunn back on our screens!

In this episode, Cyd and Shelby realize that, in order to prevent the Future Lab from happening, they need to go back in time to prevent GDD from happening.  Janet Smythe’s begins start playing around wireless technology (she zaps herself on a lamp on her desk and announces “Wireless technology!”).  Her neuroses  is evident here as her workshop is filled with a number of booby traps. (This does seem odd tho, but it does play into her neuroses later on).  It takes more and more of Cyd and Shelby’s power to kept repeating jumps.  They finally outwit Smythe and are finally jump back to the present from 1991.  A wave washes over the show, eliminating the GDD headquarters as well as Marci and Barry’s budding relationship.

But when they do return to 1991, what a surprise!  Shelby’s family lives in Alaska (evidenced by the big pile of snow outside their window); they moved from Portland after her dad missed his big interview (I’m assuming it wasn’t at GDD). Cyd’s now living with her parents in Peru (the llama in the scene is a hoot).  Apparently no matter what time they travel to, they remain friends.  They decide to meet back up at Shelby’s old house in Portland.

And who lives there, surprise surprise – Janet Smythe.  She’s Barry’s mentor – and we don’t know what job she exactly has – but, surprise, surprise, she has some funky weird lab in her attic and she’s been waiting for years to see Cyd and Shelby again.

Parallel to this is the budding romance of Barry and Marci.  Marci is a stitch – and her sentences of non-sequitors are quite good.  Barry and Marci first bond over science – and their first “I’m sorry” date – where Barry tries to subjectively control the date is both sweet and amusing.  Renaldo’s unobjective data shows the “twinkle in Barry’s eye” when he’s around Marci.  It’s a sweet beginning.

The Smythe wave wipes this all out and its back to the beginning for Marci and Barry, where Renaldo suggests Barry’s interest in Marci is not science related at all.  Barry watches Renaldo’s interactions with girls and takes copious notes, which do not help him at all with Marci.  Their first date – with Renaldo in tow – brings them to Smythe’s lab, where they are summarily tied up to watch the goings on.

The final showdown between the girls and Smythe is pretty standard but the girls are victorious.  They realize that they need to let history take its course – so they transport back to 1991 and let Smythe get zapped by the lamp.  The time wave washes over everyone and things in the present day return to normal (although I’m not sure what happens to the Marci/Barry relationship).  When they leave 1991, though, Cyd and Shelby leave behind those pesky tachyon particles, which Smythe is able to scoop up in one of those pickle jars.  This sets the scene for future storylines.

Three oversights:

1. When the girls left the present day to return to the 70s, they left the tachyon particles in the present.  Apparently, particles get left when they return to a time before they were born, although no particles showed up any other time they left 1991.
2. When Marci, Renaldo and Barry are tied up and Cyd is brought in and tied to the slab, Barry calls Cyd by name.  He didn’t know Shelby’s name when she showed up, so assumably he won’t have know Cyd’s.
3. Continuity error: When Cyd arrives back in Portland, she puts her backpack on the hot tub cover.  Just before she enters the house, the backpack is on her shoulder – but then its back on the hot tub and she enters the house without it.  Yet, the backpack is then seen on the ledge behind the two slabs.

Overall, a good episode!