Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Entertaining and enthralling

Tense and dramatic, Divided is my second favorite episode of the season so far. It delivers on every front from the tightly woven plot to the incredible acting to the great special effects to the musical underscore as the power-play arc reaches a stunning climax and the Destiny crew faces another attack from the aliens introduced in Space.

The plot deserves a major part of the credit for the episode; it was very tightly woven and, unlike many previous episodes of SGU, the pacing was spot on. From the opening with the surreal quality of Chloe’s dream to the actual civilian coup to the military fight-back to the shields failing just as Destiny jumps into FTL, every scene had a purpose and a place; every piece of dialogue added to the episode; everything just worked. And actually I found the plotting very believable; civilians wouldn’t think completely tactically and the military would, so the speed of both the coup and the military’s successful fight-back made sense to me. Kudos to Paul Mullie for the writing.

I especially loved the scene between Chloe and TJ as they discuss the situation. This scene was just wonderful; both women standing by their point of view and standing up for what they believe in. And very importantly, wonderfully acted. Alaina Huffman’s TJ continues to be one of the very best characters around. Here she manages to portray how angry she is with the situation very subtly and emphasizes TJ’s military qualities very well. Plus TJ gets to save the day by stepping in and taking the transmitter out of Rush when the communication stone glitches and Doctor Brightman (which is a great cameo appearance for Stargate SG1 fans as the character appeared in S8) is sent back, ensuring the aliens cannot follow them.

I also want to give a shout out for Elyse Levesque. She has to carry a major part of this episode as Chloe’s surprise alliance with Rush is a large part of the episode from the moment the two survivors meet up in the mess after their respective nightmares, to her pleas with him to stop the transfer to save Scott and Young, to her volunteering to be the one to exchange places with the doctor to perform surgery. Levesque really delivers; portraying Chloe’s anger at Young’s treatment of Rush, her regret in acting against her boyfriend, and Chloe’s vulnerability as she deals with the aftereffects of her capture.

This “dealing with the consequences” is actually a powerful theme throughout the episode. Chloe is shown dealing with the consequences of her capture and the ramifications it has for her relationship with Scott and friendship with Eli. Young has to deal with the consequences of his rash action in leaving Rush behind and in losing the trust of the civilians. Rush has to deal with the consequences of his initial action in framing Young in the first place which set into motion the chain of events which ultimately sees him being put under the knife to remove an alien transmitter. And, given the rather dark ending with Young admitting to Greer it isn’t over, I can only hope we will see the consequences of the coup itself and the impact to the crew in the following episodes this season.

I also have to mention the music in the episode because it really added to the tension and drama throughout. I particularly loved it in the run-up to the coup happening as everything builds to the moment where Rush and Wray take control of the ship; it definitely foreshadowed a sense of danger and thrill. But really the whole production deserves to take a bow.

Everything from the special effects (loved the space walk with Young and Greer and the shot of the shuttle blasting the alien pod from the Destiny hull) to the lighting which somehow managed to make the usual dark Destiny seem a bit brighter to the direction which has some standout shots (loved the framing of TJ with Volker and Brody as the coup happens and one of the final shots of Young lit up but the rest of the frame almost in darkness as though to highlight what the Colonel faces).

This is definitely one of SGU’s strongest episodes to date. Only the now award winning episode Time has been better, in my opinion – namely because it made so much more use of Stargate mythology and the Stargate. And indeed this is my one complaint about Divided – lack of mythology and lack of the Stargate itself.

In conclusion

Divided is another example of when SGU gets it right, it gets it very right. And part of getting it right, is making sure the pacing is perfect. Here everything just works, thanks to the foundation of a brilliant script. Kudos to everyone for an entertaining and enthralling hour of television.