SGA Rewatch: This Mortal Coil

Hello. Well, it's another Wednesday folks, which means another installment of the Stargate Atlantis rewatch. Today's episode is season four's "This Mortal Coil." Spoilers for the episode and any that came before, as always.

What Happened


Rodney and Radek are running a diagnostic on the gate, which hasn't been working for about a week. John comes by to check on their progress but there really isn't much to report at the moment. Just then, an unidentified object crashes into the city. It was moving too fast to be picked up by the city's sensors, apparently. John and the scientists go check it out and find a probe or drone of some sort. It doesn't appear to be of wraith origin, and Rodney and Radek take it to Rodney's lab to figure out what it is and where it came from. As John leaves the crash site, Major Lorne catches up with him and asks who is going to finish the gate diagnostic if both scientists are working on the probe. John says the gate can wait and Lorne uncharacteristically questions the decision but backs off when John tells him to.

In the lab Rodney and Radek have found the device's data core. It is damaged, and encrypted, but Rodney starts a program to retrieve and decrypt it. Radek tells him he should go back to working on the gate while the program runs but Rodney is intrigued by the mystery of the device and wants to keep working on it. Just as the decryption seems to be working, the program crashes and all of the data on the core and on their computers is lost. Before it crashed, however, Rodney tells Radek he saw enough to realize that it is nanite code. The probe was from the replicators. Rodney goes to find John, with Radek following behind, to warn him that the replicators have found them. Radek isn't so sure, saying that he didn't see anything that looked like nanite code. While they are arguing about it there is the sound of an explosion and Lorne radios John to tell him that he is needed in Rodney's lab. They run down to check it out and find that the probe has exploded, apparently from a self-destruct mechanism.

Rodney catches up to John alone after this and tells him that something doesn't feel right to him. He feels like something was actively working to keep him from learning more about the probe. John thinks he's just being paranoid but at Rodney's request promises to keep an eye open for anything strange. Later, while sparring with Ronon, John shares Rodney's theory. Ronon doesn't share John's skepticism. In fact, he tells John that he has felt that everyone in the city has been acting strangely for a little while now, and that Teyla has noticed it as well. John is still not convinced but Ronon persists. As they spar, Ronon manages to get a hit in to John's forehead, giving him a nasty cut that he thinks will need stitches.

John heads down to the infirmary to have Keller patch him up. When she goes to look at the cut she tells him it's nothing. He doesn't need stitches, or even a band-aid, there's nothing there. She hands John a mirror and he wipes away the blood, seeing that there is no cut underneath. He is extremely disturbed by this but Keller suggests that maybe it was Ronon's blood. John isn't so sure. He asks Keller to do a body scan on him, worried that he might have been infected with nanites when he came into contact with the probe. Keller obviously thinks that it is a waste of time but she complies and then tells him the scan is clean, though she doesn't show him the screen. John's mind next wanders to the last time he had unusual healing powers--when he was infected with the wraith retrovirus--and he asks Keller to run a blood test just in case he has been exposed again. She is clearly dubious about such a scenario but complies to his request and draws some blood before he leaves.

Later that night we see Lorne and Keller meeting up in a secluded corner. Lorne tells her he thought the problem had been dealt with, especially after he destroyed the probe. Keller tells Lorne that "they" are getting suspicious, but they aren't yet close to discovering the truth. They do bear watching, though.

The next day Keller finds John and shows him the results of his blood test: all clean. She is puzzled when John is less than pleased by this news. He tells her this leaves them without an explanation for his "magical head wound." Keller insists that he is ignoring the obvious explanation: John was never actually cut. John doesn't buy it though. He asked Ronon and the other man was never bleeding. Ronon also saw John's wound and thought it needed stitches. Keller plasters a strained grin on her face and tells John that she will run a new blood test if he'd like.

That evening Rodney enters a lab and finds the rest of his team waiting for him, their faces grim. He asks what's going on and John grabs his hand, pulls out a knife, and slices it open. Rodney starts to freak out but then John hands him a towel and when he wipes the blood from his hand, there is no cut. Teyla assures Rodney that all three of them performed the same test on themselves. Something is definitely hinky. John explains about his cut from the night before and Rodney realizes he thinks that Keller lied to him. Rodney accesses the infirmary's database from the lab and they are surprised to find no record of either John's blood test or body scan. Teyla remarks that they need to go conduct their own tests to find out what is really going on.

John and Teyla head to the infirmary, intending to sneak in and use the body scanner. Rodney and Ronon remain in the lab so that Rodney can use the city's life signs sensors to help them avoid running into anyone. Rodney is having trouble with the scanner though--it doesn't seem to be on a live feed, but rather on a loop. He fiddles a little and finally gets it fixed, but that only increases his confusion. The live feed is showing only four life signs in the entire city: those of the team. John is clearly unsettled by this but it also makes him even more determined to press on. He and Teyla continue to the infirmary.

Lorne and Radek find Keller standing on a balcony looking out at the ocean. Lorne tells Keller that they have a problem.

Rodney keeps checking the city's sensors and does find a fifth life sign. Ronon decides they should go check it out.

In the infirmary, Teyla scans John and the screen shows that he is crawling with nanites.

Rodney and Ronon use a life signs detector to track the fifth signal and it leads them to a hidden room. They get the door open and find that its occupant is Elizabeth, asleep on a table of some kind. They run to her side and get her woken up. Rodney asks how she got there and she answers that she has no idea. From behind them Keller pops up that she can tell them the answer to that question. Elizabeth is in that room because she was created there...they all were.

As John and Teyla stare at his scan, trying to come up with explanations, Lorne arrives in the infirmary, accompanied by several soldiers. He tells John and Teyla they need to come with him, but John refuses to comply, aiming his gun at Lorne and telling him to stand down. Lorne calmly replies that the gun won't hurt him and tells John to go ahead and shoot. John does, aiming for Lorne's leg, and is quite surprised when it morphs and then heals, Terminator 2 style.

In the hidden room, Keller explains to Rodney, Ronon, and Elizabeth that she and Lorne and the others in the city are all replicators. Rodney says it is not possible that the replicators could have replaced everyone in the city without them noticing and Keller says that they are not on the real Atlantis. This city is only a copy, made for their experiment.

In the infirmary, Lorne is also explaining the situation to John and Teyla. He tells them that the team (and Elizabeth) are not replicators. They are completely organic beings, manufactured from the inside out by nanites. Some nanites remain in each of them to effect repairs as necessary (hence the magical healing abilities). John still isn't buying it, but Lorne explains that the team's memories all came from when they were mind-probed while in replicator captivity a year ago.

Rodney calls Keller on this fact, pointing out that a year ago Carson was their head of medicine and Keller hadn't even arrived in the city. Replicator Keller (R!Keller) agrees, but adds that the team's memories were updated after the most recent capture of one of their expedition: Elizabeth Weir. So everything they know is everything that happened until Elizabeth was left behind on Asuras.

The team and Elizabeth are put into the city's brig. Elizabeth still isn't quite sure she believes the replicators' story. She asks John for his knife and performs the test on herself, cutting her palm open and watching as it heals shut instantly. Everyone is still a little unsure of whether or not to completely believe R!Keller's story, but Rodney says it actually makes a lot of sense. It explains a lot of the weirdness they have been noticing over the past week.

Elizabeth asks to speak with R!Keller. She learns that the real Elizabeth is dead, was killed shortly after her capture on Asuras, by Oberoth's orders. R!Keller's group are rebels among the replicators, not following Oberoth's drive for revenge. They want to study the humanity of their organic creations, hoping it will be the key to learning how to ascend. Elizabeth realizes that they are part of Niam's group and R!Keller confirms this. She explains that while most of her like-minded fellows were reprogrammed after Niam's escape, she and some others managed to stay hidden within the collective. Elizabeth wonders aloud why R!Keller would bother to share all of this information with her and R!Keller says it is because she has an open mind. She adds that they also need to gauge the reactions of the team so that they will no how to do it better next time.

Elizabeth returns to the team and informs them that R!Keller and the others plan to wipe their memories and start over on a new planet. That probe really was from the replicators, from Oberoth's group. They had been looking for the defectors and finally found them. The rebels plan to move the city and then give their experiment another try.

