Good episode but a bit too deus ex machina for me. That Eli and Rush can figure out how to control the drones in such little time is really unrealistic and imo rather strange since it usually takes them a lot longer to figure out complex tech even if it was Ancient and therefore kinda familiar.
the entire plan boiled down into this:
they switched the sides. the Drones interpret Destiny as it's command ship and everything else is hostile. it's a matter of changing the ID. even if it's in a completely different language, programming language always has similarities. and i bet that, even in a really advanced drones, you can differentiate between something controlling the engines and something controlling targeting and something controlling IFF. Eli figured out the IFF part, and from what i understood, the IFF section was actually pretty easy comparatively. communications is too hard to jam because the Drones can simply switch channels. even if you figure out the algorithm, there's no reason to assume they don't have backup algorithms. communication between the Command Ship and the Drones is pretty fundamental to their function so it would be a better guarded system, than the IFF which only affects each Cluster, whereas communication is universal among all. besides, the IFF change only works when you capture a drone, and even then only changes that particular cluster, which means you have to defeat a Command Ship before you can utilize the program. which basically defeats it's purpose.
in this case, however, it worked.
if you're too lazy to read this all, basically the IFF was a pretty simple function since it required more trouble to get to and implement than a more universal communications system
I think Rush's change is entirely pragmatic in nature. He's realising that he gets a lot more out of the crew when he treats them a certain way, and I think he also knows he's going to need them on board (in more way that one) in the future.
it seems rush has multiple personality flips in the episode, between nice, semi-nice, cold pragmatic, and perhaps a few more.
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