Well, it's Monday again. But if you're bummed out about the start of another week, I have something to cheer you up. That's right, it's time for another installment of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch! Today we'll be looking at season four's "Quarantine," which always amuses me greatly.
Spoilers for the episode and all that came before, as always.
What Happened
John is hanging out in Rodney's lab while Rodney prepares to meet Katie for lunch. He shows John a ring and reveals that he is going to propose to Katie over the meal. John is surprised but wishes Rodney well. As Rodney leaves Teyla enters the lab. She finds John and asks if he has a moment to talk to her.
Ronon walks into the infirmary with a gash on his arm. Keller is not at all surprised to learn it was obtained in a sparring accident and settles in to patch him up.
Sam and Radek bump into each other in a corridor outside of a transporter. They find they are both heading to the control room and step into the transporter together.
Rodney finds Katie in the botany lab and she greets him warmly. He begins to bumble his way through his proposal but before he can actually pull out the ring or ask the question, an alarm sounds and the doors to the lab slam shut. We see the doors closing all over the base as well, including the lab and infirmary, and the transporter carrying Sam and Radek shuts down completely, locking them inside.
Our stranded heroes all immediately begin to try prying open their doors but it is to no avail. The city has gone into lockdown. Sam, John, and Keller all try to radio Rodney to find out what is going on, but he is without his radio, and Katie informs him that they don't keep one in the plant area when he asks for hers. Unable to reach Rodney, Sam then tries John but still gets no answer. Radek informs her the the city-wide communications appear to be down.
In the botany lab, Rodney quickly explains to Katie that the city has most likely gone into lockdown due to an outbreak of some sort. After the Kirsan fever incident, he tweaked the city's quarantine protocols so that they wouldn't find themselves in that kind of situation again. He tells her he needs to get to a computer so he can find out what is going on and get in touch with everyone else. She looks at him with dismay and he realizes that like the radio, the botany computers are beyond his reach, locked up tight in the next room.
Keller also realizes that the city's quarantine protocol has kicked in. She is very frustrated by the lack of communication and being unable to get out of the infirmary. Still, if there is an outbreak, she tells Ronon, they need to be ready. He helps her begin to make preparations to receive incoming patients.
Stuck in Rodney's lab, John and Teyla do have access to the city's systems. Teyla sees that the city has detected an outbreak and put itself into a category five lockdown. Neither she nor John is very sure what category five entails, however. They get to work going through the data available to them and trying to figure out what is going on.
In the transporter Sam and Radek also assume there must be an outbreak of some sort. Sam opens up a panel in the wall and borrows Radek's tablet, hooking it up to the transporter's systems so she can attempt to access the city's mainframe and get information about the current situation.
As John and Teyla work, John nervously asks how she is feeling and hopes out loud that she's not about to go into labor or anything. She rolls her eyes and remarks that she is nowhere near her due date. He replies that he knows that but that on television and in the movies in this sort of situation the pregnant woman always goes to labor. He eyes her belly suspiciously. She dismisses the notion and tells him that is what she wanted to talk to him about. She came to discuss his decision to take her off the team. He steels himself for another argument about the matter but she quickly reassures him that she doesn't object and understands his decision. She just wonders what will happen once she's had her son. He tells her she'll be back on the team again as soon as she feels ready, but she's not so sure. With the baby's father out of the picture, can she really justify going on offworld missions once he is born? If something should happen to her he would be an orphan. John responds understandingly. He tells her about a friend of his from college, a woman with three children who is a police officer. He tells Teyla that his friend has to face that same doubt every day that she goes to work. Teyla asks how his friend is able to justify it to herself and he responds that he thinks she reasons that she is fighting the bad guys and in doing so is protecting not only her children, but all of the other children in her city as well, which makes it worth the risks. Teyla mulls this over.
Sam looks over the information she has been able to access on Radek's tablet and realizes that systems all over the city are down, not just communications. Based on the information available, she thinks there might not be an outbreak at all and that some kind of malfunction caused the quarantine protocol to activate.
Rodney, meanwhile, is going nuts stuck in the plant lab. Without a radio available to him, he doesn't even know that communications are down all over the city. Without a computer, he can't monitor the situation to find out how many people are infected, where, or what kind of disease they are looking at. All he knows is that the city has detected an outbreak and he can't do anything at all about it. Katie tries to calm him down but he refuses to be reassured. He just keeps going through worst-case scenarios, each more frightening than the next. When Katie calls him on the doom and gloom attitude he says he can't help it, and we get a huge stroke of insight into his inherent pessimism.
Radek takes his turn at sifting through the data about the city's systems and finds that there was some sort of storm or interference in the planet's ionosphere right before everything went wonky. He remarks that this new planet continues to surprise them and that in the future they will have to recalibrate the city's systems to prevent the activity in the ionosphere from causing these kinds of problems again. Sam tells him first things first, however, and sets to work trying to find a way out of the transporter so they can fix the current set of issues.
John suddenly realizes that Rodney was probably in the botany lab when the lockdown went into effect. He tells Teyla that there's no radio or computer in that lab, which means Rodney is stuck with no way to get them out of their current mess. He and Teyla share a knowing look and comment that Rodney must be freaking right the heck out about the whole situation. He is.
As they continue to go through the data, they also find the information about the ionosphere and realize that there is no outbreak. They note that the life support has also shut down, which means that everyone is shut up with no oxygen getting to them. It also occurs to John that since it is something that should be a simple fix, if Sam and Radek had access to a computer, they would probably have set things to right by now. That means they must be stuck somewhere too. Teyla asks if there is anyone else who might be able to restore the city's normal functions but John shakes his head and says not without Rodney's password. Fortunately, however, hey, he happens to know it! He logs in to the system as Rodney. Once he's logged in, John finds something even more disturbing than the lack of life support. To prevent any visitors from coming to Atlantis while in quarantine, the city has been transmitting a warning beacon to keep people away. Since they are trying to keep their location hidden from the rest of the galaxy this is, of course, a Very Bad Thing. The only way to turn off the beacon is from the control room and with Rodney's password.
Unaware that there really isn't an outbreak, Rodney's hypochondria kicks in to overdrive and he becomes convinced he's been infected with whatever disease set off the quarantine. He freaks out even more, saying it is only a matter of time before he drops dead. Before they both do, because surely by now he's infected Katie as well. She looks on him with pity, insisting she feels fine but he refuses to believe it.
Ronon watches as Keller paces through the infirmary, unable to sit idle when she believes there are sick people who need her help. Ronon realizes she feels as if she is letting them down and tells her it isn't her fault. She is stuck and there's nothing she can do about that. As she calms a bit he tells her that she reminds him of someone he knew from Sateda, and tells her a little bit about Melena, including how she died. When he reveals that he blames himself, that he should have forced her to leave the planet, it is Keller's turn to step in and comfort him. She tells him it's not his fault that Melena died.
Unable to override the doors to the lab or force them open, John begins to think that he will have to blast his way out in order to get to the control room. He and Teyla start looking for any explosives that might be on hand when he spies a window. After looking at it for a moment, he breaks it open and climbs out on the sill. When Teyla demands to know what he is doing, he tells her that the control room is only four floors up and begins climbing the tower. Teyla leans out the window and watches him nervously as he goes.
John manages to make it to balcony of the control room with only a few close calls along the way. Inside the control room we see Lorne and a team of marines trying unsuccessfully to pry open the doors. Chuck and another tech, Amelia, are trying to restore the city's systems. Amelia has just announced that she has been able to get the ventilation back on in most of the tower when a window smashes behind her and John plows into the room. Chuck and Amelia gape in surprise as he heads straight to a computer and enters in Rodney's password to shut off the beacon. He barely gets to breathe a sigh of relief when all of the computers shut down and the city's self-destruct alarm begins to sound.
Hearing the self-destruct alarm, Ronon decides he has finally had enough and that they need to get out of the infirmary. He starts rifling through its contents, asking Keller if she has any explosives handy. She points out that they don't keep that sort of thing in the infirmary and they both look around, trying to think creatively of a way to blast open the doors. Keller spies a pair of oxygen tanks and suggests those. Ronon loves this idea--now all they have to do is devise a way to set the tanks off.
Chuck manages to get the self-destruct alarm (if not the self-destruct itself) turned off and tells John that before the computers shut down he was able to see that the city had detected a breach in the quarantine and that was why it armed the self-destruct. John realizes that he must have been responsible for the breach, triggering it when he broke the window. Since the city still thinks it has an outbreak, self-destruct is its last resort in the event that the disease can't be contained. Unfortunately, no one was able to see how long the self-destruct had given itself before detonation. Without the computers, the only way to shut it down is by doing a manual shutdown in the city's power room, which is six floors down and in the middle of the tower. All kinds of sealed doors in between them and it. Lorne has a little bit of C4 on him, however, so John grabs Lorne, Chuck, and Amelia and they begin making their way to the power room, blasting doors as they go.
