Stargate Universe ”Pathogen” Detailed Analysis & Review

Nerd heaven

Chloe is acting strangely on board destiny. But hidden within her is knowledge that Doctor Rush can use to unlock the secrets of Destiny. Meanwhile, back on earth, we do some deep character stuff with Eli and Camille. This is what Stargate Universe does best.

Join me as we dig into this episode of Stargate Universe.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a Nerd

This is episode 75 of the podcast.

That means we’re 3 quarters of the way to 100, which is pretty cool.

Today, we’re talking about the Stargate Universe episode “Pathogen”

I’ve already recorded this podcast once today. But for reasons that will remain a mystery for all time, my microphone died so the whole thing was silent.

So I’m doing it all again now, and I’m not gonna bother with video this time around.

I’m curious. Those of you who watch on youtube, do you actually care one way or the other? The sound quality is probably better when I don’t use video because I can hold the microphone close to my face, which looks stupid on camera.

Anyway, curious to hear people’s thoughts.

The description on gateworld reads

Chloe's increasingly erratic behavior leads the crew to suspect that she may be under alien influence. Eli returns home when he learns that his mother has fallen ill, and Camille finds Sharon struggling in her absence.

This episode was written by Carl Binder.

It was directed by Robert Carlyle, who of course, plays Dr. Rush.

And it first aired on the 19th of October 2010.

Chloe is sitting at a console in a random room on Destiny. She has no memory of how or when she got there. She’s a little freaked out about it but so is Eli.

Scott is also concerned. Chloe has been acting strange lately. Withdrawn. Could any of this be related to her miraculous healing? It’s actually nice seeing these two talking together about their common concern for her.

Despite the fact they were both vying for Chloe’s affection, there has never really been any malice between them. Eli respects Scott because he knows that he cares about Chloe just as much as he does.

Scott asks her where they’re at. If they weren’t on the ship, would they even be together?

Chloe’s answer is “of course.”

This is when Scott admits that this is all new to him. He’s never been good at relationships, but he wants to make this work.

Remember back in early season 1, I was pretty hard on Scott.

To the point of being kinda judgemental, if I’m honest.

But at this point, you can’t deny that Scott has changed. He’s a different person than he was in the pilot. He doesn’t want to be the womaniser who uses women and then throws them away. He wants a real loving relationship with Chloe.

I thought that needed to be acknowledged.

It doesn’t doesn’t get Chloe to open up, though.

Rush is still keeping news that he has control of the ship to himself. He’s having difficulty with the countdown clock. Franklin taunts him saying he’s making things more complicated than they already are by being one person trying to do the work of an entire crew.

He talks about how Young is reckless and unsuited to lead the mission. But right now, nobody is being more reckless than Rush. He’s the one putting everyone at risk. He’s become everything he despises. You’d have thought he’d have learned a little something from Riley’s death. But it appears he hasn’t.

But it’s not just that. Brody and Park are starting to get suspicious of him. The ship is acting weirdly and he doesn’t seem surprised or even interested. He says he’s busy but won’t explain where he is. The guy is really slipping.

Eli is informed he’s gonna have to use the stones to go home. His mother is sick. That’s the kind of news nobody wants to hear.

He gets to earth and speaks with the doctor. His mum has stopped taking her medication, which is causing her to get very sick. They can help her, but the doctor’s concern is that she’ll stop taking her medication again.

To Eli, the solution is simple. Don’t let her stop. Don’t release her.

But I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way. Patients have the right to refuse treatments. Doctors and nurses can explain, recommend, and plead with a patient to do what’s best for them, but they can’t force. At least, not under normal circumstances.

This is how it is in Australia, anyway. My wife is a nurse. I assume it’s the same in America.

It turns out that Eli’s mum has severe depression.

She has to want to get better, and right now, it seems that she doesn’t.

Eli does his usual speel. “I’m airman Tracy and I work with your son Eli. He’s really worried about you.”

“Not worried enough to be here himself?”

And that’s the problem isn’t it.

She came home one day a year ago and her son was gone. The air force said he’d gone somewhere classified to do important work. And she hasn’t seen him since. Hasn’t even heard his voice.

Of course she’s got depression. No wonder she doesn’t want to get better.

She thinks her son doesn’t care. Might as well be dead. Because where is he?

Eli has always thought that his mum couldn’t handle the truth about stargates, alien spaceships and communication stones, but the lies are slowly killing her.

Young has made the decision to set the Lucian Alliance prisoners free. It’s something of an exchange. The more they give, the more they get. They’ve been generous with the intel lately, so he’s going to allow them out of the brig, to walk about the ship.

Now, while Camille thought Young was being too harsh on them, we now learn that Greer thinks he’s being too lenient. He thinks that releasing the prisoners is a mistake.

There’s an escort on each member, so they’re not completely free.

