SGA Rewatch: The Seed

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch. Today we'll be rolling along with season five and discussing the episode "The Seed." Spoilers for the episode, as always, along with anything that came before it.

What Happened


Teyla stops by the med lab to visit Jennifer. She is walking Torren to keep him asleep. She thanks Jennifer for helping Kanaan to return to his normal self, as well as the other Athosians who were turned to hybrids. They discuss Mr. Woolsey's imminent arrival as well as Jennifer's progress in figuring out how to cure the clone of Carson so that he can come out of stasis. Jennifer tells Teyla that Rodney goes to visit Carson in stasis and talks to him, keeping him "up to date" on the latest news in Atlantis. She seems to think it is cute.

The Daedalus arrives at the city and beams Woolsey down to the control room. John welcomes him and the staff all stand at attention, waiting for a welcome speech of some sort. Instead of giving one, however, he asks for copies of all of the latest status reports so he can catch up on whatever he missed during his trip to the city.

Jennifer, who has fallen asleep at her computer, wakes up to find her hand covered in a weird clear goo. She looks at it in surprise and then washes it off. Another doctor comes in and tells her she shouldn't push herself so hard before wishing her a good night.

The senior staff gathers in the conference room, admiring the new table that Woolsey brought in, ready for their first meeting with with their new leader. Teyla and Ronon wonder why Sam is being replaced at all, but Rodney and John point out that she is a "victim of her own success" and because she managed to do such a good job lowering the threat level in the galaxy, the I.O.A. is jumping at the chance to put a civilian back in charge.

Woolsey comes in and starts by congratulating them for their progress in dismantling Michael's network of power. They would rather be celebrating killing him. Woolsey doesn't believe that Michael survived the explosion of the cruiser, however, and refuses to waste resources on a search without substantial proof that Michael is still alive. He then moves on to the topic of the recovered Athosian hybrids, referring to them as prisoners and hesitant to trust them, despite Teyla's assurances that they are indeed trustworthy.

Next up he wants an update on the research into curing Carson, given how much of Jennifer's time it is taking up. She thinks she has figured out the solution, but doesn't want to test it until she's completely satisfied. Woolsey, however, tells her that she either needs to test her solution or stop working on it and move on to a new problem. She and Rodney bring Carson out of stasis and give him an injection.

He wakes up in the infirmary a short while later and the team greets him. Jennifer tells him that he looks stable and it seems that her research has paid off. She says it's not a permanent solution, but it will do for the time being and give them time to find one. John tells her good work and suggests she go to get some rest. She agrees that she can finally do just that and heads to bed.

Rodney finds Carson on a balcony, basking in the majesty of the city and enjoying being back. Rodney grumpily tells him that he just found out they are sending Carson back to Earth though, there is a dial-out scheduled for later that day. While they are talking Teyla radios Rodney and asks for his help. He and Carson go to meet her outside of Jennifer's quarters. Teyla explains they were supposed to meet for breakfast but Jennifer didn't show and she has received no answer. She wants Rodney to override the lock on Jennifer's quarters so she can check on her. They go in and find Jennifer asleep covered with some sort of tentacles that seem to be growing out of her. Carson says he's seen something like that before in one of Michael's labs.

John apprises Woolsey of the situation. Woolsey expresses concern that Carson is so involved, seeing as how he isn't even on active duty, but John says he's the best chance they have to save her. They get her to the infirmary and Carson does some exploratory surgery to see if he can remove the tentacles. He gets one cut off and it causes havoc with her vitals. He manages to get her stable but says he can't cut the tentacles off. Woolsey tells Carson he needs to stop, he is supposed to go to Earth and is in no condition to be jumping in. Carson refuses to go back to Earth and leave Jennifer, however, adamant that he can help her.

Carson is pretty sure that what is happening is not part of Michael's process to convert humans to hybrids, so he goes through Jennifer's files. He manages to trace the source of her infection to while they were at Michael's lab that exploded during the rescue mission to save Teyla and then then the mission to save the rescuers. Unfortunately that means anyone who was at that lab was probably also infected. A doctor tells them that Jennifer has woken up and Rodney goes in to see her (in full HAZMAT gear). She has been quarantined but the tentacles have continued to grow, she is almost completely encased and they have spread all throughout the room as well. Jennifer is scared and confused and she seems to be hearing voices when Rodney talks to her. He tries to assure her that they will fix it. She realizes that the goo from the other night was probably the start of the problem.