Rodney is still freaking out and feeling sicker than ever. He lies down on the floor and as Katie moves to sit with him, she finds the ring that has fallen out of Rodney's pocket.
Ronon and Keller have set up a Goldberg device to set off the oxygen tanks and attempt to blow the doors to the infirmary. They cross their fingers and set it off but despite some impressive maneuvers on the part of the oxygen tank, the doors remain sealed.
John and his team have managed to make it down a few levels by blasting open doors using the C4. They make it to the level that Radek and Sam are trapped on and when the pair hears them they begin calling out and banging on the transporter doors. John and Lorne hear them and quickly manage to pry open those doors, letting Sam and Radek out. John and Sam swap information and then they realize that they have used up all of their C4. They are stuck on this level with no way to get to the power room.
Katie gazes at the ring and gets all misty eyed. She asks Rodney about it and he flippantly tells her he was going to propose to her at lunch. She asks him, well, why doesn't he? Doesn't he want to hear her answer. He just sighs and tells her there's no point now. They are all going to die anyway. Her face falls and it is clear that she has finally had enough of his pessimistic attitude.
Prowling the corridors, John spies a large vent and realizes it is one of the city's main shafts. He asks if it goes to the power room and receives a positive answer. Amelia points out that with ventilation restored in the tower, they should actually have a clear shot to where they need to go. John pries off the cover and looks inside, saying he thinks that it is their best bet. Unfortunately, it is too small for him. Sam starts to volunteer but Radek steps in instead, pointing out that he is smaller and more familiar with the city. They get him up there and he begins a trek through the vents, cursing away in Czech.
Ronon and Keller sit against a wall, clearly wrung out by their failed escape attempt. Ronon tells Keller that he had underestimated her. He thought she was weak but has realized today that she is not weak at all. He has been very impressed with how strong she has proven herself to be. She just shakes her head and tells him her whole life has been like this, she's always been something of a square peg in a round hole. They share a look of understanding and snuggle up, waiting for whatever is going to happen next.
Zelenka makes it to the power room, falling right through the shaft which is placed on the ceiling. He gets right back up and begins shutting down all of the systems, turning off the self-destruct. Then he begins restarting everything, restoring the city's normal functionality.
Ronon and Keller have just leaned in to kiss each other when the power goes out in the infirmary. They stop and look around, wondering what is going on. After a moment, they look at each other and shrug and lean in again but are once more interrupted by the power returning, followed by the sound of the infirmary doors opening. Doors all over the city open and everyone is relieved that the crisis seems to be over.
Later on in the mess hall Teyla, Ronon, John, and Radek are exchanging stories. Carter comes by and informs them that as far as they can tell, there is no indication that anyone detected the city's warning beacon. They seem to be safe for now. She also thanks Radek for his part in restoring the city's normal functions. Keller comes to join them and Ronon reacts immediately, getting kind of shy and respectful at the same time. As he and Keller exchange a shy glance, John and Teyla notice and exchange knowing looks and a smile.
Rodney, however, has gone to see Katie in the botany lab once more. He tells her that yes, he had intended to propose to her earlier. But after what happened he has realized that he was rushing things and he is just not yet ready to be talking marriage. Katie gives him a sad look and says she knows, and that she's not ready either. Rodney is relieved that she seems to understand and turns to go. When Katie tells him goodbye, however, there is a note of finality in it that makes him pause and turn back sadly to look at the door that has closed behind him.
Commentary
So, I really like this episode. I felt it was a very creative spin on the "get everybody trapped in a room" scenario that most shows tend to go through at some point or another. I liked that everyone was paired up in a less than familiar combination, or that combinations that shouldn't have been awkward totally were due to the circumstances at hand.
We get a lot of nice little random character details thrown in here, and those always make me happy. For example, Radek raises homing pigeons back on Earth! Of course he does. He has actually casually shown a random fondness for/knowledge of pigeons before but this is the first time I can recall that we find out why. Also, I love the little exchange between him and Sam when she wishes they had one with them, and her face at realizing how hard her attempt at a joke failed. Their whole little awkward vibe was really amusing to me for some reason. Even though it is widely accepted by the fandom as canon that Radek had a huge crush on Elizabeth, I think he would still have been much more at ease trapped in an elevator with her than with Sam. Despite their common scientific background and experience, they are hard-pressed to find something to talk about.
Things with John and Teyla seem to be going a lot more smoothly after this episode as well. I am very glad they didn't have her decide to pop out her kid during the whole situation. I also found John's irrational worry (which given that this is a television show wasn't that irrational) that she would kind of funny, as I also found how ridiculous Teyla found the very suggestion. It is a random little detail, but I really enjoy it whenever they show Teyla getting to play with the technical stuff too. She has clearly been paying attention to Rodney and Radek and learning the city's systems and what a lot of the technobabble actually means. A lot of people write her off as a "primitive" because the Athosians are nomads, but they were never technologically inept. With Teyla's role in the city shifting due to her pregnancy, it is good to see that she is still clearly of value.
I also absolutely loved that while John so easily explained the significance of the number 42, he didn't even bother trying to explain that it was a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Nor does Teyla even bother to ask him to do so. For some reason, that moment right there, with John telling Teyla Rodney's password, is one of my all-time favorite moments from this series.
Other awesome things included:
-Ronon likes Jaws. Of course he does.
-Keller's backstory, yay! Aw, of course she was a little super-genius geeky kid who is socially awkward but still adorable. This is exactly why Atlantis is that square hole she has been looking for.
-Her flirtation with Ronon was also kind of cute, although I will have more to say about that at a later date, I suspect.
-Radek in the vents also makes me giggle every. single. time.
This episode is pretty much a stand alone plot-wise, although it does set up a couple of different personal events for characters later on in this season and the next. I won't say more about those, however, in the interest of avoiding spoilers.
Favorite Quotes
"Honestly. I don't think I've ever met anyone with such a reckless aggression... That's not a compliment." (Keller)
"If you say so." (Ronon)
"He told you his password?!" (Teyla)
"Well, he didn't think I'd remember it. One six four three one eight seven nine one nine six eight four two. See? Doesn't take a genius." (John)
"It doesn't?" (Teyla)
"1643 is the year Isaac Newton was born; 1879, Einstein; and 1968..." (John)
"The year Rodney was born." (Teyla)
"Never underestimate the size of that man's ego." (John)
"Wait, weren't there other numbers?" (Teyla)
"Forty-two." (John)
"What is that?" (Teyla)
"It's the ultimate answer to the great question of life, the universe, and everything." (John)
"Climb the tower?! Is that even possible?" (Teyla)
"Sure. Batman did it all the time." (John)
"Colonel, where the hell did you come from?" (Lorne)
"Got any C4 in here?" (Ronon)
"In the infirmary?" (Keller)
"Anything we can use to act as an explosive." (Ronon)
"I don't know. Uh...the oxygen tanks, maybe?" (Keller)
"Right! Shoot 'em like Sheriff Brody did in the movie Jaws." (Ronon)
~*~
Alrighty folks. Back to your Mondays you go. Sorry. But hey, come back Wednesday and we'll have an even funnier episode to talk about in "Harmony."
Showing posts with label Batman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Batman. Show all posts
Monday, April 9, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
SGA Rewatch: Submersion
Howdy there, folks! Thank you for stopping by the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch. Today we're discussing season three's "Submersion." As always, there will be spoilers for the episode itself and any that came before it.
Onward we go.
What Happened
Team Sheppard, accompanied by Elizabeth, Radek, and a slew of other scientists are all stuffed in a puddle jumper underwater. They all look pretty much bored out of their skulls and we learn that they are searching for a mobile geothermal drilling station that the Ancients had built and installed on the ocean floor. Rodney obtained the station's last known location from the city's database and they are going to check it out, because it has the potential to be a new and unlimited source of energy for Atlantis. Of course, it is mobile and so it takes them a bit of time to actually find it even with a starting point. They make it to the station (eventually) and Rodney is able to remotely power it up so that they can dock with the station.
The screen cuts to an extreme closeup of a sleeping wraith whose eyes suddenly fly open.
Once everybody is on the station they waste no time getting themselves set up on the control room. Rodney starts checking the systems and powering the station up completely. He tells Elizabeth that everything actually seems to be in perfect working order and they could start drilling right away if she wanted to. She is pleased at this news but tells him to hold off. She wants to complete their exploration of the station and its records first. Partly to find out why exactly the Ancients abandoned the project in the first place.