R!Keller comes to visit them and Elizabeth tries to convince her to let them go. R!Keller says it is too late for that, the other replicators have arrived. From above they can hear the sounds of the city being bombarded and we see a replicator ship moving in to attack. Rodney tells her to raise the shield but she explains that is just not possible. They couldn't take too many ZPMs from Asuras without attracting attention and creating the team and Elizabeth used up most of their power. Elizabeth redoubles her argument to be set free, pointing out that if they all die during the attack the experiment was a complete failure. R!Keller is clearly torn and Elizabeth presses the advantage, telling her that if they are let free, they will be able to fight back against Oberoth and his injustices. R!Keller relents and leads them to the jumper bay. In the control room she stops to give them the core drive of a replicator ship. She explains that they can use it to track all of the replicator warships in the galaxy in real time. Elizabeth asks her to come with them but she declines, saying she would only be a liability and that Oberoth would find them by tracking her. They say goodbye and take a jumper, escaping the city. From the cloaked jumper they watch as the city is destroyed by the replicator warship (fulfilling Davos' vision from a few episodes ago).

Without a working stargate on the planet, John decides that their best course of action is to stay cloaked and hitch a ride into hyperspace with the replicator ship when it leaves. While they wait out the hyperspace journey, John and Elizabeth discuss their next course of action. John thinks they need to get back to Atlantis, they definitely need to pass on the the core drive to their counterparts. Elizabeth isn't so sure they will be a welcome sight, however. Still, they are not sure what else they should do. Their resolve to make contact with Atlantis is strengthened when they arrive at the replicator homeworld and find that the replicators have been quite busy replacing their destroyed shipyard--and then some. They sneak down in the jumper and steal a ship with hyperdrive and then head for a friendly planet with a gate.

In real Atlantis, Rodney is telling John about the gate diagnostic he is about to run when the gate activates. One of their offworld teams is checking in and reports to John that there is someone who wants to speak to him. John looks at the screen in amazement as duplicate Elizabeth (D!Elizabeth) steps into view. He and Rodney are overjoyed at first, greeting her warmly and asking how she escaped from the replicators and how she has been. D!Elizabeth shakes her head and explains that she is not the real Elizabeth and gives them a brief explanation of who she actually is. She hints at the others as well and then tells John that they do need to meet. She has important information for him.

The team gates to the planet and meets up with their duplicates. Awkward is an understatement (the two Ronons quite clearly do not like each other at all). D!Rodney hands over the core drive and they explain what it is. The two Rodneys start geeking out about it and about getting to work together. D!John says they'll probably need to do it on the planet since he and the others are a security risk for Atlantis and John agrees, surprised at the candor. Rodney runs back to Atlantis to get the equipment they will need to get the drive working. While he does that John looks at his duplicate and tells him that they had another reason for agreeing to come. He asks if they have any news of where the real Elizabeth might be, and if they are willing to help them rescue her. D!John and D!Elizabeth exchange a sad look and tell John that Elizabeth is dead.

The Rodneys get to work on the drive and the groups split up. John takes a walk with D!Elizabeth while Ronon and Teyla and D!Ronon and D!Teyla break off to patrol the area, each Ronon lamenting the situation with his respective Teyla trying to calm him down and (in D!Ronon's case) get him to accept his new situation. Everyone is very clearly unsettled by the whole thing. Even though the duplicates clearly don't like the idea that they are copies and that they can't just go on resuming the lives that their memories tell them are theirs they all seem to accept the fact that they can't go to Atlantis. Given their replicator origins, they are a threat, willingly or no, organic or no.

Their ruminations are interrupted by a distant rumbling sound and they look up to find that a replicator ship has arrived at the planet. D!Elizabeth realizes it must have found them by tracking the ship they stole. Everyone regroups at the tent. John orders they fall back to the gate but his men there radio that it is a no go, the replicators have a ship positioned to take out anyone who goes through. The next plan is to fall back to the jumper. D!Elizabeth tells John that if any of them are going to survive this, they will need a diversion.

At the gate, the jumper flies by and uncloaks. The replicator gives chase and as soon as it is gone, the gate activates (presumably dialed by the jumper). The replicators manage to shoot down the jumper and go in on foot to check it out. They see the bodies of the team sprawled in the wreckage, but as they get closer, D!John sits up and his wounds heal. He smirks at the replicator that he fooled them. The replicator brings up his gun and fires. In Atlantis, John leads his team and the other offworld team through the gate and then orders control to shut it down, saying that no one else is coming. The duplicates sacrificed themselves so that everyone else could get away.

Later, Rodney throws himself into working on the core drive. Radek tries to get him to take a break but Rodney says he'd rather keep busy. He is trying not to think about the fact that they now know for a certainty that Elizabeth is dead. It is Carson all over again, he tells Radek, and he's just not ready to deal with it yet. A little while later John comes by and tries to get Rodney to call it a night but he still won't be dissuaded. John seems to understand though. He tells Rodney that he has been packing up Elizabeth's personal belongings and just shipped them back to Earth. He knows he should have done it months ago, but he kept hoping they would get her back. Now, he knows they won't. They commiserate for a moment and then John turns to leave, telling Rodney to let him know when the tracking device is up and running. Before he gets out of the room, Rodney calls him back. The device is online. They fire it up and slowly and the computer beeps as dots start lighting up on the screen, showing them the location of the replicator ships. They watch in dismay as the dots keep appearing. The screen fades to black, and the episode closes with the sound of several more beeps in rapid succession, followed by a very unhappy "Oh crap" from Rodney.

Commentary


So. Wow. This is a really interesting episode. I actually really like how they did the mystery bit at the start, and having the team figure out something was up and going ahead and doing something about it. I also think that Jewel Staite and Kavan Smith did a really good job as portraying Keller and Lorne just a little bit off from their normal characters. It was noticeable, but not distracting. I definitely did not figure out what was going on before the reveal the first time I saw this, though, like Rodney, I knew that something was up.

Also, how bizarro is it that Lorne's worst nightmare was that John is a replicator, and then the replicators running the experiment decided to use Lorne as one of their avatars? That...amused me.

But the three big pieces of news we get in this episode:

1. Elizabeth is actually really dead. Bummer. Still, it is good for John to learn this so he can move on (and everyone else in the city, I suppose).
2. There is dissension in the ranks among the replicators. The faction that doesn't want revenge on the humans (or to kill the wraith), but instead wants to follow in their creators' footsteps and ascend is still alive and kicking. They are also more willing to work with humans (even though they are not the most ethical of people, they are still better than Oberoth's crew).
3. The replicators have a ton of warships. Way more than we had anticipated. This is very important if our heroes want to shut off their wraith attack code, since it presumably means they will return to trying to destroy Atlantis. At least they know what they are up against now, and have a way to track the ships. It's a start.

I am not so sure how I feel about the duplicates so willingly sacrificing themselves for the originals, but in a way I understand. This isn't the first series (or even the first Stargate series) to tackle the topic of self when it comes to clones/duplicates, but I do like the down to earth way that everyone handled the matter in this episode. Yes, it was creepy as hell--for all parties involved--but everyone was respectful of everyone else's rights. That the duplicates were so willing to accept that the fact that they were not in actuality human and work within the limitations they had says a lot about the character of all individuals concerned, I think. No one fought about it, it wasn't all dragged out and preachy. It was simply another weird situation and everyone did their best to deal with the mess once they found themselves thrown into the middle of it.

I do have to say, there is a small part of me that is still vaguely annoyed that the replicators are such a huge part of the show this season. SG-1 featured replicators more than enough, in my opinion, and I would have much preferred to see the show writers visit a new type of foe than to rehash an old storyline. Still, as always, they managed to keep it separate from what came before and to give it a very Pegasus-spin. It isn't exactly the same old replicator story. I guess what I am saying is that if we are going to be saddled with the replicators as an official big bad of yet another series, at least they did a good job of making it unique to Atlantis. 

Favorite Quotes

"What the...? What happened?!" (Rodney)

"Well, either your sandwich exploded or that mystery drone had a built-in self-destruct protocol." (John)

"We're genetically predisposed to being...stubborn. Really pesky." (John)

"Outputted? Is that even a word?" (John)

"Of course it is!" (Rodney)

"We can't both be wrong." (D!Rodney)

~*~

Et viola! Just like that, we are halfway through the season. For once, the writers saw fit not to end the tenth episode with a crazy cliffhanger. Although I suppose the sudden influx of replicator ships was meant to be one of a sort. Oh well. As it happens, we will be taking a break next week anyway, since I will be out of town. We'll resume on Monday April 2 with the next episode, "Be All My Sins Remembered." See you then!

