Just when we thought it was safe to leave the airlock, and that the ship was on even terms, we get another alien threat that rocks the crew of the Destiny to its core… In the form of some alien TICKS! I’m sorry, but the thought of having any type of parasite on me, plus said parasite making me hallucinate, is freaking nerve-wracking to me…
Sex Is A Helluva Thing…
While the Destiny is in FTL, Scott and VANESSA are going at it HARD in the sack. We are talking balls to the wall type sex here and if I didn’t know any better, I would say it was some serious angry make up sex mixed in as well. Before you can wrap your mind around the “hows”, “whys”, and “WTFs” of the situation, Scott finishes and immediately wants to toss Vanessa into a corner like a lonely, crusty gym sock. But Vanessa is not going after that “Wam Bam, Thank You, Sir!” sex they just went through, so, she blocks the door. Scott, pissed, wrestles with Vanessa, slamming her on the ground to get her out his way. Vanessa then comes up, grabbing a lantern and smashing the back of Scott’s skull, sending him to the ground with blood flowing from his head. Dead.
Damn, Vanessa, was it THAT good??!??!
Strangeways, Come Our Way…
Volker gets ready to go on duty, but can’t get his door to open so he can leave the room. After pressing the door switch plenty of
times, Volker is “rescued” by Riley, who opens the door with ease.
Greer notices that Camile is working on a console in the Gate Room and asks what is her business there. He is highly suspicious and Camile is highly secretive. She claims Dr. Rush and Col. Young both know about the work she is doing, which is accessing personnel files, in the Gate Room. Greer lets her slide… for now.
Vanessa gets a call from Col. Young to report to duty, but she is deep in shock as overlooks the dead body of her comrade/ex-lover that she can’t move. A soldier begins to feel as if something snake like is crawling in his arm. And finally, the REAL Scott starts to see visions of his son Matthew running through the halls of the ship.
See the pattern growing?
Volker’s hallucinations get severe as his living quarters become coffin sized. He starts to freak out. The soldier who felt that a snake was crawling in his arm has literally started to dig and claw into his own flesh to “get it out”. Scott continues to see Matthew, and Greer has reported to Col. Young about the mysterious job Camile was doing in the Gate Room. Col. Young confronts Dr. Rush and Camile about their actions, which they don’t have any idea what the hell Greer is talking about. During dinner with Eli, Chloe and Riley, Greer spies on ‘Camile and Rush’ and starts to follow them. Meanwhile, Dr. Rush starts to feel as if someone is watching and following him.
Should we go back to the airlock, folks?
Everyone’s Sudden Ticks Are Caused By… Ticks.
When Col. Young finds Vanessa in a fetal position claiming she didn’t mean to kill ‘Scott’, the Colonel has Scott come prove to
Vanessa that he’s fine. Then everybody quickly deduces that Scott, Vanessa, Dr. Volker, and the soldier who clawed his arm out were all a part of a recent away team that might’ve contracted some sort of a hallucinant toxin. After talking with a few more people, Col. Young tells Chloe that he will be quarantining the away team. TJ calls him back to the infirmary to show her latest discovery that might be the culprit of their newfound problem – alien ticks. Wow.
The ticks has lodged themselves into the base of each person’s neck and seem to have the same qualities of Earth ticks. Scott volunteers to go first in trying to remove the tick, because he wants to get over the guilt of his son asking why did Scott leave him. But the removal attempt sends Scott in a state of shock, because the tick burrows itself deeper in his skin. The result seems to have released more toxin into his system, knocking him out in the process.
Disturbia – Paranoia Intensified
Greer has gone super commando in following ‘Camile’ and ‘Dr. Rush’. He stumbles upon their ‘secret meeting’ and starts to demand answers. Both ‘civilians’ start to test Greer’s buttons, making him think that the civilians are taking over the ship again. When they ignore Greer’s warnings and walk off, ‘Camile’ gives Greer a smart ass smirk that sends Greer on the edge. Seems like this man’s tick is on some super duper steroids.