While Rodney and the scientists get to work on going through the station's system logs and other data, John takes Teyla and Ronon to explore the rest of the station and get a feel for the place. Teyla pauses in the hall, overcome by a sudden sensation. She tells them she senses a wraith very near, mostly likely on, the station. John immediately calls everyone back to the control room. Rodney stubbornly refutes Teyla's claim, protesting that there is no possible way that there is a wraith on board the station. He scans it once more and every life sign picked up is accounted for by their crew. Teyla insists that she knows what she is feeling, however. She says the only way to know for sure is to reach out with her mind and try to make contact with the presence she is sensing. John is not so sure about this but Elizabeth agrees that they need to know what they are working with and so they accompany Teyla into a private room so that she might try to make contact. She does her thing and then draws a deep breath, as if surfacing for air. When she opens her eyes she seems momentarily confused but then shakes her head, stating that she was mistaken and there is nothing out there.
The team resumes its explorations and Elizabeth joins them since Rodney is entrenched in the control room commandinghis minions the other scientists. They split up into two groups to cover more ground, Elizabeth going with John and Ronon going with Teyla. After a little while Ronon asks Teyla if she is alright, noting that she has been awfully quiet. Teyla replies that she would hate to make Ronon uncomfortable and starts acting very oddly. Then she just attacks Ronon, beating on him and knocking him out. She turns and quickly makes her way to an access room and after pressing a few buttons the power goes dark throughout a big chunk of the station, including the area John and Elizabeth are searching.
John radios Rodney to find out what happened. Rodney tells them this is the first he's heard of the problem but he pulls up the schematic and sees that all power has been cut to about forty percent of the station. He gets to work on figuring out what caused the outage and restoring power. John tries to radio Ronon and Teyla to ascertain their status, but (what with Ronon being unconscious and Teyla having gone rogue all of a sudden) he gets no response. He calls Rodney back to ask him where Teyla and Ronon are in the station. Rodney replies that in addition to the power outages, they have also lost internal sensors. He can tell John, however, where the outages originated. He gives John directions to the access room, saying he will meet them there. Before he goes he sends two of the scientists, Graydon and Dickenson, back to the puddle jumper to see if they can use its sensors to locate Teyla and Ronon.
We get an exterior shot of the station and see the puddle jumper sticking nose first out of a docking sleeve. We also see a figure swimming toward the station.
Teyla, meanwhile, has been busily pushing buttons and causing trouble in the access room. As she finishes up, she pulls open a tray of control crystals and opens fire on them with her sidearm. John, Elizabeth, and Rodney hear the gunfire and head towards it to investigate.
In an empty room, we see an opening into the ocean, some sort of access portal or something. As we look at the pool, a wraith queen emerges from under the water and looks around, hissing in satisfaction.
John and group find Ronon on their way to the access room. He is just starting to come around. They ask who attacked him and he tells them that it was Teyla. Elizabeth says that until they know what's going on, she wants everyone gathered in one place. Before she can make the call, however, Teyla presses a few more buttons in the access room and force field bulkheads begin popping up all over the station, cutting the crew off from the puddle jumper (and trapping Graydon and Dickenson in a hallway in the process).
John sends Elizabeth and Rodney back to the control room, ordering the rest of the scientists to head that way as well. He and Ronon then head to see if they can find Teyla. In the control room, Teyla takes another very deep breath and seems to be emerging as if from a state of sleepwalking. She looks around, clearly extremely confused. She sees the damage to the console in front of her and then her own sidearm. She picks up the gun and realizes it has been fired, probably at the console. She hears something behind her and spins to find John and Ronon aiming their weapons at her. John asks her what is going on and she plaintively replies that she doesn't know.
In the control room, Rodney and Radek assess the damage that Teyla did to the station. Not only are they cut off from the jumper, but the internal sensors are down throughout the station and their power is limited to only a few areas. Their communications are also down, meaning they have no way to contact Atlantis and call for help. She also scrambled all of the operations codes for the station, which means they will need to figure them all out again before they can begin to fix the damage and power the systems back up.
John radios in that they found Teyla and Elizabeth goes to meet them and find out what's going on. Teyla doesn't remember anything after trying to make contact with the wraith. She tells them that it is a queen, a very powerful one, and that she is very definitely aboard the station now. John and Ronon leave to look for the queen and deal with her. Teyla wants to help search but Elizabeth insists she remain behind, it is not safe to let Teyla run around the station until the wraith is dealt with. Teyla is clearly chagrined by this but obeys.
Graydon and Dickenson have managed to access a control panel in their corridor and are trying to see if they can shut down the barriers on either side of them. They hear a noise and realize that the force field between them and the jumper has gone down. Graydon heads to the jumper while Dickenson remains behind to try to get the other fields dropped. Unfortunately for Graydon, when he gets to the jumper, he finds the wraith queen and she attacks him.
Radek wonders aloud how a wraith even got to the drilling station without them knowing about it. Perhaps she has a ship nearby? She would have had to have been there since before the expedition came to Atlantis. Rodney tasks Coleman with using the station's external sensors to see if she can find any anomalous readings that might give them some clue.
Teyla feels very ashamed that she was able to be taken over by the queen and used to cause harm to her teammates. Elizabeth tries to reassure her that it is not her fault, but Teyla is not convinced. She wants to help with the search for the wraith, to feel like she is helping to fix the mess she helped create. Elizabeth insists that it still isn't safe. She fears that Teyla might be vulnerable to being taken over by the queen again. Teyla is convinced that it only happened because she opened up her mind to the queen and that she can prevent it from occurring a second time. Elizabeth sticks to her point, however, and tells Teyla that she can best help by allowing John and Ronon to handle the search.
The queen leaves the puddle jumper and finds Dickenson in the hallway. As she moves forward to feed on him, he reaches for his radio to try to call John for help. He barely manages to get more than a cry for help out before the queen is upon him. John calls Rodney to ask if any of his people are unaccounted for and Rodney says just the two guys he sent to the jumper. John asks if he has the force fields down yet and Rodney says he is working on it. He makes his way to the jumper and radios for Ronon to meet him there. Rodney manages to get the force fields between John and the jumper down, but Ronon is stuck for a few moments behind one before it goes down as well. John makes it to the jumper and finds Graydon's body. Then the queen finds him. She comments that he is the one who can fly this ship (the jumper) and pulls some wacky queen mind-control voodoo on him, saying he will fly her off the planet. Ronon arrives and takes aim at the queen with his gun but his shot hits the window of the jumper instead. A rush of water washes over John, the queen, and Ronon.
John wakes up to Rodney radioing him, saying they had to raise the force fields in that section once more because it was flooding. Ronon comes to as well and laments that he missed his shot. Rodney informs them that they are now completely cut off from the jumper, and John realizes that means they are stuck on the station until Atlantis sends backup. He notices the unconscious queen in the corridor as well. Ronon wants to just kill her and get it over with but John has another idea, noting that she had gotten to the station somehow. Maybe they can use her to get off of it, or at least communicate with the city. They strap the queen down to a gurney and pump her full of sedatives, but leave her conscious enough to interrogate. She refuses to tell them anything, however, instead simply replying that they are all about to die.
Rodney is feeling guilty for not listening to Teyla when she first claimed to feel the wraith, and Radek tries to reassure him. He points out that they scanned the station and it didn't show any wraith aboard. Coleman comes in and says she doesn't think the queen was on the station at that point. She shows them what the exterior scans found: a wraith cruiser not far off and almost completely buried in silt, indicating it had been down there on the bottom of the ocean for quite some time. John tries to point out there's no way the wraith could have swum over at that depth without being crushed by the pressure, but Rodney points out that the pressure is deadly to humans, and the queen isn't human. Somehow, she was able to survive it and swim to the station.
Teyla convinces them to let her connect to the queen once more, assuring them that with all of the sedatives there is no way she will be taken over again. She is able to learn that the queen led the first wave of wraith ships to attack the city in the war with the Ancients thousands of years ago. Her ship was damaged and crashed into the ocean. The ship was too deep for her to survive a swim to the surface, so there she stayed. She managed to survive by hibernating (and probably feeding on her crew), waking only every few centuries. When the crew arrived at the station she sensed Teyla and swam over, hoping to find a way back to the surface. She was elated to find the puddle jumper only to be vexed when she realized she couldn't fly it and would need one with the right gene to fly it for her. Teyla probes a little deeper into the queen's memories and also sees that before leaving her cruiser, she set its self-destruct. They have only two hours until it goes off.
