Overall Rating: 8.8
Several eye-opening moments involving Eli's interactions with the crew, an engaging plot that's keeping me guessing, I must admit, and maddening cliff-hanger - on the whole, your typical Gate half-season send-off, but a whole lot more meaningful on a personal level. Gotta appreciate that.
Plot Synopsis:
Urcini - Destiny picks up on some faint energy readings about a day off Destiny's plotted course to the edge of nowhere and Rush pushes for the crew to investigate, hoping to find something useful to the mission. When they arrive, they discover the remains of an ancient battle - ships strewn all over the region in pieces, no signs of life and only faint EM signals. Rush again urges Young to order an investigation - this time by shuttle, and reluctantly, Young agrees. He sends Scott, Greer, and Brody out to have a look at what appears to be a fully-intact alien vessel, and they find nothing of consequence. Their passage through the debris, however, awakens one of the craft within and that ship gathers about a zillion of its' unmanned drone buddies and heads back to Destiny to resume blowing stuff up for, apparently, no reason. A fun scramble to get the shuttle back to Destiny and jump to FTL ends in disaster as the ship's FTL drive becomes compromised in the hopelessly one-sided battle.
BUT! - Telford swoops in to save the day in the seed ship we last saw some three episodes ago. Apparently, the aliens that tried to drain Destiny's power - a group of skeleton-looking critters calling themselves the Urcini - weren't entirely hostile. As it turns out, they're struggling to protect a dying civilization from the same drones that nearly made mincemeat out of Destiny and were just looking for any way they could to get back home and give the drones a black eye - so to speak. Eventually, Telford managed to befriend the aliens and convince them to hunt down Destiny and here he is! He leads Destiny into the nearest star and the drones pursuing them find it a bit too hot to handle. However, more will soon be on their way so a plan is forged to jump the seed ship with Destiny attached and get them to a safer area.
Of course, Chloe, now half-human, half-evil (LOL), knows from her lizard-brained size that the Urcini can't be trusted, and she is proven correct. The little bastards lead us right to the hive mind where they ask us to target the control ship while a fresh batch of drones pound the crap out of us. Awesome plan, guys...awesome. When last we see Destiny, she's surrounded by drones, her shields are failing, and we need another well-timed miracle to survive.
Eli - Still reeling from the loss of Ginn, Eli is distracted and making all kinds of stupid mistakes at his post on the bridge. He shows up late for shifts, ignores friendly advice from colleagues, and gives Rush some attitude when he calls him on it. What's interesting about this side plot is that Eli gets some very different advice from various sources. From Camille (in her typically banal, superficial, bleeding-heart way) he hears that he should allow himself to grieve for Ginn in the same way that he grieved for Riley (as though a woman he was falling for would have the same impact as a soldier who was an acquaintance only by proximity). While his words for Riley are certainly true, I don't think Camille quite realized the difficulty Eli faced in reacting to Ginn's death. Understandably, he bristles at her cliched attempts at counseling and heads back to the bridge without another word.
From Rush, however, he gets a very different message. To get his attention, Rush provokes him with some harsh words about how he couldn't save Ginn from her fate. He then assures Eli that even if he'd gotten his revenge on Simeon, it wouldn't have changed a damned thing (and of course, he should know). Finally, he suggests that the platitude to which we all adhere that all humans are equal is nonsense and that the day Eli embraces the idea that he's better than his shipmates and maximizes his potential is the day he'll finally succeed. Basically, he encourages Eli to be the bully and instead of being bullied. More on this later.
Chloe - Finally we have Chloe's transformation. More and more of her human skin is being replaced with alien scales and she spends more and more time blacked out or aware of alien imagery. She knows she's slipping away and tries once again to convince Matt to stop visiting her. From her perspective, it's a constant reminder that they can't be close the way they once were, and that's too much to handle. He seems unwilling to accept it, but when Destiny comes under attack by drones, Chloe escapes confinement (with some unwitting help from Eli) and does something to the ship (we don't know what yet). No matter what happens, her unnaturally increased strength is making her a serious threat and the time may soon come when Young is forced to abandon her.
The Skinny:
The action plot is entertaining, and we all, of course, want to know how Destiny is going to get itself out of this drone war in one piece. But that's just an interesting backdrop to a much more meaningful series of character moments for Eli, Rush and Chloe. Chloe's slide into oblivion (or something else, we're not sure how this will end) is interesting, but not really grabbing my attention the way that Eli's stuff does, perhaps because I haven't fully bought into the romance between her and Scott. Still, I think Elyse Levesque did an outstanding job portraying the pain it causes her to have to give up on her relationship with Matt to spare her from the pain of losing him a day at a time and to spare him the pain of losing her slowly and helplessly watching her become something dangerous.
To Rush, I have just one question. You believe you are superior to your fellow men. Why then, are so many of them able to experience happiness and contentment and you are miserable beyond description? I wholeheartedly agree that all humans are not created IDENTICALLY. We have different strengths and weaknesses that make some of us inherently more talented than others, depending on the situation. There is, however, a difference between absolute equality and equal VALUE. I sincerely hope that Eli does not make the mistake of listening to Rush. The minute he begins to think he's more valuable than his shipmates is the minute he loses all hope of real happiness.
What is most encouraging about all of this work for Eli, though, is that he's now gotten different advice from three of his most trusted colleagues aboard ship, and the writers give each perspective fair voice and serious merit. I, personally, think "expressing your grief" (the psycho-babble belief that healing begins when a person expresses their deep sorrow and pain over losing someone) is overrated as the cure-all in modern media. I think getting those emotions out is a personal experience best done however it seems right to the person doing the grieving. Hence, I am not all that enamored with Camille's advice...I think that's not really her business...I think Eli will grieve when he knows how - for Ginn, it's a much tougher task than it was for Riley. But I do think it's important that all of these viewpoints get expressed and that Eli assimilates all of it and acts in a way of his own choosing. That's fascinating to me as a viewer. Much more interesting than any treatment of grief I've ever witnessed in Gate canon with the possible exception of the two-part smash hit "Heroes" by SG-1.
Writing: 9.0
A serviceable (and thrilling) action plot plus some very memorable snippets of dialogue leave me quite satisfied that this show is in good hands.
Acting: 10.0
The standouts this week - Elyse Levesque, David Blue, Robert Carlyle, and (here's a shocker)...Ming Na! Hey...she didn't suck for once! She was supposed to be a huge coup for the Gate producers to get signed, but I've never understood why. Today, however, she did very well with what she was given.
Message: 7.5
I'm being a tad cautious here...my reaction to the personal stuff in this episode will depend heavily on future events...how Eli chooses to act on the advice he's gotten will shape my opinion of the specific words uttered. I was, however, impressed with the variety of ideas the writers were able to express and the skill with which they were all written. This isn't some one-note Trek script!
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