Everyone in the town of Eureka is losing their memories, and if they don't regain them soon, Jack and Allison will be obliterated due to the ultimate spring clean! What better time for... a clip show?
I'll admit it; as soon as I realized that "You Don't Know Jack" was less a real episode and more an excuse to save budget by giving an excuse for a clip show, I kind of switched off a little; if the show's creators weren't giving the episode their all, after all, why should I? But midway through the episode, I was hooked again, anyway. Yeah, half the episode was throwaway clip show, but the other half was... well, it was a Eureka episode, with a ridiculous hook and faux danger, but done with their usual humor and character. Just more rushed, and less developed, than usual.
If nothing else, you have to give the writers credit for pushing a major event into what could've been an otherwise entirely skippable episode: The birth of Jenna Stark, Allison's baby, is something that weirdly feels oddly overdue - perhaps because we're used to television-time pregnancies? - but surprising, nonetheless. Maybe I'm too used to the show's flair for the dramatic, but seeing her born without two heads, laser beams shooting from her eyes or some kind of life-threatening illness that has to immediately be dealt with wasn't what I expected, in a good way. Maybe it's because we're heading into the last couple of episodes of the season and this is time to clear decks and give people their last happy endings for awhile, but the episode ended up being a nice, and welcome, palate cleanser reminding you why you like the show even as it frustrated by being an sneaky Greatest Hits package.
Better luck next time, perhaps?