Learning of this, Rodney and Radek point out that the station is currently located over a very thin part of the planet's crust, the better to access the geothermal energy. The problem with this, of course, is that if the queen's ship blows up, the explosion is going to be severely magnified. The result will be catastrophic, easily destroying the station with all of them on it and Atlantis. Without communications, they have no way to warn the city of the impending danger. They have to find a way to abort the self-destruct. Rodney thinks they might have a chance. He found some underwater pressure suits on the station that were originally used to allow the crew to make any necessary external repairs. He and John each don a suit and take a stroll over to the cruiser. When they arrive Rodney is surprised to realize that the damage to the ship is actually pretty minimal. He thinks that it could probably be fixed pretty easily. He goes to try to disarm the self-destruct but is dismayed to realize that a command code is required to do so. He doubts he will be able to figure out the code on his own, especially not in the time they have left.
Teyla tries connecting to the queen to find out the command code but she has no luck, and the queen almost manages to kill her in the process, strapped down on a table or no. She wants to keep trying but Elizabeth tells her no, Rodney has an idea. Teyla doubts that Rodney's idea will work but Elizabeth says they are not going to risk Teyla connecting to the queen again and getting hurt. Considering the matter closed, she leaves for the control room. Teyla returns to where Ronon is standing guard over the wraith and tells him that Elizabeth needs him in the control room. She takes up his position as guard. As soon as he leaves, she once more prepares to connect with the queen, even as the queen mocks her for being so weak. The queen gloats as she quickly gains control over Teyla and has Teyla undo her bonds. She is about to feed when she stops herself and says that Teyla is trying to hide something from her. She probes Teyla's memories and learns that Rodney's idea is to get the cruiser repaired and have John fly it up out of the ocean and onto the mainland before it explodes, minimizing its damage. Realizing this means her ship can get her off the planet, the wraith lets Teyla crumple to the ground without feeding and leaves, swimming back to her ship.
She arrives to find John standing at the control console and starts to question him about the ship. He backs up out of her reach, acknowledging that it has been repaired, and she disarms the self-destruct, saying he will be rewarded with a quick death. Before she can feed, Rodney pops up from behind and opens up fire on her with a P-90, John joining in with his own weapon as soon as she is distracted. They manage to kill her, John giving Rodney grief for taking his time to open fire. Rodney reminds him that he had to wait for the queen to disarm the self-destruct before trying to kill her. The whole thing with Teyla going against orders and letting the queen free was just a ruse to get her to disarm the self-destruct herself, since they knew they would never figure out her code.
They return to the station and Rodney's people finally manage to restore communications to Atlantis. They learn that a puddle jumper had been sent to check on them and should arrive in a few hours. John is excited to get to leave but Rodney reminds him that they still have to finish checking out the station. They still have a few days underwater left to look forward to. John groans and he and the rest of the team (except Rodney) all settle in to rest while they wait.
Commentary
Man, they are really burning through puddle jumpers in the back end of this season, aren't they?
I like that this episode serves perfectly well as a one-off and would be a great jumping in point for someone not too familiar with the series (as long as they watch the "previously on" segment to pick up Teyla's ability to connect with the wraith, that is). Yet it actually draws on the events of a few different past episodes, as well as laying the groundwork for the end of this season. In the interest of avoiding spoilers for what's to come, I won't say anything more on that topic, though.
I love the whole bit with Rodney and Graydon. First, I love that he wanted to hire a scientist named "Grayson" because it reminded him of Dick Grayson, Batman's ward. Rodney's ongoing love of Batman is an amusing little character trait that I enjoy seeing played up now and then. I also love that while Rodney clearly still isn't the best at noticing others and remembering names, he is making an obvious effort to try and bet better about that and be more welcoming to his scientists. See? He's growing. I mean, it took him the whole first season to get Radek's name right.
We also get some excellent acting by Rachel Luttrell in this episode. I found everything that Teyla said and did to be one hundred percent in line with her character and I like that as freaked out as she is by her connection to the wraith, she is also willing to explore it further and use it to benefit the team and her people. Her body language in indicating when she was in the queen's thrall was very well done. It was quite subtle, but also there to see for anyone looking hard enough.
All in all, this is another one of those episodes that has pleasantly surprised me this time around. I wasn't that impressed with it initially (except for the whole Graydon/Grayson thing), but with each repeat viewing I come to appreciate it a little bit more. It is interesting to me to see which episodes age well and which don't. "Submersion" definitely belongs in the former category.
Favorite Quotes
"Hey! I don't hear Grayson complaining!" (Rodney)
"Uh, it's Graydon. With a 'd.'" (Graydon)
"What? Are you sure?" (Rodney)
"It's my name." (Graydon)
"No no no, 'cause I could have sworn that the guy I wanted from your department was called Grayson. 'Cause I remember thinking Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne's ward." (Rodney)
"Well, it's Graydon." (Graydon)
"Oh. Perhaps that means I hired the wrong guy." (Rodney)
"Oh yes. Let's race toward the gunfire!" (Rodney)
"One of these days I'm just going to call him Doctor McCoy." (Graydon)
"I'd love to be there for that!" (Dickenson)
"Well, the next time he calls me Grayson..." (Graydon)
"Actually, I know a Grayson." (Dickenson)
"There really is a Grayson?" (Graydon)
"Yeah. He's a damned good scientist, too. I'm surprised McKay didn't hire him." (Dickenson)
"I missed." (Ronon)
"I noticed that too!" (John)
"Which means it's been here a very, very, very long time." (Radek)
"Yes, give or take a very." (Rodney)
"She's not dying according to plan here!" (Rodney)
~*~
That's all we've got for today's installment. Wow, only two more episodes left in season three! See you back here on Monday for "Vengeance." It's about rainbows and puppy dogs, in case you couldn't tell from the title.
Onward we go.
What Happened
Team Sheppard, accompanied by Elizabeth, Radek, and a slew of other scientists are all stuffed in a puddle jumper underwater. They all look pretty much bored out of their skulls and we learn that they are searching for a mobile geothermal drilling station that the Ancients had built and installed on the ocean floor. Rodney obtained the station's last known location from the city's database and they are going to check it out, because it has the potential to be a new and unlimited source of energy for Atlantis. Of course, it is mobile and so it takes them a bit of time to actually find it even with a starting point. They make it to the station (eventually) and Rodney is able to remotely power it up so that they can dock with the station.
The screen cuts to an extreme closeup of a sleeping wraith whose eyes suddenly fly open.
Once everybody is on the station they waste no time getting themselves set up on the control room. Rodney starts checking the systems and powering the station up completely. He tells Elizabeth that everything actually seems to be in perfect working order and they could start drilling right away if she wanted to. She is pleased at this news but tells him to hold off. She wants to complete their exploration of the station and its records first. Partly to find out why exactly the Ancients abandoned the project in the first place.
While Rodney and the scientists get to work on going through the station's system logs and other data, John takes Teyla and Ronon to explore the rest of the station and get a feel for the place. Teyla pauses in the hall, overcome by a sudden sensation. She tells them she senses a wraith very near, mostly likely on, the station. John immediately calls everyone back to the control room. Rodney stubbornly refutes Teyla's claim, protesting that there is no possible way that there is a wraith on board the station. He scans it once more and every life sign picked up is accounted for by their crew. Teyla insists that she knows what she is feeling, however. She says the only way to know for sure is to reach out with her mind and try to make contact with the presence she is sensing. John is not so sure about this but Elizabeth agrees that they need to know what they are working with and so they accompany Teyla into a private room so that she might try to make contact. She does her thing and then draws a deep breath, as if surfacing for air. When she opens her eyes she seems momentarily confused but then shakes her head, stating that she was mistaken and there is nothing out there.
The team resumes its explorations and Elizabeth joins them since Rodney is entrenched in the control room commanding
John radios Rodney to find out what happened. Rodney tells them this is the first he's heard of the problem but he pulls up the schematic and sees that all power has been cut to about forty percent of the station. He gets to work on figuring out what caused the outage and restoring power. John tries to radio Ronon and Teyla to ascertain their status, but (what with Ronon being unconscious and Teyla having gone rogue all of a sudden) he gets no response. He calls Rodney back to ask him where Teyla and Ronon are in the station. Rodney replies that in addition to the power outages, they have also lost internal sensors. He can tell John, however, where the outages originated. He gives John directions to the access room, saying he will meet them there. Before he goes he sends two of the scientists, Graydon and Dickenson, back to the puddle jumper to see if they can use its sensors to locate Teyla and Ronon.
We get an exterior shot of the station and see the puddle jumper sticking nose first out of a docking sleeve. We also see a figure swimming toward the station.
Teyla, meanwhile, has been busily pushing buttons and causing trouble in the access room. As she finishes up, she pulls open a tray of control crystals and opens fire on them with her sidearm. John, Elizabeth, and Rodney hear the gunfire and head towards it to investigate.
In an empty room, we see an opening into the ocean, some sort of access portal or something. As we look at the pool, a wraith queen emerges from under the water and looks around, hissing in satisfaction.
