SGU S01E13 Faith

Coming into this episode, given the title of “Faith” and my general aversion to most things that are of overly religious influence, I was a little wary. I was hoping, really hoping, that SGU wasn’t going to wander too far down the religious road, as that would have almost completely ruined my opinion of the show. Of course, the show’s writers left me once again questions why I ever doubt them. “Faith” turned out to be a fantastic episode, very much worthy of the praise I heap upon the show in general. By way of quick summary, Destiny drops out of FTL in an unknown system that is comprised of a single planet and a sun. It turns out that the planet has a perfect atmosphere. Upon arriving at the planet, they find pure water, fresh fruit, and a hospitable environment. Amongst mounting scientific evidence that the planet and the sun were created artificially, a team is sent down to the planet to live there for a month, gathering food and supplies to bring back to the Destiny. This works as a nifty mechanic to accomplish many things. First we have the fallout from last week’s episode. young has put forth the decree that the military are supposed to make overtures of friendship with the civilians. Scott and Greer have an interesting discussion about it in which Greer speaks of his distaste for the mandate, while Scott takes the opposite approach. He approves, and genuinely seems to want to rebuild the bridges that were burned during the civilians’ failed coup attempt. The month during which the civilians had to live alongside the military ont he planet, I think, will go a long way towards repairing the friendships. One in particular, the relationship between Scott and Chloe, was paid special attention. While that relationship isn’t as strong as it was before, I think they both have taken steps towards moving past the events of “Divided”. I think the writers handled it tastefully, giving us a couple scenes to take the events in during the montage that passed the month spent on the planet. By the end of the episode, I was left with the feeling that they might not be quite where they were two episodes ago, but they are making their way back there. “Faith” also provided us with a bombshell of a twist (which I won’t spoil here), and it was this that motivates one of the characters to decide to remain on the planet. What’s further interesting is the reaction of one character in particular, and the decision that was made based upon his reaction. Like I said, I won’t spoil it by writing it down for you here, but the moment was one of the best moments the show has given us thus far. The new found feelings between Rush and Young are fascinating as well. For the first time ever, we see them mostly on the same page. It will be interesting to see how long their admittedly uneasy alliance can last, but I’m enjoying it while it’s around. So, in the end, several characters elect to stay behind on the planet, which I will refer to from here on out as “Obelisk World”. There’s been some debate on this, but Joe Mallozzi confirmed it on his blog. Kaine and several others (roughly half a dozen) chose to stay behind and are no longer aboard Destiny. Now, in ordinary circumstances, I’d be all on board with the idea that numerous crew members stayed behind, and we’ll never see them again. However, in this case, given:

the fact that the planet and sun seem to be artificially created,

the fact that they’ve spent a lot of time over the last few episodes building up Kaine as a character, and

the mention of the alien language on the obelisk,

I’d be willing to bet we haven’t seen the last of Kaine and company. In conclusion, “Faith” was a fantastic episode! There were some truly great character moments, and now that I’m finished with the review, I only have to wait until tomorrow to watch the next episode. Sorry for the delay in getting this to you, it’s been a crazy week. So, until next next time, may you be pleasantly surprised by something.