Firefly - "Jaynestown" (TV Episode Review #21)

A few years back, Jayne Cobb broke into the home of Higgins, the oppressive feudal magistrate of his own entire moon, and stole a huge sum of his money.  But while escaping, Jayne was forced to dump the money out into one of Higgins’s mud-making factory towns, Canton.  Now, he’s going back to Canton with Serenity while the crew is on a smuggling operation.  He fears he would be recognized by the town and seized as a fugitive, and he does get recognized, alright... as a Robin Hood-style folk hero!

Stargate Atlantis - "Common Ground" (TV Episode Review #20)

Oh no!  Kolya, the rogue Genii commander, has captured Lt. Col. John Sheppard!  And as Dr. Elizabeth Weir is holding a diplomatic conference on Atlantis with Radim, the new leader of the reformed Genii, Kolya channels in and offers a bargain to Dr. Weir: hand over Radim for Sheppard’s freedom.  If they don’t, Kolya will keep on torturing Sheppard with his “secret weapon.”  Will the Atlantis team locate Sheppard in time and set him free?

Stargate SG-1 - "Singularity" (TV Episode Review #19)

“Singularity” has a genuinely strong setup.  On an extraterrestrial planet, an entire SG team, along with an entire village of 1,000 people gets wiped out by a plague, and the sole survivor is a little girl, Cassandra, who seems to be immune to the disease for some reason.  This is a great concept, but the execution is mixed to weak at best.

Firefly - "Our Mrs. Reynolds" (TV Episode Review #18)

90% of “Our Mrs. Reynolds” takes place onboard Serenity, after Mal is tricked into marrying a young girl named Saffron while trading on a remote border planet.  As he has to put up with admitting his unwanted newlywed as his newest crewmember, what follows is 44 minutes of awkwardness, innuendo, and some troublemaking.

Stargate SG-1 - "Nemesis" (TV Episode Review #17)

Notably, “Nemesis” is the only Stargate SG-1 season finale, from any of its first eight seasons, where the Goa’uld—the original archenemies of SG-1—are not the antagonists.  This is because Season 3’s central storyline was already resolved in the episode “Maternal Instinct”.  Instead, this episode marks the first appearance of SG-1’s second most recurring enemy, the Replicators, who have infested Thor’s mothership and set it on a course towards Earth.  Col. Jack O’Neill, and later Teal’c and Major Samantha Carter, are beamed onboard to deal with the infestation.

Stargate Atlantis - "Sateda" (TV Episode Review #16)

In an episode that opens with Rodney McKay getting shot in the ass, Ronon Dex gets to revisit a chapter of his past for which he has no nostalgia.  When the Atlantis team comes across a village that Ronon had unwillingly sold out to the Wraith during his time as a runner, the villagers capture the team and hand Ronon over to the Wraith in exchange for his teammates’ freedom.  He is sent back to his homeworld of Sateda, let alone the planet’s capital city—now ravaged by the Wraith.