So what do they do with their newfound privileges? Simeon’s first act is to whisper something offensive in Doctor Park’s ear. Her crewmates are quick to come to her rescue, Volker probably biting off more than he can chew, standing up to the clearly stronger Simeon.

But Greer sorts him out quickly. Orders him to be taken back into his cell.

Now on one hand, it might seem that incarceration is a pretty serious punishment for something offensive, but I tend to think that Greer was correct here. Simeon has been given some freedom and he immediately abused that freedom. He needs to learn that if he behaves inappropriately, he’s gonna lose the freedom. Some of these people are a bit rough around the edges, and they have to learn that they need to coexist peacefully with the crew.

We learn that Chloe is missing. They’re forming search teams to find her.

Rush has taken them back into FTL. He’s getting tired. He’s gonna make some nasty mistakes if he’s not careful. I’m finding I have little sympathy for him. If he’d just bring in other people to help, things would go a lot smoother.

When Young comes to see Simeon, he’s a lot more apologetic. Owning up to his behaviour, acknowledging that it was inappropriate. Sounds like he really wants to hold up his end of the bargain and earn Young’s trust. He’s not off to a good start today

They find Chloe in a dark room trying to pry open a case. When approached she seems to ‘wake up’ and not know where she is, again.

She fell asleep in her quarters and then James was talking to her.

TJ can’t find anything physically wrong with her.

.

Eli has come back to visit his mum again. He’s trying to be upbeat, but she’s not interested. She finally opens up.

“Why doesn’t he call me? It’s not like him.”

So it’s time for him to open up to her. To be honest.

He starts awkwardly, asking her about her favourite movies. He uses ET as a lead in to start blabbing the details of the Stargate program to her.

“Why are you telling me this?” she asks in frustration.

“Because I am Eli,” he blurts out.

It’s a very emotional moment.

“I’m on a ship but my consciousness is in this person’s body. It really is me, mum.”

She looks pretty freaked out.

Trying to explain all the science about this is going about as well as he predicted it would. She doesn’t believe him.

So he tries a different tactic.

He talks about something personal. The day his dad left.

But that doesn’t do the trick either. “He could have told you that.”

She’s really agitated and wants Eli to leave.

Man, just put yourself in Eli’s position right now. That must be really painful.

Chloe has been writing in her journal. It’s all in alien languages. Some of it is ancient.

Some of it is from the crashed alien ship. The blue aliens.

So did the blue aliens do something to her when they took her?

Rush theories it’s some kind of genetic manipulation.

Young thinks it’s dangerous to let her roam the ship like this, but Rush has a controversial alternative. Let her do what she’s doing, and learn from it.

Meanwhile, Camille has also come home to earth for a visit.

And speaking of people who are acting a little oddly in a relationship, something seems a bit off about Sharon.

She’s lost her keys, something she never does, and when Camille tries to make light of it, she snaps.

Eli and Camille meet up. She’s the only friend he can talk to about all of this.

He often feared that his mum would give up if anything ever happened to him. Eli is fine but he’s seeing his fears play out in front of him.

As far as she’s concerned, the military took her son away and won’t let him talk to her. Eli would give up too.

Scott is escorting Chloe, but Rush wants to take over. “Time for shift change. Colonel’s orders.”

Do you think Young actually had anything to do with this? Oh, I’m sure Young ordered that there be shifts, so nobody gets burned out shadowing Chloe constantly, but Scott is worried that Rush is wanting to use her for his own purposes. Which, of course, he does. Let’s be honest.

Doesn’t mean he intends her any harm, of course, but Chloe has knowledge he wants to make use of.

He takes her to see something he obviously never showed anyone else. A place for study. Alien writing and mathematical equations cover all the walls. It looks like a mad scientist’s den.

The truth is, Rush and Chloe have something in common. They were both taken by the blue aliens. That common bond is still there.

He wants to know if she recognises anything on these walls.

Sharon asks Camille how Eli’s Mum is doing. She explains that physically she’s ok but all of this is taking its toll. Her voice slows as she says that. I think she’s suddenly getting some insight into how Sharon might be feeling.

TJ goes to meet Varro, the Lucian Alliance leader, to talk about Simeon. Young is prepared to release him again. Varro will talk to Simeon.

Varro is not impressed. “We’re trying to make this work and you’re ruining it for everyone.”

Simeon is not so apologetic when talking to Varro. “I was just talking to a woman.” It seems it was all an act for Young.

And then Simeon says something very interesting.

“Sooner or later they’ll realise that all the information we’ve been feeding them in a bunch of lies anyway.”

But Varro answers “The information you’ve been feeding them.”

Simeon thought they were all giving misinformation. But Simeon and the others are cooperating. For real. We have to find a way to get along with these people.

Simeon is shaken by this. The idea of truly making peace and cooperating never even occurred to him.

When the ship drops out of FTL again, Brody and Park try to get their heads around it all. They can’t find a meaningful explanation, but it’s suspicious. The ship drops out, no gates in range, and changes course. And Rush is always absent when it happens.