Carson updates Woolsey, who is very concerned that her mind appears affected. Woolsey wants to know if it will be a threat to the base and Carson says that is a definite yes. He has just received a report that John's whole team (except Teyla) has been infected, along with Lorne and Sam and several of the combat engineers. Woolsey has them all confined to their quarters just in case (even Sam is quarantined back on Earth), though they are pretty sure it isn't contagious and no one else is displaying signs of being affected like Jennifer.

Radek and Carson get to work trying to figure out what the tentacles actually are and come to the alarming conclusion that it is the same organic material from which wraith ships are made. There is a wraith ship growing in the city, centered in Jennifer. The entity has already spread throughout walls in the level above and below Jennifer's isolation room. As it grows it is consuming and converting the material it encounters. It also has managed to tap into and seems to be feeding off of the power grid, so Radek suggests turning off the power to that section of the city.

Teyla reports to Rodney on what is going on and he freaks out about Woolsey taking advice from the "B Team," explaining that they don't know what they are dealing with.  He suspects it didn't hit the power grid by accident and probably actually grows toward energy sources, like a plant towards the sun. In which case, shutting off the power in that section will just cause it to grow faster towards another part of the city that still has power. Like, for instance, the main power conduit that runs through the city distributing power from the ZPM.

Teyla takes this information back to Woolsey, Radek, and Carson. While they are suspect about the information coming from Rodney, worried he might be under the influence of the pathogen, Radek says it doesn't matter. Rodney is definitely right that letting it tap into the ZPM conduit would be a Bad Thing because it would have pretty much unlimited power at that point, allowing for exponential growth and consumption of the city. The only way to prevent that would be to disconnect the ZPM. Before agreeing to anything so rash, Woolsey wants them to find out how far it has actually reached into the city. That means doing a manual search, since with the power down in that section sensors are out. Woolsey also directs Carson to figure out a way to actually kill the thing once they have managed to stop it from growing.

Radek and Teyla lead a team to search through the city's conduits and check on the growth of the pathogen. Radek finds that the entity has reached the power conduit and attempts to find out how much power it is draining. As he scans it, the tentacles knock him off his feet and start to wrap around him. Teyla arrives and shoots them up, causing them to pull back and allowing her to get him out of there.

They get him to the infirmary and he is mostly fine. He tells them that it has siphoned off a ton of power already. Teyla suggests they pull the ZPM immediately but Woolsey says they have other problems, now that it is attacking people. Carson realizes that the entity is using Jennifer to recognize threats and figure out where and how to grow. He thinks that if they can get it separated from Jennifer, the rest of the entity will die out. He has a drug that he thinks might work, but it hasn't been tested. Woolsey goes to John and the team to update them on the situation. He explains about the drug and says that it will need to be injected directly into Jennifer, which means someone needs to brave the gauntlet of tentacles to get to her. Their other option, he tells them, is to have someone with a jumper fly up to the tower and take out Jennifer with a very well-placed shot from a drone. No one likes that option.

Woolsey doesn't like the idea of putting more people at risk to get to Jennifer, but since John, Ronon, and Rodney are already infected, he suspects they might be willing to help, and he is right. Ronon volunteers to let them test the drug on him to see if it will kill the pathogen, but John steps up and says they should test it on him instead. It is mentioned that Lorne and some of the other infected men are starting to show symptoms, meaning they need to step up their time table.

The next move is to pull the ZPM and keep the entity from getting any bigger. They put a few of the crucial systems on emergency generators and then pull the plug. Carson, Rodney, and Ronon continue to monitor John and he starts to crash. When they get him stabilized, Carson checks his blood and sees that the pathogen is gone. The next step is to inject Keller. Ronon volunteers to go but Woolsey is loathe to send someone who is infected. Carson says that might not be a bad idea though, thinking that might keep the entity from perceiving him as a threat. He begins to make his way through the jungle of tentacles. They do not react but he quickly comes to a passage that is completely blocked and he can go no further.

