SGU 2.05 "Cloverdale" Episode Guide

Précis

While surveying a new planet, Lt. Scott becomes infected by a plant-like creature. As he suffers hallucinations and falls in and out of consciousness, Tamara seeks a way to treat him.

Guide | Transcript

Syfy.com Official Summary

The good news: The crew has found a planet with the potential to replenish their stores of fresh food and water. The bad news: Matt has been infected by a local fungus that is not only threatening his life, but closing in on the entire away team, ready to devour them. TJ tries every therapy she can think of, but the fungus—a huge growth on Matt's arm—is unresponsive to all of them. As a last resort, Rush suggests amputation, and the others understand that as a necessary step. But when TJ makes a guideline incision in Matt's arm, revealing his blood to be purple, it's clear that the infection has spread internally, and amputation would only make the situation worse.

Matt, as he flutters out of consciousness, imagines himself in an Oz-like fantasy in which Young is his father, Chloe is his fiancee, Greer is his best man and Eli is Chloe's brother. Matt arrives in his hometown—Cloverdale—the day before his wedding to Chloe, and the whole town wants to celebrate. Matt—or, his dream state avatar—is a reluctant guest of honor, however, haunted as he is by the sense that something is terribly wrong, and this happy occasion is an illusion masking a deeper terror. But every time he tries to explain this feeling to his friends and family—all repurposed crew members—they chalk it up to cold feet, and tell him to snap out of it.

The away team races towards the Stargate and builds a barricade against the fungus—now twenty feet tall and pursuing them as though it were a pride of lions—in order to buy a little time in hopes of curing Matt. Greer assembles a military team with blowtorches to keep the fungus from encroaching past the barricade. Young orders all non-essential personnel back aboard Destiny, and when they fire up the 'gate, they discover that the wormhole's appearance makes the fungus retreat temporarily.

Everyone checks each other for contamination before returning to Destiny, and Chloe finds a small spot of the fungus on her shirt, but it somehow hasn't infected her. TJ orders her aboard, and she begs to stay with Matt, but is denied. As the others are busy checking for infection, Chloe steals away and allows herself to be stabbed by the fungus. She returns and shows TJ, but within minutes, the mark of contact on her hand disappears: whatever made her leg wound heal has made her immune to the fungal infection. Although both wary of the additional effects Matt will undergo, TJ and Rush devise a method of infusing Matt with Chloe's blood—they consider it a worthwhile risk. Greer keeps the fungus at bay with periodic bursts from the Stargate, and the transfusion completes. Matt regains consciousness, and the three return to Destiny as quickly as possible. Matt is relieved to be alive and safely aboard Destiny, but Young delivers some ominous words to him, then leaves him alone with Chloe to hear the details of his continued survival.

Cast

Opening Credits:

• Robert Carlyle as Dr. Nicholas Rush
• Louis Ferreira as Col. Everett Young
• Brian J. Smith as 1st Lt. Matthew Scott
• Elyse Levesque as Chloe Armstrong
• David Blue as Eli Wallace
• Alaina Huffman as 1st Lt. Tamara Johansen
• Jamil Walker Smith as MSgt. Ronald Greer

Guest Starring:

• Peter Kelamis as Adam Brody
• Jennifer Spence as Dr. Lisa Park
• Julia Benson as Lt. Vanessa James
• Patrick Gilmore as Dr. Dale Volker
• and Lou Diamond Phillips as Col. David Telford (figment)

Closing Credits:

• Cole Humphrey as Movie Scott
• Mittita Barber as Movie Chloe
• Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman as Airman Darren Becker

Production

• Written by Brad Wright
• Directed by Alex Chapple

Related Articles

Keywords

• Destiny

Other

• Stargate Universe: Season Two
• Previous: SGU 2.04 "Pathogen" Episode Guide
• Next: SGU 2.06 "Trial And Error" Episode Guide

Related Links

Official

• MGM Official Website: Search Results for "Cloverdale"
• Syfy: 2.05 "Cloverdale" Guide

Fan

• Solutions News and Spoiler Blog
• Solutions at LJ: Universe Tagged Entries
• Solutions Universe Forum