Meanwhile, Chloe has come across the ghostly apparition of her father, Senator Armstrong, who quickly wins over Chloe’s heart and knocking her sanity out of whack. She starts to reconnect with him, informing her father of the events that followed after his death. ‘Senator Armstrong’ beams that his daughter has become a resourceful young woman, which he always knew she would be. Uh Oh…
In the infirmary, TJ has figured out using an anesthetic on the tick for a quick and easy removal. She checks on Scott, but finds that the tick has left his body!!! TJ then checks the others in quarantine and Volker’s tick is gone as well. There’s still room in th airlock folks, but please bring some bug spray when you come!
Eli finds Chloe talking to herself and immediately tries to get her to report to the infirmary to have the tick removed. Chloe pleads that she is not insane and knows what is happening to her, but needs this closure and begs for Eli to back off. TJ and the others realize that Chloe is the latest host for the tick and Scott goes to retrieve her. When he finds her, Eli acts as a “guard” who quickly turns to a “snitch and the two haul Chloe back to the infirmary against her wishes.
Meanwhile, Dr. Rush is still ‘running’ from his stalker, who he presumes is Greer, but after hallucinating that he is put into a tank that fills with water pretty quickly, we can easily surmise the figure of Dr. Rush’s nightmarish visions – the hostile aliens.
The Reckoning
As TJ administers the anesthetic on Vanessa’s tick, the trick works and the bug is easily removed. A success!!!
Dr. Rush is running for his life and is own his own. He is seeing ‘the aliens’ invading the ship and his radio will not work. While he is running, Dr. Rush almost runs into Greer and Camile, who is perturbed by Greer’s presence and his behavior. In Dr. Rush’s eyes, though, Greer and Camile are both ‘aliens’ and when Greer spots him, Dr. Rush runs away, giving Greer the urge to search and destroy.
Back in the infirmary, Chloe bids a tearful farewell to her father as the tick is removed. The group thinks that all the ticks have been accounted for, but when Greer radios in with crazy talk that the civilians are plotting to take over the ship, their problems have just escalated to possible “Jason X” proportions with Greer’s dial set to kill. I’m sorry that I used that move as an analogy, but I don’t think “Alien” would’ve worked given the scenario. Well… Moving on!
Col. Young orders for Greer to stand down, but Greer’s hallucinations interpret the Colonel’s orders as to snuff out the enemy by any means necessary and to go on radio silence. Greer listens to his head and not the actual Colonel. Oh, $%*#!!!! Col. Young immediately orders a ship-wide examination to see how many ticks have affected the crew. Meanwhile, Camile follows Greer, watching as he pulls his gun for the hunt for Dr. Rush.
Dr. Rush runs into a supply room and Greer follows. The scene is tense now that Dr. Rush has a screwdriver ready to ram it into
“the alien”/Greer. When the “alien” spots him, Dr. Rush attacks and stabs CAMILE IN HER SHOULDER!!!! Greer comes and knocks Dr. Rush out and then shoots the door mechanism so they can’t escape. He holds the gun up to Camile ready to blow her brains out for “trying to take over the ship again”.
In the infirmary, Col. Young fusses over TJ’s well-being to the point that if people don’t know that he’s the father to TJ’s baby, then they are all delusional and extraterrestrial ticks are the least of their worry. When he leaves, Eli and Dr. Volker theorize that the ticks activated the limbic system, where the brain houses a person’s emotions. They then conclude that as truth when Dr. Volker mentions his claustrophobia, Chloe admits to her father issues, the soldier’s fear of snakes, but when they get to Vanessa, she just glances at Chloe guiltily and doesn’t say a word. Throw in Dr. Rush’s apparent trauma with aliens, you have to ask your self that by this theory being true, what the hell is Greer’s excuse?