He wants to shoot his way through but Carson advises against it, pointing out that once he does that the entity will start fighting back. Ronon decides to risk it and starts making a hole. The tentacles quickly grab hold and immobilize him. John has them put Jennifer on the intercom but she is no longer Jennifer, talking in a weird wraithy voice and saying she has almost become what she was meant to be. She tells them Ronon is alive for now but she can easily kill him. John grabs a syringe of the medicine and takes a jumper to the tower where Jennifer is. He flies right into the building and makes his way to her side, giving her the injection.  Her eyes fly open and the tentacles start to writhe, tightening around Ronon's throat and one stabbing John in the gut. He aims his gun at Jennifer but then she falls limp and so do all of the tentacles. John radios Woolsey to come get them.

Later John is back in the infirmary again and Woolsey comes to see him and tell him that Ronon is doing fine. Jennifer also stops by, freshly out of isolation and back to her normal self. Carson says that now that the matter is resolved he is finally headed back to Earth. Woolsey tells John he just got off a call with the I.O.A. They seem to be okay with his violation of so many protocols in his first week since he managed to get the job done but he is disturbed by that fact. He tells John that if the rules don't apply in this job, he's not sure he can do it. John tells him he will get used to it.


Commentary


Gah, this episode is so freaking confusing. There is just so much going on here.

First, we've got Woolsey's arrival and setup as the new leader. He is very adamant that he will be playing things by the book from the get go (although we quickly see how long that notion lasts against the crazy that is everyday life in Pegasus). He is also quite clearly under I.O.A. directive to get everything running as efficiently (and as cost- and resource-effectively) as possible. So, new leader. Of course his first day (week) on the job will be a doozy.

The writers use his new management style and first briefing to rattle off several facts at us to tie up loose ends from last season and the previous episode as well.

• Pretty much all of Michael's plans for galactic domination have been foiled and the denizens of Atlantis have been busy clearing out his labs and making sure all of his research is destroyed.
• However it seems pretty likely that Michael himself survived the destruction of his cruiser, which means that he's still out there and probably nursing a monster-sized grudge.
• All of the captured and recovered Athosian hybrids have been returned to their human state and are being kept on the mainland. Teyla wants them released to get back to their lives but Woolsey (and the I.O.A., likely) still see them as potential enemies since as hybrids they served Michael.
• Jennifer has been working on stabilizing clone Carson so that he can be removed from stasis.

So, that's a lot to take in right there. The episode then seems like it will be about waking up Carson but that goes off pretty much without a hitch, just in time for Jennifer to get compromised (ah, and so begins a new season of the writers torturing Jennifer). That brings me to the main plot, about Jennifer somehow getting turned into a wraith ship. I just...what? That made so little sense, I just don't even know where to go with it. Really I think the "plot" of this episode only served to do the following: 

• Give Woolsey a rough introduction to running Atlantis.
• Screw with Jennifer.
• Give Carson something to do so they could justify bringing back his character.
• Ramp up the love triangle between Rodney, Ronon, and Jennifer.

I mean, I'm not complaining about any of these specific things, I just wish that the story to get them all into play had made more sense/been more interesting, you know?

As far as the love triangle goes, that was at least kind of subtle, and very well played. From Rodney and Jennifer being chummy at the staff meeting (and John watching them curiously, remembering what he knows about the alternate timeline), to Ronon's fierce protectiveness of her and willingness to volunteer to be a guinea pig and then to brave the tower of tentacles. It seems clear to me at this point that Jennifer has kind of settled on Rodney, I mean, he is definitely the one she seems to actively be expressing an interest in. So it just remains for Ronon and Rodney to realize that they both have feels for her and then deal with how that affects their bromance with each other. 

As far as Woolsey goes, I do think this episode serves to show that him in charge of Atlantis might not be as bad as it was in the alternate timeline. He demonstrates a surprising amount of flexibility and potential to grasp that sometimes those rules he loves so much just don't apply to the situation at hand. Also, Robert Picardo just does a fantastic job playing him and he is a real joy for me to watch. So, yeah, I'm okay with Woolsey in charge.

Favorite Quotes

"What do you want me to do about it?" (Rodney)

"Override the door controls." (Teyla)

"I am not breaking into her room!" (Rodney)

"Rodney, there might be something wrong." (Carson)

"Fine. But if she's just in there sleeping, or naked or something, you guys are taking the blame." (Rodney)

"You're not sending him back, huh?" (John)

"Well, he is the closest thing to an expert we have." (Woolsey)

"It's not exactly by the book." (John) 

"Don't get used to it." (Woolsey)

"Just try not to make any sudden moves or threatening gestures." (Woolsey).

"Yeah. I'll keep that in mind." (Ronon)

"Once you start shooting, you'll have to move quickly!" (Woolsey)

"Thanks for the advice." (Ronon)

"Sheppard, what are you doing?" (Woolsey)

"I'm taking a little shortcut. Sorry I didn't have time to fill out the paperwork." (John)

"How's Ronon?" (John)

"He has a bruised larynx. Apparently he won't be able to speak for several days." (Woolsey)

"Wonder if anyone will notice the difference?" (John)

"The rules are there for a reason, Colonel. If I can't trust them, then I'm not sure I can do this job." (Woolsey)

"Welcome to the Pegasus galaxy." (John)

~*~

Alrighty folks, that wraps up another episode. See you back here on Monday for "Broken Ties."

SGA Rewatch: The Return Part 2

Hello, and welcome! Another week, another Stargate Atlantis Rewatch entry. Today we'll be diving into the back half of season three with "The Return Part 2."

Spoilers for the episode and for all that came before, as always. Now, shall we?

What Happened


A very frightened Richard Woolsey hides in a dark corner of Atlantis awkwardly clutching a gun. He hears a sound and stands up, moving slowly over to investigate, calling out to ask if it is General O'Neill. O'Neill appears from around a corner and chastises Woolsey for calling out. If he had been a replicator, Woolsey would now be dead. We learn they have been hiding in the bowels of the city, where the life signs detector sensors don't work in order to avoid the Asurans that have killed all of the Ancients and taken over the city. O'Neill had been scouting out the situation and reports that the gate room and surrounding area is crawling with replicators, which means they have no chance of getting across to the jumper bay to escape. Woolsey opines that at least they are hidden enough where they are to hopefully stay safe until rescue arrives. O'Neill bursts Woolsey's bubble and tells him about his standing orders to nuke the city in the event of a foothold. No rescue.

Just then John and crew gate into the city in their stolen puddle jumper. They have converted the ship's cloak into a shield and hover in the gate room taking fire while John tries to contact O'Neill over the radio. O'Neill responds and John asks if he and Woolsey are anywhere near the gate room. When O'Neill replies in the negative, John says he needs to go but will check back in a couple of hours. They drop a "package" in the gate room and then reverse the jumper through the now inactive gate and the back wall of the tower, leaving the city. As they fly off, the tower explodes. The "package" had been a bomb.

On Earth Walter continues, unsuccessfully, to attempt making contact with John at Midway. Landry tells him to go ahead and stop and says by this point they are already in the Pegasus galaxy getting up to no good. He tells Walter to lock out the team's IDCs and personal authentication codes since they have no assurances the team will not be captured by the replicators and that information compromised. Walter hesitates but then complies.

John flies the jumper into orbit and they discuss the next stage of their plan. They are headed toward something flying in space and it is revealed to be Niam, who had been let out an airlock when he attacked Elizabeth after their initial encounter with the Asurans. Apparently Niam is part of their plan, and they retrieve him. He is mostly dead, though they are still cautious about bringing him aboard. Rodney apparently means to load a program in Niam that will freeze all of the replicators, rendering them helpless and allowing the team to take them out with the ARGs. In order to upload the program to the rest of the Asurans and still keep Niam's power level low enough to prevent him from coming to and attacking them all, however, they have to get pretty close to the city again. Unfortunately, they took a lot of damage when they arrived and their shield is no longer effective, nor can Rodney turn it back into the cloak. They head back to the city, trying to get as close as possible without attracting attention while the Asurans are preoccupied with repairing the damage they caused. Rodney estimates they have a few hours before the critical systems (like sensors) are up and running again.

The Asurans do get repairs underway immediately but their sensors will take some time. They want to know what the invaders are planning, which means they will need to capture them. One notes that they made contact with someone in the city before they blew up the tower, meaning that someone must have survived their attack. They know from a mind probe of Helia before she was killed that all of the Ancients were taken care of, but now realize that there might also have been a few humans in the city. One of the Asurans orders search teams sent down to the areas of the city with no working life signs detectors to try to ferret out the people the team came back for.

Landry calls Doctor Lee into his office. Lee arrives ready to defend himself for letting the jumper get stolen but Landry has already moved on to the next concern. He asks if it is possible to destroy the gate bridge and Lee replies that detonating a nuke at Midway would probably do the trick. Landry nods and tells Lee to prepare one just in case it is needed.

