SGU S02E10 Resurgence
Recap
The episode starts out with Rush and the B cast scientists (Brody, Park, and Volker) on the bridge, where the B cast keeps screwing up and Rush has to fix everything for them. It turns out that Brody's screw-up isn't a screw-up, but Destiny picking up some sort of energy signature off its course. After a brief chat with Colonel Young, who agrees to check it out despite Volker pointing out how all their alien encounters end badly, Rush ends up having to drag Chloe to the bridge to program a course, since they still haven't figured out how to do it without tons of math.
Later, right before Destiny drops out of FTL near the energy signature, we see Eli listening to what I'm guessing is romantic/emo music when Rush has to come to his room. This is Eli's grief subplot, which should've been done last week, but anyway the ship stops near a debris field. Back down in the old control room, Park explains what's going on with the nifty hologram screen, where Rush points out a ship like the one from The Greater Good, which belonged to the aliens from Awakening. Volker is running a program to figure out what happened, but Rush convinces Young that sending a shuttle to the ship is a good idea.
Meanwhile Scott is telling Chloe everything we just learned before she stars talking about how he better get ready for her to be executed when she becomes even more alien. Scott protests, but then he gets called away by Young, leaving Chloe to wallow in self-pity.
Eli and Wray have a scene where they talk and Eli goes on and on about what's happened to him on the ship, which Wray uses to bring up Riley, which is a touching bit if you remember Riley. Then Wray mentions Ginn and Eli walks out.
Greer, Brody, and Scott head to the shuttle, with Greer wearing the third Ancient spacesuit that was
finally fixed the day before. There's some banter as they fly to the alien ship with practically no damage aside from a convenient hole they can enter through, which leads to the reveal of the bad guy spaceships. As they finally get there, Volker picks up some EM readings, but because they're faint, no one suspects this might be a sign of trouble. Greer and Brody jump out the back of the shuttle and into the ship so they can burn a few minutes walking through dark corridors.
Back on Destiny, TJ brings Varro some food and they talk a bit about Simeon, the dead cultists, and her baby. Right as TJ is about to leave, she spots a bad guy ship flyby really fast and radios the bridge, right before the simulation finishes and reveals to the crew that the bad guys are still hanging around despite blowing up
They get more reports of blurs from Scott and Wray, so Young has Greer and Brody retreat to the shuttle, but not before several dozen bad guys show up and start firing at the Destiny. The trio returns empty handed, but not before blowing up one of the ships right before docking, causing pieces of it to tear apart some of Destiny's outer hull. The FTL drive is offline, but then Telford and the seed ship arrive out of nowhere. The two ships head towards a star that's apparently close to the graveyard, using the star to destroy the pursuing ships and recharging Destiny before docking outside the star.
Telford comes aboard and gives his story about being stranded and the aliens having him use one of their pods to understand them and stay alive. He explains that the Ursini, as they are called, woke up the bad guys and have been at war with them for a while. The Ursini want the Destiny to blow up a ship that controls the little drone ships that attacked Destiny. Young, Rush, and Wray discuss this, with Rush wanting to ditch them once they fix Destiny's FTL, but Young points out the Ursini have a means of getting the crew home.
Right after this is a scene where Rush tries to talk Eli out of his depression, which ends with Rush implying that Eli is close to accomplishing something. We never find out what, as Young shows up. Then there's discussion about what they're going to do next, namely piggy back the seed ship's FTL, and there's the usual proclamations of doom that aren't fulfilled. Eli decides to spend some time with Chloe, but finds her staring out a window when they drop out of FTL near the control ship.
The Ursini take off, leaving Destiny to fend for itself against the drones. Chloe tells Eli she can help, so he tries taking her out of her room, which results in the guard being smashed against a wall. Eli tells Young, who gets Scott and Greer searching for her as the ship starts sparking and what not, while TJ takes care of the wounded and people run around. Chloe makes her way to the control room and does something before zoning out so Scott can find her, while the bridge crew basically just say how screwed they are as the episode ends with the drones shooting up Destiny.
Review
This episode has a bunch of problems, some of which are due to earlier episodes and some are entirely on this episode. For example, the Eli subplot doesn't work because not enough time was spent on developing his relationship with Ginn and because Visitation showed he wasn't affected by her death at all. The bit about Riley doesn't really work because 1)the writers didn't have him show up for most of season 1 past the first 5 episodes and 2)we never really see the Destiny crew being close enough for his speech about how each person is important to feel real. The Chloe subplot continues to drag instead of being concluded in Visitation with Greer shooting her; the only reason she's still alive to provide the deus ex machina solution to the cliffhanger. The TJ/Varro romance, which is far more interesting than Scott/Chloe, shows up again to remind us they have a thing for each other, instead of developing this relationship and making it worth keeping Mike Dupold around.
The problems that are confined to this episode are just as bad. The spacewalk accomplishes nothing aside from some false drama and tension, Telford's return- while telegraphed by the credits- comes out of left field, and everything after that feels rushed. The ending of the episode actually has less tension and energy than the battle in the graveyard, leading me to think that Telford's return was probably the end of the story before a rewrite, explaining why all of a sudden there's a star nearby (unless there was a deleted scene somewhere).
While there are some good bits like the opening with Rush and the B cast, Greer and Brody bantering, Rush and Eli's little chat, and the CGI, this episode really isn't the best cliffhanger. The ending is completely lacking since the music and editing aren't there to amp up the tension. It's really hard to explain how badly they failed, but I made a video comparing what we got in the episode to the same footage after I put 15 minutes of work into it, just cutting various bits and using the Inception horn (I recommend lowering the volume to be on the safe side). Overall, the episode is good, maybe even great by SGU's standards, but no more than average to anyone well versed in scifi television.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6P9IYdxzu8
Now, she will have a look that matches the way she must smell by now. 
:robertcooper::bradcry:
