SGA Rewatch: The Lost Tribe

Hello everyone! Welcome to another installment of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch! Let's jump right in to today's episode, which picks up where the last left off. Spoilers for the episode and any that came before, as always, and without further ado, let's check out season five's "The Lost Tribe."

What Happened


In Atlantis, Teyla exits from a transporter and starts calling for people to evacuate to the edge of the city when the tower is rocked by the explosion of the gate. She leads a medical team back to search for John and Radek and they find the gate room utterly demolished. They also find John and Radek still alive and mostly unharmed.

On the Daedalus Todd has gotten most of his troops beamed over to the ship and he orders some of his men to remain behind with the hive. He tells them under no circumstances is it to go to hyperdrive. His subordinate asks where he will be going and he replies, "Atlantis."

In the infirmary John has the glass removed from his back and orders an auxiliary control room to be set up below the destroyed gate room. Teyla says it is already happening. She asks John what happened. He says the gate blew up but he has no idea why. He laments at the unfortunate lack of Rodney.

Rodney, meanwhile, is explaining the "unforeseen" side-effect of the Attero device to Daniel. Basically it screws with the frequency that the stargate network operates on. As a result, while the device is running, every time someone anywhere in the galaxy activates a stargate, said gate will explode. Whee! Wait, no. Not whee.

Todd has an unconscious Woolsey brought to the bridge and greets him as he comes to. He orders his second to drop them out of hyperspace and the second protests they are not yet to Atlantis. That gets Woolsey's attention. Todd says they are within communications range, which will serve his purpose for now.

John visits the backup control room and he, Teyla, and Radek try to assess the situation. John says they need to figure out a way to contact the Daedalus and just then Amelia tells him that they are being hailed by, oh hey look, the Daedalus. He orders her to put them onscreen and is not terribly pleased to find Todd on the other end rather than Caldwell. Todd tells them he's willing to return the ship and crew provided they shut down the Attero device and tell him where it is. They try to protest their innocence but Radek remarks under his breath that the device Todd is describing sure does sound like something Janus would make. Todd says if they don't give him the location so he can destroy the device he will start killing crew members, beginning with Woolsey.

John asks for a minute to think about it and discusses the situation with Radek and Teyla. They make the connection that the device Todd speaks of is likely the same one that the aliens that took Daniel and Rodney wanted, or at least connected to what they stole from the lab. This means that they probably do know its location, but they can't hand it over because Todd will destroy everything on that planet, including Rodney and Daniel. Teyla isn't sure they have any other choice though. John turns communications back on and tells Todd that while they are not the ones behind the device they think they have what Todd needs. John says come by Atlantis and pick him up and he will give Todd the location of the device. Todd suspects a ruse to take out the ship's hyperdrive and stop him and says no deal. He moves to feed on Woolsey and John caves and gives him the coordinates.

Ronon and Jennifer manage to get out of the corridor they are trapped in (taking out a few wraith in the process). Jennifer asks what they do next. Ronon says they need to get to the ship's critical areas and disable those systems to keep the wraith from getting away with the Daedalus.

On Atlantis Amelia picks up a hyperspace window opening and they thing it might be Todd coming back to finish them off in their weakened state. Instead, they are hailed by a woman named Katana Labrea. She claims to be a traveler, sent by Larrin. John asks if everything is alright and she says no, they are hoping he can tell them why the stargates are blowing up.

In Janus' lab the aliens come and take Daniel away.

Katana tells John and the others about how their very first colony was destroyed by an exploding stargate. John explains that they know where the aliens with the device are but have no ship and Katana offers them a ride. John has Radek go with him and tells Teyla to stay on Atlantis in case Todd comes back.

On the Daedalus Ronon and Jennifer get to the engineering room. Ronon shoots the wraith and then begins shooting up the ship's control systems. The ship drops out of hyperspace and Todd asks his second what happened. His second reports that the ship seems to think it has taken on battle damage. Todd realizes they are being sabotaged and orders men to the engineering room. Ronon meanwhile continues to shoot up systems until Jennifer convinces him to stop before he takes out something really important. She does not approve of his particular brand of hacking. They leave the room ahead of the wraith sent to investigate.

Daniel is taken to the aliens' leader. He tries to convince him to shut down the device. He tells him about the exploding stargates but the alien dismisses this, saying his people do not use the stargates. Daniel asks about the rest of the galaxy and the alien says they are of no concern to him. He says he has no other choice. His planet is dying and can no longer sustain his people. They must venture out into the galaxy again for the first time in generations. They have to destroy the wraith or they will be destroyed, it is that simple.

On Katana's ship John says they need to do what they can to get to the planet before the wraith. She takes them to the engine room and introduces them to their chief engineer Mila, who is a fifteen year old girl. Katana tells Mila to supe up the hyperdrive and John offer's Radek's assistance.

On the Daedalus Todd gets on the ship's PA and announces to the sabotoeurs that if they don't turn themselves in he will start killing off the rest of the crew. Jennifer wants to submit but Ronon refuses. She says it will buy him time if she turns herself in but he still thinks his way is better. Frustrated, Jennifer turns around and heads for the bridge without him. He looks after her for a moment and then shrugs and continues on.

Daniel continues to talk to the leader of the aliens, trying to figure out who they are and why they could be so heartless about an entire galaxy. He says he knows they aren't human or wraith and wonders why they still wear their suits in the facility even though Daniel and Rodney are no threat to them. He also knows that the aliens aren't Ancient or they wouldn't have needed help to activate the device. The alien turns and there is a whirring. His suit opens up and out climbs an Asgard. Daniel looks at him in shock. Daniel says he's known and worked with Asgard before, of course the ones he knew were a more noble race. The Asgard asks him what happened to those Asgard and Daniel admits that they have died out. The Pegasus Asgard is not surprised. He refuses to be swayed by Daniel's pleas for compassion, pointing out that it was that compassion for others that got the rest of his race killed.

Radek is worried about the hyperdrive engine surviving the journey to the planet. At the very least, he says Mila will burn it up and they won't be able to get back.

The Pegasus Asgard explains that his group came to the galaxy during the war between the wraith and the Ancients and were able to conduct experiments on humans without interference. They needed to study humans to figure out how to keep their race (which consists of cloned bodies and transferred consciousnesses) from dying out like the rest of the Asgard. After the Ancients left the galaxy, however, the wraith quickly turned their attention to the Asgard. Intolerant of other technologically advanced species, they took out the Asgardian intergalactic ships and forced them to abandon their settlements. They survived by retreating to a planet with a toxic environment where the wraith would not pursue them (hence the suits). Daniel says he's sorry for what happened to them but that doesn't justify what they are doing. The Asgard disagrees. With the rest of his race now dead, if he and his people fall then their entire history will be lost.

Jennifer is taken to Todd. He says that her sabotage of the ship was very unfortunate since he is on a special mission from John. Jennifer doesn't believe him. His people manage to get hyperdrive back up but their weapons are irreparably damaged.  Jennifer smirks and says she guesses they won't be able to finish their mission. Todd replies that they will find a way.

Daniel is returned to confinement with Rodney who is surprised but relieved to see he survived. Daniel gives him the update that their captors are Asgard, a faction that broke off thousands of years ago from the Asgard encountered by the SGC. He also says that they aren't going to turn off the device. With that in mind, Rodney says he has been thinking. They are after all in an Ancient facility, which means he has some experience with the systems. He manages to open the doors to their room and they head out to shut down the device.

Ronon finds the wraith escorting Jennifer to where the others are being held and he frees her. Then they get to the others and Ronon says they need to get as many people as they can to the armory nearby so they can take the ship back.

Daniel and Rodney try to brainstorm a way to get to the device and run into a pair of empty Asgard suits. Daniel said the insides of the suits seemed to form around whoever was in them and he and Rodney share a look.