The jumper continues its approach to the city but with Niam powered down so far, they have to get really close to activate the virus. The Asurans detect them and send out drones to attack. John manages to dodge most of them, leading them throughout the city, but it is just causing more damage and it is clear he can't keep it up for very long. He decides to try a new tactic and dives the jumper underwater. The drones veer off. John heads for what he and Rodney believe is an underwater jumper bay.

They radio O'Neill and Woolsey. O'Neill, upon learning the composition of the rescue party and that they are there against orders, is a little put out. They explain their plan and arrive in the jumper bay. Unfortunately, the controls to pressurize the room and pump out the water aren't working. The outer door to the bay also appears to be jammed. Then the jumper itself starts taking on water from the damage it received on the way. They can't stay where they are. They tell O'Neill where the control room for the jumper bay is and ask him to find and release the manual override switch to clear out the water from the bay. He and Woolsey get to the ladder to that level only to find that it is flooded. O'Neill will have to swim.

He manages to find the console and can see the jumper and bay through a window, but he is unable to determine which of the dozens of switches is the override. He swims back up to Woolsey and asks Rodney for more detail on the switch. He dives back down and begins playing with switches. He manages to find the right one, but it is a dead man's switch, it has to be held down to work. He swims back up one more time for air and then goes down and holds the switch. While he is gone, Woolsey hears a noise. He gets his gun ready and tries to give himself a pep talk. O'Neill pops back up to the surface a few minutes later only to find two Asurans pointing guns at him. The team arrives at their position shortly thereafter to find a lot of shell casings but no O'Neill or Woolsey and realize that the men have been captured.

The Asurans take O'Neill and Woolsey to a cell and start asking them questions about what the team's plan is. O'Neill is his usual snarktastic self and so the Asurans resort to mind probing the two men. O'Neill puts up a good resistance but eventually the Asurans are able to get the information about the rescue team's plan and the approaching Daedalus out of the two men.

While the team looks for O'Neill and Woolsey, Rodney stays in the jumper to bring Niam's power up enough to upload the virus to the rest of the replicators. Unfortunately, having learned of the plan, the Asurans now know about Niam. They reactivate him and he comes to, making to attack Rodney, who is forced to shoot him with an ARG, disintegrating him. This pretty much puts the kibosh on their plan, however. They regroup in the jumper to discuss their options. Ronon wants to just start shooting them up with the ARGs but that won't work. They will only get a few shots off before the replicators are able to alter their frequencies and become immune to the weapons. That is why they wanted to freeze them all in the first place, to prevent them from figuring out the ARG frequency in time to render the guns useless. Rodney asks how much C4 they have and John tells him a bunch. Rodney says he has an idea.

John and Rodney find O'Neill and Woolsey in their cell and Rodney gets to work on unlocking it. While he works, he tells them the new plans. They are going to plant C4 in the ten emitters for the city's shield. That way, when the Daedalus arrives and the Asurans raise the shield, the C4 will blow, destroying the shield completely and allowing the Daedalus to beam in the nuke. Woolsey and O'Neill are not much reassured by this plan, as it involves all of them dying as well, but Rodney explains that they will all scoot in the jumper before the nuke blows. Before Rodney can get the cell open, more Asurans arrive and John and Rodney have to get out of there, promising to come back as soon as they can.

The Daedalus arrives in the Pegasus galaxy and checks in with the SGC to be sure their orders to destroy Atlantis still stand. Landry tells them to continue on their original orders.

The team splits up to plant the C4. They nervously notice that they haven't run into any Asurans while carrying out their plan. Then a part of the city powers up and Rodney realizes this is because instead of sending out a search team, the Asurans had been busy repairing the rest of the city, all of the life signs detectors and sensors and even the star drive. In fact, they have fired the star drive up, apparently intending to fly Atlantis back to their home world and take out the Daedalus on the way. Carson and Teyla are near the city's control chair and John orders Carson to use the chair to fire drones at the star drive, preventing the Asurans from taking the city off the planet. Carson is successful but he and Teyla are captured. With the life signs detectors back up, the Asurans are also able to quickly round up Elizabeth, Ronon, Rodney, and John.