SGA Rewatch: Missing

Welcome to a new week and a new installment of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch! Up for discussion today is season four's "Missing." Spoilers for the episode and any that came before. You know the drill.

Here we go!

What Happened


Teyla finds Doctor Keller in the infirmary and we learn that the two women are getting ready to visit the Athosian settlement for the evening. The Athosians are having a traditional feast that Teyla is returning for, and Keller is going for her first medical visit at the settlement. She is more than a little nervous about going offworld, she apparently hasn't been out of Atlantis much, but is also a bit worried that she won't be able to fill Carson's shoes. She knows the Athosians were very fond of him.

As they head out, John is at the gate and tells them to have a good time. He warns Keller to watch out for the local wine, as it's got a kick. He also teases Teyla about being all dolled up, asking her if she has a hot date. She rolls her eyes and ignores the question and they leave. On the planet, Keller tells Teyla she thinks John is right, Teyla does have a date. Teyla just smiles and doesn't say anything, and they walk through the forest to the settlement.

When they arrive, it is to find the settlement deserted. Everything is in disarray, and Teyla says that her people did not leave of their own free will. She fears they were either attacked by someone or else culled by the wraith. They begin searching the settlement for clues as to what happened when Teyla hears something. She grabs Keller and pulls her into hiding. They observe as two men enter the settlement and, seeing some of Keller's bags, start to go through them. Teyla looks frightened and tells Keller that they need to leave. They sneak away from the camp and once they are far enough away not to be heard, Teyla pulls Keller aside so she can take stock of their situation. She begins going through Keller's bag, asking if she brought any weapons. Keller replies that of course she didn't, she only brought medical supplies, and asks if Teyla is armed. Teyla produces a knife but answers that she didn't believe she would need a gun for a simple overnight visit to her own people. She pulls a scalpel out of Keller's kit and hands it to the doctor.

Keller asks who the men were and Teyla answers that they are Bola Kai, a tribe of very fierce and very dangerous warriors. Teyla admits that she has never encountered them before but she has heard enough of them to know that she and Keller need to get away, and quickly. They head back to the gate, taking to the woods instead of the more exposed path, and along the way Keller falls, spraining her ankle. When they get to the gate, they find it guarded by two of the Bola Kai. Teyla seems torn. She tells Keller that her people have a weapons cache of guns that Atlantis had given them. With those they would have no problem defending themselves against the Bola Kai, but it is too far away, especially with Keller's injured ankle.

Teyla seems to come to a decision and tells Keller that they will need to take out the guards and just go through the gate. If they catch them off guard, they should be okay. Keller starts to freak out at the prospect, looking at Teyla's knife and her own seemingly puny scalpel. Their discussion draws the attention of the guards and they quickly hide once more. The guards do not find them, but they are now alerted to their presence. Teyla tells Keller that the guards will tell the others and the Bola Kai will hunt them down. Their only hope is to elude capture for as long as possible. Atlantis will not realize they are missing until they are overdue, which isn't until the next day, but if they can hold out until then, Atlantis should send help. Drums begins to sound through the forest and Teyla tells Keller that the guards have alerted the others to their presence.

They head back to where Keller fell and recover her medical bag that they had left behind. Keller gets her ankle wrapped up and takes some medicine to help dull the pain so that they can move more quickly. While this is going on, Keller laments at their lack of preparedness for the situation. Teyla tells her about the survival training she went through as a child--an Athosian rite of passage--where she and some other children were sent into the woods alone, unarmed, and without supplies and expected to survive for ten days. Keller is appalled, telling Teyla she couldn't even make it through a whole week at summer camp with all of the amenities. They move on and head for the weapons cache but are disappointed to find it has been emptied. Teyla knows the Bola Kai did not find it, else they would be using the weapons. She suspects her people must have needed the weapons to fend off whoever attacked them, and surmises it must not have been the Bola Kai, because so armed they would have easily defended the settlement. That opens up the mystery of what happened to them once more.

Without weapons, Teyla's next move is to take them to a nearby hunting blind. It should afford them shelter and a way to stay hidden until morning. To get there, they need to cross a rope bridge that hangs over a gorge. Keller is less than pleased, telling Teyla she doesn't think she can do it. While she is suggesting alternate possibilities to get across the gorge, Teyla huffs in exasperation and just heads across the bridge. Realizing she has been left behind, Keller sucks it up and follows. She makes it almost all the way across before her hurt ankle gives out and she slips, falling from the bridge to hang over the chasm below. Teyla returns and pulls her back up and gets her the rest of the way across.

Before they reach the blind, three Bola Kai come upon them. Teyla manages to knock out two of the men but the third runs away. Seeing that Keller is alright, Teyla tells her to stay put and gives chase. She runs down the third Bola Kai and kills him before he can bring reinforcements. She heads back to Keller, who has moved to check on the other two Bola Kai. One is dead, but the other is starting to come to. Teyla strides up to him and slits his throat. Keller is appalled, saying they could have tied him up and left him there, but Teyla says the others would have only found him and released him to continue hunting them. She tells Keller that as unpleasant as it may be, the more of the Bola Kai they kill, the better their chances of survival.

They hear someone moaning and moving nearby and go to investigate. They find an injured man, dressed as an Athosian and bound, though Teyla says he is not one of her people. Keller wants to treat his wounds but Teyla thinks they cannot afford the time that he will cost them and should leave him behind. Keller puts her foot down and while she treats him, Teyla makes her way to the blind to ensure it is still intact. Thankfully, it is. She also finds several hunting traps at the blind. She returns and they move the injured man to the blind. Teyla uses the traps to set up a perimeter warning system. As night falls, they hear a slithering outside the blind and Teyla checks it out. It seems to be an animal of some kind, burrowing straight toward them. Teyla spears it with a sharpened stick and pulls up a creepy crawly land-squid looking thing. When Keller asks what it is Teyla replies, "dinner." Keller declines to eat any of it.

The man wakes up and they begin to question him. He says he is Nabel of the Genii and admits that he was sent to the Athosian settlement to infiltrate it and gather intel. He had only been there for a few days when the settlement was attacked. He says that the wraith culled the Athosians, but they were led there by the Bola Kai. Teyla picks up his insinuation that the Bola Kai are wraith worshipers. It is clear that she does not trust the man but she accepts his story.

They weather the night well enough. By morning, Keller is hungry enough to finally give in and eat some of the creepy crawly. Teyla remarks that Keller reminds her of a friend, one who does not believe he possesses nearly as much strength as he does. Keller asks if Teyla is talking about Rodney and she smiles and says no, she means an Athosian, a man named Kanaan. Keller realizes that Kanaan is more than a friend to Teyla, the date that she was going to see in the settlement. Teyla admits that yes, there is more than friendship to her relationship with Kanaan, though that aspect of it is only a very recent development. Keller understands that Teyla is not only facing the loss of all of her people, but of that newly kindled relationship as well. Uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, Teyla excuses herself to fetch more water. Nearby, a Bola Kai wandering through the woods stumbles across one of the traps she had set the night before. Hearing his scream, Teyla returns to the blind to mobilize the others and they get the heck out of dodge.

In Atlantis, Ronon finds Rodney and John and asks if either of them have heard from Teyla or Keller yet. John says no and they realize that the two are late in returning, which is very unlike Teyla. John decides that they should dial up New Athos and find out what's up.

As they move through the woods, now merely trying to evade the Bola Kai until Atlantis realizes they are missing, Teyla pulls Keller aside and warns her that Nabel is slowing them down. She wants to leave him behind. Keller sticks to her guns about helping him. She tells Teyla she knows that Teyla would never sacrifice an innocent person to save her own skin and that means she is trying to keep Keller safe. Keller reminds Teyla that  she did volunteer for the Atlantis mission--and all of the good and bad that came along with it. She knew the risks. Teyla relents but before they can move on, the Bola Kai are upon them. They are surrounded and though Teyla puts up a valiant fight, it is not long before they are overwhelmed and taken captive.

