Stargate Universe 1.07 “Earth” Recap

So we learned a lot of stuff about our characters tonight on Stargate Universe and I have to say that it was best offering yet. Of course, some of the sci-fi action types might beg to differ, but this is a character based show and we finally got some depth on the characters we are growing to love (or hate in some opinions) and I felt like I got a feast tonight. How about you?

Dirty, Dirty Colonel!!!

We opened tonight with what looked like Young getting a routine check up from TJ, but he comes on to her saying that he is sorry and never meant to hurt her. TJ passionately kisses him and he kisses back.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?

Col. Young wakes up and realizes that he is late for a meeting. He and Camile use the Ancient Communication Stones to contact Earth. Once there, Lt. Gen. O’Neill (guest star Richard Dean Anderson) reveals that he set a team up to get the Icarus Base survivors back home to Earth.

Hmmm….

The Dilemma of the Week? Col. Telford… and the Crackpot Idea of Going Home

While discussing the plan, which is vaguely explained at first, Col. Young and Camile voice concern on if the plan may work. The scientist who gives the overview says that it is worth a shot, and Telford adds that with the state of the ship and how everything is being handled on the Destiny, the execution of the plan is a must. This coming from a man who has probablyclocked about 10-15 hours tops on the Destiny. Can you sense the disdain I have for Telford?

Col. Young says that he wants to discuss the plan with the people on the Destiny, but Jack O’Neill has a private conference with him stating that he is not asking for Young’s permission on the subject and that it’s a direct order. He also says for Young to don’t worry about the science in the plan and that Young is in command of the ship and shouldn’t have to explain anything to the civilians. I don’t know about that last one, Jack, especially if it involves me possibly losing my life if I was on the ship. Young stays firm with his decision, no matter what they do with him.

Meanwhile, Camile talks to Carl Storm (guest star Carlo Rota, 24), who is the head of the International Oversight Advisory (IOA) and Camile’s superior. He tries to sweet talk Camile, but she sees through his “concern” and asks what does he really want. He asks for her to make the plan happen, because they could replicate the technology to dial the Destiny on a ship in our galaxy without using an Icarus like energy source to do so. Camile asks Carl why isn’t Rush involved in this decision and he says what I and everyone else has felt all along: Rush doesn’t want to come back. At least they think this. Carl also says this could be a career bump for Camile if she does it, which is what this heifer is all about.

The Plan, which Rush is Against

Thanks to Eli and the other characters, the plan is laid out to us. If I mess up in explaining this plan, PLEASE correct me in the comment section and I will add it in. I’m serious.

But the plan is as follows, SG Command feels that they can use the ship as a conduit to draw enough energy from a star while the Destiny powers up, which in theory could help juice the Stargate to have enough power to dial back to Earth. But the next time they could come across a star is months from now since the ship just replenished. Brody and Riley throw in the last vague part of the plan which is draining the power, but how to achieve that goal is the problem.

Rush is against the idea and Young and Camile try to convince him otherwise, but Rush’s ego about the science aspect of the plan serves as the base and he is not stepping down from it.

The Fantastic Voyage Home and The Quest For Male Dominence

Chloe, Eli and Young uses the communication stones again, with this being Eli’s first go at it. Riley assures him that the only way that an connection can be severed is if someone turns off the base of the machine. With Riley going into detail to explain the usage of stones, I can’t help but foreshadow a screw up or glitch later. It’s a given rule.

Telford and the two scientists, McCormick and Williams, working on the plan appear on the Destiny and Telford immediately lets Rush and Scott know that he is in charge now and is implementing a rescue plan. I officially dub Telford as Stargate Universe’s Buzz Killington. Anyone agree with me?

And Telford’s first order of business? Locking up Greer in isolation. Yep. Buzz Killington all right.

On Earth, Jack explains to Young why he ordered the command change, which he cites being Young not really wanting the command of the expedition. Young tells Eli and Chloe the issue at hand, which is that if they screw up the plan on the Destiny, they will die there and that SG Command has given them the chance to visit their families.