The team is thrown into a cell together and they confer briefly, relieved to learn that everyone managed to complete their task with the emitters at least. The Asurans then bring O'Neill and Woolsey into the cell and their leader smirks at John. He tells them that their plan has failed, they learned all about the C4 from Woolsey and have removed it. The control room radios down and informs the leader that the Daedalus is just about to drop out of hyperspace and he gives the order for the shield to be raised. Cue the neat little rewind effect and we find ourselves back to Rodney explaining his plan to the team.

Rodney explains that their best hope of using the ARGs to defeat the Asurans is to hit as many of them as possible at once, preferably all of them. He thinks they can interface the crystals from the ARGs into the shield emitters and when the shield is raised, it will then send a massive ARG blast over the entire city. The C4 was simply misdirection in case they were caught (and that they could purposely feed to Woolsey and O'Neill in case of interrogation). When the Asuran hits the button to activate the shield, Rodney's plan works, and all of the replicators disintegrate, leaving the city under the team's control once more.

Woolsey is really confused when they explain this to him, and a little hurt that they used him. O'Neill seems mostly relieved and also vindicated. He says he knew that Rodney was only pretending to hack into their cell and something had to have been up.

John runs for the control room and hails the Daedalus to call off Caldwell's attack. He gives his authentication code but Caldwell tells him it isn't good anymore. He has no way of knowing he's not talking to a replicator. Even O'Neill piping up isn't enough. Elizabeth then tells him they are lowering the shield and he can send as many men down as he wants to investigate and verify their story. He agrees and sends down a group of marines.

Everyone gets checked out and cleared and everything starts to settle back down to normal. Elizabeth is standing in her office, relishing being home again. O'Neill wanders over and she asks if she and her team will be allowed to stay in (and the rest of the expedition return to) Atlantis. He says they will still need the I.O.A.'s approval, but since they saved Woolsey, he is sure that they will get it. Everything's back to normal and the Asurans repaired all of the damage to the city caused by their initial attack, the arrival of John's team, and a lot of the other damage the city had accumulated since being brought back to the surface. Huzzah!

Commentary

Man, I just keep thinking, they all sure are lucky that there was a replicator talking to them, standing in the open doorway of their cell, when the shield was activated. Otherwise they all would have been stuck in their cells when Caldwell arrived and started to attack the city. Rodney never explained if that was part of his plan, I note.

I would not want to be the person responsible for sweeping up all of the replicator bits in the city...

Also, it is highly convenient that the people who did manage to take over the city were replicators and thus able to quickly repair so much of the damage it has sustained over the last ten thousand years or so. It was very thoughtful of John to allow them enough time to fix the gate tower after he blew it up before returning to execute the rescue plan, too.

Still, minor nitpicks aside, this is just a fun episode. There's action, adventure, snarkiness, misdirection. All the best hallmarks of a good heist film, really. I do love me some heist films. This is the kind of episode where I feel Stargate Atlantis was in its element, honestly. Where they just let the crazy fly at you and keep you so entertained you don't really pay attention to how little sense the events are actually making.

This episode benefits from focusing on the core cast--the characters of John, Rodney, Elizabeth, Carson, Ronon, and Teyla. Even the non-soldiers are willing to fight to save their city, and everyone works together in some slightly unlikely pairings, pulling off the almost impossible. The presence of Richard Dean Anderson and Robert Picardo as O'Neill and Woolsey also helped keep the entertainment value high. Every scene with these two characters together had me in fits of giggles. I love Woolsey in Atlantis, too. He is just so completely out of his element, but it is clear that he wants to contribute as much as he can, while continually insisting that he's just "not very good at this." He wants to fit in with these crazy people in their self-made family. He just doesn't quite get it. It's beautiful to watch.

So. Status quo restored. City is in even better shape than when we found it. With new areas of the city available, we also should have new systems and labs and experiments to explore in the coming episodes. Also, the team has managed to piss the Asurans off even more. They might be patient, but they do not forget. Should be interesting to see how they react to this particular defeat, eh?