Back in the settlement, where the Bola Kai have set up camp, Teyla and Keller are put in a wooden cage. There is no sign of Nabel. Teyla tells Keller that the Boka Kai will attempt to "extract" information from them and that they must not tell them anything. The lives of everyone in Atlantis are on the line. Keller nods in agreement but is clearly terrified. They are taken to the tribe's leader and he does not believe Teyla's claim that they are Athosian. Teyla tells him he will pay for the destruction of her people and accuses them of serving the wraith and leading them to the settlement. The leader is outraged and slaps Teyla, ordering her taken away. He leers menacingly at Keller and tells her that if she talks, he will spare Teyla's life.

When Keller is thrown back in the cage, Teyla asks if she said anything. Keller replies that they said they were going to kill Teyla. Teyla is shocked that Keller would reveal their connection with Atlantis but she quickly reassures Teyla that she only gave them a false lead--the address to an uninhabited planet--in the hopes that it would buy them more time. Teyla nods in approval, clearly impressed with Keller's quick thinking. Keller then says that she doesn't think that the Bola Kai are wraith worshipers, the leader was too surprised when Teyla brought it up. Teyla isn't sure, thinking it is too big of a coincidence that they arrived on the planet after the settlement was destroyed if they aren't working with the wraith. A member of the tribe runs up to the leader and they hear him say that a ship has just come through the gate. The leader assigns two men to keep an eye on the captives and the rest head to the gate to investigate the new arrivals. Teyla lets out a breath and tells Keller it won't be long now.

In the jumper, John remarks that the men they saw guarding the gate sure didn't look Athosian to him. Ronon tells John and Rodney that the men were Bola Kai, but reassures them that they shouldn't have any problem taking them out. They begin searching for life signs but have a hard time with all of the trees. They realize they need to land the jumper and go on foot to search for Teyla and Keller.

In the camp, the guards are suddenly shot. Teyla calls out for John, assuming the team has arrived, but it is Nabel who answers. Teyla is immediately suspicious, asking where he got his gun and he tells her he had his own cache. He couldn't get to it before he was captured by the Bola Kai, but went back for it after the women were taken. He gets them out of the cage and they leave the settlement. Once they get to a safe distance they stop to rest. Teyla, hands still tied from captivity, turns and thanks Nabel for saving them. He said he wanted to repay the favor of them saving him earlier. Then he says he also still had some questions left to be answered. He cold-cocks Teyla with the butt of his gun, knocking her out, and turns it on Keller, demanding the gate address for Atlantis.

Keller realizes that Nabel isn't Genii at all. Atlantis has an arrangement with the Genii, they wouldn't need to go to such lengths to contact them. She thinks out loud that he's the wraith worshiper, not the Bola Kai. Nabel laughs and suggests that he lied about what happened to the Athosians as well as who he was. He tells her if she gives him the gate address, he'll tell her what really happened to them. Teyla comes to and tackles him. They struggle and Keller manages to get his gun. Teyla asks Keller to untie her but Nabel moves between them. She tells him to move or she'll shoot him but he says she'll never do it, she's a healer, she doesn't have it in her. Keller says yes, she's a healer, but she needs something to heal, and she shoots him in the leg. While he is distracted, she unties Teyla and hands over the gun. Teyla points it at Nabel and begins to question him but just then the Bola Kai find them. Thankfully the rest of the team arrives at the same time as well and manages to hold them off. Teyla has time to tell John that her people are missing but not much else. They manage to fight off the first wave of Bola Kai but more are coming. Teyla turns to grab Nabel but he has disappeared and they have to beat a retreat to the jumper without him.

John goes to visit Teyla in the infirmary. She says she feels fine but she is obviously very upset that her people are missing. John gives her the update, stating that they sent a team back to the planet and the Bola Kai have cleared out. There was no sign of Nabel, no life signs on the planet at all. They have people searching the settlement for clues about what really happened. Teyla swears she will find them and John says he knows she will. Keller stops by, her foot in a boot, but otherwise none the worse for the wear. John leaves and she thanks Teyla for keeping her alive, and for reminding her of her family. She tells Teyla she has put in for leave and is going back to Earth to visit her father soon. Teyla asks when she will be allowed to leave the infirmary and Keller says in a day or so. Teyla is not happy about this, stating that she feels fine and she knows she doesn't have a concussion. Keller agrees that she doesn't but says she has gone over Teyla's test results and there is something they need to talk about.

Commentary


Ooh, end the episode with a mystery, eh? Don't worry, I am pretty sure we find out right away next week what Teyla's mysterious ailment is. I am sure if you think really hard on the episode (and some of the buildup from previous episodes) you can probably even guess it without too much difficulty.

(Insert evil grin here.)

Anyhoo, first things first. Danny Trejo!!! I had completely forgotten he put in a guest appearance in this series, and so when he popped up as the leader of the Bola Kai, I was just tickled pink. He is just awesome, yo.

Okay, now that that's out of the way.

Some serious props need to go to Rachel Luttrell and Jewel Staite for this episode, you guys. They were given a lot of heavy lifting to do in this one and they did so marvelously. While ostensibly, this episode is about letting us get to know Keller a bit better, and to see her hardening and learning how to deal with all of the crap the Pegasus galaxy is wont to throw at people (which she is going to be seeing a lot more of as the new head of medicine), it also gives us a lot of insight into Teyla. We get to see her strength, and where it comes from, as well as her compassion and her ability to overrule the latter when it is necessary to survive. We also get to see a bit of her softer side as she discusses her new relationship with Kanaan and her admiration for him even if he doesn't display the more conventional kinds of strength.

It was also interesting to me to see Teyla's level of patience and encouragement to Keller. Even the one moment where it seemed like she had given up, I think she really was just doing what she knew would spur Keller to get over herself and keep going. It is not at all surprising to me that Teyla was the leader of her people.

The disappearance of the Athosians also sets up one of the big overarching story arcs for the season. This is a good thing, because while the war between the wraith and the replicators is intriguing, it is something our people are (rightly) staying on the sidelines watching, rather than actually engaging in, you know? Now they've got something to do, and an excuse to get out there and get into more, possibly unrelated, trouble. Whoo!

It should be noted that this episode also marks the beginning of the writers' pleasure in frelling with Keller. Seriously, they love to throw her in the deep end. It is kind of a delightful running gag.

Lastly, lollipops! Keller packed a big ol' jar of lollipops to take to the Athosians to help the kiddos' exams go over better. Partly, I think this is just her doctor sense, and partly an attempt to make the Athosians like her more (worried about living up to Carson, remember). The lollipops are in one of the bags that the Bola Kai go through when Teyla and Keller leave to try to escape. Throughout the rest of the episode, most of the Bola Kai, these big, tough, terrifying warriors, are wandering around with lollipops in their mouths. This makes me giggle every time. Whoever thought that up deserves mad props. It is a simple, silly little visual detail, but it is one that works well. Very amusing if you are paying attention, and also a nice little bit of dissonance. Kudos.

Favorite Quotes


"There comes a point in adversity when fear disappears, leaving only the will to survive." (Teyla)
"I know. It's just, I don't think I'm even remotely close to that point." (Keller)

"You have not slept all night." (Teyla)
"With people trying to kill us, and creatures crawling around under the ground? Not to mention I'm starving." (Keller)
(Teyla offers her some of the creepy crawly.)
"Not that starving." (Keller)
"It will give you strength." (Teyla)
"It will make me puke." (Keller)
"You do not believe you are capable of eating it, and so you do not." (Teyla)
"No. I think it's disgusting and so I do not." (Keller)
"I have a friend like you, afraid to challenge himself." (Teyla)
"I'm not afraid of challenges. I signed up to be Chief of Medicine on an expedition in a whole other galaxy. That's about as challenging as it gets. But eating gross food? Sorry, but that's where I draw the line." (Keller)
"Fair enough." (Teyla)

"Look, I'm the first to admit I'm not very good at certain things. I'm not athletic, can't cook, and you don't even wanna hear me try to play the piano. But I do think I'm a pretty good judge of character and I know that you would never sacrifice an innocent man--not even if he was a complete stranger--to save yourself. Which means the only reason you would even suggest it would be because of me." (Keller)
"I brought you here. This is my responsibility. If anything should happen to you..." (Teyla)
"I signed up for this, alright? All of it. I may not have had any idea what I was getting into, but that makes me no different from anybody else on Atlantis." (Keller)

"Just what we need, another bad guy." (Rodney)
"Don't worry, they're primitive. We can handle them." (Ronon)
"Define 'primitive.'" (Rodney)
"Clubs and arrows." (Ronon)
"Hey, arrows can hurt!" (Rodney)
"Only if you're stupid enough to get hit in the ass with one." (Ronon)

~*~

There you have, it folks. That's it for today. See you back here on Wednesday, when we'll find out what's going on with Teyla in "The Seer."

