An ancient grave in Ireland reveals suprising secrets. Boone (Kevin Kilner) and Sandoval Von Flores) are sent to investigate..

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Be sure to watch this week's "The Secret of Strandhill" its a good one. We'll meet a female implant!
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Yes! LOVED IT! Lili poked Boone in the gut after being used by him. She should have DECKED him! She is so cool when someone else is around and shows the depths of her emotions when not in "public". The scene between her and Doors was great. I hope that this is the "tip" of the "iceberg" that we will see from Lisa.
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Me, too!!! It'll be soooo nice to finally see some of Lili's background.
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It is fairly typical, IMHO, that shows don't start to build the number 2 character until the primary has been fully "fleshed out". For example, we did not get into the depths of Nana Visitor's character on DS9 until the second season. It is time for Lili's turn.
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And it's about time, too.
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This cast has not ensembled yet, and may not ever. The characters do not "trust" each other. I look for strong individual performances to be the norm for this show. This may be why many of my friends find EFC so hard to watch. The "feel" of this show is unlike any of the others that they are used to. It does not have the strong ensemble of Seinfeld. The camaraderie of ER, or Brooklyn South is not as strong in EFC. It is an eclectic show.
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My favorite scene was in the bar when Lili was asking Boone if he was okay and he tells her he can't get drunk. The implant won't let him. I loved her reaction, Lili's probably thinking, "I oughta deck you."
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She SHOULD have decked him. She only gave him a jab in the stomach.
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Hmm... I didn't see her jab him, I thought she sort of grabbed his shoulders and gave it a push. I'll have to watch that again. :-)
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Although, she should have realized that Boone would not have put her up as a "prize" {and we know what THAT means} if there was a chance of losing.
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I don't trust Boone to.
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Covert ops agree upon a strategy before entering a situation. He should have given her a wink of assurance. She should have followed his lead.
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He gave her no indication whatsoever.
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That's my favorite scene too! Did you see that look on Lili's face when Boone told her he can't get drunk?! Wow! I think Lisa finally have a chance to show what she can do!!! She was awesome!!
"May your mother wear Amy boots?" That was so funny! It was good to see KK lighten up a bit.
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Well, I'm kinda running out of different ways of saying "Hey WOW! Cool episode!" They just keep peeling away more layers, don't they? The thing I really love about this show is that it keeps you guessing as to the Taelons' intentions, whereas in "V" we learned in short order that the Visitors weren't our pals.
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I don't remember much about "V" but I do agree that this show does keep you guessing and wanting to come back for more. AND, it keeps getting better.
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I love this show for the discovery factor. I fear that there IS an end to the story line. I don't want this to go away.
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"Strandhill" was extremely well written! Some really great lines! Here's one I love, Beckett - "Campions protector are blessed with gifts that make a woman's life more enlightening." I absolutely loved Lili's reaction to that!!
Now WHAT does she mean by *enlightening?"
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Heightened senses, enhanced memory, boosted cognitive powers. Just imagine a sense of touch so sensitive that you could feel each surface on every grain of sand on the beach. Vision so acute that you can count the leaves of a tree at 100 meters. Then what about the sense of smell? WOW!
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Ah.. but I thought that was the *gifts* in general, both men and women. I thought maybe she meant something else.
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While the same "gifts" are given to both sexes, women will appreciate different aspects to a differing degree than then men will. Look at how the sexes differ in the appreciation of the "gifts" they were born with. Beckett is in full control of herself and her self confidence oozes, nay streams, from every pore.