Favorite Quotes


"That sounded like an explosion." (Woolsey)
"Because it was." (O'Neill)

"That sounded like another explosion." (Woolsey)
"Yes. Yes it did." (O'Neill)
"What does that mean?" (Woolsey)
"Something exploded." (O'Neill)
"But is it Sheppard attacking the replicators or the replicators attacking Sheppard?" (Woolsey)
"We'll find out." (O'Neill)
"How did they even get here? Through the gate?" (Woolsey)
"I've been sitting next to you through the whole thing. Why do you think I have more information?" (O'Neill)

"If we keep this up there won't be much of a city left to save." (Elizabeth)
"I'll try to run the drones into your least favorite buildings." (John)

"So am I to assume you are not surrounded by heavily armed SG teams and young strapping marines?" (O'Neill)
"You've got Colonel Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla, McKay, myself, and Doctor Beckett." (Elizabeth)
"Ooh, Doctor Beckett, is it? Well, I'm comforted." (O'Neill)

"Whatcha doing?" (O'Neill)
"Probing your mind." (Talus)
"Kind of roomy, ain't it?" (O'Neill)
"Your ability to resist is quite remarkable General O'Neill." (Talus)
"It's not the first time I've had a hand in my head, as it were." (O'Neill)

"Did you really think you'd be able to stop us?" (Talus)
"Well of course we did. Why else would we be here?" (John)

"He put his hand in my forehead! How can you resist that?" (Woolsey)
"Well, I like to close my eyes and think of England." (O'Neill)

"Apparently I don't have any little tiny robots floating in my bloodstream, which is always nice to hear." (O'Neill)

~*~

There we have it! The back half of season three well and truly started. See you back here on Wednesday for an interesting one called "Echoes."

Stargate Tuesday: Seizure (2.15)

Despite how different in tone Stargate Universe may be from sister shows Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, I do firmly believe that it has never lost the true spirit of the franchise.  One of the ways it has managed this is by acknowledging, often even paying homage to, the shows that came before it. This sustains the impression that all three shows truly do encompass events that are happening within the same universe. Last night's "Seizure" was a fine example of this.

Spoilers ahead, my friends, spoilers ahead.

La la la la...

La la la la...

Spoiler Space!

La la la la...

La la la la...

Spoiler Space!

Okay, that's quite enough of that. For anyone wondering (I know no one is), you can sing the spoiler song to the tune of the "Elmo's World" song from Sesame Street.  I have a toddler folks. These things get stuck in my head. Where was I? Right, Stargate!

So, throughout SGU's run we've seen a few people from SG-1 pop in occasionally, most notably General O'Neill and Daniel Jackson. This week we got my favorite Stargate character of all time visiting from Atlantis, as well as an alum of both series. I am speaking, of course, of Rodney McKay and Richard Woolsey. David Hewlett and Robert Picardo put in fine performances visiting Homeworld Command as well as Destiny and her crew.

What Happened
Homeworld Command has finally decided it is time to try to hit up the government on the planet of Langara to see if we can use their gate to try dialing the nine-chevron address to Destiny. Langara (another tip of the hat to SG-1, home of former SG-1 team member Jonas Quinn) is a planet laced with naquadria (an enhanced version of the element from which the stargates are made) like the planet on which the original Icarus base was located. It was tapping into this naquadria core that provided  enough power to dial the nine-chevron gate address.

Fans have been asking for a while now why we haven't heard mention of Langara if what we need to reach Destiny is a planet laced with naquadria. The answer is pretty straightforward though. If you may remember, the last two times humans have dialed in to Destiny, the planet on the other end of the call was destroyed. Granted there were extenuating circumstances in both cases, but the destruction was largely caused by the dialing process. Langara is an extremely inhabited planet, with a population quite aware of their stargate and in control how and when said gate is used. Neither Homeworld Command nor the Langaran government have wanted to risk the dialing attempt because the risk of losing the planet was just too great.

Enter McKay. He has figured out a way to safely tap into the naquadria-core and dial Destiny, no blowing up of planets involved. Very keen to avoid blowing up any more planets is our McKay. Langara is still hesitant to allow the attempt, so Homeworld Command has also brought in Woolsey to negotiate a bargain to get them to let us try. Time is of the essence, however, because Homeworld Command (largely Telford) fears that the Lucian Alliance has already secured the cooperation of Langara and that is the real reason that they won't let us use their gate. Telford is quite keen to go to any lengths to prevent the Lucian Alliance from seizing control of Langara's gate and dialing in to Destiny again.

