Episode Report Card Keckler: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT You Can Call Me Al
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 21 | Aired on 04.29.2002
Inside, the Suliban run wild. Danik passes his child off to another Suliban and tells her to "go with the others." They run as guards enter. One weapon-toting Suliban is shot in the back -- stunned, not killed. Danik fires back and there's a firefight. Danik's little brat shouts for him, and he tells her he'll be there soon and to go with the others. Danik grabs the wounded Suliban and drags him out of the way. If the Enterprise crew are stuck with a Suliban orphan brat, I'm barfing. More than usual.
Quantum paces in his cell. Reed enters and Quantum throws him against the wall. "It's good to see you Malcolm," Quantum says. Reed sighs and says, "How'd you know it was me?" He goes to the doors and is knocked away by AlGrat, who points a gun at Quantum. "You have no idea what you've done. You haven't freed these people, you've condemned them!" AlGrat shouts. More needless destruction by Trip from the sky. Guards lie on the ground, as Mayweather ushers Suliban over them. Sajen hangs back in fear, and Danik's brat squeals that someone needs to get her father. Sajen pauses, so Mayweather moves to go. Sajen stops him and says he'll go. Mayweather hands him a gun. AlGrat throws Quantum against a wall and tells him he had no right to interfere. "This isn't about my rights, it's about theirs!" Quantum slurs over a fat lip. AlGrat says they lost their rights as soon as the Cabal started their attacks. "Do you know how many people the Cabal have murdered? How many ships they've destroyed? Colonies? You just gave them eighty-nine new soldiers!" AlGrat bellows, probably spitting all over Quantum's face. Quantum asks what makes him think they'll join the Cabal and AlGrat tells him they have nothing left and won't be able to resist what the Cabal has to offer them. Quantum notes Reed stirring in the background. That's one good thing about Quantum's hefty brows: when furrowed -- as they are now -- they shutter his eyes so others can't see where he's looking. Quantum tells AlGrat that he hasn't been with them very long but he seems to know the Suliban "a helluva lot better" than AlGrat does. Reed launches himself at AlGrat, and Quantum grabs his weapon away. He raises it above his head. AlGrat flinches and cowers. Quantum pauses and decides not to strike him. Quantum jerks his head at Reed to get out of there and follows. AlGrat stays against the wall, his eyes bulging in fear. Quantum locks him in. All in all, I have to say that between just the two of them, Dean Stockwell and the Klev dude did a great job of getting across the message that they are a race who isn't quite sure they are really doing the right thing -- in fact, they might even be scared of what they're being told to do. As military men, they've been assigned to guard these citizens -- who are very possibly their close friends and neighbors -- and since they aren't the ones making the decisions, they have to convince themselves of the rhetoric fed to them by their superiors in order to justify that what they are doing is not horribly wrong. It's a lot more interesting to watch that kind of conflict in these characters than flatter characters, who are so obviously out-and-out baddies, there aren't any layers or dimension.