My post from last week's episode (relevant parts bolded):
I feel there's more to Rush's story than he's letting on, vis a vis the aliens.
Also, I hope they can at least pretend that some of the people (besides Rush) opposing Young are of some intelligence and they're not just setting them up to fail and look stupid, so Young can "make the hard choices" and save the day...or some dumb shit like that. If they're going to go there with this juvenile "teh guys wit guns are meanies" plot, then at least try to make it original. Here's a thought: maybe they actually succeed. *GASP...the gall*.
I was so hoping they would surprise me with the whole mutiny plot, I really was. But sadly, no. They've tripped over so many TV tropes it would be impossible to list them all. It's positively breathtaking in its
unoriginality. Are they even trying?
The problem with this kind of wash-rinse-repeat plot is that it guts the story of any dramatic tension, since you know how it's going to end. You know the reset button will be pushed because it always is. BSG handled this a lot better by simply having consequences to the mutiny (Anders getting put in a coma; Zarek and Gaeta being executed; Roslin coming out of her depression, etc.). LOST handled this a lot better, since the separation of the Losties was effectively the end of them as a cohesive group; things were never the same. Can anyone tell me anything that significantly changed on Destiny as a result of this mutiny-light, other than confirming what we all already knew (that there is no real, compelling reason for it and the people doing it are mostly unsympathetic and incompetent)?
*note: I DO NOT want this show to become a clone of either of those. Just providing context is all.*
I am really, really wanting to like this show, but stuff like this just proves that Wright and Malozzi are kids thinking they're big enough to go to the grown up party. I'm not saying that they can't pull off compelling drama, just that it doesn't seem like they're really trying. Like they're intentionally avoiding opportunities to do so. For instance, why was no one killed? This isn't just doing dark drama for dark drama's sake, as people are almost always killed when attempting real coups (see: Kyrgyzstan).
All that said, the episode was hardly bad. Putting aside my frustration over the mutiny (which might as well never have happened), it held my attention for the entire hour, which means it must have at least been somewhat entertaining.
For their part, the actors in the episode did a pretty good job of selling the believability of the situation from their perspective. And for once, Chloe seemed to have some purpose, which may have been a motivation for her joining the mutineers. TJ seemed unusually fired up
. The Young/Rush dynamic remains the only visceral relationship on the show (Eli/Chloe a close second). And the surgery scene had a nice sense of tension and pace. I think they're setting up Wray for a catharsis or redemption somewhere down the line, as otherwise Ming-Na is wasted on this show (she is a pretty decent actor, after all).
More from my post last week:
...and these new aliens are some of the best looking ones I've seen on a SG'verse series. I hope there's more to them than "wanting Destiny", as such a shallow motivation will quickly put them in Replicator-zone.
It seems like these aliens are devolving into a plot device to create a vague, external threat for the characters to panic about. I hope I'm wrong, as there is still the mystery of "why".