John and group find Ronon on their way to the access room. He is just starting to come around. They ask who attacked him and he tells them that it was Teyla. Elizabeth says that until they know what's going on, she wants everyone gathered in one place. Before she can make the call, however, Teyla presses a few more buttons in the access room and force field bulkheads begin popping up all over the station, cutting the crew off from the puddle jumper (and trapping Graydon and Dickenson in a hallway in the process).
John sends Elizabeth and Rodney back to the control room, ordering the rest of the scientists to head that way as well. He and Ronon then head to see if they can find Teyla. In the control room, Teyla takes another very deep breath and seems to be emerging as if from a state of sleepwalking. She looks around, clearly extremely confused. She sees the damage to the console in front of her and then her own sidearm. She picks up the gun and realizes it has been fired, probably at the console. She hears something behind her and spins to find John and Ronon aiming their weapons at her. John asks her what is going on and she plaintively replies that she doesn't know.
In the control room, Rodney and Radek assess the damage that Teyla did to the station. Not only are they cut off from the jumper, but the internal sensors are down throughout the station and their power is limited to only a few areas. Their communications are also down, meaning they have no way to contact Atlantis and call for help. She also scrambled all of the operations codes for the station, which means they will need to figure them all out again before they can begin to fix the damage and power the systems back up.
John radios in that they found Teyla and Elizabeth goes to meet them and find out what's going on. Teyla doesn't remember anything after trying to make contact with the wraith. She tells them that it is a queen, a very powerful one, and that she is very definitely aboard the station now. John and Ronon leave to look for the queen and deal with her. Teyla wants to help search but Elizabeth insists she remain behind, it is not safe to let Teyla run around the station until the wraith is dealt with. Teyla is clearly chagrined by this but obeys.
Graydon and Dickenson have managed to access a control panel in their corridor and are trying to see if they can shut down the barriers on either side of them. They hear a noise and realize that the force field between them and the jumper has gone down. Graydon heads to the jumper while Dickenson remains behind to try to get the other fields dropped. Unfortunately for Graydon, when he gets to the jumper, he finds the wraith queen and she attacks him.
Radek wonders aloud how a wraith even got to the drilling station without them knowing about it. Perhaps she has a ship nearby? She would have had to have been there since before the expedition came to Atlantis. Rodney tasks Coleman with using the station's external sensors to see if she can find any anomalous readings that might give them some clue.
Teyla feels very ashamed that she was able to be taken over by the queen and used to cause harm to her teammates. Elizabeth tries to reassure her that it is not her fault, but Teyla is not convinced. She wants to help with the search for the wraith, to feel like she is helping to fix the mess she helped create. Elizabeth insists that it still isn't safe. She fears that Teyla might be vulnerable to being taken over by the queen again. Teyla is convinced that it only happened because she opened up her mind to the queen and that she can prevent it from occurring a second time. Elizabeth sticks to her point, however, and tells Teyla that she can best help by allowing John and Ronon to handle the search.
The queen leaves the puddle jumper and finds Dickenson in the hallway. As she moves forward to feed on him, he reaches for his radio to try to call John for help. He barely manages to get more than a cry for help out before the queen is upon him. John calls Rodney to ask if any of his people are unaccounted for and Rodney says just the two guys he sent to the jumper. John asks if he has the force fields down yet and Rodney says he is working on it. He makes his way to the jumper and radios for Ronon to meet him there. Rodney manages to get the force fields between John and the jumper down, but Ronon is stuck for a few moments behind one before it goes down as well. John makes it to the jumper and finds Graydon's body. Then the queen finds him. She comments that he is the one who can fly this ship (the jumper) and pulls some wacky queen mind-control voodoo on him, saying he will fly her off the planet. Ronon arrives and takes aim at the queen with his gun but his shot hits the window of the jumper instead. A rush of water washes over John, the queen, and Ronon.
John wakes up to Rodney radioing him, saying they had to raise the force fields in that section once more because it was flooding. Ronon comes to as well and laments that he missed his shot. Rodney informs them that they are now completely cut off from the jumper, and John realizes that means they are stuck on the station until Atlantis sends backup. He notices the unconscious queen in the corridor as well. Ronon wants to just kill her and get it over with but John has another idea, noting that she had gotten to the station somehow. Maybe they can use her to get off of it, or at least communicate with the city. They strap the queen down to a gurney and pump her full of sedatives, but leave her conscious enough to interrogate. She refuses to tell them anything, however, instead simply replying that they are all about to die.
Rodney is feeling guilty for not listening to Teyla when she first claimed to feel the wraith, and Radek tries to reassure him. He points out that they scanned the station and it didn't show any wraith aboard. Coleman comes in and says she doesn't think the queen was on the station at that point. She shows them what the exterior scans found: a wraith cruiser not far off and almost completely buried in silt, indicating it had been down there on the bottom of the ocean for quite some time. John tries to point out there's no way the wraith could have swum over at that depth without being crushed by the pressure, but Rodney points out that the pressure is deadly to humans, and the queen isn't human. Somehow, she was able to survive it and swim to the station.
Teyla convinces them to let her connect to the queen once more, assuring them that with all of the sedatives there is no way she will be taken over again. She is able to learn that the queen led the first wave of wraith ships to attack the city in the war with the Ancients thousands of years ago. Her ship was damaged and crashed into the ocean. The ship was too deep for her to survive a swim to the surface, so there she stayed. She managed to survive by hibernating (and probably feeding on her crew), waking only every few centuries. When the crew arrived at the station she sensed Teyla and swam over, hoping to find a way back to the surface. She was elated to find the puddle jumper only to be vexed when she realized she couldn't fly it and would need one with the right gene to fly it for her. Teyla probes a little deeper into the queen's memories and also sees that before leaving her cruiser, she set its self-destruct. They have only two hours until it goes off.
Learning of this, Rodney and Radek point out that the station is currently located over a very thin part of the planet's crust, the better to access the geothermal energy. The problem with this, of course, is that if the queen's ship blows up, the explosion is going to be severely magnified. The result will be catastrophic, easily destroying the station with all of them on it and Atlantis. Without communications, they have no way to warn the city of the impending danger. They have to find a way to abort the self-destruct. Rodney thinks they might have a chance. He found some underwater pressure suits on the station that were originally used to allow the crew to make any necessary external repairs. He and John each don a suit and take a stroll over to the cruiser. When they arrive Rodney is surprised to realize that the damage to the ship is actually pretty minimal. He thinks that it could probably be fixed pretty easily. He goes to try to disarm the self-destruct but is dismayed to realize that a command code is required to do so. He doubts he will be able to figure out the code on his own, especially not in the time they have left.
Teyla tries connecting to the queen to find out the command code but she has no luck, and the queen almost manages to kill her in the process, strapped down on a table or no. She wants to keep trying but Elizabeth tells her no, Rodney has an idea. Teyla doubts that Rodney's idea will work but Elizabeth says they are not going to risk Teyla connecting to the queen again and getting hurt. Considering the matter closed, she leaves for the control room. Teyla returns to where Ronon is standing guard over the wraith and tells him that Elizabeth needs him in the control room. She takes up his position as guard. As soon as he leaves, she once more prepares to connect with the queen, even as the queen mocks her for being so weak. The queen gloats as she quickly gains control over Teyla and has Teyla undo her bonds. She is about to feed when she stops herself and says that Teyla is trying to hide something from her. She probes Teyla's memories and learns that Rodney's idea is to get the cruiser repaired and have John fly it up out of the ocean and onto the mainland before it explodes, minimizing its damage. Realizing this means her ship can get her off the planet, the wraith lets Teyla crumple to the ground without feeding and leaves, swimming back to her ship.
She arrives to find John standing at the control console and starts to question him about the ship. He backs up out of her reach, acknowledging that it has been repaired, and she disarms the self-destruct, saying he will be rewarded with a quick death. Before she can feed, Rodney pops up from behind and opens up fire on her with a P-90, John joining in with his own weapon as soon as she is distracted. They manage to kill her, John giving Rodney grief for taking his time to open fire. Rodney reminds him that he had to wait for the queen to disarm the self-destruct before trying to kill her. The whole thing with Teyla going against orders and letting the queen free was just a ruse to get her to disarm the self-destruct herself, since they knew they would never figure out her code.
They return to the station and Rodney's people finally manage to restore communications to Atlantis. They learn that a puddle jumper had been sent to check on them and should arrive in a few hours. John is excited to get to leave but Rodney reminds him that they still have to finish checking out the station. They still have a few days underwater left to look forward to. John groans and he and the rest of the team (except Rodney) all settle in to rest while they wait.
Commentary
Man, they are really burning through puddle jumpers in the back end of this season, aren't they?