Dallas Sci-Fi Expo

This past weekend, my husband and I met up with some friends at the Dallas Sci-Fi Expo (actually in Irving). We really enjoyed the convention we went to last spring and agree that we very much want to continue going to them. As much fun as it was to make a big trip/vacation out of a bigger convention, we thought it would be nice to try some of the local offerings as well. It's not like we don't live smack dab in the middle of a big metroplex where these things do actually happen from time to time. The Sci-Fi Expo actually seemed perfect for us, since we also wanted to see how our daughter would do in such a setting: it was close by, less expensive, and smaller (a mini-con, as it were). If we had to leave early because of a cranky or misbehaving child, we wouldn't feel ripped off, but there was still plenty for us to see and do. It also seemed like a good fit for our friends, who had not been to a con before and wanted to give one a try.

So, we went, and we had a great time. It was a two-day event but we just went for Saturday. Still, lots of fun was had. Baby Girl behaved herself extremely well and enjoyed seeing all there was to see. Our friends also enjoyed themselves, commissioning portraits of their daughters as zombies from one of the booths and seeing all of the various cosplayers. There were some good media guests at the con, several cast members from Firefly (Jewel Staite, Ron Glass, Adam Baldwin, and Sean Maher) and Eliza Dushku being the two big draws of the weekend. Also in attendance was Alexis Cruz, who I am most familiar with as Skaara from Stargate the movie and then later on Stargate SG-1 as well, although he has actually been in a ton of stuff. I think the award for the most random guest goes to Noah Hathaway, who played Atreyu in The Never Ending Story (and also Boxey in the original Battlestar Galactica, which I did not realize until we saw the photos in his booth). Well, either him, or the dad from Teen Wolf.

We actually didn't get any photo ops or autographs, but it was a small enough space that we could see the various celebrities signing and talking with fans. That was pretty cool. I would have liked to have been able to go to the Firefly Q & A panel, but unfortunately it was full and we couldn't get in. So we enjoyed just wandering the exhibition floor, seeing all of the art, talking to a few vendors, drooling over the various toys and props, and admiring the cosplay. Of course, you know I had to stop and get photos with a few people!

Me with a Clone Trooper as Baby Girl looks on. His gun is named Vera! Especially apt with the random Jayne
walking by in the background.

These guys get bonus points for creativity. This wasn't the only Indiana Jones cosplayer, but it was the only
Professor Jones Sr. to be sure!

There was a trio dressed as Rainbow Dash, Derpy, and Spike from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, but by the time I thought to get a photo with them, they were all having lunch and I didn't want to bother them. Their costumes were really spiffy though. I did get a picture with Darth Vader as well, but it seems to have been accidentally deleted by me swallowed up in some sort of photo black hole, alas.

One really spiffy thing was that one of the writers for GeekMom was there. I had seen a post a day or two before that Brigid Ashwood would have a booth there, so I made note of her booth number and with my husband's help was able to find it so I could stop by and say hi. In addition to writing for one of my favorite blogs, she is also an amazing artist. Her style is beautifully ethereal and fantastical with some steampunk elements as well. You should check it out. She has also started making these absolutely gorgeous perfume lockets that I've been drooling over. I know that they will make a spectacular gift for someone I love dearly, I just have to find the perfect one for her. She was super nice and I enjoyed getting to talk to her for a few moments. It was actually one of my favorite moments of the convention.

Geek + Mom = Awesome! (Although Baby Girl doesn't seem to think so, the way she is trying to escape...)

Eventually the kiddo got squirmy and we had been by all of the booths twice (once to check everything out, and again to pick up the stuff we had scoped out that we wanted to buy) so we headed out. All in all it was a pretty fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon, I have to say. We are thinking maybe next year if the guests are relevant enough to our interests we will spring for the VIP passes (good for both days and gives priority access to panels and early access to the booths) and get a hotel in that part of town so we don't have to drive back and forth.

For the curious, here's the swag I ended up taking home:

Con badge, Doctor Who minifigs (Amy, a Cyberman, and Rory), Soft Kitty t-shirt (from The Big Bang Theory), a handful of spiffy twenty-sided dice, and a Stargate Atlantis staff badge for when I finally get my Stargate costume together.

Some handmade stickers by Kathryn Crenshaw of Galactic Dust Bunnies.

What's a comic expo without a few comic books? Got the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus volume five and a lovely illustrated companion to Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels.

My daughter also picked up a little swag of her own because, as my husband put it, "Mommy is a sucker."

Old school Bedtime Bear! She loves this little guy. I could barely get it away from her to take a picture.

And it had to go right back to her for nap time afterwards. Look at that satisfied face...

So there you have it, folks. A fun weekend adventure almost right in my own backyard (give or take forty miles). I look forward to checking out some of the other DFW area conventions in the future. If you are interested in checking out a convention but don't know where to start, I definitely recommend the Dallas Sci-Fi Expo, or look for expos in your own area if you're not local. There is lots of fun to be had for sure!

SGA Rewatch: First Strike

Hello! Welcome to the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch! Today we are going to be finishing season three with our discussion of the episode "First Strike." Wow, I can't believe we've already made it through three seasons, can you? Only two more left now. Craziness.

Spoilers should be expected for the episode and all that came before it, of course. Now, to the matter at hand.

What Happened


Elizabeth is walking through the city and is hailed by a young woman whom she greets as Doctor Keller. We quickly learn that Keller has stepped in to fill Carson's shoes as Atlantis' Chief of Medicine. We also learn that she is not so keen to keep the job, worried that she is going to fail spectacularly. Elizabeth does her best to reassure Keller that everyone thinks she's doing a great job, urging Keller to just give it some time for the position to feel more comfortable. After this conversation, Elizabeth then heads on in to her office, where Rodney is waiting for her with a complaint of his own. It seems the time has rolled around for senior staff to prepare employee evaluations and Rodney really doesn't want to do it. John walks in to the office in the middle of their debate and hands his own evaluations over. He turns to leave but Elizabeth, having opened up the file, stops him. She chastises him for just giving everyone on his staff an "excellent" rating. He tries to defend his evaluations and Elizabeth clearly wishes the two would just take this duty seriously.

The topic of evaluations is set aside for the moment when Elizabeth is notified that the Earth ship Apollo, fresh off the line and under the command of Colonel Ellis, has arrived in orbit over the planet. Ellis beams down and is glad to find both Rodney and John in Elizabeth's office already, saying that will make things easier. He is all business and leads the three of them to the conference room for a briefing. Apparently the I.O.A. has had the Daedalus make regular sweeps by the replicator planet Asuras in its comings and goings in the Pegasus galaxy.  The ship's most recent pass has turned up the disturbing information that the Asurans have begun to build a fleet of spaceships. The trio immediately jumps to the conclusion that the Asurans must be getting ready to attack Atlantis again and start to brainstorm on what they can do to defend the city. Ellis stops them short and explains that a plan has already been put into place. He has been sent to stop those replicator ships from ever leaving Asuras. The Apollo, coordinating with Atlantis, will launch a surgical strike on the shipyards and a few other key targets on Asuras. The ship is carrying six new Mark IX tactical warheads with which to carry out the job.

