Stargate Universe 1.14 “Human” Recap

Last night’s SGU bounced back with one of the best episodes of the series to date. We finally found out what makes Dr. Rush tick, and the answer gave me a new view of the ‘mad’ doctor that might change everything. Meanwhile, an offworld team is in peril. I mean REAL peril.

The Set Up

Rush awakes in his bed… No, not his bed on the Destiny, but his bed at home. No, he’s not using the communication stones, but this is a flashback. He stares adoringly at a woman laying beside him and I presume this is his significant other, Gloria (guest star Louise Lombard). He gets up, immediately writes some notes in a notepad and leaves the room.

Gloria appears in the kitchen, noticing that Rush is acting weird. She reminds him of a doctor’s appointment, to which Rush says he can’t make it to. This hurts Gloria. Rush, who has been scribbling the number 4 on things, leaves and enters his home office, which is cluttered wall to wall with notes and books. He proceeds to write on his dry erase board his latest calculations. Lost yet?

We then jump to Rush teaching a college class, but his vision is literally bombarded with symbols, while his hearing is blasted with classical music. After class, Rush is approached by a colleague named Constance, who is surprised to see him at school when Gloria needs him the most at the doctor appointment, which turns out to be an oncologist appointment. Wow. Rush practically blows off the woman, showing little to no interest in what she is talking about. Double WOW.

While Rush sits in his office, the images still bombard his peripheral. He notices a door, but doesn’t move to open it. Gloria calls with news that the tumors are back and she is distraught. Rush is still writing down notes and is preoccupied, especially since the door he was looking at has disappeared. Hmmm…

The next day, the number “46” on a license plate catches Rush’s eye while walking. As he writes it down, he is stopped by Dr. Daniel Jackson (special guest star Michael Shanks), who introduces himself to Rush. Huh? Rush tells Daniel that he doesn’t have time for any of this, but when Daniel persists, Rush reveals that he knows Daniel is about to ask about the SG program, the ninth chevron and the Icarus Project. How does Rush know all this? Because their meeting, along with everything after it, has already happened and this is just a dream that Rush has to endure to get the information that he needs. Oh, Rush, you didn’t…? Yep.

Flash to the Destiny, where the good doctor Rush sits comatose in the Ancient chair that took Franklin out of commission earlier this season. Col. Young walks in with Eli and demands to know what the hell is going on.

Uh-oh…

This Must Be The Place: The Nicholas Rush Story

Col. Young demands for Brody, who helped Dr. Rush with this latest ‘scheme’, to explain everything that has happened as well as the possible fallout that could occur. Brody reveals that he and Rush came up with a program that would pretty much slow down the intake of knowledge, so that Rush could take the process while dreaming. The stakes at hand? 1) Rush can only come out of the dream on his own will through a ‘prompt key’, which is the mysterious door that keeps popping up. 2) Rush cannot be unplugged from the device since it could possibly do damage to both Rush and the Destiny, which Brody has no clue on how bad said damage could be. Col. Young makes it known that if Dr. Rush’s latest attempt puts the ship into any danger then he will order for the machine to be shut down, whether Dr. Rush makes it or not.

Back in Dr. Rush’s dream, he comes home to find Constance and Gloria talking about Gloria’s condition, but he dodges into his office. Constance follows Dr. Rush into the room and berates him for his behavior. He tries to explain that he is super busy, but Constance feels that his priorities are not in check and that he needs to tend to his dying wife, who wants to go home for one last time with Dr. Rush at her side. As Dr. Rush claims he can’t leave at the moment, Gloria overhears this and walks away.

