Stargate Universe season 2 episode 9 review: Visitation

This review contains spoilers.

2.9 Visitation

In the opening of this week’s instalment of Stargate Universe, Rush tries to gauge the crew’s reaction to last week’s revelation that Destiny had been sent out to find the source of the big bang, and its creators. No-one seems as interested in that as they are in getting Mr Brody’s still fixed, which just seems to confirm to Rush that he was right not to tell everyone before now.

However, that is the least of the crew’s worries, as, when Destiny drops out of FTL, it saddles up next to a shuttle of Ancient design, which just happens to contain the members of the crew who left to set up a home on an Earth-like planet in the season one episode Faith. Col Young is rightly cautious about welcoming Caine and his deserters back to Destiny, as they seem a little creepier than I remember, especially since they have no idea how they turned up there and the majority of their memories have disappeared.

The way this is handled is interesting, as no-one really knows what is going on for a long time throughout the episode, but the episode never really becomes what it should be. The focus is pretty much on Caine, which is highly unfortunate for the character that was really very interesting in season one, but seems like a terrible bore here.

An extension of the problem in the original episode in which they left Destiny, is that they never spent a lot of time on the other characters, meaning losing them wasn’t much of a big deal in the first place. While their appearance in the opening episode of this season seemed to make them more intriguing, it would appear that this ambiguity has been completely dropped in order to serve the story here.

A second plotline comes into play here, too, as Chloe Armstrong gets more and more covered in blue scars, and begins filming a video on the Kino saying goodbye to all the people she cares for. Sgt Greer tells Lt Scott exactly what he thinks of the whole situation, and it doesn’t go down too well.

While most of this storyline plays out without fault and has a few good scenes within, Eli’s sudden worry for Chloe after ignoring her for weeks seems entirely odd, especially given the fact that this story seems to come from nowhere and could have happened last week, next week, the end of the season. Nothing especially different happens to Chloe that explains why now is the time to start saying goodbye and worrying. However, this seems like just a little bit of setup for something to happen next week, which may make the concerns for Chloe seem legitimate.

The ending of the episode leaves us in a position of faith, both inside and out of the show. Inside the show, Caine has faith from his reappearance right through to the end of the episode. Outside the show, the fans need to keep faith that this hiccup in a rather entertaining and interesting season so far will be worthwhile somehow in the long run, or at least that its mistake won’t be forgotten.

While Caine is an annoyance here compared to his previous appearances, scenes with Rush are interesting enough in terms of setting up theories about the mythology of the show, to keep the episode ticking over. Rather oddly, Sgt Greer turns up as the best character in this whole episode, in three key scenes which give us a little bit more of an insight into him.

One scene which sees him saying goodbye to Chloe in an entirely strange, but justifiable way is a lovely little scene which sees his struggle to balance being a soldier doing the right thing, and being a friend. Another scene that shows his friendship with Lt Scott coming under strain from his opinions of Chloe and their limited options on what they should do with her is also pretty divisive.

However, my favourite scene in this episode is a small piece which puts Greer and Dr Park’s relationship in the spotlight for a brief time, which is something I had been dying to see more of on the show.

For me, this episode is a pretty bland entry in season two of Stargate Universe, and while it contains some good and interesting scenes, is pretty forgettable at the end of its running time.

Read our review of episode 8, Malice, here.

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