Elizabeth and John look at Ellis in stunned silence following this announcement, unbelieving that they have been kept in the dark about this plan. Rodney, on the other hand, launches into a diatribe about why the plan is doomed to fail. The obvious flaw being that the Asurans are replicators, "as in self-replicating," and such a strike isn't likely to slow them down at all, and will probably just make them mad. Ellis addresses Rodney's concern pointing out that for some reason, the Asurans are different than the Milky Way replicators and are not building their ships out of nano-tech, but rather using regular old raw materials. Bombing their shipyards will set the Asurans back. Rodney then asks why they don't just wait until the Planetary-Wide Anti-Replicator Weapons (PWARWs) in development are ready and hit the whole planet at once. Ellis admits that would be ideal but the I.O.A. doesn't believe that they have that kind of time. He reveals that I.O.A. is concerned that the Asurans are building ships not to attack Atlantis but to head to Earth instead. The Asurans do know its location since their occupation of the city earlier in the year. He says eventually they do mean to wipe out the whole planet but for now, they just want to buy themselves time to be able to do so, as well as to take away the Asurans' means of getting to Earth.

Ellis plows ahead with his orders, sending Rodney and Radek up to the Apollo to inspect the warheads and make sure they are ready for deployment. Elizabeth is not happy and not sold on the idea. She tries to talk Ellis out of it but he isn't budging, pointing out that she has no authority to stop him and he has every intention of following his orders. She gets on the horn and starts contacting everyone she can think of to try to put a halt to the mission, but no one will listen to her arguments. Rodney and Radek are also both dubious about the plan, but they agree that the Asurans are a real threat and don't feel like they really have a choice but to comply with Ellis. John, on the other hand, thinks that the plan is actually too good to be true. He isn't quite convinced it will work because to him it seems too easy, but he is one hundred percent behind it nonetheless. Ellis asks him to join the mission and he agrees. The Apollo heads to Asuras and they launch the attack. John stays behind for an hour in a cloaked jumper doing surveillance to make sure they got their targets. Everything seems to have gone pretty much according to plan.

As they are going over the surveillance data back in Atlantis, Chuck calls Elizabeth's attention to the control room. The city's scanners have made contact with some sort of object in orbit. It is too small to be a ship, but from its movements it is clearly not just a normal piece of space debris. Elizabeth asks Ellis to check it out and he takes the Apollo in for a look. He reports back to them that it appears to be a satellite of some sort with a stargate in its center.  As they are trying to figure out what the heck the purpose of that is, the stargate activates. An energy beam shoots out of it straight at the Apollo. Ellis starts to open up fire but it seems to have little effect and he orders his ship out of the path of the beam, but the satellite has already reoriented itself. The beam moves until it is pointed straight at Atlantis. The city's shields manage to hold up to the beam and prevent any damage, however.

Of course, sitting in the shielded city with an energy beam steadily firing away at it is not really ideal, so Rodney gets to work trying to determine the full extent of the situation and attempt to find a solution. Unfortunately, it seems as if the satellite's shield draws its power from the energy beam, so as long as that is going, they can't just shoot it down. Even worse, the gate itself is being powered by the beam meaning that the standard thirty-eight minute limit on how long a gate can remain open is also not in play. As long as that beam is coming through the gate, it can stay on indefinitely. Rodney points out that the only two sources of that kind of energy would be a black hole or an unlimited supply of ZPMs. Assuming the second scenario is far more likely, they realize that the Asurans are probably behind the attack.

Because the second gate is in such close proximity to Atlantis and is active, it has overridden the city's own gate, leaving the inhabitants unable to evacuate to safety as long as the second gate is active. Elizabeth refuses to just sit around and do nothing and so she orders communications opened through the gate, hoping she can negotiate a cease fire. She is surprised to find Oberoth on the other end of the line but immediately dives into trying to get him to turn off the weapon. He refuses. She says that they only attacked Asuras in order to protect their own people. Oberoth responds that this attack is in the same vein. Atlantis is too dangerous and must be destroyed. Rodney, monitoring the communications channel, tells Elizabeth that the Asurans are trying to send a virus through to the city's computers. Frustrated, Elizabeth tells him to cut the communications. She asks Rodney how long the shield can hold up under this kind of bombardment and he tells her they have maybe twenty-nine hours until it fails.

John goes to see Ellis and tells him they need to take the Apollo back to Asuras and destroy the beam weapon at its source. Unfortunately, the ship took quite a hit from the beam when it first activated and Ellis responds that it is in no condition for a fight. He can see that John is feeling like this whole mess is their fault for making the first move and he tries to reassure him. He points out that at the very least, they have stopped the Asurans from being able to get to Earth, which is definitely not equipped to deal with them. Ellis remains convinced they did the right thing. Elizabeth, meanwhile, is pissed. She is in her office venting to Teyla about the whole situation. She is starting to get tired of her status as civilian and a woman causing the military and I.O.A. to dismiss her capability. She is furious she wasn't consulted about the plan to attack Asuras from its inception and thinks that the military is trying to undermine her authority. Teyla tries to soothe her but Elizabeth says it is clear that she is not trusted to make the big decisions. If they make it out of their current situation, she tells Teyla, she just might have to step down as leader of the expedition.

Rodney and Radek have been busily trying to come up with a solution to the current problem and they think they have hit on at least a way to buy themselves some time. Part of the reason that the Ancients submerged the city during the war with the wraith was to save the strain on the ZPMs powering the shield by dissipating the attacks coming from orbit. If they submerge the city, it should attenuate some of the beam's strength, meaning that the shields can remain up longer, giving them time to figure out a way to destroy or escape the weapon. Elizabeth orders it down but unfortunately the effect of the water on the beam isn't quite as strong as the scientists had hoped. They only manage to buy themselves an extra nine hours (after spending three coming up with the idea).

The pair goes back to brainstorming but eventually they run out of ideas. John comes in to ask how they are doing and Radek remarks that there is nowhere on the planet where they will be safe from the beam. John and Rodney look at each other, clearly sharing a light bulb moment. They rapidly begin discussing the possibility of the idea they just had while Radek gets more and more lost. Eventually they explain: If nowhere on the planet is safe, they should just take the city and leave the planet. Normally one ZPM wouldn't be enough power to provide the city's star drive, mostly because of the tremendous power requirements for the initial takeoff process. Luckily for them, the underwater drilling platform is just about operational and Rodney thinks it will be able to get them to ninety percent of what they need for takeoff. (It is connected to the city by way of an extension cord umbilicus that will pipe in the power until they have gotten high enough to snap the connection.) Of course, the ZPM is devoting so much power to the shield that Rodney's not too sure it will be able to provide the rest of what they need. But John has an idea about that, too. The planet's moon has a lot of asteroids and John thinks it would be relatively simple to send Lorne with a flight of F-302s to go get one and tow it into the path of the beam. That would ease the strain on the shield and buy the city a minute or two's relief from the energy beam, just enough time to launch the city out of its path.

Elizabeth decides to approve the crazy plan and Lorne leads a team of pilots to go get an asteroid. The progress is slow but they do manage to get one and using the F-302s drive it toward the beam. All non-essential personnel are beamed up to the Apollo and Rodney picks out a new planet for Atlantis' relocation. Once everything gets underway Ellis stops by Elizabeth's office before heading up to his ship. He apologizes to her, not for the original plan, but for giving the impression that he didn't respect her and her authority in the city. It's not perfect, but Elizabeth accepts it gratefully. John heads down to the control chair to get ready to fly the city since the timing is going to have to be pretty specific.

Once Lorne's team gets the asteroid into position, the F-302s let go and it continues to drift into the path of the beam. The fighters head back to the Apollo and Rodney starts the process of raising the city back to the surface of the water. The drilling station gets its power output cranked up to eleven and the crew is beamed out of there. The asteroid enters the path of the beam and John begins the takeoff process. Even with the relief on the shields, the power is not enough to get them launched and Elizabeth orders the shield dropped completely. This gives the star drive the boost it needs and the city begins to head for the atmosphere. Elizabeth moves out of the control room to look out the window as they leave the planet's surface. As soon as liftoff has been achieved, Rodney enters the command to raise the shield. As the shield is coming up over the city, the beam succeeds in breaking up the asteroid, punching through to the city once more. Just before the shield is fully up, the beam hits Atlantis and the tower is shaken by the impact. Elizabeth is thrown across the room.