Production Notes

• "More spinning today in the writers’ room and more headway made on those first ten episodes. ... Brad’s idea falls in the four slot, so he’ll take that one, which means Rob will be jumping on 3." — Joseph Mallozzi, October 28, 2009
• "After breaking the first four episodes of season one Monday through Thursday, we spent a far more leisurely Friday discussing the general premise for the fifth, a.k.a.’s Brad’s episode. Unlike everyone else in the room, Brad prefers a less structured, more free-flowing approach to scriptwriting so, in his case, no breaking required, just a gentle couple of hours in the spin cycle. Still, I’d call that five for five." — Joseph Mallozzi, November 6, 2009
• "As for Brad’s outline – Outline? He don’t need no stinking outline!" — Joseph Mallozzi, November 21, 2009
• "The rest of the afternoon was devoted to more chitchat and trying to figure out why the Bridge Studios decided to upgrade the perfectly-fine network so that, now, no one can either print or stay online for any significant amount of time. Brad couldn’t open his script and when he tried to print it, had the page count balloon to about 117 pages. Paul, now wearing his Exec Producer’s hat for the show’s second season, made the executive call and informed him: 'Yeah, that’s too long.' I, on the other hand, smell a two-parter." — Joseph Mallozzi, January 11, 2010
• "Brad’s script was long only as a result of a printer screw-up. No two-parter." — Joseph Mallozzi, February 4, 2010
• "We discussed potential locations for Paul and Brad’s episodes and I got a sneak peek at some pretty fearsome-looking alien creatures – not to be confused with “those other aliens”." — Joseph Mallozzi, March 1, 2010
• "Yesterday, we received a visit from our friends at Syfy, Exec. VP of Original Programming Mark Stern and Director of Development Erika Kennair, who dropped by to talk travel, television and, oh yeah, Stargate: Universe. We spent the afternoon discussing the first five scripts of season two and beyond – character developments, story arcs, and surprises in store for the not too distant future. It was a pleasant and ultimately fruitful sit-down that yielded some terrific ideas that I was quite excited about… until I sat down in front of my laptop this morning and realized I would now have to incorporate these terrific ideas into the rewrite of Awakening. Don’t get me wrong. I really do like the notions we came up with. They’ll help clarify some of the character motivations and offer up interesting revelations about her heroes. I just hate rewrites. Even more than I hate writing first drafts." — Joseph Mallozzi, March 12, 2010
• "Brad, meanwhile, put out a full pink draft of Cloverdale. It’s one of those scripts the cast will LOVE working on it. They’re going to have tons of fun." — Joseph Mallozzi, April 13, 2010
• "Cloverdale (episode #5) was shooting on location today in – where else? – Cloverdale..." — Joseph Mallozzi, April 28, 2010
• "This afternoon, we watched a cut of episode #5, Cloverdale. I can’t wait to see the finished visual effects on this one!" — Joseph Mallozzi, May 14, 2010
• "Watched the director's cut of #SGU 's EPS 205 last night. EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC" — Mark Savela, Twitter, May 15, 2010
• Sean D. writes: "Can you give us any additional hints about episode “Cloverdale” beyond David Blue’s reveal to it being set in an alternate universe?" Answer: "Alternate universe? Really?" — Joseph Mallozzi, September 18, 2010
• Concept Art: Alien Infection posted by Joseph Mallozzi, September 18, 2010. Annotation: SC 3 Teaser; For the next stage (SC 5), the dimensional mass should begin to wrap around the entire forearm and the makeup should extend to the fingers and nails; Next 2 scenes - (14, 17) the growth should have increased slightly (10 - 15%); SC 21 - Same as 17 - Arm is wrapped in coat to prep for surgery; SC 22 - Possible additional prosthetic application for surgical incision; SC 32 - Hardened version (see second concept drawing) plays until SC 55 where it is replaced with a breakaway version. The drawing also shows that this infection is due to a bite.

Further Reading

• Joseph Mallozzi's Blog
• Solutions: On Location in Cloverdale for SGU's "Cloverdale", May 5, 2010
• Mark Savela's Twitter
• Solutions: Stargate Universe: 2.05 "Cloverdale", October 26, 2010

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--DeeKayP 13:59, 26 January 2010 (UTC)