Spoiler Warning: Do not read this post unless you have seen the episode or don’t mind spoilers

One Sentence Review

A slow but enjoyable episode with more suspicions raised about Rush and a conclusion I expected but was fun nonetheless

Episode Recap

Due to the Destiny heading directly towards a star, Col Young announces a lottery to determine 15 of 17 passengers for the sole serviceable shuttle which will head to one of the planets in the system, with the remaining 2 people determined by him. Young and Rush both withdraw from the lottery meaning they will die on the Destiny.

The rest of the crew then talk amongst themselves, Eli then witnesses Lt Scott and Chloe share an embrace before they head off together to a set of quarters were they sleep together. A little later Eli talks with several people about how he is using a Keyno to make memorial messages and is surprised when Lt Scott and Chloe join them.

At the lottery drawing, Young announces that the 2 people he chose where Lt Scott and Lt Johansen due to Lt Scott piloting skills and Johansen’s training as a medic. After the lottery is finished Sergeant Spencer attempts to cause trouble due to the shuttle being able to hold more people though its life support is limited to 17. Sergeant Greer soon stops him by knocking him out with a single punch. Once everyone is aboard the shuttle departs and Eli’s Keyno is released into space allowing the people on board to see what the Destiny looks like.

Before the Destiny is destroyed Col Young takes the time to tour the ship and he talks with Sgt Greer where we learn that the reason he was in the brig was for hitting Col Telford and they both agree that Telford had it coming.

As the people left on the Destiny prepare for the end Rush realises that they should probably already be dead. He then checks some readings which cause him to rush to the observation deck where he bursts into laughter in front of Eli and Chloe before telling them that he was wrong and they are not going to live. It turns out the Destiny was going to the star to recharge and the power starts to return throughout the ship.

As the Destiny leaves the star, they contact the shuttle to return. There is a problem though as the shuttle cant catch up in time. In order to catch up the shuttle has to do a sling shot manoeuvre around the planet they were heading too. This works and the shuttle manages to return in time.

Later as they celebrate their survival in the mess hall, Young tries to thank and apologise to Rush for recent events. Rush is surprisingly reluctant to accept this especially a part about Rush being selfless in not entering the lottery, this leads Young to wonder if Rush had known all along what the Destiny was going to survive.

Thoughts and Analysis

I was initially worried about how this two parter would turn out given the lackluster conclusion to Air and because I heard that this and Darkness were initially a single episode. Fortunately my misgivings were unwarranted and while Darkness and Light were not the best episodes of TV that I have watched they were solid.

Unfortunately my initial misgivings about Lt Scott’s “Kirkishness” were valid when he slept with his 2nd Destiny crew member in 5 episodes which is probably less than a week in the SGUverse. Now Chloe sleeping with him so soon after meeting him is understandable as Lt Scott is quite good looking, she is bereaved and he was kind towards her and to cap things off Chloe thinks she is about to die.

For Scott however this behaviour is either stupid or reprehensible as he has or possibly had until he pretended not to know her a few days earlier a sexual relationship with Lt Vanessa James, he was also recently reminded about a mistake he made when a teenager when he got his girlfriend pregnant. To cap things off while Chloe is a “willing partner” in this she would be emotionally vulnerable at the time due to thinking she was going to die and recently loosing her father.

I am inclined to believe that the writers intend Scott to be stupid rather than a cad in this regard, I just hope that they remember the Vanessa James relationship with Lt Scott and have him suffer some sort of backlash from his actions when she or Chloe learn about their respective “encounters” with Lt Scott, rather than have Lt James and Lt Scott continue to act like they barely know each other as occurred in the past 2 episodes.

Moving on from my possibly soon to be regular Lt Scott Rant, it also appears that the writers may be trying to put Eli into the mix as a potential love triangle. He was obviously a bit hurt/disappointed when he saw Chloe and Scott go off together as shown by the look on his face and snarkiness towards them when they reappeared during his Keyno recording session. It is also obvious that Chloe does have some sort of feelings towards him and she chose to die next to him given that they were in the observation lounge together at the moment I would probably say at the moment she thinks of him like a brother and does not have any significant romantic feelings towards him.

On the Keyno messages, while it was an effective way to introduce characters, I did wonder why Eli decided to launch it out the ship, surely it would have made more sense to just have the people on the shuttle keep hold of it as while the chance of rescue for them is remote it is higher than the chances of finding a lone Keyno in space.

The shuttle recovery subplot was also my main issue with the episode as I have to wonder what either the designers of the shuttle or the AI on the Destiny was thinking. The shuttles are either badly designed or despite Lt Scotts protestations actually have “afterburners” as it seems strange to have an apparently short range shuttle that cant catch up to the Destiny at sub light speeds. Or given that the Destiny AI seems to know the status of people on board, I have to wonder why it decided to travel so fast that the shuttle which it should know has departed cant catch up before it leaves the system, though it is possible that this question will tie into the larger mystery of the Destiny’s ongoing mission and purpose.

I also have to agree with Camille Wray about Young holding a lottery to determine who left on the shuttle. While they may not have been the “right people” some are less wrong than others and you need to maximise their chances of survival by choosing them rather than leave it to random chance. As things stand it is a moot point but Col Young was relatively week in terms of leadership unless he did as Rush suggested and fixed the lottery. While I did not think he did as Greer, Chloe and Eli were not picked which I would expect in a fixed lottery, we never actually saw what was written on the pieces of paper which were awfully large just to have a single name on them.

My liking for Sgt Greer also increased this episode when I leant the reason he was imprisoned was for hitting Col Telford. Given how Telford has acting when he swapped bodies with Young I can easily believe that he deserved it. I was worried from Camille Wray’s attitude towards him in Air that Greer has assaulted a woman, but now I want to know what Telford did to cause Greer to hit him, though given that Greer has a short temper it may not have been much.

Sgt Spencer also continues to interest me, in Air we see him secretly stashing food, and in this episode he is seen to be popping pills and causes trouble when his name is not picked. Given how a lot of the Destiny crew have severe misgivings about the “leadership circle” I would not be surprised if he leads an attempted mutiny later on in the season.

The final thing about the characters in this episode that I noted was that after easing slightly the tension between Rush and Young increased again, when Young starts to think that Rush knew that the Destiny would survive. Personally I don’t think he did or rather that Rush only suspected they would survive. Rush is smart enough to know that the Destiny has been is space for so long that it would probably need periodic recharging, however he may have been genuinely worried that their arrival and use of the Stargate had depleted the reserves too much.

Given his obsession with the Destiny I think Rush decided to take a chance and remain on board. As for why he did not share his suspicions that the Destiny would survive if he had them, I think he decided to play things close to his chest in case he was wrong and so that the relief from survival would help bring the Destiny crew together.

As for the ship recharging in the Star I predicted as much in last weeks analysis though I am uncertain whether the ship was collecting hydrogen from the star or was using some other method of recharging (heat or light). This does raise the question of will the Destiny now have enough power to dial Earth. Given that this is early in the first season I am going to say probably not.

Overall then a solid early season episode, but one is which the plot could have benefited from being done later in the series or as a cliffhanger as it is so early in the series you know there is no chance the Destiny would be destroyed.

Episode Rating

7/10