Maybe she did mean something else. It is hard to tell with this show. Keeps you guessing.
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Gee, sounds like something out of 'The Sentinel'. No wonder implants have their sex drive removed. Think of what a heightened sense of touch could do during love-making!!
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Yes, that IS the point. Notice that Beckett did not have her "flirt" drive removed. Aren't the endorphins produced by things like the "joy of success" nearly identical to the endorphins produced by sexual anticipation?
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Oh, here's another. Beckett (again! they need to write some great lines for Lili!!) "I've always wondered whether the CVI program will overide the male ego, but you just answered that question."
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I also really love the production values: The mosaic that was unearthed in the Celtic cemetery was phenomenal! Yet another thing I love is when a science fiction project actually pays attention to the science: The device that was used to shatter the stone covering the tomb is something I could actually foresee being produced in the near future, since using harmonics (sympathetic vibrations) to break down the rock would be a very useful mining tool. I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone's actually working on that.
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Yes, but I noticed that O'Malley was carrying this little flashlight leading the whole group of people into that cave. Was that realistic? I mean, for safety reasons, then once inside, it seems so bright from just that one little flashlight?
Also, how realistic was the fact that the tremor was caused by them blasting for a new highway?
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The scene where Sandoval asks if Beckett is proficient in the use of her scrill, and she replies with a blast to his face at the absolute lowest power level! Classic!
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That was, that was! I loved that too! Anyone noticed something between Sandoval and Beckett? I hope to see Beckett back, great character and I think the actress did a good job! Goddenport? What do you think about *your* Sandy and Lt. Beckett?
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Well, I think Beckett's lucky...for taking *my* Sandy.....:::growls::::::I need some luck, too. If Sandoval keeps running into these girlfriends, someday he's gonna be mine!!!! Bwa ha ha haaaaaa!!!!!
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It's like the comparison of piety between monks. Amusing for a while. Lust for success is lust just the same. Can implants lust after perfection of service? Is that not a distraction from true service? (Oops. I begin to sound like a Companion.)
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Yes, you sound like a Companion, and you lost me there.
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It is a competition. Hanging around priests and ministers during my younger years gave me a view to things most are not aware of. Just as athletes compete, other "occupations" compete between co-workers. I have seen waiters and waitresses compete to see who can give the best service. Monks sometimes compete to see who can be the most pious. "I have fasted for ten days now and pray fourteen hours every day", says Friar Chicken. "Well I have fasted for twenty days, and pray thirty hours a day.", replied Father Time. "How can you do that? There are only 24 hours in a day!" "With God's help, my son." Such competition becomes the object of focus rather than the service that was intended.

The Protectors are still human. They make mistakes. They could be lead to a competition among themselves that would distract them from serving the Companions. (Ooh, is this possibly the nucleus of a story line. Hey, writers, here, take it.)
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Now, did I miss something? Did they explain why the Talons shouldn't come to earth? I don't think so.
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I don't think so either. Anyone else noticed anything different?
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No. They did NOT state the reason not to come. One condition was that humans had the potential to become like the Taelons. They should not come here if that were true. The reason behind that was not even hinted at.
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Some disease probably killed the first guy, and he/she looked a lot like Da'an. I'm thinking that the Talons are going to be exposed to something that earthlings can live through with the right vaccine, but the Talons can't. I'm guessing the whole Native-American disaster when the Europeans brought all their neat little viruses here and indigenous people weren't immune to the stuff, something like that.
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Orson Wells, where are you? EFC as a "War of the Worlds" remake? Hardly. At least, I hope not.
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My first reaction when I heard '2000 years' was that the Taelons are immortals!! :-)
I don't know what I was expecting them to be prior to this. Maybe you all had expect them to be immortals all along. Seriously, what are they? I think Da'an mentioned something about them being mainly energy or something?
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The Ephemera (fruit flies) live a few days, some bacteria live for several weeks, some sea turtles live 200 years or more. The variation of life spans on THIS planet may only be an indication of what could be natural on other worlds. Immortal indicates "undying". In "Live Free or Die", Da'an was in the act of dying, or passing to the next level, or whatever. The Taelons can die and are well aquatinted with death. They expected (substitute the name of the Taelon in the grave) to be DEAD when the grave was found. There was some indication that they "hoped" he was still alive. So living for 2000 years is possible for them. They are long lived, but not immortal in the HL sense. Duncan is "unnaturally" long lived and does not have bodyguards. The Taelons need, or want, a security force.
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Okay, I get your point. But hey... even immortal Duncan *can* die. The head thing, remember? Besides, Duncan is not unnaturally long lived, what about that really old guy, Methos. ::::waving at Jen::::
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The flashback with Sandavol and his wife, was that from "Sandavol's Run" that I missed? I was glad to get a little insight.
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Yes, that was from "Sandoval's Run." It really was a good episode. So far this season, I'd say "Horizon Zero" is my favorite, follow closely by "Strandhill" then its "Sandoval's Run."
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I'm going to be majoring in history in the fall and of course my intrest piqeud when Lili was pointing out the religious figures on the mosiac. Now, whoever designed this mosaic needed to do his or her homework. In order for the mosiac to be historically correct, it would have to be built 1000 years after Boone and Lili say it was. While looking at the tomb, Lili points out three major religious figures: Jesus, Buddha, and Moses. However, the Irish at this point in time had no knowledge of either of these figures.
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This bothered me, too, since they said that this was the only Taelon on the planet...yet they had intimate knowledge of Buddha all the way over in India/China. The Jesus stuff bothered me too, due to the time line questions.
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I agree that MOST of the Irish would not have had this knowledge.
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Jesus and Moses -- Now, this is what, the year 2005? According to Lili, the mosiac was built over 2,000 years ago. If it was, then nobody had any knowledge of Jesus in Ireland.
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St. Augustine converted England in the late 700's AD. The Romans had a sort of "hands-off" policy when it came to converting their far-flung provinces, and they never really had control of anything north of Lincolnshire. The Romans did not embrace Christianity until about 200 AD anyway, and Constantine didn't convert the whole empire until 395 or so.