I like that this episode serves perfectly well as a one-off and would be a great jumping in point for someone not too familiar with the series (as long as they watch the "previously on" segment to pick up Teyla's ability to connect with the wraith, that is). Yet it actually draws on the events of a few different past episodes, as well as laying the groundwork for the end of this season. In the interest of avoiding spoilers for what's to come, I won't say anything more on that topic, though.
I love the whole bit with Rodney and Graydon. First, I love that he wanted to hire a scientist named "Grayson" because it reminded him of Dick Grayson, Batman's ward. Rodney's ongoing love of Batman is an amusing little character trait that I enjoy seeing played up now and then. I also love that while Rodney clearly still isn't the best at noticing others and remembering names, he is making an obvious effort to try and bet better about that and be more welcoming to his scientists. See? He's growing. I mean, it took him the whole first season to get Radek's name right.
We also get some excellent acting by Rachel Luttrell in this episode. I found everything that Teyla said and did to be one hundred percent in line with her character and I like that as freaked out as she is by her connection to the wraith, she is also willing to explore it further and use it to benefit the team and her people. Her body language in indicating when she was in the queen's thrall was very well done. It was quite subtle, but also there to see for anyone looking hard enough.
All in all, this is another one of those episodes that has pleasantly surprised me this time around. I wasn't that impressed with it initially (except for the whole Graydon/Grayson thing), but with each repeat viewing I come to appreciate it a little bit more. It is interesting to me to see which episodes age well and which don't. "Submersion" definitely belongs in the former category.
Favorite Quotes
"Hey! I don't hear Grayson complaining!" (Rodney)
"Uh, it's Graydon. With a 'd.'" (Graydon)
"What? Are you sure?" (Rodney)
"It's my name." (Graydon)
"No no no, 'cause I could have sworn that the guy I wanted from your department was called Grayson. 'Cause I remember thinking Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne's ward." (Rodney)
"Well, it's Graydon." (Graydon)
"Oh. Perhaps that means I hired the wrong guy." (Rodney)
"Oh yes. Let's race toward the gunfire!" (Rodney)
"One of these days I'm just going to call him Doctor McCoy." (Graydon)
"I'd love to be there for that!" (Dickenson)
"Well, the next time he calls me Grayson..." (Graydon)
"Actually, I know a Grayson." (Dickenson)
"There really is a Grayson?" (Graydon)
"Yeah. He's a damned good scientist, too. I'm surprised McKay didn't hire him." (Dickenson)
"I missed." (Ronon)
"I noticed that too!" (John)
"Which means it's been here a very, very, very long time." (Radek)
"Yes, give or take a very." (Rodney)
"She's not dying according to plan here!" (Rodney)
~*~
That's all we've got for today's installment. Wow, only two more episodes left in season three! See you back here on Monday for "Vengeance." It's about rainbows and puppy dogs, in case you couldn't tell from the title.
Monday, December 12, 2011
SGA Rewatch: Irresistible
Welcome to another installment of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch. Today we continue working our way through season three with "Irresistible." Be wary of spoilers for this episode and any that came before.
What Happened
Yet again we kick off an episode with Sheppard's team exploring a new planet by puddle jumper. We learn that they have been going through the galaxy looking for stargates that can be "harvested" to use in order to create a bridge between the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies. The gate bridge would allow two way gate travel between Atlantis and Earth without requiring the use of a ZPM to dial and would reduce the travel time between the two planets from three weeks (via spaceship) to thirty minutes (via a system of interconnected gates spread out between the locations). Ideally they only want to harvest space gates that orbit uninhabited planets, but they are checking out some of the land gates as well. Today's candidate is located on a planet that showed life signs, so the team is going to make contact with the indigenous population.
They enter a village and are greeted almost immediately by a man named Lucius, who is clearly in charge of the place. He is more than a little obnoxious, introducing them to two of his (six) wives and then immediately beginning to hit on Teyla. He invites the team to stay for lunch, surprised they have never head of him. Everyone in the village proceeds to tell the team about what a kind and wonderful man Lucius is. Just before joining everyone for lunch, we see Lucius take a swig from a small potion bottle he pulls out of his vest. At lunch he continues to hit on Teyla, his advances becoming more inappropriate as the meal progresses, while everyone from the village looks on fondly.
Lucius claims to possess lots of "gifts" and starts to enumerate his many talents. He notices that Sheppard has a cold and extols his talent at making medicines. He tells Sheppard he can whip up a potion to clear that cold in six to seven days, no problem. At this point Sheppard and team start to really think they are wasting their time. Lucius starts to ask questions about where they are from and about the ship in which they arrived. He asks if he can have one of the puddle jumpers, maybe in trade for some of his fabulous medicines. He is rather shocked and dismayed (as are the villagers) when Sheppard flat out refuses the trade. The team decides to call it a mission and make their excuses so that they can leave. Lucius starts to throw what can only be described as a temper tantrum at their exit, and for a moment it looks as if the villagers will not let them leave. Lucius calms down, however, and says it's fine. To try to appease him, Sheppard promises to send Carson to the village to find out more about Lucius' medicine, at which point maybe they can talk about a trade of some sort.
Carson is not really impressed with Lucius at first, but Lucius convinces him to stay for a meal and after a while, he has begun to hang on Lucius' every word, just like the rest of the villagers. He reveals that he and the others are actually from Atlantis and tells Lucius all about the city. Lucius asks lots of questions, wanting to know all about it (and the jumpers) and Carson offers to bring him to Atlantis so he can see for himself. This goes against pretty much every protocol, and when Carson shows up with Lucius in tow, Elizabeth is less than pleased. Especially when Lucius starts hitting on her.
Sheppard is pissed but tells Elizabeth he doesn't think Lucius is a threat, just a nuisance. Elizabeth grudgingly agrees to let Lucius stay for a little while so they can try to figure out what Carson saw in him that was worth risking the secret of Atlantis' continued existence (as well as its location). Sheppard and Rodney are still trying to find gates for the bridge, so they head out to do that, leaving Teyla and Ronon to keep an eye on Lucius while he is in the city. Carson shows Lucius around, continuing to fawn all over him. He talks Elizabeth into meeting with Lucius to open up a possible alliance with Lucius' people. She reluctantly agrees to hear him out, and before he heads to the meeting, we see Lucius take another swig from his tiny bottle. He brings Elizabeth a gourd with a candle stuck in it and immediately starts hitting on her again, not really having anything of worth to offer Atlantis.
Sheppard and Rodney return from their scouting trip and are rather surprised to find a very chill Chuck the only person on duty in the gate room. They ask him where everyone is and he sends them to the mess, where they find Lucius regaling most of the city with his adventures. Elizabeth and Teyla are hanging on him delightedly and Ronon is all buddy buddy with him. Everyone seems to have fallen under his influence, much to Rodney and Sheppard's dismay.
Sheppard grabs Elizabeth, Teyla, Ronon, and Carson and takes them to Elizabeth's office to try to figure out what happened to change their minds about Lucius. Elizabeth says she doesn't know what he's talking about, Lucius is wonderful. Everyone agrees. Sheppard and Rodney sneak off to try to get to the bottom of the situation. Checking out the security footage of Lucius' quarters, Rodney notices him drinking from the bottle and steals it from his room to run tests. They think he must have some sort of concoction that is getting everyone to act so strangely.
Sheppard goes to check on Elizabeth and finds her and Zelenka with Lucius telling him all about the gate bridge and their harvesting missions. He shows them a potential planet that he thinks will have a gate they can use and they are very excited and ready to send a team right away. Sheppard isn't excited, however, he points out to Elizabeth that they hadn't checked out that planet because their intel told them that the wraith have set up an outpost there. It's too risky. Lucius prompts Elizabeth and she tries to pull rank on Sheppard to get him to send a team to the planet. He refuses and reminds her that he still has rank when it comes to military operations. He then shuts down all gate activity until further notice without his express approval, just in case Elizabeth tries to send a team anyway.
As he leaves Lucius remarks to Elizabeth that Sheppard really must have a terrible cold to be so cranky. She tries to convince him that Sheppard normally isn't like that but he's not too sure. He tells her that if Sheppard doesn't "come around" soon, something will have to be done about him.
Unfortunately, Rodney couldn't retrieve enough of the liquid from Lucius' bottle to analyze it fully. Sheppard volunteers to go back to Lucius' planet to see if he can get more. Rodney is reluctant to be left alone with all of the "nuts" but Sheppard tells him to just stay away from everyone else until Sheppard gets back. At the village, everyone is very sick, they seem to be in withdrawal, and when they see Sheppard they immediately start asking where Lucius is and when he will be coming back. Sheppard asks them about the liquid and Lucius' wives go get him some, making him promise to send Lucius back to them soon.
