SG-U: 2.12 - Twin Destinies

[Dr.Jackson]

Destiny has sustained substantial damage in its last battle. A big chunk of life support is down and dozens of other systems, including weapons and shields, are on the brink of failing. Eli offers a solution. He believes he has figured out a way to dial back to Earth while Destiny recharges in the next star. Dr. Rush strongly disagrees with the plan. He is concerned that when Eli creates a connection to Earth, the energies from the star could use the wormhole to cause catastrophic damage. Col. Young decides to consider Eli’s plan and sends Eli back to Earth via the communication stones. On Earth, Eli presents his idea to other experts, who, after agreeing with his calculations greenlight the plan.

Realizing abandonment of Destiny is upon them, Dr. Rush announces that he will not leave. He wants to stay the course and fulfill the mission. Knowing he cannot manage the ship alone, he addresses the crew to see if there are any volunteers who would also stay.

While the weight of Rush’s plea hangs amongst the crew they are interrupted by a distress call. With all shuttle’s accounted for no one can explain why the distressed passenger reports that he is heading their way in one of Destiny’s shuttles. Warning them that if they dial Earth all on board will die, the passenger claims to be the lone survivor of a failed attempt from a parallel timeline.

 

[Dr.Jackson]

Despite this being part of an ongoing story, this felt like a very self-contained episode. Everything was wrapped up, although not quite so neatly as it first appeared to me.
They now have spares to repair the ship, food and ammo which allows them to get into a battle, which is no doubt coming, without being obliterated. The alternate Rush went down with the alternate Destiny, and Telford was killed, leaving alternate Telford on Earth, so although we still only have one of each, Telford is now stuck on Earth again and will need to be briefed on what happened in this timeline, although that will likely occur off screen.

I enjoyed the brief bits of banter between Rush and alternate Rush, but I wish they'd kept both of them around to give us a bit of conflict with both of them not trusting the other. I didn't see the point in alternate Rush interfacing with the chair as the damaged Destiny fell into the star, unless he managed to transmit something to the other Destiny.

I'm not sure if Eli's guilt issues for killing everyone in the alternate timeline will come into play as the series heads for it's finale, but I hope they do use the opportunity to ramp up the tension. Perhaps if he has to make a critical decision and Rush isn't available, they could put the ticking clock on it.