To Anyone Still Watching SGU:
So, we've reached the mid-season "finale" and there were some interesting developments.
Huh. Who knew?
Okay, here's the deal.
I didn't love this ep, but I didn't hate it. Pretty standard SGU reaction.
However, this ep was critically important to the show's premise/character development because is showed us that Rush truly is evil. Previously, we didn't know. We knew he wasn't quite alright, but we didn't know he was truly a bad person. Now we do. Now we know that he will do anything to serve his own needs, etc.
We also learned that Young is overall a good guy. He was willing to play by the book in the investigation, even though that meant his ass was on the line, etc. He was willing to step down to save the expedition. Now, this might seem contradictory in light of what he did later on, but it's not. He did what he did because it needed done. Rush challenged him about his ability to make the hard decisions, and he responded by making one.
No one likes to cut a player or fire an employee, but that's what needed to happen here. Young had someone on his team that was undermining that team. He had someone there who needed to be gone, no matter how brilliant he was (which I wasn't really appreciating, anyway). Rush was not a team player and was willing to destroy his shipmates to get what he wanted. He had to go. Since Young had no means to do that on the ship (he couldn't exactly imprison him and all that, as Rush would have continued to be a general nuisance and quite frankly use up resources that could be used by an actual contributing team member), he had to do something else.
This is like euthanasia of an aggressive dog. No one likes to do it, especially when the animal is healthy (which it almost always is), but you must. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one.
(Sorry... but it does apply.)
Add to that the fact that Rush had made things personal, and Young's anger was justified and voila! You have Rush's actions being completely justified.
I know TPTB are likely to try to play up the moral ambiguity of Young's decision, but to me it does not exist. It was black and white. Put the dog down.
Which brings me to my only criticism of Young here. Dude, have you not seen Star Wars? Make sure he's dead before you leave him there, man. Come on. Everyone knows that.
Now we have Rush with a spaceship. Yeah... that's a good idea.
I am still not in love with this show. It is adequate television only. But adequate is alright, and at least it's showing signs of life. I tweeted last week that I thought this show wasn't sci-fi at all but a true soap opera, and I stand by that. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I've been known to watch a few soaps. But if you're going that route, be sure the soap plot works. Until recently, it wasn't working, but now it is showing a bit of spark.
We'll see.
Incidentally, this ep felt very "Lost City" in that we had the IOA taking over from the military. It felt very "The Lost Boys" in that you know Rush is going to come back like Ford. It felt very "The Other Side" most of all. Jack was justified in killing there, and Young is justified here. No one likes to think about killing as a necessity, but sometimes it is. (And it was more so for Young than O'Neill in this analogy.)
As for the other characters, Chloe grew a set in this ep that made me not hate her quite so much, which was nice. And um...did anyone else do anything? Oh, right. Ming Na's character (I still don't know her name) showed that she really is an IOA bitch (duh). I liked that Scott and Greer and TJ showed their military loyalty. And the fact that Young did not nod at TJ or give her any other hint as to what to do in the infirmary scene? Yeah...nice. He let her make the call. I appreciated that.
And that's how wabbit sees it.
Huh. Who knew?
Okay, here's the deal.
I didn't love this ep, but I didn't hate it. Pretty standard SGU reaction.
However, this ep was critically important to the show's premise/character development because is showed us that Rush truly is evil. Previously, we didn't know. We knew he wasn't quite alright, but we didn't know he was truly a bad person. Now we do. Now we know that he will do anything to serve his own needs, etc.
We also learned that Young is overall a good guy. He was willing to play by the book in the investigation, even though that meant his ass was on the line, etc. He was willing to step down to save the expedition. Now, this might seem contradictory in light of what he did later on, but it's not. He did what he did because it needed done. Rush challenged him about his ability to make the hard decisions, and he responded by making one.
No one likes to cut a player or fire an employee, but that's what needed to happen here. Young had someone on his team that was undermining that team. He had someone there who needed to be gone, no matter how brilliant he was (which I wasn't really appreciating, anyway). Rush was not a team player and was willing to destroy his shipmates to get what he wanted. He had to go. Since Young had no means to do that on the ship (he couldn't exactly imprison him and all that, as Rush would have continued to be a general nuisance and quite frankly use up resources that could be used by an actual contributing team member), he had to do something else.
This is like euthanasia of an aggressive dog. No one likes to do it, especially when the animal is healthy (which it almost always is), but you must. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one.
(Sorry... but it does apply.)
Add to that the fact that Rush had made things personal, and Young's anger was justified and voila! You have Rush's actions being completely justified.
I know TPTB are likely to try to play up the moral ambiguity of Young's decision, but to me it does not exist. It was black and white. Put the dog down.
Which brings me to my only criticism of Young here. Dude, have you not seen Star Wars? Make sure he's dead before you leave him there, man. Come on. Everyone knows that.
Now we have Rush with a spaceship. Yeah... that's a good idea.
I am still not in love with this show. It is adequate television only. But adequate is alright, and at least it's showing signs of life. I tweeted last week that I thought this show wasn't sci-fi at all but a true soap opera, and I stand by that. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I've been known to watch a few soaps. But if you're going that route, be sure the soap plot works. Until recently, it wasn't working, but now it is showing a bit of spark.
We'll see.
Incidentally, this ep felt very "Lost City" in that we had the IOA taking over from the military. It felt very "The Lost Boys" in that you know Rush is going to come back like Ford. It felt very "The Other Side" most of all. Jack was justified in killing there, and Young is justified here. No one likes to think about killing as a necessity, but sometimes it is. (And it was more so for Young than O'Neill in this analogy.)
As for the other characters, Chloe grew a set in this ep that made me not hate her quite so much, which was nice. And um...did anyone else do anything? Oh, right. Ming Na's character (I still don't know her name) showed that she really is an IOA bitch (duh). I liked that Scott and Greer and TJ showed their military loyalty. And the fact that Young did not nod at TJ or give her any other hint as to what to do in the infirmary scene? Yeah...nice. He let her make the call. I appreciated that.
And that's how wabbit sees it.