'The Greater Good' (207) General Discussion

[MattSilver 3k]

Everybody else has noticed the thread title being for 206 instead of 207, right?

Suck it Carl Binder haters. He did great with the episodes he was given so far, and tonight is no exception.

Great episode. Hit all the right points, though didn't exactly showcase the ensemble too much - but we've had a good dosage of Scott, Chloe, Wray, Greer and TJ already this season, so I don't mind. But this was all about the Young Vs Rush, and Eli on the side. Hence, the episode was awesome.

First off, the mission: It's... big. Not surprised at all, really. It sounds cool, I guess - the Ancients want to find the ones that came before everything, and all the power that goes with obviously attracts Rush and the crew (The former probably wanting his wife/Perry, and the latter wanting to go home). I wonder if all the seeder ships were sent out to seed gates in order to find pieces of the puzzle - that's why there were no DHD's or anything; the ancients were just using the gates for exploration via Destiny. But still, it's a neat idea and I'm curious to see how it'll play out/if we'll get to see it play out. I think it's time we started finding puzzle pieces, eh?

Now, to the undermentioned alien ship: Interesting. It certainly hints to one of my crazy theories about the brown aliens being at war with someone - I guessed the blues. The derelict ship is evidence of some kind of battle, and the fact the browns were on the seeder ship makes it seem likely they're hunting down Ancient tech or something... maybe to win the tide of the war? Who knows? I think we'll explore that later, or at least I hope we do.

Now, to the meaty character stuff: Rush Vs Young, round bajillion! Ding ding! That was a very brutal little reveal - Young overhears, Rush gets defensive, and BAM BAM BAM! I really hope Rush was being honest about no more secrets thing and wanting to work with him. It'll be nice to see, and his rationalisations about not trusting Young worked, I guess. Now we just gotta figure out what's up with Franklin and Gloria. I liked the return of Young's "Lotta work" line. Poor guy. Nice to see tie-ins with Riley and the battle sim too.

I'm really glad Eli discovered the bridge first among the non Rush/Perry crew. Math Boy and Kino Boy combined to create Awesome Man, and good on him. I was worried that Brody and Volker were just going to randomly find it one day or something, but Eli came through and probably worked out Rush's equations faster than Perry did. His initial reaction, "YOU'VE HAD CONTROL OF THIS SHIP THE WHOLE TIME?" was fantastic - great work to David Blue. Some seriously awesome acting coming from this guy every week. No exceptions.

Poor Eli. The goodbye to Ginn in the stone room seems all the more bittersweet too, and everything seemed to be going so well... The Eli/Ginn thing was short, somewhat rushed, but sweet. Shame. The awkward reaction to the Rush/Perry kiss was fun too - guess Rush likes redheads or something... Glad that didn't go through if only for Eli's sake... but it doesn't matter compared to what Simeon will do. He knows that Ginn's going to talk, and he knows that Perry's a lot more defenceless. I just hope it's not... prolonged, 'cause that'd be ****ing awful.

Great episode all around. I'm seriously having trouble choosing my favourites this year, but I can safely say that by the end this was better than Trial and Error, just, and I liked it as much as I did Cloverdale. Malice is gonna be awesome - calling it now.

[senilegreen]

Part of its a little anti-climatic for me, whether its god or just some intelligence surely this is something the ascended ancients would already have discovered.

In the Astral Cafe episode, the Ascended Times edition that Daniel was reading had a story's with the headline something like "Edge of Universe Discovered."

[Rocksy]

They should have stayed in the suits and had a normal conversation, and forgone the smackdown.

your forgetting one thing, Rush needs his arse kicked every now and again to keep him from getting to far from hope.

[senilegreen]

The whole situation seems to be specifically geared to expose the bridge, and that's it. And in trying to do so, they hoped we would have ignored the numerous plot holes that led to this point:

#1. [...]

#5. Convenient that Rush was able to understand totally alien systems, and that the life support system had the right mixture of gases and atmosphere so that Young and Rush could breathe. But hey, we needed our Rush/Young smackdown, and that would have been hard with suits.

#6. On a slightly different tack, why would Simeon kill someone? It makes no sense. You're on a ship where nearly everyone is against you and you have no way out. Even if you still love the LA, I'd think you'd play along for now, until you have a chance to grab total power. Anything else is just stupid, because it won't gain you anything.[...]

All good points. Especially #5. And for #6 - it goes to show that the writers are not expecting the viewers to be trying to make sense of the reasons for why people do so and so.

[SSJPabs]

I think Eli was more mad at himself for not acting on his suspicions of Rush and you could see people having them in earlier episodes they just never bothered to check them out. That no one cracked the code in no way justifies keeping the bridge secret and it's clear they suspected Rush but did nothing and this was a failing. The following is partially taken from a review I posted on another site.

Overall good episode, nearly but not quite a great episode. Once again while a lot of the drama depended on characterization, it was driven by the sci-fi element of the plot, not the interpersonal element.

I continue to think that the best command structure with the personnel available would be Young and Rush reporting to Wray (or someone else) as a first-among-equals type leadership. It certainly appears that Young and Rush need some sort of referee in any case. If they do decide to work together and keep everyone ELSE in the dark, that will be pretty interesting. As for the fight I think it just showed again how right Rush is that Young is just not fit to command this mission. It would have been nice though, when Young is yelling at him about Riley when he said "You killed that boy" he would have added "As much as I did." But I guess that's a little too mature for Young.