In a neat little bit of subterfuge, Woolsey (rather against his better judgment) tricks a Langaran administrator and soldier into using two of the communication stones connected to Destiny, switching them out for Young and Scott respectively. Posing as the Langarans they have switched bodies with, Young and Scott declare that the Langaran government has decided to work with Earth and allow the attempt to dial the nine-chevron address. McKay and two SG teams gate in to Langara and they get everything set up, racing against the clock to get the dialing process completed before their ruse is discovered. I think the point was to show the Langarans that they could safely dial the nine-chevron address and therefore gain their cooperation. As you might imagine, this does not go off without a hitch.

One of the Langaran soldiers becomes suspicious early on and alerts the administrator's superiors, meaning that McKay is interrupted before he can finish the process. Also, Woolsey, in an effort to find proof that the Langarans have made an agreement with the Lucian Alliance, actually finds out that while they have been approached, they have been holding out, refusing to make a deal for fear it would jeopardize their relationship with Earth. Ooh boy. Basically, this mission ends with the Earth team with egg all over its collective faces. McKay got enough data to confirm that the dial could be done safely, but the Langarans have had enough of being in the middle of this argument and decide to unhook their gate from the naquadria core and move it to a new location altogether.

So, in the win column, we now know there is a safe way to dial Destiny using a naquadria-cored planet as a power source. Unfortunately, we no longer have one of those handy. Hmm.

Alas, there was no McKay/Rush smackdown in this episode either. While McKay did visit Destiny briefly (Young would not approve of the attempt to dial in unless Eli okayed the math), Rush was unavailable. It seems he was tired of not being able to get touchy-feely with his new virtual girlfriend, so she made a really advanced simulation for him to access through the neural interface chair. When it came time for Rush to leave the simulation he found that he couldn't, so he was stuck in the chair for most of the episode while Eli, Park,  and Brody (Volker was still in the infirmary recovering) attempted to figure out a way to safely unhook him. Unfortunately, the only solution was for Eli to quarantine the programs that were Amanda and Ginn from the rest of the ship's programs. This means no more virtual girlfriends for either of them. Needless to say, but gonna say it anyway, Eli was pissed. Whatever respect he had left for Rush at this point is now pretty much gone. I will hazard a guess he will not be playing along nicely anymore for the rest of the season.

There was also a little bit with Greer trying to be a bit too badass and thinking he didn't need any recovery time from his surgery. This led to him developing an infection and being forced to stay in the infirmary even longer, still maintaining his awesomeness the whole way.

Thoughts
The Eli/McKay interaction, brief as it was, was delightful. I love that Young came upon them squabbling and when asked if the proposed dialing solution wouldn't work, they both looked at him like he was nuts, explaining that they had finished checking that out ages ago and had moved on to other problems. Sigh. In my dream world, as soon as the Destiny crew makes it back to Earth, McKay snags Eli for Atlantis.

Speaking of Atlantis. I had kind of hoped that with the appearance of two of her chief officers, we might have gotten even a little bit of a hint as to how the whole cliffhanger to the end of that series had played out. But nope, nothing, zip, nada. No explanation was given as to why Woolsey and McKay were on Earth and working on this particular problem. Sigh.

Also, what with all of the involvement of Langara, it would have been nice to see Jonas again. I always loved his character, and he and McKay actually do have an established history of interaction, even of getting along and working well together. That might have been nice. Though with the way Telford was screwing over the Langarans, I am kind of glad Jonas wasn't around to see that, come to think of it. Still, a nice throwaway line about what he was up to would have been nice. Not everyone was glad to see him go.

All in all, this episode felt deceptively like filler, which is a little disappointing given that it was the episode I have most been looking forward to all season. Don't get me wrong, it was a solidly entertaining hour of television, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But it could so easily seem to the casual observer as if nothing actually happened in this episode. I guess it serves as a good stand alone, though a few things stand out that hold some possible greater implications down the line. The largest is, of course, the fact that we do now have a way to safely dial in to Destiny once we find a suitable planet. I suspect that will come into play before the series wraps up. The other, and the one likely to slip through the cracks, but that would have made an excellent source of a story later on down the line, is the resolution of the Amanda/Ginn memory upload and quarantine business. They are still there. But for now they cannot be accessed. I doubt we'll get to see what comes of that, but I'll wager it could have been some pretty interesting stuff. I somehow doubt Eli is gonna just let the matter drop.

Oh well, next week it looks like we're back out exploring the universe, using the gates an everything. See you then!