Back on the Destiny, Williams, Telford, and Camile explain the plan to the survivors, who are all looking mighty worried. Rush on the other hand is pissed beyond comprehension. Telford later tries to reason with Rush, but Rush still thinks that Telford is making a huge mistake. He explains that with the master code still locked that they can’t access many areas of the Destiny or their functions, which include navigation, propulsion, all the basic essentials in controlling a starship. In other words, if Telford and clan screws up, they might can’t stop the ship from blowing up. Telford reveals that they plan on draining the power of the ship by firing the weapons, which Rush says can rupture and blow the ship up since some of the power conduits are screwed and can’t be reached for repair. Telford tells Rush that they are working on it and I wonder if Telford paid attention to anything Rush said and processed it r if he just hummed a tune in his head until Rush finished.

Eli and Chloe try to deal with their respective visits home. With Chloe, she talks to her mother about how she is still adjusting to the death of her father and so on. But Eli takes a different approach. He lies to his mother and says his name is “Philip Fry” (HA!), a colleague of Eli’s. Eli’s mother buys it, but Eli fumbles over his words several times, especially when his mother reveals that she is proud of him and wants “Philip” to let Eli knows that.

Back on the ship, Brody and Riley repair leaks in the space suits, while Telford bullies Rush into testing the weapons systems, which Williams says that they reverted all 40% of the power to the weapons systems to test the power drain. Rush argues that he wants manual confirmation before he sets something off. Telford says that he is stalling and to get to work. Meanwhile, Riley and Brody see a coolant leak, which they thought they had just fixed. Riley goes in to fix the leak and is shot across the room and is severely injured.

After the incident, Telford says they will continue with the plan as scheduled, despite Rush’s warnings. We learn that Telford never wanted Rush on the expedition and that people feel that Rush is not stable for the job. But Telford says that once Rush gets back to Earth, that SG Command will not let him come back in light of everything that has happened.

On Earth, Eli and Chloe decide to hang out with Chloe’s friends at a concert, with Chloe posing as her cousin for cover. Young goes and visits his wife Emily, who doesn’t want to see him, but Young is adamant. He tells her that he is sorry that he left her and that he wants to be with her in his own body. She relents and falls into his arms crying.

At the said concert, which is of Janelle Monae, Eli is having fun having girls checking him out in Williams body. But I am distracted by Janelle Monae, who looks (and acts) like a female Andre 3000, all the way down to the music. I have heard of her before, but this performance is no “Hey Ya!” and is slightly annoying. Anyway, Chloe finds out that her best friend has snagged her boyfriend while she’s been away and that one of her ‘friends’ is only concerned about his connections on Wall Street via her father. Pretty much life sucks back home for Chloe. Then to add more drama on the plate, her best friend approaches her saying that she needs to talk to Chloe about a lot of things and Chloe looses it and attacks her friend. I bet that Chloe has whooped a many ass in her day.

Now this is when things get weird and just plain wrong…

While Young is having make up sex with his wife, there is a glitch in the communications systems due to the drop out of FTL. Yes, Telford awoke back in his body while Emily was giving him the business, but he returns back after they finish, all in a succession of seconds. While the switcheroos were happening, Young told Scott to shut down the devices, but Telford returns and says that he is command now and to leave the stones on. I can only imagine what was going on in the heads of Young and Telford. Talk about the worst time for a glitch to happen!

Back at the concert, Eli is loving his newfound attention, but Chloe is drunk and is ready to beat her friend Selena’s ass. She eventually gets sick and is ready to go. While they are in the car, Chloe breaks down talking about how her life used to be shallow before she started working for her father. Eli is still on his high about the female attention, but Chloe bursts his bubble by saying that the girl wasn’t actually looking at ‘him’. She then drunkenly kisses Eli, before giving him the Kiss of Death to men everywhere by saying that Eli is a good friend. Game, set, match, Eli.

On the Destiny, Camile tells Rush that people are behind the plan, but thinks it would be safer if Rush was involved. Then they see the cannons being fired and I wonder if that ship that was tracking them is still n their trail? I ask, because the cannon fire could’ve been seen as a threat and a war could have started.

Greer talks to Scott about shutting down the communication stones, but Scott says he can’t because Telford has guards posted 24/7. But do they have guards posted near the Earth communication stones is my question.

Telford finds Rush at the Stargate console, where Rush tells him that he will help them. Telford is pleased.

