Overall Rating: 7.0
I wouldn't say this one bowled me over, but it was at the very least, interesting to watch. And one of my strongest complaints regarding the season opening episode may be addressed soon, which gives me some hope.
Plot Synopsis:
At the end of the previous episode, Destiny encountered an unspecified object that Rush believed was a sign of just how important Destiny's mission was. At the start of today's episode we learn that the object is in fact a seed ship. (a bit of a disappointment, I must admit...that's kind of...well...lame) Destiny docks with the ship and begins receiving data from her. Rush discovers very quickly that the second ship has vast stores of reserve power at her disposal, meaning the two ships working in concert could theoretically dial the gate back to Earth and get everyone home, but he chooses not to tell them. Fortunately, Eli is also pretty smart, and he realizes this a short time later. Now forced to deal with the knowledge openly, Rush formulates a plan to dial the gate, but insists that he be left on the seed ship to help facilitate a power transfer.
Meanwhile, a search team led by Greer, Volker and Scott surveys the seed ship and after being left alone in the control room, Volker encounters an alien creature that looks vaguely like the creature Gollum (though perhaps not as smelly or crazy...LOL). The creature passes out for a short time (perhaps an after-affect from being in stasis for so long), but regains consciousness while TJ and her team of civilians are examining it. They try to communicate (unsuccessfully) and even offer it some food (which the creature evidently does not like). Rush believes the creature to be of no threat to their plans, and, over Young's strong objection, remains on the ship alone while Eli fires up the gate. Not surprisingly, Rush gets shot in the back by an alien stun weapon and the gate powers down a few seconds later. The alien (and a bunch of his friends) have managed to reverse the power transfer and are now stealing Destiny's reserves (d'oh!).
Although Young and Telford have been butting heads ever since the Lucian Alliance incursion, Telford is able to convince Young to let him help with the searching of the alien seed ship, and now, he leads a team to figure out what happened to Rush. When they arrive in the control room, they find Rush and Volker unconscious, but alive. The aliens, however, have scattered. Young orders everyone to fall back to Destiny before they're forced to separate from the seed ship to stop the power transfer, but Telford has a better idea. He asks Eli to talk him through the procedures needed to re-reverse the transfer and get the gate fired up again. However, as their power supplies reach critically low levels aboard Destiny, Rush - after regaining consciousness on the way back to Destiny - sneaks off to HIS control room and separates the ships, stranding Telford forever and allowing Destiny to jump to FTL before it's too late. Of course, if Telford had had just a few seconds more...everyone might have gone home and Rush's dream of learning the secrets of the Ancients might have died. But we'll never know...and the crew still does not know that Rush has much greater control over Destiny than he's letting on.
The Skinny:
It's not an outstanding episode, but this new twist to Rush's story...his Jonah-like obsession with learning from Destiny about the secrets of ascension and the mysteries of the universe and the way in which that obsession has clouded his judgment when it comes to the best interests of the crew...is indeed very interesting to watch. I was also very encouraged to learn that Chloe's magical leg-healing trick does not seem to have been a dropped plot thread or a matter of expedience. There is, apparently, SOME reason for it...in fact, her leg has miraculously COMPLETELY healed now and no one can explain how or why...there's some hope, at least, that some higher influence was at work and that we'll get that explanation at some point.
Otherwise, this was just your basic Star Trek: Voyager style false hope actioner. We're marooned far from home, and I'm quite sure there will be several more episodes in which a way home is discovered and then tragically lost. Of course, no one in the audience believes that the writers are going to write themselves out of a job, so no one thinks the crew is likely to get home any time soon...but...c'este la vi.
Writing: 7.0
The writers seem to have found their stride re: Rush's character at least. Most of the rest of their work, to date, is...well...not that interesting...but I'm willing to give them more time to figure things out.
Acting: 7.0
Carlisle is starting to shine a little more brightly than David Blue (he was always the "big gun" in the cast, but I thought Eli had better material for most of the first season...good to see them using their talent more appropriately, even though I still like David Blue as an actor quite a lot). The role of Rush's dead wife as his conscience has also been interesting to observe, and Louis Lombard is doing a nice job with that.
Message: 7.0
The mere fact that even a man like Rush now has an explicit conscience reminding him that his selfish obsession may bring doom to his fellow shipmates aboard Destiny is worth giving some bonus points in an otherwise standard (message-less) action episode.
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