Host Truman Bradley tells us we are at Mattering Institute of Technology. It is usually a good sign when SFT gives its setting an actual name rather than a generic moniker like “small midwestern college”. Unless this is the real MIT using an alias out of shame.
Dr. John Hustead has been experimenting with a magnetic field “that will not only make objects weightless, but actually reverse the effects of the earth’s gravitational pull” so that dropped toast will finally land jelly-side up, but on the ceiling. Elizabeth Wickes enters and tells him she just filled in at a lecture that he absent-mindedly forgot. Later, from 4:00 – 4:10 she will cover his weekly office hours.
Kudos to SFT for again being progressive in showing a female scientist. If I knew how to insert a flowchart, I would follow that up with: IF the woman is not his wife, THEN she must be dating his protégé. Hustead shows her how he is able to float a block of wood in a magnetic field. He worries that the Dean will not be sufficiently impressed by this miraculous feat that will forever change construction, transportation, aviation, and whole economies; especially after the Dean sees Hustead’s I Like Ike bumper sticker.
Ken Waring drops by to tell Dr. Hustead the Dean wants to see him. After Hustead leaves, Waring hoists some wood of his own as he gets handsy with Elizabeth. Aha! As predicted, it is revealed that he and Elizabeth are engaged.
Wow! I do not see this engagement working out.
Sure enough, the Dean tells Dr. Hustead he has to show more progress to the Board of Regents, and can start by getting rid of that f***ing bumper sticker. Also, his funding has just about run out and all he has to show for it is the second greatest achievement in physics of all time [1]. Hustead promises to have something by Friday. As I always tell my boss, that means 5 pm — don’t start asking at 9 am.
Back in the lab, Elizabeth and Ken tell Dr. Hustead that during the thunderstorm that just blew up, the wooden disc shot to the ceiling. They try to reproduce the phenomenon but succeed only in blowing up the transformer. Hustead theorizes that something gave the disc negative mass. He says if the disc were left in space, it would rise. [2] I think I know what he means, but the Board of Regents will not be thrilled by the incoherent ramblings of a confused old man; they aren’t MSNBC, after all.
At 3 am, Dr. Hustead stealthily enters the girl’s dormitory to find Elizabeth. He drags her away from the pillow-fight with her lingerie-clad roommates [SCENE MISSING], back to the lab to show her he has succeeded in floating the disk to the ceiling. The next morning, he calls the Dean in to witness this breakthrough. Unfortunately the demonstration fails and they blow another transformer coil.
After way too much talking, Hustead figures out the device needs fresh air . . . or cool air . . . or micro-changes in air density . . . or something. Frankly, I need this device to make my eyelids elevate.
He calls the Dean and Ken back to the lab. After opening a window, the experiment is a success. To further prove the device works (i.e. to show off), he points it at an air conditioning unit. Amazingly, Elizabeth is then able to easily lift the 1-ton unit. Even more amazing, she does it by lifting one side and it does not tip over. Hmmm, the unit is not up to code and is apparently not connected to any conduit or ductwork. No wonder they had to open the window. Hey, wait a minute, this thing had negative mass — it was supposed to float by itself! Shades of Theranos! [4]
Anyhoo, the Dean finally realizes he can exploit Dr. Hustead’s research and ability to sneak into the girl’s dormitory. Elizabeth’s fiancée Ken Waring is strangely absent for most of the episode. There is a barely mentioned sub-plot wherein the Dean is going to evict Hustead and give his lab space to Ken for his ground-breaking Blender research. Elizabeth and Hustead don’t seem bothered by this. Then, when Dr. Hustead earns the right to stay, Ken does not seem upset by the cancellation of Operation Purée.
Dr. Hustead jokes that after the wedding, Ken can use the device to carry Elizabeth’s fat ass across the threshold, which seems gratuitous and out of character. Although, to be fair the audio was a little garbled. [3]
I rate it 2500 BTUs. I mean ATUs — we buy American in this house!
Other Stuff:
- [1] I’m not even sure what the first would be. I guess this is a good set-up for a funny joke, but this is neither the time nor the place.
- [2] The narrator tells us, “They were not able to make the disc float as high as it went before.” C’mon SFT, that’s not how negative gravity works. If it floats even a little, it will keep going until out of the grasp/push of the Earth’s gravity.
- [2] He also says, “It remained slightly tipped with respect to the vertical.” Well, it is wobbling, but flat like the Jupiter II, not like the spaceships in Arrival. So wouldn’t it be “with respect to the horizontal?” Or why not just say it wobbled, Dr. Fancypants?
- [3] OK, he did make the threshold joke, but her derrière was admirably proportional.
- [4] Pop Quiz, Hotshot: Is this a) an Elizabeth Holmes reference, b) a Marvel movie reference, or c) an exclamation by Perry White?
- Title Analysis: The 2nd consecutive Fail. It is not zero gravity, it is negative gravity. Or gravity negative, to follow the pretentious, Yoda-esque template of the title.
- Available online, but why would ya?