'Malice' (208) General Discussion

[ZRFTS]

Funny how this episode follows "The Greater Good"; mainly because it's boringly bad. To be honest I've never been a huge fan of these "hunt episodes with long drawn out scenes." Atlantis's "The Defiant One" was one of those episodes and it was in a series that contained the old SG format; it may seem interesting to see these people try to outwit each other and the subtle character interactions that may come of it but honestly, I couldn't see it whether it was John Sheppard and Rodney McKay or Ronald Greer, Matthew Scott and Nicholas Rush.

Much of this episode is about hunting the worst character of SGU "Simeone" who has the darkest shade of grey and has no character appeal nor potential and man does that character suck. People may say that his performance is the equivalent of a horror movie, completely creepy and psychologically scary but I wasn't convinced when he got close to characters like TJ and basically said menacing things that equated to a Z-grade horror movie; while they make attempts to make him likeable such as having him plant a bomb on the back of someone and giving him military skills, he's still unlikable and any potential at exploring the dedicated nature of him is wasted. Take for instance this line.

"I understand revenge. Your people have killed enough of mine; people I cared about. I let you live. You know why? I wanted you to live with it the way I have. I wanted the pain to eat you alive. I know it's a fate worse than death. I let you live, but next time I won't. You want your revenge? You come and get it, Rush. I'm gonna put you out of your misery. Come and get me.

The bolded part was potential in that it could of explored what happened to him in the LA, the pain he feels for his companions, his devotion to serve the cause mainly because they're his overlords and what he perceives to be the threat from Earth; his desire to see the people from Earth who he perceives to be his enemies feel his pain but the italic, underlined part is just generic redundancy that destroys any potential that he has. The way he declares that proclamation with the most sinister of voices and the most obvious of emphasis just made me dislike him even more; you're not making yourself out to be a adversary if you do that, you're just making yourself out to be a generic bad guy who has a sinister laugh and everything.

Rush is obviously the focus of this episode and he provides many of the best parts. Him hitting on a wall, him crying and breaking down over the death of Dr. Amanda Perry (RIP) and that provides one of the few bright spots of the episode, dealing with the pain of death. There's just sort of a fire that builds up inside you, one of compassion and one of vengance and Rush and Eli manage to show that well. They're two different people, one is uncertain on how to handle his emotions and is somehow convinced that he needs to go out into the desert and kill Simeone against his strong better judgement and Rush is just somehow calculated in his efforts to kill Simeone, he shows no remorse nor regret; just bitter anger. The contrast between them prove an effective study through the personalities and the way they deal with things; what Eli does may be what a similar person would do, he's just lost and confused by the anger building up inside him and Rush is a person who is surrounded by anger, who is able to utilize logic in order to withhold his emotions, it's disturbing to see Rush do these things but at the same time it's compelling to see Eli's newfound experience with emotion.

However, Rush cannot save the episode even as he provides his trademark sinsisterness with Scott and Greer and even as Scott and Greer attempt to restrain Rush and prevent him from going commando. I have to admire Greer for at least holding it down, it is episodes like this which properly utilize the military side of him but Scott... Scott is unconvincing as a leader yelling out orders, facing off with Rush and just shooting stuff I guess. He isn't in the way alot that he ruins the episode but he doesn't do anything to help the believability aspect of it and in fact, manages to bring down his character. Oddly enough, both seem to be utilizing every trick in the book in order to lengthen the confrontation, while it was somewhat clever the first time; it just becomes annoying when they claim that they don't have a clear shot when you know that they could shoot him and incapacitate him without any effort. It's like in "First Contact" where they could of thrown a grenade and saved the two easily.

Obtusely the best part of the episode has to be where Simeone dies which manages to be both chuckleworthy with it's usage of animals to trample Simeone and harsh with Rush's cold blooded murder of him; this moment is supposed to be a snapshot into the twisted mindstate of Rush, that he would let the chance of saving Earth slip from his hands just to avenge a lover (by the way, the whole thing is forced, it just seemed like such an easy way to give purpose and to make things interesting.) but it's the opposite of that; I celebrated as he met his demise, proud that we would never have to see him again. That shouldn't happen in an episode like this, I should feel stunned and morally terrified but instead, I'm not. It's also reflective of the importance of making characters like Simeone compelling, he was the first person with the potential of being an adversary with his subtle hints but instead he ended up a generic bad guy and the attempts to make the death have weight by saying "You killed the only chance we had to save Earth, he could of had the information." didn't work. I'm supposed to care that Earth is now under danger to an imminent attack but I'm not; I oddly don't care. Which shouldn't happen at all frankly. He may have had info sure but he also admitted that he was lying and there was zero chance he would of broken any information to the guys on Earth.

Surprisingly, Rush's character moment would prove to be somewhat inconsequential later on in the season.

[maneth]

Cool ep. Loved the music in this one, and yeah, Simeon deserved what he got. All I'm worried now is the effect on Rush, who isn't the most stable personality in the Universe anyway. I'm really hoping they'll explore the effects of Ginn's death on Eli in this show. And I second the worry about them killing off the two interesting women in the show in one ep...

