Andromeda Episode 11: The Pearls That Were His Eyes

Beka reunites with her Uncle Sid and gets dragged into a plot involving corporate politics, family secrets, drugs, and death.

Episode Summary

Andromeda docks at a drift (space station in the Andromeda universe), where Beka checks her e-mail and finds she has a three year old message from her father’s BFF, her “Uncle” Sid, asking for help.

Beka takes off in the Eureka Maru, with Trance as a stowaway, and they head over to the planet Sid told her to meet him. There, Beka picks a fight with some goons addicted to Flash, a reflex-improving eye drug (like Bloody Eye in Cowboy Bebop); she beats them up, and they tell her where to find Sid.

Reunion with Sid

Beka is surprised to find that Sid (played by John de Lancie) is doing quite well for himself and that he’s become CEO of Space Wal-Mart. They catch up on old times and talk about her father, and he steers the conversation to some sealed personal files left in the Maru’s computer.

At first he tries to play nice by offering to buy the files from Beka, but she has no idea what he’s talking about or where to find the files.

Sid becomes aggressive and paranoid; he goes on to say mean things about Beka’s father, hurting her feelings, then forces drops of flash on her eyes for good measure: “Five milligrams today,” he says, “five milligrams tomorrow, and the next day, you will be selling your first born for just one milligram more.”

Sid is Really a Jerk

Once the Flash wears off, Beka and Trance escape through a window, fight Sid’s guards, then head back to the Maru. Beka finds the secret files Sid is after in the nanobots her father put in her hair (so she could change her hair color at will). In the files is video proof that Sid killed some people to protect a drug deal.
Sid remotely controls the Maru and has it head straight for a sun, but when Beka threatens to transmit the video file everywhere in the galaxy, he backs off and lets her go free.

Garage Sale

Back at the drift, during the B-plot of the episode, Harper and Hunt look for spare parts for Andromeda. They organize a garage sale to sell all the old crew’s belongings to make money, then hunker down and ride out a solar storm.

Thoughts

John deLancie was a fun guest star, even though he pretty much played a variation of Q. He’s the real highlight of the episode, but getting more backstory on Beka’s family was good too – way better than the episode with her brother.

The B-Plot on the other hand with the garage sale and space storm was pure filler, but as far as filler goes, not the worst.

Entertaining, but nothing that great.