Carter is proud that Zoe has been invited into the accelerated physics program. Zoe fears she will have no life but physics.
Zoe is not the only one feeling pressured. The annual dog show is coming up and, as Jo Lupo tells Carter, competition is ruthless. The dogs are biomimetic and the prize goes to the inventor who can build the most life-like entry. Carol Taylor's Fifi was Best in Show for the last two years. She wants a third win but faces serious competition from Dr. Anne Young and Thunder. When the dogs meet, Fifi falls apart, literally. Surprisingly, Eva Thorne wants Carter to investigate this mishap.
While Jo and Carter investigate a possible lab break-in, the building shakes violently. Oddly, only Carter experiences this earthquake. Later, Allison tells him an earthquake in Eureka is virtually impossible.
Fargo suggests Carter check with Dr. Hood, Eureka's retired geologist, about the apparent quake.
Initially, Hood is dubious, but later he erupts out of Main St. in his tunneler and says pressure is building somewhere beneath Eureka.
He begins to investigate as Carter goes back to the destroyed-dog case and immediately finds a second biomimetic victim.
Another earthquake brings Allison, in the midst of her wedding preparations, and Carter to a field where Dr. Hood correctly predicts a mud geyser. Now even Stark concedes the existence of a magma pocket under the town. In their own version of Journey to the Center of the Earth, Carter and Stark tunnel under Eureka in a desperate bid to release the deadly pressure.