Sheppard returns to find Rodney in Elizabeth's office with Lucius, laughing at one of his stories. He has been converted as well. He also learns that Teyla, Ronon, and Carson went to the planet that Lucius wanted to send a team to, despite Sheppard's orders. The team returns under heavy fire, confirming that there is in fact a wraith outpost on the planet. Still, regardless of Sheppard's outrage, the team comes back giggling like madmen and clutching bags full of an herb. It turns out that was Lucius' real goal on the planet.
Carson and Rodney get around to showing Lucius one of the jumpers and he is fascinated by the whole thing. They explain to him about the ATA gene and about Carson's gene therapy treatment. Lucius is intrigued and wants to take the treatment himself.
Later, Carson is in the infirmary when Sheppard shows up and asks to speak to him alone. He tells Carson that he thinks there is something wrong with him and Carson is relieved to hear he is asking for help. They move off to speak in private and Sheppard stuns Carson, then carries him off to a jumper and takes off for the mainland with him. Realizing what Sheppard has done, Elizabeth orders all of the jumpers to the mainland to find Sheppard and Carson and bring them back. Rodney turns up and tells them that Sheppard has also stolen his laptop and a bunch of his research. In the jumper, Sheppard explains to a very irate Carson that Lucius is using a pheromone of some sort to influence other people, making them like him and do his bidding. Sheppard suspects it comes from the herb that Lucius sent them to collect. Carson doesn't want to believe him but Sheppard makes him go over the research anyway, telling him that he needs to make an antidote so Atlantis doesn't suffer like Lucius' village.
After several hours, Carson seems to be on the verge of a discovery of some sort when Ronon turns up. He stuns Sheppard and they head back to Atlantis. Sheppard is thrown in the city's brig and Lucius comes to talk to him. He says when Sheppard is over his cold the two of them are going to have a long talk and will probably become the best of friends. Sheppard says he knows about the herb and Lucius explains how he found it and realized how it could be used. Then, the wraith set up their outpost on the planet where it grew and he was beginning to fear he would never be able to get more when Sheppard and crew turned up, giving him a way to collect the herb again.
Carson has prepared the gene therapy for Lucius and he administers it, telling Lucius it will be about an hour before it takes effect and he can try flying a jumper. While they wait, Lucius takes Elizabeth's hand and tells her they really should discuss marriage. She seems thrilled at the idea. Carson accompanies Lucius to a jumper for his maiden voyage and everyone else gathers in the control room to monitor their progress. Just as Lucius is about to try taking off, Sheppard shows up and explains that they didn't actually give him the therapy. Instead, they gave him a serum that neutralizes the pheromone, rendering his mojo ineffective on anyone not already converted. Carson also admits that he administered some to himself to reverse Lucius' influence on him. Sheppard takes off with Lucius and Carson stays behind to administer the serum to everyone in the city.
They also administer the serum to everyone in Lucius' village and explain what had been going on. Then, they let Lucius go back, though no one is very happy to see him. Sheppard predicts a string of divorces in his future. Everyone in Atlantis seems to be more or less back to normal, though they are all really embarrassed about their behavior while under Lucius' influence. It doesn't help that Sheppard keeps gloating about how silly they all acted. Elizabeth dismisses the team and Sheppard turns to Rodney, telling him that Sheppard is going to go try to clean Rodney's quarters before his next meeting, then dashes off. Everyone turns to look at Rodney disapprovingly. He admits he took one tiny taste of the herb, purely for "research" purposes. Elizabeth orders him to burn the herb, all of it, and everyone gets back to business as usual.
Commentary
So, this is more or less a stand alone episode. The only thing it really adds to the season's overarching plot is the introduction of the gate bridge, which is a kind of big thing, though it gets more or less pushed to the back burner here. I do love Rodney's churlish little admission that the whole thing was actually Carter's idea. That was very well done.
The episode itself is actually pretty amusing. It is very fun to watch everybody get to play their characters in "happy-go-lucky" mode. All of the actors did a really amazing job with this script. It truly is a joy to watch. The bit about Lucius' six wives though, and his attentions to Elizabeth and Teyla, is only funny until you actually stop to think about it. The actual implications of that are pretty dark and squicky. Especially after one of Lucius' wives tells Sheppard that before she realized she liked him, she refused to share his bed several times. Not such innocent fun there, is it?
Of course, we can't talk about this episode without talking about Richard Kind. He actually appeared in the motion picture Stargate that kicked off this whole wacky franchise. He's playing a different character here, obviously, but it still feels like a nice little return home to have him appear on Stargate Atlantis. Also, the character of Lucius was truly a perfect one for him to play. I honestly can't imagine any other actor having done so well in that role.
It was also nice to see the little bit of bonding between Sheppard and Rodney over the old Batman television series. I think this might be the first time we learn of Rodney's admiration for the caped crusader. It becomes not so much a running joke, but a facet of his character as the series progresses.
Favorite Quotes
"How do you get your hair to go like that?" (Lucius)
"But I thought you cured every known ailment?" (Carson)
"Every known ailment in town. I added that, remember?" (Lucius)
"Really? That guy?" (Elizabeth)
"Aye. He also possesses many valuable herbs and spices...and gourds." (Carson)
"Did you just say gourds?" (Rodney)
"I've been told that you would like to negotiate a possible alliance between our two peoples." (Elizabeth)
"An alliance? Okay. Sure." (Lucius)
"What the hell is going on?" (Sheppard)
"What do you mean?" (Elizabeth)
"What do I mean? We leave for a few hours, and Lucius turns you all into Stepford wives!" (Sheppard)
"Teyla, this is the man who asked you to be his seventh wife." (Sheppard)
"I know...I hope I didn't upset him." (Teyla)
"So...that herb of yours." (Sheppard)
"One of my greatest discoveries. Well, it's my only great discovery. But you've got to admit, it's pretty great." (Lucius)
~*~*~
Here endeth the rewatch installment. I hope to see you back here on Wednesday. We'll be getting a good look into Ronon's back story in "Sateda."
What Happened
Yet again we kick off an episode with Sheppard's team exploring a new planet by puddle jumper. We learn that they have been going through the galaxy looking for stargates that can be "harvested" to use in order to create a bridge between the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies. The gate bridge would allow two way gate travel between Atlantis and Earth without requiring the use of a ZPM to dial and would reduce the travel time between the two planets from three weeks (via spaceship) to thirty minutes (via a system of interconnected gates spread out between the locations). Ideally they only want to harvest space gates that orbit uninhabited planets, but they are checking out some of the land gates as well. Today's candidate is located on a planet that showed life signs, so the team is going to make contact with the indigenous population.
They enter a village and are greeted almost immediately by a man named Lucius, who is clearly in charge of the place. He is more than a little obnoxious, introducing them to two of his (six) wives and then immediately beginning to hit on Teyla. He invites the team to stay for lunch, surprised they have never head of him. Everyone in the village proceeds to tell the team about what a kind and wonderful man Lucius is. Just before joining everyone for lunch, we see Lucius take a swig from a small potion bottle he pulls out of his vest. At lunch he continues to hit on Teyla, his advances becoming more inappropriate as the meal progresses, while everyone from the village looks on fondly.
Lucius claims to possess lots of "gifts" and starts to enumerate his many talents. He notices that Sheppard has a cold and extols his talent at making medicines. He tells Sheppard he can whip up a potion to clear that cold in six to seven days, no problem. At this point Sheppard and team start to really think they are wasting their time. Lucius starts to ask questions about where they are from and about the ship in which they arrived. He asks if he can have one of the puddle jumpers, maybe in trade for some of his fabulous medicines. He is rather shocked and dismayed (as are the villagers) when Sheppard flat out refuses the trade. The team decides to call it a mission and make their excuses so that they can leave. Lucius starts to throw what can only be described as a temper tantrum at their exit, and for a moment it looks as if the villagers will not let them leave. Lucius calms down, however, and says it's fine. To try to appease him, Sheppard promises to send Carson to the village to find out more about Lucius' medicine, at which point maybe they can talk about a trade of some sort.
Carson is not really impressed with Lucius at first, but Lucius convinces him to stay for a meal and after a while, he has begun to hang on Lucius' every word, just like the rest of the villagers. He reveals that he and the others are actually from Atlantis and tells Lucius all about the city. Lucius asks lots of questions, wanting to know all about it (and the jumpers) and Carson offers to bring him to Atlantis so he can see for himself. This goes against pretty much every protocol, and when Carson shows up with Lucius in tow, Elizabeth is less than pleased. Especially when Lucius starts hitting on her.