In the chair room, John is unaware that the city was struck and takes it into hyperspace. He sits up and breathes a big sigh of relieve before opening up his radio to check with Rodney and Elizabeth. He gets no answer but instead hears Rodney calling for a medical team to the tower immediately. He races up to meet them and find out what happened. We see the tower in disarray, damaged consoles and broken glass everywhere. Keller is busy trying to sort out the critical patients from those who can wait to be seen. John finds her loading Elizabeth onto a stretcher and Keller informs him that she took a pretty nasty blow to the head. Elizabeth is carried off and Ronon goes to check on the rest of his team. Rodney tells him that the beam just grazed the tower before the shield went up completely. He thinks the actual damage is minimal though and is just going to pull up some readings when the city drops out of hyperspace. Teyla asks if they have arrived at their destination already and Rodney replies there is no way that is possible. Things go from bad to worse as Rodney realizes the full extent of their situation: The city dropped out of hyperspace for unknown reasons, probably damage to the drive. Their power is severely depleted, they only have twenty-four hours left at their current consumption rate, after which they lose the shield which means they lose atmosphere which means they die. There are no planets or stars anywhere around them for Rodney to be able to get their bearings, meaning they are lost. They aren't in range of anyone they can contact to call for help, and they can't use the gate because without knowing their exact coordinates, they have no way to calibrate it to be able to use it at their current location. Basically, they are screwed. Insert your own Lost in Space joke here.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Commentary


I would like to take a moment to reflect on what an amazing fake-out the previous episode was. It got us all focused on Michael and the threat he poses to Atlantis, and it made the return to the Asurans as villains for the final episode kind of a surprise. A nice surprise, in my opinion. Well done there.

Welcome to Doctor Keller, by the way. It is good to meet the new head of medicine in this episode. I know that a lot of people never seemed to warm up to Keller, but I loved her almost immediately. I mean, yeah, she's not Carson. No one could be. But she is awesome in her own way. Also, she's played by Jewel Staite, whom I adore to bits and pieces. We only get a brief glimpse of her in this episode, but I think it serves very well to establish the character and give us some sort of idea of what we will be dealing with in her for her tenure in Atlantis.

I love the conversation between John, Teyla, and Ronon about the Fantastic Four. To me it is an excellent example of how the daily interaction of that team actually works (in a good way). I also enjoy that it reinforces the development of John as kind of a closet geek despite his "cool guy" attitude most of the time.

It was really spiffy to get the see the city in flight as well. In fact, this episode contained quite a few wonderful effects shots. I know that the show is on a budget and they have to be careful with how they allocate their funds, but in this case I felt like it was money very well spent. I love getting to see more of the city than just the basic establishing shots we see in between scenes from time to time.

All in all, a very fascinating episode. Of course the Asurans were going to want to strike back eventually, and of course taking the fight to them without completely wiping them out in one fell swoop was a Bad Idea. But after seeing the havoc that the expedition has managed to introduce into the galaxy by way of Michael, it is kind of refreshing to see such a straightforward threat as the replicators. A threat not of our own making, and while yes, the team certainly exacerbated the situation, they really were only seeking help and then just trying to defend themselves and protect their people in their encounters with the Asurans. They  were never the root of the problem.

No surprise that we got a cliffhanger here, it is pretty standard Stargate fare for a season-ender. I can tell you that in this case, the cliffhanger definitely had me hooked. I could not wait for season four to start so I could find out how the heck these people would get themselves out of this situation.

Favorite Quotes


"Okay, look, asking me to do performance evaluations is ridiculous. I am the first person to admit I don't know who these people are, nor do I care to. Look, if you'd like, I could take you down the hall to the labs and just point at the people who annoy me more than the rest, but that's about as useful as I get." (Rodney)

"So we can assume the replicators are behind this." (Elizabeth)
"Well, I hope so." (Rodney)
"You hope so?" (Elizabeth)
"Well, otherwise we've discovered yet another super powerful enemy." (Rodney)

"You should be running Atlantis, not Doctor Weir." (Ellis)
"Well then I'd be The Man, and who would I have to rage against?" (John)

"We don't need the history of your idea, Doctor. I'll let that be a surprise when I read your autobiography. Just tell me the plan." (Ellis)

"I need to learn some science." (Ronon)
"What for?" (John)
"I'm not all that useful in situations like these. If we get into a fight or we need to break out of somewhere, you know, kill someone, I'm your man. But a laser attacking the city's shield, I don't know where to chip in." (Ronon)
"Well that's why we're a team. Like the Fantastic Four.... It's a comic book where superheroes fight crime and stuff. See, I'd be Mr. Fantastic, Ronon would be The Thing, McKay would be the Human Torch, you'd be the Invisible Woman." (John)
"I am not invisible." (Teyla)
"No, no, and McKay's not a human torch." (John)
"Well, how come you get to be Mr. Fantastic?" (Teyla)
"Because he's the leader and I'm the.... I'm just saying that they were a cool team and we're a cool team and they use their strengths to, you know.... I'm gonna go check on McKay." (John)

"You wanna bring an asteroid towards us? Is that wise?" (Ellis)
"Well, today it is." (Rodney)

~*~

And there you have it, season three in all of its entirety. But  no breaks for us, nosireebob, I'll be back here on Monday to start up season four with "Adrift." I hope you'll join me.

Until then!

SGA Rewatch: Instinct

Hello, and thanks for stopping by the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch. Today we'll be looking at season two's "Instinct." Spoilers for the episode and all those before are sure to plentiful, so proceed at your own caution.

What Happened


Sheppard and team are once more visiting a planet with an orbital stargate. We never really find out what, if anything, they are looking for on this particular planet though. After landing the jumper, they wander into a very medieval looking village at night. There are lanterns lit and the chimneys are smoking but no one is out and about so they find their way to the local tavern, where they are greeted with some low-level hostility for being strangers, especially strangers who travel at night.

It turns out that a creature the villagers call the "Daimos" has been plaguing the village and it primarily hunts at night. From the villagers' description of the Daimos, the team quickly realizes that they are speaking of a wraith. The leader of the village, Goran, says he and some others suspected as much but had no proof. Their only knowledge of the wraith comes from legends and history books, none has been seen on their world since the last great culling, and even those old accounts do not describe the wraith themselves, only their ships. Still Goran admits that he had wondered if the Daimos might be a wraith, since it arrived in a ship that crashed from the sky ten years ago. Goran tells the team about the incident, stating that they saw the falling ship from the village and found the crash site in the woods. Some wraith survived the crash and, unsure of what they were but unwilling to take any chances, the villagers killed all of the wraith and burned their bodies. Unfortunately, one must have gotten away, because people began dying by its hand that very night. Goran explains that since then it has haunted the forest, feeding a few times a year, taking one or two people each time. Ever helpful, and liking the odds of the four of them against one wraith, Sheppard and Ronon volunteer the team to hunt it down and rid the village of the menace for good.

They set out first thing the next morning and Ronon takes the lead on tracking the wraith, showing off the skills he learned while he was a runner. Teyla also senses something with her spidey-sense, but she says it feels different than when she normally feels wraith. Ronon manages to pick up the trail and they eventually catch up to it, chasing it through the woods to a cave. The wraith is a young female, and when they enter the cave, she retreats down a series of tunnels, eventually running through a door and into the arms of an old man working in a laboratory of some sort. The man puts himself between the wraith, he calls her Ellia, and the team, promising to explain if they will hear him out.

The man, Zaddik, tells them his tale. He was part of the search party that went looking for the crashed wraith ship ten years ago and helped to kill and burn the other wraith. But when he found Ellia, just a little toddler wraith, he couldn't bring himself to hurt her. So he hid her away in an old mine instead and raised her himself. At first she was able to eat regular food and water and survive just fine, but once she hit "adolescence" something changed and she began to hunger for human energy instead. Zaddik maintains she has never fed, however, because he is something of a chemist/herbalist and has managed to develop a serum that suppresses Ellia's wraith hunger and allows her to continue to survive without feeding.

The team are skeptical, of course, but do their due diligence and report back to Elizabeth in Atlantis. Carson is very excited by the news. He says that this explains why the wraith even have human digestive systems, since all of the other human traits they kept when they evolved from the iratus bugs have had a very clear function. He wants to meet Zaddik and do some tests on the serum. He thinks it could be very beneficial to his own research. He reveals that he has been developing a retrovirus that, when administered to wraith, would wipe out all of their traits received from their iratus genes, leaving them completely human. In addition to Zaddik's serum, working with Ellia would also help advance his research quite a bit.