Back at the Youngs’ residence, Young and Emily have dinner and a drink and Emily says that she was worried about him being on the ship with her, with ‘her’ having to be TJ, knocking my theory of TJ sleeping with Camile soooooo off base. While she continues her explanation, another glitch happens when the Destiny drops out of FTL. The glitch is like five to ten seconds tops and it happens again to Chloe and Eli.

The Destiny approaches another star to regenerate and Williams and McCormick starts dialing the Stargate. The survivors all pile up in the Gate Room and the gate starts acting up, shooting lightening and screwing with the shields. The gate gets so unstable that Williams tells Telford that they need to shut it down.Telford relents, but the shut down sequence won’t work.

Then Telford, McCormick, and Williams make a run for it!!!!!

GET THE FRAK OUT OF HERE!!!!!!

Scott calls out to them, but they are gone. Brody takes one look at Rush and follows the three turncoats. Scott runs to Rush and demands that he does something. Rush picks up his walkie-talkie and gets confirmation that Telford and friends were gone.

Then he shuts down the staged production of the ship exploding.

“What?” is the look on everyone’s face, including mine.

Rush calls attention to everyone and tells them that they will not be going home today and that they will not die. Camile and TJ declare that he faked the whole thing to get rid of Telford, and Rush says it had to be done and that they would have indeed died if he had not of put in some safety protocols. Scott argues that Rush should have warned them, but Rush replies that he didn’t know who was on his side and who he could have trusted. So on the fence with this one…

Conclusions – Telford Stinks!!!

Back at the Pentagon on Earth, Young debriefs the officials on the cowardly carelessness of Telford and the two scientists, stating that Telford ran leaving no command and taking the two people who were responsible for the catastrophe. Carl states that there was no point in losing three lives if they didn’t have to and the look on Jack face shows that he either disagreed with that statement or was appalled that Carl could be so heartless. I’m going with both. After Jack ‘defends’ that Telford was following orders, Young only asks that personal visits by all the survivors be made possible. Carl says that “it depends”, but Jack grants the request.

What the hell happened to the leadership within the SGC since we last saw them? Surely, they haven’t completely morphed into power hungry mongrels who think that SG teams (and civilians) are expendable assets in the name of science?

The show closes with Young giving everybody the “Live Together, Die Alone” speech on survival. Eli rewatches the speech from the Kino when Young approaches him, asking for Eli to go over the data and to see if Rush is hiding anything.

Back on Earth, Emily hears a knock at the door and answers it to find Telford standing on the other side. I got two theories for this one: A) Telford is going to act as if he is Young and Emily will not have a clue or B) Telford and Emily are already fooling around.

What’s your assumption?

Kino Vision

– Young gives the ‘Live Together, Die Alone’ speech with everyone in attendance. I would love to see this in its entirety.

Observations

– Telford is a frakking idiot and I can’t stand him. I would have understood if he was just trying to help out with the situation, but was going about it the wrong way. But as soon as he put Greer back in lockdown, I knew this was a personal mission to him and that he wanted control from gate. To be honest, I trust Rush more than I do Telford and you guys know I can’t stand Rush that much. I don’t know if Telford and Young have beef between them prior the Icarus Base incident, but this is not the time, place, or situation to be playing with people’s lives in order to settle an old score. But if Telford is/has gotten with Emily then I think he has done the worst thing possible to Young, and if he hasn’t, then Telford will have that dirt squared off in no time.

– So Eli has been branded “the friend”. So much for that love triangle, but I give Scott a few more weeks before he finds another flavor of the moment honey and Chloe will be puddy in Eli’s arms in a second.

– Rush. What can I say? I am really on the fence about his actions the last two weeks and I am still on teeter and no where near selecting a side. Would the gate had of worked of Rush hadn’t put on the theatrics? I doubt it, because the two scientists couldn’t have possibly gotten a lot of information in the short amount of time there or back on Earth with the random debriefings from Young, who we all know doesn’t know crap about the science of the Stargates. Am I saying that Rush completely knows what he is doing? No. But I would trust the person who has been on the problem from Day One than someone who has come in on a hunch.

Enough of my rants, what do you guys have to say?