Dr. Rush continues his search for a clue to control the Destiny, but this time he enlists the help of his cryptology class to help break the mother of all codes, a ‘proto-encryption’. One student remarks that without a base, the code is impossible to break. Since all of the students are figments of his imagination, Dr. Rush gets pissed and kicks them out of class. Afterwards Dr. Daniel Jackson shows up again, asking if Dr. Rush gave a second thought to what they discussed earlier. Dr. Rush then vents his frustrations about how he spent all his time trying to decipher the code to unlocking the ninth chevron while Gloria was dying to only get bested by a mediocrely educated kid. Seems like someone has some pent up anger. Daniel tries to get Dr. Rush to take some time to be with Gloria, but it falls on deaf ears. Immediately afterwards, Dr. Rush’s nose starts to bleed.

Later in the dream, Gloria tries to talk to Dr. Rush over dinner, but he is still engrossed in his work, not paying attention to her. She then tells him that even though he has changed many things in the past, he can’t change what happened to her and that he shouldn’t let that hold him back from his quest. Then begins a montage of Dr. Rush and Gloria spending time with each other, but Dr. Rush is constantly scribbling in his pad. They sit in a park while Dr. Rush counts the birds in a flock, he scribbles notes in church, and while he waits for Gloria in the hospital waiting room. It’s pretty sad, yall…

Daniel stops by Dr. Rush’s house later to drop information that an informant in the Lucian Alliance that gave the coordinates for the planet that the Icarus Project will eventually use. Dr. Rush asks if Daniel could read the equations on the board, but Daniel says he can’t. Dr. Rush is ready to enter the door (which has popped up again)and give up, but Daniel asks about Gloria and that stops Dr. Rush in his tracks. Bingo.

Dr. Rush asks Daniel what is the date and Daniel reveals that it is April 6th. After Dr. Rush thinks on it a bit, April 6 can stand for 4/6 or “46”. As in the 46 on the license plate, Gloria’s patient number, the count of the birds in the park, etc. Daniel brings up the theory of the number 23 and how everything tends to revolve around it, since 46 divided by 2 is 23. Dr. Rush then starts to have headaches and collapses.

We then flash to the Destiny, where he is having a “cardiac event”, which TJ thinks is grounds to remove Dr. Rush immediately. Col. Young has two dilemmas on his hands and needs Dr. Rush to get the code to the Destiny’s controls to solve the other dilemma (more on that crazy incident later).

Back in the dream, Dr. Rush visits Gloria on her death bed and this is where things get teary-eyed. I cannot possibly do this scene any justice, so, bare with me in trying to describe it.

Gloria tells Dr. Rush that he is not there for her, but rather to get what he came for. He says that he has already been through this before, but Gloria corrects him, saying that he chose that particular memory, because it’s one he would rather forget. She then asks if Dr. Rush would rather die than fail, and says that the recent things he’s done doesn’t define his character. Dr. Rush tries to make up an excuse for his behavior, but Gloria berates him for hurting other people out of his anger of losing her, no matter if he told himself that it came with his job. When Gloria declares that Dr. Rush is not the man she had come to love, he claims that that man died with her. She tells him that he can’t let her death kill him as well and that he needs to start listening to his own conscience again. She touches on the love they had and how some people will go on living without that feeling, begging him to pretty much do that love justice and to honor it. Dr. Rush is in tears now, and Lord knows that I am not too far behind myself.

Gloria then says that it was a stupid gene that was passed down from her mother that didn’t do the function it was supposed to do. Dr. Rush gets it now (I don’t) and Gloria tells him to go and that she does know how much he loved her. Dr. Rush enters the door back into reality or what I would like to call: “The Craziness.”

Back on the Destiny, Col. Young asks Dr. Rush if he can help stop the ship from jumping into FTL, but Dr. Rush says he can’t do anything about that. Why would Col. Young need the Destiny to be delayed from going into FTL? Read on.

Trapped in the Rubble…

In the mess hall, Chloe sees that Eli has decided to not sit with her at the table. So, like a hurt little school girl, she approaches Eli and asks if they are still cool, despite all the recent drama and betrayal she has caused. Eli tries to play it off, but we know he was happy as hell to have Chloe running after him for once, even if it is just for his friendship. The ship suddenly drops out of FTL and the two decide to go see what’s going on.

