Stargate Universe - "The Hunt"

Varro (Michael Dopud) nd Greer (Jamil Walker Smith) realized that they're the ones being hunted.

Photo Credit: Syfy

Review by Paul Steven Brown

'Stargate Universe'
Season 2 - Episode 16
"The Hunt"

"The Hunt" is a little all over the place. Despite the visceral nature of the main story, this episode felt like a pause between major plot developments to the show's overall narrative. For the most part, we're given some opportunities to look at a few characters in a different light and to see how their experiences on Destiny have changed them.

The central story deals with the hunt for TJ and another crewman who were drug off by a CGI monster that ambushed the Destiny landing party. Apparently, the monster attacks only in first person as a favor to 'Stargate Universe' budget staff. In the process Varro gets to prove that he is trustworthy and his Lucian Alliance buddies are useful, but most of all this story is about Greer losing his edge.

This just came out of nowhere. He thinks he actually died for a moment on the table when he donated a kidney to Volker and now Ron is scared of dying. Maybe we're supposed to be shocked by the fact Ronald's experience in a situation that was far from a battle would rattle him so. Still, it just seemed too forced.

The resolution to hunt and rescue was extremely flat. You mean to tell me that the creature let's TJ and the corporal go because they were intelligent enough to build fire and because Greer lowered his weapon? That's just lame. And then after being shown mercy from the giant cat creature, Greer gets his killer edge again and shoots a deer creature for dinner. Talk about mixed messages.

Story number two centers on Eli not wanting to defer to Rush, especially in light of last episode's upload fiasco. Hillarity ensues when Rush locks Brody in one of the newly found stasis pods, just to screw with Eli. Between this incident and Rush's conversation with Volker, it feels that Rush is reasserting his dominance in the science team.

The third story line is about Volker having a crush on Park and his inability to be proactive about it. Chloe tells him to go for it and express his feelings. Rush's attempts to use some reverse psychology by indicating that Volker could only be friends with Park because he's not really bold enough to step up and he should just except his non-alpha dog existence.

This was always going to end sadly. Park has been shown to have slept with few different men on Destiny (including Ronald Greer. Whoo-rah!) and seemed comfortable enough in herself to have made a move on Volker already if she was interested. Also, with Volker's kidney failure, there wasn't any indication of his feelings before this episode that I can recall. I enjoy as much development for the science team as I can get, but this one really didn't do it for me.

We're closing in on the end of the season, and for that matter, the series, but the second half of season two has felt really underwhelming. I just hope that things pick up for the home stretch so we can walk away from 'SGU' in a positive light.