The end of season one left us with a set of cliffhangers:
- Col. Scott and Sgt. Greer were stuck outside the ship, trying to reach an airlock before the shields failed, which would expose them to instantly fatal levels of radiation.
- Chloe had been shot in the leg and was losing consciousness.
- The pregnant Lt. Johansen had been shot in the stomach, and she was unconscious as well.
- Col. Telford and the female leader of the Lucian Alliance had shot each other, and both were unconscious and near death.
- The Lucian Alliance guys were in control of the majority of the ship, at least in terms of territory, and Rush had barely any control of the ship.
That’s a hefty set of cliffhangers, and the season two premiere did very well resolving some of them — but others… not so much. Spoilers ahead, as usual.
Scott and Greer went to the underside of the ship, rather than running for the airlock, so they were sufficiently protected against the radiation wave. They were then able to proceed safely to the airlock, where Eli could let them in.
Chloe’s recovery was nothing short of deus ex machina: she magically and conveniently healed with no explanation. (Clearly this is related to her abduction last season, but it still seems too convenient.)
The whole plot with Johansen being sort of pseudo-present back on that one planet where they left some people was really weird. Some superior alien beings are obviously involved, but if the writers don’t give us a plausible explanation for why those superior beings would bother retrieving one baby (but not the baby’s mother!), then they’re straying much too far into mysticism to fit into the Stargate feel.
Telford surviving his gunshot wound, and the Lucian leader not surviving hers, was an obvious plot decision; nobody did anything to make it happen, and his recovery was off-screen. Had they even given a snippet of a scene where the doctors tried to save them both (at gunpoint, of course), it would have been far easier to swallow. As it is, though, the mechanism of his survival was not good doctors, but writer’s fiat.
The last cliffhanger, though, was pretty well done. The Lucians put most of the SG crew on a barely habitable planet. Rush arranges for the shields to fail slowly, which would kill almost everyone on board, unless the Lucians surrendered. The scene was extremely tense; I had no idea how it would be resolved until it happened, and it was a good resolution.
Of course, now we have to wonder: what is Colonel Young going to do with a room full of Lucian Alliance prisoners, since they can’t be sent back to earth? My gut tells me that he’ll end up integrating them into the crew, it will become another source of tension, etc. Perfect plot device.
Also, the previews implied that Rush figures out how to control the ship, but keeps the knowledge to himself. Could be interesting 🙂