John and Katana prepare for arrival at the planet and Katana drops that Larrin's never mentioned John before today. She smirks at his disappointed face. In the engine room Radek laments that the drive was burnt out upon their arrival. From preliminary scans they seem to have beat the Daedalus to the planet. But after a moment they detect two ships coming at them and prepare to fight.

On the Daedalus Ronon leads the crew to the bridge and they find it abandoned. They are suspicious of this and see on the scanners a large concentration of life signs in one of the hangars. Jennifer suggests maybe the wraith didn't want to fight but Ronon doesn't think that sounds like Todd and goes to check it out. He finds the doors to the hanger sealed tight and is unable to get in. Major Marks tries to take the ship out of hyperspace but access has been locked out.

Daniel and Rodney, wearing the Asgard suits, get to the lab where the Attero device is headed and take out the Asgard inside. Unfortunately the control key for the device is missing, which means they can't shut it down. Outside the facility an Asgard ship fires up and takes off. The rest of the Asgard are fleeing with the device's control key, presumably.

On the traveler ship they have managed to shoot down one of the attacking Asgard ships and evade the other but are now facing the third. It heads straight for them but then opens a hyperspace window and jumps away without firing. Almost immediately Katana picks up another hyperspace window opening up nearby. John thinks maybe that third ship is coming back but they quickly realize that it is the Daedalus. They make radio contact hoping they can convince Todd to help them. They get Woolsey but he tells John that they don't have control of the ship. Major Marks says that as soon as they dropped out of hyperspace a subroutine kicked in--the ship has been programmed on a crash course with the facility. The wraith depressurize the hangar bay and the dart they arrived in leaves the ship, abandoning everyone else to their fate.

Rodney and Daniel try to figure out a way to shut down the device without the control key. Rodney thinks that with the Asgard suits they might have a chance of disconnecting the device's primary power source. They head into the power chamber and get to work.

John has an idea on how to keep the Daedalus from crashing into the planet. He tells Mila he's going to need the hyperdrive up for a short jump in thirty seconds. Radek doesn't think there's any way that will happen but Mila says no problem. The Daedalus enters the planet's atmosphere and the traveler ship jumps in front of it, opening up a hyperspace window that takes both ships through the planet. Major Marks manages to regain control of the Daedalus' systems. The last Asgard ship finds the traveler ship and begins attacking. They try to fight back but it jumps into hyperspace and escapes.

Rodney manages to pull the control crystal and disable the power source of the facility, but not before Daniel gets hit by a bolt of electric discharge and knocked out. Daniel is pretty badly hurt and he doesn't think he's going to survive his wounds. Rodney is trying to give him a pep talk and just about to tell him how much he respects him when the pair is beamed up to the Daedalus. As soon as they are safe Woolsey orders John on the traveler ship to destroy the facility.

Back in Atlantis Radek and his team get to work repairing Katana's ship and she tells John it should be ready to go soon. He asks what's next for her people and she tells him they will probably try to build a new settlement. She also let's slip that Larrin actually does talk about John "from time to time." He is pleased to hear that even though Katana refuses to reveal just what Larrin says.

Ronon catches up with Jennifer as she finishes up her shift and wants to hang out. She stops him and says that she's glad that he came along on the mission. But she awkwardly tells him she wants to make it clear that she is actually interested in someone else. Ronon gets all stiff and tries to play it off like he wasn't interested in her in the first place. Jennifer is a little surprised and asks if he still wants to hang out but he brushes her off and leaves.

Rodney goes to visit Daniel in the infirmary and we learn that the Daedalus is repaired and has retrieved an unused stargate left over from the gate bridge to install in Atlantis so Daniel will get to go home soon enough. They chat a bit more and there endeth the episode.


Commentary


Well. Exploding stargates. That's just never a good thing, is it? Geez, Janus. You seemed like a pretty nice guy, so how the heck did you keep coming up with such seriously disturbed inventions? What the heezy? At least that's one more doomsday device taken out of the galaxy.

Once more, this seemed to be another episode of the Daniel and Rodney Show. I of course loved every minute of that! Wow. Those two just...can we get a new spinoff that is just Rodney and Daniel going on adventures together? Because that would be AWESOME.

