Last time, I watched what was the mid-season finale for Universe’s first season. It saw Young (Louis Ferreira) leaving Rush (Robert Carlyle) behind on an alien planet (with an alien ship) as the Destiny leaps away.

The pair had a knock down drag-out fight, and that aired on 4 December, 2009. The story didn’t resume until Space aired on 2 April, 2010! Written by Joseph Mallozzi, the episode opens with the necessary recap and plunges us right back into the story.

There are some who are unsure of Young’s version of events, but when he tries to report back tot Earth, the communication stones connect him to an alien being, on a strange ship. He’s able to return to the Destiny before the alien in his body does too much, or he freaks out.

But the aliens soon attack Destiny, and seize Chloe (Elyse Levesque) during the assault. Young is determined to rescue her, but is stunned to find someone else in the holding tanks. Rush is there.

While Young explores the ship, the Destiny crew try to interact with the alien who replaced him using the communication stones.

A new alien species for the Stargate franchise… And it doesn’t look like a good first contact.

And Rush is back aboard the Destiny… how’s that going to play out for both Young and Rush? Young claimed Rush was dead. How is his leadership going to suffer for it now?

Rush believes the aliens aren’t concerned with the crew, they just want the Destiny. Are we going to see them again? Buckle up.

I liked this one a lot, and really like seeing Rush and Young go head to head.

Divided was also written by Mallozzi, and it debuted on 9 April, 2010.

Rush and Chloe are haunted by their time aboard the alien ship. Rush remains convinced that the aliens want the Destiny, and may in fact be tracking it. When the ship drops out of FTL, they use a Kino to investigate the ship, and do, in fact, find a tracking device.

However, while they head out to destroy it (but is it the only one?), a power play is made to make the military submit to civilian authority.

The factions are definitely growing in size, and we are heading to what could be a violent confrontation. Rush works to steal control of the ship with some help from Camile (Ming-Na Wen), but with lives on the line, they aren’t able to take complete control. And things are going to escalate quickly. Resources are on the line, and trust, and allies are wavering.

And the aliens make another run at them and the Destiny.

There are some interesting discussions about civilian and military authority, and it’s all set against this new direction the series is taking with aliens and interpersonal conflict.

There’s a tonal shift that happened with Young leaving Rush behind, and it’s going to be fascinating to explore it.