Sheppard and Ronon return to the planet with Carson, and Sheppard sends Ronon on ahead with the doctor while he goes to check in with the villagers. Zaddik is very pleased to meet Carson and the two begin geeking out together in short order. Ellia tries to play good hostess to everyone and Ronon lashes out. He refuses to accept she is anything other than a wraith and really doesn't like the whole situation. Teyla and Rodney are going with the flow, though they both seem a little bit overwhelmed by their circumstances.

Back in the village Sheppard learns that another villager has been taken. He only disappeared within the last few hours, so Sheppard radios back to Teyla to confirm that Ellia has been with them the whole time. This proves that she didn't feed on the missing man and that there must be another wraith out there who has been preying on the village. The villagers are finally fed up after seeing how eagerly Sheppard's team was to just hunt the thing down. They start to get riled up and organize their own search. Sheppard manages to talk them down for the moment though, trying to keep them out of the woods to keep Zaddik and Ellia hidden, knowing they will not understand.

Teyla pulls Ellia aside as the team gears up to hunt the other wraith and asks if she is able to sense him. She answers that she tries to keep him out and that she doesn't like what he shows her. Teyla responds that she understands, and explains that she has some of that ability as well, which makes Ellia feel a little better. With Teyla's encouragement, Ellia is able to connect with the other wraith long enough to give them a direction to start their search. They want to find him as quickly as possible and kill him before the other villagers discover Ellia.

While the others are gone hunting, Rodney and Carson remain behind with Zaddik. Rodney keeps a lookout at the entrance to the mine so Carson and Zaddik can continue their research. Zaddik worries to Carson that he will not be around for much longer and he worries that the other villagers will never accept Ellia. He doesn't know what will happen to her when he is gone. Trying to reassure him, Carson tells him about the retrovirus he is working on, showing him a vial of it. Carson explains that they haven't had much success with it yet, and it is far from ready, but with Ellia's cooperation, he thinks that they will be able to complete it before too long, making her fully human. Unknown to the two men, Ellia eavesdrops on this conversation, and when Rodney pulls Carson and Zaddik out of the lab, she sneaks in and injects herself with the retrovirus. Carson, Rodney, and Zaddik return (having discovered that the villagers have finally mounted their own search party), to find the empty vial and Ellia gone. Carson freaks out, exclaiming that it isn't ready yet and there is no way of knowing what effect it will have. He radios to Sheppard, who is getting close to the other wraith, so he and Rodney go look for Ellia on their own.

Shortly after they leave, Ellia comes back to the lab, looking for Zaddik. He is relieved to see her but admonishes her for taking the retrovirus, explaining that it wasn't ready yet. She says she heard that but didn't have any other choice. He asks what she means and she replies that once they kill the other wraith she won't be able to pretend anymore. Zaddik listens, horrified, as she tells him that his serum doesn't work. She didn't want him to know, though, because he worked so hard on it, so for the last few years, she has gone out when she sensed the other wraith feeding and fed at the same time, so that it still looked like it was only one creature behind the attacks. Zaddik tries to comfort her, but the retrovirus starts to kick in and she freaks out and flees.

Searching for Ellia, Rodney and Carson accidentally find the other wraith. He clearly intends to attack them but is stopped by Ellia. She is starting to turn blue and scaly and acting very wild. She snaps the wraith's neck and then starts toward Rodney in a very menacing manner. Before she can do anything, however, Carson shoots at her, just winging her with the bullet. It is enough to cause her to run away, however. Carson realizes that the retrovirus must be having the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of eradicating her iratus bug traits and leaving behind the human ones, it is wiping out all traces of humanity and leaving her with nothing but the predator's traits.

Zaddik has chased after Ellia and when she finds him she hurls him aside, injuring him severely. Carson, Rodney, Sheppard, and the rest find him just before the rest of the villagers show up. Carson says that his injuries are fatal. Goran does not recognize Zaddik and demands to know who he is, until Zaddik speaks up, disappointed that Goran does not remember him. It turns out he is Goran's son. Goran says that's not possible, his son was taken by the wraith two years after it arrived, and would only be thirty-four now, not the aged man before him. Zaddik explains that while he was still working on the serum he allowed Ellia to feed off of him, just a little bit each time, enough to survive. As a result he still lived, but he aged greatly. He faked his death because he knew he couldn't hid the effects of her feeding and because he also knew that his father and the other villagers would never understand, but he couldn't leave her, she needed him. With that he dies.

Carson tells Sheppard that he still might be able to reverse the effects of the retrovirus in Ellia if they can capture her alive, and quickly. Sheppard, Ronon, and Teyla go after her. Teyla finds her first and is knocked unconscious. Sheppard continues on, ordering Ronon to stay behind and keep an eye on Teyla. When Teyla regains consciousness, she is surprised to learn that Ronon let Sheppard continue the pursuit on his own. Ronon tells her he was ordered to stay behind, and he was just following orders. Teyla tersely explains that there will be times when they will need to use their best judgement to override Sheppard's orders. It is enough to send Ronon after Sheppard. He finds them both as Ellia is attacking Sheppard, attempting to feed off of his arm. Ronon shoots her, stunning her, but she starts to pop back up, and both Ronon and Sheppard shoot her, this time killing her.

Ronon tells Sheppard that she was never going to let them take her alive. Sheppard agrees and they turn to go back to the others, ending the episode.

Commentary


So, I didn't realize this for a long time, but Ellia was actually played by Jewel Staite, of all people! I think she was even nominated (and possibly won) an award for the guest role. How random, and crazy. Still, her turn as Ellia was pretty fascinating. This is definitely a nature versus nurture episode. One of the big overriding arcs of this season (and more or less throughout the series) is the nature of the wraith. Are they really that evil, or just misunderstood? Zaddik wagers on misunderstood. While Ellia quite clearly wasn't anyone's definition of evil--at worst she was desperate--she also quite clearly could not repress her less desirable wraith tendencies.

Ronon is still testing his boundaries with Sheppard, as well as proving his usefulness as part of the team. This time he is learning that there will be times when he will need to ignore an order. Replacing Ford with Ronon definitely throws the traditional military structure of the gate team out the window. It was always a little fluid, but now it is just something else entirely. That's fitting, though, since Sheppard has never been set up to be your typical military officer.

We also see in this episode just how deep down Ronon's hatred for the wraith goes. Intellectually, he understands that Ellia does not think and act like a typical wraith, but his instinct tells him that none of that matters. She is a wraith, and if the rest of his team are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, then it is his job to remain suspicious and ready for betrayal at all times.

Then there's Carson. Sweet, mild-mannered, lovable, friendly Carson. Playing God. Seriously, what the heezy? I mean, I get that the wraith are a threat and that technically the Lanteans are at war. But he's developing a retrovirus that will essentially wipe out an entire race of beings. That's genocide right there, that is. Clearly Carson doesn't see it that way. He's lost in the science of it all. Since arriving in Pegasus he has been learning about the wraith, figuring out how they came to be, how they work, and now, how to fundamentally change them. That's a pretty heavy implication that is just thrown at us and then completely glossed over. It's only now, with the benefit of hindsight, that I even see how insane the notion is. So as lighthearted as Stargate Atlantis might be, we should also realize that it is something of a cautionary tale as well. What happens when you decide to try to "fix" a whole group of people who is bothering you? Well, I guess we'll find out, won't we?

On a happier note, I love that while getting ready to leave the village and look for the wraith, Rodney found himself the focus of attention of a very inquisitive child. They are drawn to him, and it drives him nuts. It's awesome. Running gag: Approved.

Favorite Quotes


"Are you interested in science?" (Zaddik)
"I'm not sure that's what I'd call this, but yes." (Rodney)

"So it's a teenage thing? Pimples, rebellion, life-sucking?" (Sheppard)

"McKay, stay here and help Beckett." (Sheppard)
"Ah...medical research? Not really my thing." (Rodney)
"And hunting wraith?" (Sheppard)
"Uh. I could...stay...and...help Beckett." (Rodney)

"Aren't we supposed to follow his orders?" (Ronon)
"Sometimes we are allowed to make exceptions." (Teyla)
"And who decides when it is one of those times?" (Ronon)
"We do." (Teyla)
"That's good enough!" (Ronon)

Good enough, indeed. That's me done for the day. Hope to see you back here on Wednesday, when we'll catch up with some of the fallout from this episode in "Conversion."