Sheppard is pissed but tells Elizabeth he doesn't think Lucius is a threat, just a nuisance. Elizabeth grudgingly agrees to let Lucius stay for a little while so they can try to figure out what Carson saw in him that was worth risking the secret of Atlantis' continued existence (as well as its location). Sheppard and Rodney are still trying to find gates for the bridge, so they head out to do that, leaving Teyla and Ronon to keep an eye on Lucius while he is in the city. Carson shows Lucius around, continuing to fawn all over him. He talks Elizabeth into meeting with Lucius to open up a possible alliance with Lucius' people. She reluctantly agrees to hear him out, and before he heads to the meeting, we see Lucius take another swig from his tiny bottle. He brings Elizabeth a gourd with a candle stuck in it and immediately starts hitting on her again, not really having anything of worth to offer Atlantis.
Sheppard and Rodney return from their scouting trip and are rather surprised to find a very chill Chuck the only person on duty in the gate room. They ask him where everyone is and he sends them to the mess, where they find Lucius regaling most of the city with his adventures. Elizabeth and Teyla are hanging on him delightedly and Ronon is all buddy buddy with him. Everyone seems to have fallen under his influence, much to Rodney and Sheppard's dismay.
Sheppard grabs Elizabeth, Teyla, Ronon, and Carson and takes them to Elizabeth's office to try to figure out what happened to change their minds about Lucius. Elizabeth says she doesn't know what he's talking about, Lucius is wonderful. Everyone agrees. Sheppard and Rodney sneak off to try to get to the bottom of the situation. Checking out the security footage of Lucius' quarters, Rodney notices him drinking from the bottle and steals it from his room to run tests. They think he must have some sort of concoction that is getting everyone to act so strangely.
Sheppard goes to check on Elizabeth and finds her and Zelenka with Lucius telling him all about the gate bridge and their harvesting missions. He shows them a potential planet that he thinks will have a gate they can use and they are very excited and ready to send a team right away. Sheppard isn't excited, however, he points out to Elizabeth that they hadn't checked out that planet because their intel told them that the wraith have set up an outpost there. It's too risky. Lucius prompts Elizabeth and she tries to pull rank on Sheppard to get him to send a team to the planet. He refuses and reminds her that he still has rank when it comes to military operations. He then shuts down all gate activity until further notice without his express approval, just in case Elizabeth tries to send a team anyway.
As he leaves Lucius remarks to Elizabeth that Sheppard really must have a terrible cold to be so cranky. She tries to convince him that Sheppard normally isn't like that but he's not too sure. He tells her that if Sheppard doesn't "come around" soon, something will have to be done about him.
Unfortunately, Rodney couldn't retrieve enough of the liquid from Lucius' bottle to analyze it fully. Sheppard volunteers to go back to Lucius' planet to see if he can get more. Rodney is reluctant to be left alone with all of the "nuts" but Sheppard tells him to just stay away from everyone else until Sheppard gets back. At the village, everyone is very sick, they seem to be in withdrawal, and when they see Sheppard they immediately start asking where Lucius is and when he will be coming back. Sheppard asks them about the liquid and Lucius' wives go get him some, making him promise to send Lucius back to them soon.
Sheppard returns to find Rodney in Elizabeth's office with Lucius, laughing at one of his stories. He has been converted as well. He also learns that Teyla, Ronon, and Carson went to the planet that Lucius wanted to send a team to, despite Sheppard's orders. The team returns under heavy fire, confirming that there is in fact a wraith outpost on the planet. Still, regardless of Sheppard's outrage, the team comes back giggling like madmen and clutching bags full of an herb. It turns out that was Lucius' real goal on the planet.
Carson and Rodney get around to showing Lucius one of the jumpers and he is fascinated by the whole thing. They explain to him about the ATA gene and about Carson's gene therapy treatment. Lucius is intrigued and wants to take the treatment himself.
Later, Carson is in the infirmary when Sheppard shows up and asks to speak to him alone. He tells Carson that he thinks there is something wrong with him and Carson is relieved to hear he is asking for help. They move off to speak in private and Sheppard stuns Carson, then carries him off to a jumper and takes off for the mainland with him. Realizing what Sheppard has done, Elizabeth orders all of the jumpers to the mainland to find Sheppard and Carson and bring them back. Rodney turns up and tells them that Sheppard has also stolen his laptop and a bunch of his research. In the jumper, Sheppard explains to a very irate Carson that Lucius is using a pheromone of some sort to influence other people, making them like him and do his bidding. Sheppard suspects it comes from the herb that Lucius sent them to collect. Carson doesn't want to believe him but Sheppard makes him go over the research anyway, telling him that he needs to make an antidote so Atlantis doesn't suffer like Lucius' village.
After several hours, Carson seems to be on the verge of a discovery of some sort when Ronon turns up. He stuns Sheppard and they head back to Atlantis. Sheppard is thrown in the city's brig and Lucius comes to talk to him. He says when Sheppard is over his cold the two of them are going to have a long talk and will probably become the best of friends. Sheppard says he knows about the herb and Lucius explains how he found it and realized how it could be used. Then, the wraith set up their outpost on the planet where it grew and he was beginning to fear he would never be able to get more when Sheppard and crew turned up, giving him a way to collect the herb again.
Carson has prepared the gene therapy for Lucius and he administers it, telling Lucius it will be about an hour before it takes effect and he can try flying a jumper. While they wait, Lucius takes Elizabeth's hand and tells her they really should discuss marriage. She seems thrilled at the idea. Carson accompanies Lucius to a jumper for his maiden voyage and everyone else gathers in the control room to monitor their progress. Just as Lucius is about to try taking off, Sheppard shows up and explains that they didn't actually give him the therapy. Instead, they gave him a serum that neutralizes the pheromone, rendering his mojo ineffective on anyone not already converted. Carson also admits that he administered some to himself to reverse Lucius' influence on him. Sheppard takes off with Lucius and Carson stays behind to administer the serum to everyone in the city.
They also administer the serum to everyone in Lucius' village and explain what had been going on. Then, they let Lucius go back, though no one is very happy to see him. Sheppard predicts a string of divorces in his future. Everyone in Atlantis seems to be more or less back to normal, though they are all really embarrassed about their behavior while under Lucius' influence. It doesn't help that Sheppard keeps gloating about how silly they all acted. Elizabeth dismisses the team and Sheppard turns to Rodney, telling him that Sheppard is going to go try to clean Rodney's quarters before his next meeting, then dashes off. Everyone turns to look at Rodney disapprovingly. He admits he took one tiny taste of the herb, purely for "research" purposes. Elizabeth orders him to burn the herb, all of it, and everyone gets back to business as usual.
Commentary
So, this is more or less a stand alone episode. The only thing it really adds to the season's overarching plot is the introduction of the gate bridge, which is a kind of big thing, though it gets more or less pushed to the back burner here. I do love Rodney's churlish little admission that the whole thing was actually Carter's idea. That was very well done.
The episode itself is actually pretty amusing. It is very fun to watch everybody get to play their characters in "happy-go-lucky" mode. All of the actors did a really amazing job with this script. It truly is a joy to watch. The bit about Lucius' six wives though, and his attentions to Elizabeth and Teyla, is only funny until you actually stop to think about it. The actual implications of that are pretty dark and squicky. Especially after one of Lucius' wives tells Sheppard that before she realized she liked him, she refused to share his bed several times. Not such innocent fun there, is it?
Of course, we can't talk about this episode without talking about Richard Kind. He actually appeared in the motion picture Stargate that kicked off this whole wacky franchise. He's playing a different character here, obviously, but it still feels like a nice little return home to have him appear on Stargate Atlantis. Also, the character of Lucius was truly a perfect one for him to play. I honestly can't imagine any other actor having done so well in that role.
It was also nice to see the little bit of bonding between Sheppard and Rodney over the old Batman television series. I think this might be the first time we learn of Rodney's admiration for the caped crusader. It becomes not so much a running joke, but a facet of his character as the series progresses.
Favorite Quotes
"How do you get your hair to go like that?" (Lucius)
"But I thought you cured every known ailment?" (Carson)
"Every known ailment in town. I added that, remember?" (Lucius)
"Really? That guy?" (Elizabeth)
"Aye. He also possesses many valuable herbs and spices...and gourds." (Carson)
"Did you just say gourds?" (Rodney)
"I've been told that you would like to negotiate a possible alliance between our two peoples." (Elizabeth)
"An alliance? Okay. Sure." (Lucius)
"What the hell is going on?" (Sheppard)
"What do you mean?" (Elizabeth)
"What do I mean? We leave for a few hours, and Lucius turns you all into Stepford wives!" (Sheppard)
"Teyla, this is the man who asked you to be his seventh wife." (Sheppard)
"I know...I hope I didn't upset him." (Teyla)
"So...that herb of yours." (Sheppard)
"One of my greatest discoveries. Well, it's my only great discovery. But you've got to admit, it's pretty great." (Lucius)
~*~*~
Here endeth the rewatch installment. I hope to see you back here on Wednesday. We'll be getting a good look into Ronon's back story in "Sateda."
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