[Jumper_One]

Shawna Buchanan writes: “Can you explain why Simeon was allowed to just wander around the ship menacing people in a clearly villainous way with only one guy guarding him when everyone else who they had even the least cause to suspect of potentially doing something bad was kept under lock and key?”

Answer: All of the Lucian Alliance members were kept under lock and key until they (seemingly) started cooperating with Homeworld Command at which point they were permitted limited freedom under escort.

http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/...arjorie-m-liu/

[polomare]

I was hoping we heard rush say "And..." bang.

Hahaha! Yeah . . . .

[garhkal]

I was hoping we heard rush say "And..." bang.

[polomare]

My Opinion: Best ep of Season 2, hands down. Might even be the best or second best of the entire series to date.
Most of what I like about the ep has already been said, so I won't repeat, but what I haven't seen is anyone commenting on the music. I think it was pure poetry and whoever scored this ep should get an award.

*thumbs up* for the animal justice at the end!
Oh, and when Rush is standing over Simeon and he lamely tries to buy his life by saying "I have information" and Rush raises his gun, I could just see him thinking: "And I have a gun." Bam! Take that dirtbag! MUHA! Loved that part.

It's the only ep to date that I have watched 3 times in a row.

[GateGhost]

I jumped when I watched this episode.

[garhkal]

We should have lots of Kull warrior's armors out there..

[Darkside_Six]

The SGC really needs to be introduced to the concept of body armour.

[Matt G]

1. Woah, an old-school Stargate style ep!

2. Woah, Rush showing emotion? In this reality? Can't blame him for wanting to kill Simeon really.

3. Was it the right thing to do in terms of the bigger picture though? Hell no. In a lot of ways killing Simeon made Rush look like Young after(ironically) stranding Rush in Justice. The morality of the action was murky but what made it stand out was the stupidity. One flaw I would have never pinned on Rush is stupidity.

4. Eli...careful you don't lose the plot mate!

5. If Chloe/the Blue presence in Chloe stays benign I'll be very surprised!

Very nice ep though! Best of the season so far!

[Linda06]

Poor Ginn and Amanda, poor Eli and Rush, poor TJ, poor everyone...DAMN YOU SIMEON. I hope he rots in hell for this. He kills two good people with one cowardice act, not to mention those good soldiers who were just going about their business. That SOB deserved everything that was coming to him.

Seems a waste though killing not one but two interesting women, we don't really have any interesting women, maybe TJ but that's really about it. Most of the women don't really get all that much screentime, that's one of the things I'm a little disappointed at but it doesn't bother me as much as it did in SGA, because I think the other characters are really quite complex and interesting. I was hoping Ginn would at least stick around for a while, I was beginning to like her. even though we didn't get to see much of her

Overall though this was a very good episode.

And I don't blame Rush one bit for what he done in the end. Simeon was very dangerous, he had to be dealt with, It's just a damn pity they didn't deal with him sooner, all this might have been avoidable.

[rcpadrick]

I know this is going to be unpopular, but this was -- in my opinion -- a simply terrible episode. The action wasn't sustained, the strategies were predictable, and the dialogue was flacid.

And now that we're an episode past this one, are they ever going to explore Eli's reaction and coping with Ginn's death? I mean, it seemed like he genuinely cared for her, and not one mention of it has bee made.

Maybe it's me, but these last couple episodes (Malice and Visitation) have been awful.

[Infinite-Possibilities]

This was a pretty good episode. I think it was a step up from the usual fare. It was a little strange because I think I might have expected an underwhelming one this time for some reason. But this one felt like it went by pretty fast, which I guess means it was a lot of fun.

The opening segment was really good. It had some great tension and atmosphere. I wasn't exactly crazy about killing Ginn and Perry, simply because they feels a little like wastes of characters now, but I would hope their deaths result in some sort of far reaching consequences down the line for Eli and Rush as far as character development goes.

One thing I did like was some of the Scott's leadership stuff. I also especially loved what sounded like duduk music at the end.

[generaloneill]

Best episode so far this season packed full of tension both on the planet and on destiny,
i knew exactly what rush was going to do when i saw the herd of creatures and the look on simeon's when the herd ran towards him priceless, i would do the same in rush's place i care a lot about someone i know the same way rush cared about Amanda Perry and if something happened to her i would do what rush did consequences be damned.

Rush has gained some respect from me for going the punisher on simeon i never cared about rush that much prior to this episode but he's now my current favourite character

My favourite rush scene prior to this episode was back in season 1 when Eli asked him to record a message on the kino and he just looked into the kino, rush said more with that stare than everyone else did with their talking about themselves.

[hedwig]

I was actually worried about Park and James. They're not in the promo photos as women of SGU and every sort of panel discussion, they're not on the panel either. I guess they could be / will be red shirted sooner or later. Which would suck if the LA destroys earth. Limited breeding potential.

James and Park are secondary characters; not in the main list of stars. They really should be in the promo photos of women of SGU, since they seem to get nearly as much time as the main women stars. And often secondary characters are not included on panel discussions. I think Teryl Rothery was the only secondary character from SG1 that was included in panel discussions and cons. And the woman who played many of the wraith queens on SGA was also included, but it's way less common for secondary characters to be included in such things.

I've noticed it's usually women guest stars that get killed, rather than the main stars.