As Greer points the gun at Camile, he “talks” to ‘Col. Young’ about ending the insurrection once and for all. Scott’s team has showed up outside the storage room and set up some C-4 to blow their way in, which I think is kinda reckless since they don’t necessarily know Camile and Greer’s exact position from the door, plus the fact that they have no clue Dr. Rush is in the room as well. But desperate times call for extreme measures cause Greer has frakking lost it. As Camile pleads, bloody and all, who so happens to appear in Greer’s hallucination? Greer’s father, commanding his son to “do it”, meaning to blow Camile’s brains out. Greer aims the gun, but Dr. Rush regains consciousness and knocks Greer down with a pipe. At the same time, the explosives go off sending both men on the ground. Scott and team subdue Greer, but Dr. Rush still thinks that they’re aliens and goes on the attack. They manage to subdue his ass as well.
“Back To ‘Normal'”
Later, TJ tends to Camile and reports to the Colonel that Camile should be fine and with all the ticks gone now, things should return to “normal”, which Camile rightfully states, “Whatever that is.” What is ‘normal’ you ask, Camile? Well, Vanessa can go back to pining for Scott, Dr. Rush can go back to worrying about the next alien attack, Chloe can go back to mourning her dad, and Greer and Camile can go back to a non-communicative relationship. ‘Normal’ could also stand for returning to do off-world missions in a galaxy that no one knows what to expect and dangers come in various shapes and sizes. That is ‘normal’ aboard the Destiny, Camile.
From The Airlock, to Dr. Brody’s Distillery, and Finally From The Infirmary
Some people might think that this week’s SGU was kinda lame in terms of the problem of the week scenario, but I thought it was a good reminder that even though the last couple of episodes have shown a sense of harmony and cooperation within this little community, they are far from reformed; and it took hallucinant ticks to expose this truth.
– Dr. Rush is still haunted by the aliens and this could prove disastrous for the crew’s sake in the future. You can’t have the top scientist on the ship freeze up when you need him most, which if my sources are correct, will be an almost given in the last three episodes.
– Vanessa’s pining over Scott seems like it is borderline Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction”. While I don’t condone killing of any kind, you have to blame Scott’s wandering ‘you-know-what’ for Vanessa’s near insanity. Plus, throw in Vanessa’s fear of letting down the Colonel and you have another possible basket case on the rise.
– Greer. How disappointed I was of this man this week? Well, we do know now that Greer is NOT over his daddy issues and it might’ve helped enhance his hallucination to the critical meltdown that we witnessed, which, for me, was painful to watch. It seems at this point that he will always be the hothead of the crew, probably never getting any clear sense of understanding of his psyche. But I can’t help but to blame Greer for that. I understand he had a frakked up childhood, but he either needs to let go or deal with his past and move on. If Greer’s father is still talking to him, dictating his thought process then that’s going to be another problem. With that said,I can’t help but wonder after watching “Pain” and “Lost” that if Greer actually has visions/conversations with his dad on a regular basis, which would make sense why his hallucinations were amplified. But the thing I don’t get is Greer’s fear of the ship being taken over. Why would he be that damn worried about that? Hopefully, Col. Young’s influence can be put to some use and help Greer become a better person.
– Seeing Chloe do a complete 180 was another let down, but it wasn’t a complete let down, because I thought it was reasonable that she wanted to give her father a proper goodbye. I don’t know. I just hated how pathetic it made her seem, because believe it or not, Chloe HAS grown a lot and is not just some damsel in distress. She’s helpful and WANTS to help out as evidenced in this episode. Hopefully, Chloe got the closure she deserved, because it was long overdue in my book.
-I might get scorned for calling Eli a “snitch”, but come on, that’s basically what he does. I know he’s the moral center of the group, but I don’t know. Sometimes his moral compass is good, but sometimes it’s off a tick (no pun intended) in terms of the situation. Maybe I have an issue with it, because it showcases him as a two-faced rat to some, which hinders his ability to be trusted among people on the ship. Maybe if he’d stuck by his initial guns and dragged Chloe into the infirmary, instead of him letting his feelings for Chloe drag him down, then I would’ve not had a problem.
So I am sorry for the late recap, but I would still love to hear your thoughts about the episode. I thought it was another fine edition to the show, how about you?
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