Andromeda: S05E09: What Will Be Was Not

The western theme continues as we rejoin our heroes at the saloon quaffing their favorite beverages. Harper tallies pages of Rhade’s bar bill while the Nietzschean and Beka look in amusement. Rhade then denies his bill could ever be as large as it is and refuses to pay, claiming no one drinks that much -as he downs another glass. arper threatens to shut Rhade off completely, and with a few snidecomments from Beka added to the mix, the argument quickly escalates to a pretty funny drunken brawl.

The melee that ensues between Beka, Harper, Rhade, Doyle and a few innocent Seefra-One by-standers could have only been inspired by the Tasmanian Devil or Wile E. Coyote. I thought it a bit of inspired ensemble physical acting that the players managed to look like a round rolling ball of flailing fists and other limbs which did travel tumbleweed-like from the saloon out into the square and back again.

The fight inadvertently breaks up a marriage proposal at it’s out set, and was a nice little bit of metaphoric “commitment missing” imagery.
Stuck on Seefra-One with attempts to power the Andromeda having failed – that the crew resorts to beating on each other and enjoying it wasn’t really a big surprise.

Between Rhade’s drunkenness and the rest of the crew stupid with idleness the violence was inevitable. Harper’s whining comment of how they are all stuck in the god-forsaken place and Rhade’s opportunistic sarcastic remark, “We all know who’s fault that is,” betrays the characters fraying hope symbolized by Trance’s dismay and readiness to take the blame.

Trance immediately interprets that Rhade meant it was her fault they were all lost to Time and Space and quickly runs away from the saloon. She appears on Andromeda in time to hear Dylan also curse Andromeda’s circumstances. Crying, she says good bye to him and vanishes.

Dylan hurries to back to the surface of Seefra-One to find out what happened that made Trance so upset. Outside he meets Doyle and she fills him in on Rhade’s lack of tact and immediately offers to help find Trance.

Doyle is still trying to fit in, though she also needs to help Dylan. It seems to me that Doyle is compelled by the parts of her that are Rommie to worship and love Dylan. So off goes Dylan Hunt and Doyle the Android, in a more subdued colored outfit, to the tunnels!!

Meanwhile, Trance has sat in a corner of a tunnel to cry. The oddly formal tunnel keeper, Orlund, finds her and immediately takes her for a princess. After he turns a few tunnel dwellers to stone with his interesting Vedran weapon, Orlund swears to protect Trance and show her his secrets of the tunnels.

Dylan and Doyle aren’t too far behind them when Doyle quips with aplomb, “Is it getting warmer in here or are my sensors off?”
Our brawling friends at the bar; Harper, Beka and Rhade share another drink and when -Holy hole in the plot Batman! – Rhade confesses he had a wife and three children that are now dead.

Now do we all feel like we missed something here, or is it just me?
I didn’t think so.

Beka offers her condolences to which Rhade shrugs off. He has offered them an interesting thought about the predicament of space and time they are in on Seefra:

Rhade asked Beka and Harper if they thought there were other versions of themselves going about their lives in other parts of the universe.

What if their arrival in the Seefra System killed their other selves?

It was quite a dark moment in the episode but I wasn’t satisfied by it, the lead up to these revelations – Rhade’s family and the paradox of their situation, was nonexistent.

The scene is over and we’re back in the tunnels, with Orlund showing Trance the eight tesseract doors to the other planets in the system.

Orlund was very well played by Rob Daly, almost Shakespearean, with a beauty to his language and delivery.

Orlund walks Trance through one of the doorways to keep her safe when he realizes one of his traps have gone off warning him of someone’s presence nearby. He returns to Seefra-One to confront Dylan and Doyle with his Vedran technology that only incapacitates Dylan, it doesn’t turn him to stone. Orlund realizes this is because Dylan is a Paradine, descendant of the Vedrans.

I was surprised Dylan didn’t notice sooner that there were 8 doors off the chamber Orlund brought them too. I mean his whole fate is entwined with the Seefra System you’d think he’d be counting to nine constantly.

All in all I felt Dylan was quite casual about the whole situation – except for the pain from the effect of Orlund’s weapon. He does grasp the “Princess” remark refers to Trance; however his own denial at being a Paradine is getting a little old. It was actually very satisfying when Dylan gets chewed out by Doyle once Orlund strands them with the core crystals that are over heating!!!

Doyle vents everything the crew is feeling and a lot of the show’s fans when she tells Dylan that he’s being self-centered and all he appears to care about is his ship and not his stranded crew. I thought this was well placed in the story arc and within this scene of “imminent death”.
Dylan freaks out back at her and this leads to the touchy feely hug between them…that and finding Harper’s switch for Doyle’s power converter which literally turns Doyle on, once again makes us all wonder what Doyle and Harper had been doing for 3 years in those caves…

But I have to interject a small speculation here with this scene – Dylan confesses to thinking of Doyle in a sexual way – and Doyle is part Rommie. So if Rommie is resurrected are we looking at a potential love triangle between the three…? (ah, you were still paying attention!)

Back on Seefra-One with Orlund and Trance, Orlund is convinced she and Dylan are both Paradine returned to punish him, but he will not go quietly into that good night. Instead of lose his station; handed down to him through generations, Orlund tries to destroy the keys to the tesseract doors which immediately become apparent to be part of the planetary systems design. The keys are made of Methis crystals and cause earthquakes as Orlund tries to break the first he grabbed.

This gives us, the viewers, a really great graphic of the system and the shock waves following the tesseract lines between the Seefra planets.

Dylan finally starts to cop onto the larger picture and Doyle figures out how to hotwire the tesseract door back to Seefra-One. once back, Dylan lets Trance and Orlund fight over the key but Orlund would rather die than have his duty taken away from him.

As a High Guard Captain, Dylan orders Orlund to remain at his post and wear his high guard patch proudly. In exchange for his orders Orlund gives Dylan the core crystals which enable him to bring Andromeda’s power up to 75% capacity!

The crew assembles on the ship and Dylan is able to settle all his debts with the rest of the crew, also thanks to Orlund.

With Andromeda’s A.I. back in appearance, and money in their pockets, the crew has hope for their future for the first time since the beginning of this season. Rhade takes the opportunity to announce he is quitting drinking.*Altogether I liked this episode; it showed the crew at the frayed edges they arrived at together instead of the personal hells they had suffered alone in the Seefra System, it helped to strengthen Trance’s faith in her purpose, which is still a mystery. Rhade reached the bottom of his pit and has begun to climb back out and Beka and Harper are learning to trust each other as crew members again. The interaction with Dylan and Doyle helped flesh Doyle’s character out more and the ending put Dylan back in a place of command.

This episode review is © 2004 Sidhecafe.
Not for reproduction without the authors express permission

Vidcaps are © Tribune Entertainment. All rights reserved.

The names, characters and everything else associated with Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda TV series are the property of the Tribune Entertainment Company. All rights reserved.

Checkout their website