Anyhow, it's good that the hidden-bridge issue was solved rather quickly, a mini-arc that leads into a larger one. I missed the original episode with Amanda Perry but I've read the wiki enough to have some idea. Good to see Eli progressing pretty quickly as well and pulling away from Chloe while he's doing it. It definitely alters the dynamic in their relationship for the better since the power was so unequal. It was nice to see the main and supporting characters work together even if they retained their dis-functionality. It would interesting to seem the exercise power as a block.

This is the show I was expecting when I first tuned it. Finally.... the trailer gave it away. Damn you Skiffy.

8/10. Best episode this season I think.

[meo3000]

Great episode but... still no Stargate.

[morbosfist]

Like how many episodes of SG1 and SGA?

[senilegreen]

For me this was just an ok episode. A few too many glaring plot holes to be really good fiction, and because there were too many relationship combinations going on here (Rush vs. Young, Rush & Dr., Eli and Ginn, Eli and Rush, Ginn and the Evil LA, etc.) none of them got the time necessary to really get meaty.

As for the big Mission of Destiny - I'm a bit let down. I sort of figured the writers would flirt with a religious idea, Meaning of Life, and all of that.

One thing to note - there is no "center" of our universe, and thus the "big bang" literally happened everywhere. Space itself is expanding (strange as that may seem) and there is no literal "edge" of the universe, though there is an event horizon beyond which we can't detect. This is because the speed of light is a constant and there are parts of the universe far enough away that light from that location hasn't arrived here yet, and never will (because of expanding space.)

As for the CBR proper, it is not light that was emitted at the point of the big bang, but at a time after that when the density of the expanding universe dropped enough (due to expansion) that photons could travel freely without hitting something.

[Shan Bruce Lee]

I think the build-up to Rush's secret being discovered paid off. The stuff with Eli yelling on the bridge and Young and Rush fighting was great. The build-up between Greer and Simeon hasn't paid off yet, but hopefully next week...

That ship they found looked cool. The exterior reminded me of something from Star Wars.

[Shan Bruce Lee]

I'm going to say the opposite because Ginn dying would be the predictible option

I don't think she's gonna die either.

So who watched that Hollywood Hunters thingy because Chris Judge was on?

I did!

I did. It was cool to see him put on the Jaffa armor again, even if it was just the shoulder-pads.

Am I the only one who really didn't understand the mission that Rush was explaining? I mean, i'm going to watch it again but on first glance, I really have no idea what the frak that meant lol

He was suggesting there was some kind of intelligence responsible for the creation of the universe and Destiny was going in that direction (I'm assuming that means toward the center of the universe)

[antipodal]

Why was Simone allowed to walk freely on the ship to begin with ? & he better not survive past next week. I am not talking about being left alive on that planet. I am talking about him dying. Next week better be the last we see of him & him dead

Simeon NOT being confined to his quarters after his confrontation with Ginn/Perry was irrational, IMHO.

Very disappointed with the reveal of Destiny's "mission." Please, we're exploring the evolution vs intelligent design scenario?

I'd like to know why it was so important for the SGC to discover what the ninth chevron was for. So important, that according to Senator Armstrong in Air, Part 1, that 1.6 BILLION dollars were spent on the project. Money has been an issue in the Stargate series in the past (season one for example), so why -- especially during a time when the US government was fighting two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan), was having domestic problems (the economy for one) -- was it so important for the SGC to discover what the 9th chevron was for.

And what is Rush's driving passion for the 9th chevron? Was it to find ascenscion so that he can reunite with his wife? (That's assuming that Gloria Rush did ascend after death).

[Eben Stromquist]

I think we're all missing a few things along the way here. The key element of this show has been realism (along with character drama). We were all expecting a mission for Destiny centered around the stargates, and we didn't get it... at least not yet. This mission however centers around the Universe portion of the title and I think it is a fantastic direction for the show. I believe SGU works on a very basic level, where we as an audience are not delivered grand plots (which definitely sucks and isn't really necessary to avoid) but suggestions at a grander over all story arc. SGU works on subliminal questions (Rush - Good or Bad? and the Rush VS Young drama of season one - what do the smurfs want etc etc).

The mission of Destiny has now delivered a whole other level of plot and character development. It begs the question of faith, and that is where I think we're missing the point. The reason it's there is to be questioned, episode after episode so the story can continue. Not so the writers can give us the satisfaction of watching one ep that says "hey daniel reversed time while he was ascended and started the big bang" or "it was god" "Faith aliens" etc (although I think Rush hinted to us that that whole TJ thing was courtesy of Destiny)

It's so it can be questioned. So the characters can be divided in their theories and so we can have an element of drama in the show that can for a basic theme in the show (as they seem to so desperately need as the drama can tend to be so tacky). I know we all hate to draw the links but that is the reason why BSG worked so well. They questioned faith so deeply, politics, philosophy. They did it properly showing them all from different perspectives across the seasons. Which is the same move SGU is starting to make. I'm stoked to see this new element, it totally changes the dynamic of the show from the episodic drama we've had previously. This is one of the first (aside from a few moments here and there) episodes that has successfully blended the premise of the Stargate enterprises that have come before and the future they wish to take it to.

[icsteffi]

What a freaking good episode.

[Nth Chevron]

Very disappointed with the reveal of Destiny's "mission." Please, we're exploring the evolution vs intelligent design scenario?

Who said it was anything to do with Intelligent design?

All he said was a possible message from around the Big Bang time, now that may mean the Big Bang was given a nudge, or a photon torpedo, but that in no-way means that everything we do is scripted.

N.C

[frostwolf]

What a freaking good episode.

I would have agreed until the last minute. Now I'm too pissed about next week to like this episode very much.