When they reach the Gate Room, Col. Young, Scott, and Greer display the Kino footage of the planet that has Greek type ruins in the area. Col. Young orders Greer and Scott to suit up, but Chloe and Eli throw in their bid to join the two soldiers. Chloe’s reasoning is because she has been studying Dr. Daniel Jackson’s work and could probably be of some assistance. Way to go, Chloe, for being all useful and stuff for once!

When the four get to the planet, they see an underground entrance that goes up under the ruins. Eli sends the Kino down there, but since the temple has so many different walls and turns, he loses sight of it and can’t fly it out. He tries to mask his faux pas by claiming there might be something of use to them down there and that they should investigate. Greer doesn’t want to go, but says that he will have their backs. Eli makes a small crack about Greer being scared, and God Almighty, Greer looks as if he is going to end the poor kid’s life for saying that (I mean the guy went into silent Terminator mode). After Scott snaps Greer out of kill mode, he mentions to Eli that Greer is a little claustrophobic. As they enter the cavern, Greer starts to have flashes of him being a kid trapped in what looks to be a closet. Was he trapped or was he put there? I’m just excited that he is about to get a backstory, but moving on…

The team ends up not finding too much of anything except a lot of spider webs. They decide to head back until Greer spots something behind Chloe. A BIG ASS SPIDER THE SIZE OF A DAMN DOBERMAN!!!!!! Greer shoots and kills the damn thing, but the noise of the shot causes a cave in and the group’s exit is blocked by rubble. Uh-oh…

Scott sends word of their predicament back to the Destiny and Col. Young, who sends a team lead by Volker and Vanessa James to help get them out. But the clock is ticking at two hours and counting before the Destiny jumps back into FTL. When digging doesn’t work, Vanessa and Volker decide to use C-4, but that only enhances the problem by caving in other areas of the cavern and not making a dent on the entrance. Scott then orders Vanessa’s team back to the Destiny so they won’t get left behind.

After Rush tells Col. Young that there is nothing he can do, the Colonel has the heartbreaking task of telling Scott, Eli, Chloe and Greer that they did all they could do. The four listen in horror as the Destiny jumps without them. Oh CRAP!!!!

Later, Dr. Rush reports to Col. Young that he might have found a way to command the ship and goes on to explain, with the help of Volker and Brody, that now that they have a base (the #46), they can try to crack the code to unlock the ship fully. They better hurry the hell up…

From Inside The Airlock…

– This had to be one the best character studies I have ever seen on screen. A sharp contrast to last week’s episode, “Human” gave us a basis for the madness that drives Dr. Nicholas Rush to do the crap that he does, and it makes sense. The inclusion of Daniel Jackson as a messenger/guide to Rush was nicely done and wasn’t just a crossover gimmick. Who else but Daniel Jackson could have led Rush to the path to find the answer that he was looking for? Sure as hell not McKay. God, could you imagine that blood bath between McKay and Rush? The Battle of the Inflated Egos, indeed!

– It was painful as hell to see Gloria Rush sitting there dying in front of us while Rush worked on trying to figure out the right equation. It goes to show that people look all over the place for something and don’t estimate that the answer is right in front of them. I called the number 46 being a significance when Rush ran into it on the license plate and was giddy when Daniel confirmed my suspicions with the date of April 4th. Kudos to the writers (and everyone involved) for their work in this outing.

– There is so much that I want to ask, but don’t know where to begin so I am just going to list the questions: 1) Did Rush pick his dreams and, if so, why this time period? I know that Gloria said that he did it because it was the one thing he wish he could forget, but if Rush was worried about distractions, then why not go with another set of memories? 2) When Rush shouted to his class that they were him, did that also mean that Gloria, Constance, and Daniel also were figments of him as well?

– That Lucian Alliance blurb that Daniel dropped was not just some random piece of info. Expect it to come up again soon.

– Greer has a back story and I am thrilled to see how it will play out.

Well as I go prepare for a tornado, please leave your thoughts. I am always eager to read them.

Till next week!