Grrr. Still, I was willing to give them dramatic license for once.
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Sorry to quibble, but Roman control extended a long way north of Lincolnshire. All of what is now England was Roman as well as some of southern Scotland (at least for a while). For example, Eboracum (York) was a major city at the time. Christianity was originally introduced into Britannia around the fourth century but the later Germanic invasions (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) pretty much paganised Britain for a couple of centuries.
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It is known that the people in this time were torn between Christianity and Paganism, but they were (in my opinion) most likely more pagan than History gives them credit. THink about. Pretty much the only people that could write where monks that lived in monastaries. Since their written vocabulary was so limited they would have used mostly Christian words. Since most of what we know of them is taken from epics of the time, it skews what we know of them. But hey, we'll never know if I'm right, because we weren't there.
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History is always written by the winners, at least as far as we know.
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Yes, and the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ surely would not glorify the Pagans!!
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We can safely assume that the mosaic was built before the birth of Jesus, which means nobody at all would have any knowledge of him. So how would he had appeared on the mosaic if he wasn't even born? Moses had long lived and died by then, but Christianity did not reach England or Ireland until the the conquest of the Romans, about 100 years later. Again, this would had been after the construction of the mosaic.
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There is not a clear indication of the time line of this show. It can't be to far in the future. The MCI logo is on the Global Links and computer terminals. World Com is on track to buy out MCI. Leaks out of World Com HQ says that the data arm of MCI will be moved to UseNet and that the telecommunications (long distance) will be merged into LDDS. The MCI logo will be gone by 2002 or 2003 at the latest.

All of this would have been unknown to the producers a year ago, and is still unknown to most people today.
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When they said it was built about 2,000 years ago, I took it to mean give or take a hundred years or so. Therefore, it is possible that it was built "about" 2,000 years before EFC's time frame. Although Christianity wasn't much more than a small offshoot of Judaism untill at least a couple hundred years after his death. And it wasn't untill much later that it was viewed as a major religion.
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Ma'el would have been a local "hero", true. Armed with Taelon technology, he would have been able to travel all over the world. He would have had the knowledge.
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Buddha -- Yes, Buddha did live and die before the mosiac was created, but little or no contact was made with the Far East where Buddhism was originated until the 1200's. So, again, how could it be on the mosaic?
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Ma'el seems to be the black sheep of the Taelons, at least in the later part of his life. He would have likely been the story teller to the locals. After his death, it would be natural for the locals to have decorated his grave with the thing that Ma'el talked about.
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I agree, for those figures to be on the mosaic, Ma'el must have told them.
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Irish deities would be the most likely forms to appear on the original mosiac. Once again, television has tried to simply history to the common viewers and has totally screwed it up. It's a sad, sad, sad thing indeed.
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But they mentioned sometime near the beginning about some local Irish god. I forget exactly what they said about him but they mentioned silver somthing. I took the top guy (the guy that looks like the Taelons in their energy state) to be the Irish god they mentioned (who also apears to be a Taelon).
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Unless Ma'el was Jesus, Buddha, and Moses. I hope that this show does not go down that road! Also of note that Islam was left out as was Hindu.
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Re: the ommision of Islam and Hindu.
Hindu was not left off. Shiva was one of the 5 religious figures depicted (Moses, Christ, Buddah, Shiva and the local Irish silver dude). And it would have been anachronistic to have Islam on there since Islam is a more recent religion than Christianity.

The most puzzling omision religiously was that of Jove, the head of the Roman Pantheon of gods. Roman culture was at that time much wider spread than that of Christianity or Judaism.
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Ok...Overall an interesting episode. I liked seeing the female implant. She and Sandy had a lot of chemistry. Boone was as "woody" as ever. But I did like the scene in the bar where he offered to trade Lili for information. The look on Lili's/Lisa's face was priceless. I found that scene amusing.
Like Megs the mosaic bothered me. Not only was it historically inaccurate but, I really don't want them to get into a situation where they make it like the visiting Taelon was God. That bothered me. Anyway, Lisa turned in an excellent performance as always, I just want to see her with a larger role!
The End...
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