And Young says it outright. “He’s making this happen.”

Brody doesn’t know how Rush is doing it, short of cracking the master code.

Young confronts Rush. He knows Rush is lying.

He demands to know where Rush was. The truth.

So Rush shows them his mad den. He gives up a minor secret to protect his big secret.

Chloe solved one of these equations. One he’d been struggling with for weeks.

He has successfully diverted attention from his secret.

As a result of this revelation, Young has Chloe put in isolation as a precaution.

Simeon is allowed out again, and Greer tells him to remain in his quarters. The section of the ship he was in before is now off limits.

Greer was correct earlier in the episode, but now he’s pushing things.

Now it’s personal. Now it’s macho chest thumping. Simeon is a dangerous variable that needs to be handled carefully. I think Greer is making a mistake by pushing him around in this way. He’s going to provoke him.

When Simeon points out Greer acts all tough with his weapon and his men, Greet immediately gives up his weapon and dismisses the men.

No doubt about his bravery. Greer is tough.

And that’s enough to make Simeon back down.

I dunno, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe what Greer did here helped to put Simeon in his place.

Camille and Sharon finally have a frank conversation. Sharon knows this is Camille in somebody else’s body, but she misses Camille’s real face. Her real voice. Camille realises that this is all harder on Sharon than it is on her.

But these visits are what is keeping Camille going.

Nothing is really resolved. Nothing is able to change.

But the conversation is important. Sometimes just sharing pain can help. It’s a good scene.

Eli goes to have one last conversation with his mum. She admits he is all she had. She didn’t realise that until he was gone. She asks if she’ll ever see him again, and he has to admit, with tears, he doesn’t know.

Camille pulls some strings to get Eli’s mum something that is technically beyond her clearance level. She’s allowed to know the truth about Eli, but she’s not allowed to visit Destiny. But Camille makes it happen. For the sake of Eli’s emotional stability.

And so, Mrs. Wallace is welcomed aboard Destiny by Colonel Young. And then she sees him. In the flesh. “I’m real.”

Call me a softy but I got pretty choked up when this happened. What can I say? I’m a parent.

He takes her to the observation desk where they can look out at an alien planet.

Eli promises he’ll never stop trying to get home. He doesn’t want to just leave her.

But at the same time, she can see the joy in his face at being able to see these things and experience what he’s experiencing.

And that’s what every parent wants for their children.

“We're gonna be okay, Mum. You and Me.”

That’s what she needed. She’ll be leaving the hospital tomorrow. Now she has a reason to go on.

Now that she knows the truth, even if she won’t be able to see him face to face like this again until he gets home, she has hope. She knows he’s out there, and next time he visits in somebody else’s body, she’ll know it’s him.

Rush has a controversial idea about helping chloe. The neural interface. The chair.

His theory is that the chair won’t allow any non-human to use it, so if she is connected, it will eliminate anything alien that is in her.

But that chair is the same thing that effectively killed Franklin.

And Rush doesn’t have a great track record of caring about people other than himself when it comes to the chair.

Not to mention, he can’t prove his theory.

Scott is understandably concerned.

TJ agrees this is the only option anyone has come up with.

Young won’t force her, but he will present the option to her and give her a choice.

And she’s willing.

She’s in there for a few seconds. She’s breathing and her pulse is steady. Rush thinks it worked, but they’ll find out shortly.

Eli thanks Camille, but more than that, he acknowledges that this is something that a lot of other people would want. This is especially meaningful given what went on with her and Sharon recently. Sharon would really benefit from a trip to Destiny, and Camille would love that too.

But when you think about it, why not? Why not allow loved ones to come visit destiny and see the crew? I mean, if they already have clearance to know about the stargate and destiny, what does it hurt if they see it?

Ultimately, I think the reason was more of an off-screen reason and an on-screen one.

The writers didn’t want family members traipsing all over the ship constantly. That would make it feel less remote. They wanted to maintain that distance, at least at this point in the show.

But Eli has had a good idea. I’m surprised nobody thought of it sooner. Sharon comes to visit Eli’s mum. The family of Destiny’s crew could be a great support to each other. They should be forming a support group together. I can very much see them all becoming a family, as much as the crew on destiny are becoming a family.

Rush admits to Chloe that she isn’t actually cured. Why he’s keeping that from everybody else is anyone’s guess. IT won’t remain a secret for long. Rush reveals the answer to his dead wife. He thinks Chloe can help her. She’ll play along and pretend to be cured if she values her freedom.

But what about next time she sleepwalks? I’m not sure how that is supposed to work.

Anyway, I guess we’ll find out as the season goes on.

This was a fantastic character episode. This is one of the things that Stargate Universe does best.

Next time, we’ll be talking about a very different kind of episode. One that allowed the actors to do something quite different to what they were used to.

I’ll see you then for Cloverdale.

Have a great 2 weeks

Live long and prosper

Make it so