Not having watched any episodes after the initial 2 episodes of Season 2 (first half), I was really not prepared for this episode. It took me 2 tries to go through the episode just once. I am really trying to be objective, and not let my sense of utter bewilderment for the inane ramblings and meanderings of the writers cloud my review. Well, Here goes nothing
Stargate: Universe
Season: 2
Episode: Visitation
Recap/Review By US06154
Recap
The storyline spells more doom and gloom to the crew of the Destiny. The contingent that stayed behind on the planet with the beacon, suddenly appears in their shuttle by the side of Destiny as it drops out of FTL. As the Shuttle is incapable of travelling between galaxies, let alone FTL, Col. Young is not quite ready to accept that these were the same people left behind on the planet.
The Shuttle, in which the crew members arrived, looks no longer the old battered Shuttle that was left behind on the planet. This was either a fully restored vessel or a Brand new Vehicle “created” for the journey.
Meanwhile, Chloe is progressing into the Alien transformation. The scene looks like she’s recording her goodbyes into a Kino.
The returned crew is shunned by the rest of the crew, and re-integration looks like a problem. TJ takes Caine on a tour to the hydroponics bay, and tell him about her dream, visiting the Alien planet with her baby. The scene about TJ’s daughter was safe, and would be taken care of, seems now to be nothing but a dream.
There’s a minor altercation between Mst. Sgt Greer and Lt Scott about Chloe’s condition. Greer observes that Chloe is “turning into the Enemy”
Eli is talking to Val (a new comer) on the Observation deck. Val seems to have lost most of her memory with regards to the Stay at Eden (Planet). Her memory is fragmented at best, and seems to be having issues, as her nose starts to bleed. Val collapses on the ground bleeding and in pain.
Rush challenges Caine on his belief, and argues that “god must be losing his touch”, as he could restore the Shuttle, but not minor ailments like astigmatism, loss of hair, and lapses of memory.
Val had died, and TJ pronounces it was Blunt force trauma, evidence of skull fracture, hemorrhage, and brain swelling. Wray volunteers to put Cain and the others from the shuttle under hypnosis – to see if she can stimulate memories from their subconscious.
Greer has a conversation with Chloe in her room, where he explains that when the time comes when Chloe has gone through her metamorphosis, The task would fall upon him to take out Chloe as a threat, and he would ask her forgiveness for the gruesome deed. A moment of true drama ensues as emotions get the better of both Chloe and Greer. Chloe records her “Departing Message” into a Kino.
Wray is going through a hypnosis session with Peter. It seems that Peter and Val had a thing for each other. It also seems like Caine was very anxious about the onset of the winter. While chopping down trees for Firewood, a tree falls on Val and kills her. After that revelation, Peter falls on the floor and starts flailing. Wray calls in for a medical emergency. Peter is dead by the time TJ makes an appearance and showed symptoms of dehydration and Hypothermia.
After brief confab with Young and Wray, TJ theorizes that these people might be dying in order they dies prior. Young calls Scott to collect all the visitors and get them back to the infirmary. Rachel was covered with red sores, and she was quickly taken over to the infirmary, where TJ sternly asks Scott to go through decontamination. Caine comes in through the doorway of the infirmary, and Rachel takes one look at him, rolls her eyes, and dies. Young orders Caine to go through hypnosis next with Wray, to find out what’s going on.
Wray has Caine under Hypnosis. He recalls that on the Eden planet, the life support had failed on the shuttle, where the crew was taking refuge, huddled under a few blankets shivering in the cold. It was the night before the Shuttle joined up with Destiny, and all the Eden crew was dead, Frozen. Caine snaps out of his hypnosis as he realizes that even he was dead, before the shuttle docked in with Destiny.
James finds a Kino onboard the shuttle, and gets Eli to view the device. After reviewing it once, He calls in Wray, Young and Rush. The footage shows Caine sitting on the floor calling for help. Caine brushes aside the blanket covering his head and turns to look out of the window. The glow becomes brighter and envelops the entire ship, and the screen fills with white light. The footage ends. Eli switches off the screen and turns to look at the others. Nobody speaks, all of them lost in their own thoughts
Review
In this episode, we find the writers dabbling with religion again. Even the name Caine is reference to Caine and able form the Christian Bible.
While the other two franchises battled “false Gods” like the Goa’uld and the Ori, Stargate Universe seems to embrace the more “Mainline” religions to tell a Story. Instead of writing Science Fiction, the writers seem revel in the debate of Science Vs Religion.
It is bit unnerving that aliens so powerful and beyond us could have so little understanding of what we humans need to survive and be happy; that their attempts to aid us could result in simply making things worse. Dying of exposure and being resurrected, only to have to die in the same way all over again, makes for a pretty horrible fate. Maybe the plot line for this episode will be revealed in a future episode whay the Zombies were sent to Destiny, perhaps in the form of Fedex Delivering a Shuttle with a Zombie Fedex Delivery Crew.
This episode reverts to emo-drama that this series seems to do well, giving a whole bunch of theories and hints about at least one god-like alien race that’s working behind-the-scenes. It also feels like most things were temporarily pushed aside, and other things weren’t quite as clear as they could be (Caine seems to have been alive when the aliens decide to act, so why would he die again?). This episode is another product of writers who are completely out of touch writing a Science Fiction Show, and still meandering from the main plotline started in the first season, basically as they say, “all dressed up and nowhere to go”