At first it seemed that McQueen (I don’t remember any of these characters’ ranks, but I’ve got their names down now) is going to be the focal character of the episode, but actually it’s about him being replaced temporarily, so he’s not around for most of it.
The Saratoga (which I have neglected to mention looks pretty much like a less pointy Star Destroyer from Star Wars) finds a space plane drifting, seemingly dead, but it lands in the carrier of its own volition. They discover aboard it one Ray “Kicks” Butts, a gruff pilot who has been through a lot of wars. In spite of his cool name, Butts is a real jerk. He’s racist to the In-Vitros on the crew, he takes opportunities to berate or embarrass the Wild Cards, and just in general he’s a prick. And it isn’t until after he spends a while being a prick to the team that he reveals that he’s got orders from the brass to replace McQueen and take control of the Wild Cards for a secret mission.
The mission, the team is told, is to recover some space planes that the Chigs have managed to capture. The Wild Cards parachute down onto a Chig-controlled planet and then Butts immediately goes AWOL (is it still called going AWOL when you’re in charge?). It turns out that those planes belonged to his unit and on their last mission he was the only one to get away. He wants to bury his friends’ bodies. So he does that, then they go and do the actual mission. The team have a bonding moment where Butts makes them realize they might not all come back from the mission, so they say preemptive goodbyes, just in case (slightly undercut by them all being main characters, save Butts who is pretty clearly being set up to die). Anyway, Butts dies to help the team escape. The end.
Butts being a prick is intentional, sure. It’s meant to show that he’s been messed up by the wars and whatnot. But I never warmed up to him even when the story thought he was redeeming himself. The only positive about him is that he’s pro-pancakes. Anyway, I don’t know. I didn’t like him.
One thing I do like is that Hawkes, the angsty bad boy In-Vitro, is by this point completely a part of the team. They all get along with him and that pleases me. I like it when teams get along.