I am not really too sure what to say about the Asgard in this episode. I remember being completely floored when this episode originally aired and they were revealed to belong to that particular race. Because Daniel was right, the bulk of the Asgard that we have encountered before have been totally cool with humans, protecting and even helping them. I mean, I guess there are bad apples in every society though, huh?

It was really cool to see the travelers back in this episode and find out what they've been up to (though it sucked to hear that so many of them got wiped out). Even though Larrin wasn't actually in the episode, it was also cool to hear about her amusing relationship with John. I suspect that if we had seen a sixth season the travelers and Larrin would have come into it quite a bit.

All in all, this was a cool episode for bringing a bunch of different threads together and showing us that there are limits to what the Atlantis expedition is willing to do in order to stop the wraith. Also, Todd's absolute refusal to listen to reason or to bargain with the humans once the Attero device was in play was a good reminder that hey, he is still a wraith guys. A really reasonable one on most days, but still...wraith.

And finally, we get the solid confirmation that Jennifer has chosen Rodney over Ronon. She's told Ronon, now she just needs to tell Rodney... Although poor Ronon. I get why he played it off like he did but I feel kind of bad for him. He told John at the end of season three he wasn't ready to try to find a special someone, and clearly he has gotten to that point. He thought maybe it was Jennifer, but I think it was obvious to everyone but him that it wasn't gonna happen. I mean, the fact that he could so easily revert to flirting with her after their disagreement on the ship kind of showed that he doesn't really get her. Sigh. Poor guy. Oh well, I have a feeling he'll bounce back from his heartbreak soon enough. *smirk*

Favorite Quotes


"We lost the stargate, we lost the control room. This is bad." (Radek)
"But we did not lose you. That is good." (Teyla)

"Five bucks to anyone here who can figure out how to contact the Daedalus." (John)
"Uh, Colonel Sheppard?" (Amelia)
"Got an idea Banks?" (John)
"Well, no. But I am being hailed by the Daedalus on subspace. Does that count?" (Amelia)

"This is an Ancient facility, and Rodney McKay knows a thing or two about Ancient facilities." (Rodney)
"You know it has been clinically proven that referring to yourself in the third person is a sign of mental instability, right?" (Daniel)
"Mentally unstable like a fox!" (Rodney)

"Huh. It's a good thing they brought you back when they did because, you know, I just assumed you were dead and I was gonna leave." (Rodney)
"Lucky me!" (Daniel)

"Okay. We need to get to the device control room." (Rodney)
"Crawling with soldiers." (Daniel)
"Well then, we'll need to create a diversion." (Rodney)
"I'm all ears." (Daniel)
"Okay. We go to the power relay station, we create a massive explosion." (Rodney)
"I never got how that made a good diversion." (Daniel)
"What?" (Rodney)
"You wanna clear the device control room of bad guys, right?" (Daniel)
"Yes!" (Rodney)
"So why would you assume if there was a massive explosion people would go running towards it?" (Daniel)
"Well I would!" (Rodney)
"I rest my case." (Daniel)

"Well, it's been, um...unique." (Rodney)
"Yes! Yes it has. It sure has. But I do wanna say thank you. For saying you respected me when you thought I was about to die back there." (Daniel)
"Excuse me? I said no such thing." (Rodney)
"Yeah you did. You were like, 'I know it may not seem like it but I really respect you,' and that means a great deal to me." (Daniel)
"I don't believe I ever finished that sentence." (Rodney)
"How else would you have finished that sentence?" (Daniel)
"I would have said 'regret.' I would have said 'I really regret you being here because none of this would have happened...otherwise.'" (Rodney)
"....So you can only give compliments to the dying?" (Daniel)
"It's something I'm working on." (Rodney)

~*~

Well that wraps up today, and this story arc. See you back here on Wednesday for "Outsiders."

Also, don't forget to vote for the next show for me to rewatch! I've moved the poll over there to the left side of the blog, where there was a little more room.