SGA Rewatch: Series Wrap-Up

Well, it took a little over a year, but we've finally made it all the way through the complete series of Stargate Atlantis. I want to extend a big "thank you" to everyone who has joined me on this journey. It was a lot of fun and a great chance to revisit the show with a slightly more critical eye than I usually lend it.

Stargate Atlantis is, in all seriousness, my favorite television show pretty much of all time. The show was, in many ways, a life-changing event for me. It introduced me to the concepts of fandom, fan fiction, and fan art. It was the first time I ever really considered myself as part of an online community. I have had a lot of fun sharing some of the reasons for that with you guys. I thought I'd wrap things up by listing some of the best of the best, as it were.

First off, here are my favorite episodes from each season:

Season One: The Brotherhood
Season Two: Duet
Season Three: McKay and Mrs. Miller
Season Four: Tabula Rasa
Season Five: Brain Storm

Don't ask me to pick a favorite episode for the whole series though, I don't think I could. (*cough*McKay and Mrs. Miller*cough*)

My obvious favorite characters going into the rewatch were McKay and Lorne. After all is said and done, I think that Ronon and Todd have emerged with distinction as well, however.

What about you guys? Did any of you have any favorites coming in? Did any of those change, or did watching the episodes again just reinforce why you loved what you did in the first place?

Now, it seems unlikely that the already written follow-up movie to the series, Stargate: Extinction, will ever actually see the light of day, but if you want more Stargate Atlantis don't despair! There are still other places to get your fix.

Tie-In Novels: I've mentioned this several times throughout my rewatch but here you go one last time. Fandemonium has released (and continues to do so) several wonderfully written novels set within the events of the series and beyond. Each novel is like its own self-contained episode.

Audio Stories: Big Finish Audio has released several short audio stories (each about 50 minutes long) in the Stargate Atlantis universe. They are told from the point of view of different characters and read by the actor who portrayed that character. It's actually a nice way to explore some of the other characters on the base, aside from the main team.

Fan Fiction: If it is your thing, my favorite archive of Stargate Atlantis fan fiction is over at Wraithbait. It's not quite as active a community as it used to be, but it is a huge repository of stories set within this world. Wraithbait also has some fairly stringent policies on what they will accept/post quality-wise, so as far as fan fiction goes, the writing is better than you find in a lot of places.

So...I think that's about it. Thank you again, so so very much, for coming along with me on this ride. I hope that you will join me on the next. Come back Wednesday when I announce the new rewatch!

SGA Rewatch: Enemy at the Gate

Well. Here we are. Five seasons have flown by and now we've at last gotten to the Stargate Atlantis series finale, "Enemy at the Gate." Join me as I try to contain all my feels on this last outing with the Atlantis crew. Like with "Vegas," I will be talking about the extended version of the episode (available on the DVD set).

It's the last episode of the series, y'all. We are so far beyond spoilers now.

What Happened


Atlantis at night. The gate activates and Amelia announces that they've got a transmission coming in. They pull up the video screen to see Todd. He tells them his treatment from an iratus queen was successful. Unfortunately, he's had a recent setback. One of his underlings has overthrown him and left him stranded after crashing his dart. Woolsey asks why they should care and Todd says the manner in which his minion was able to (temporarily) defeat him will be of interest to them. He is in possession of a ZPM.

The team and Woolsey meet to confer about this information. Ronon doesn't buy it, but Woolsey thinks it is a bad plan if it is some kind of trick, since Todd has offered himself into their custody until they can retake his ship. John says he's sure that Todd is leaving something out and Woolsey agrees, but he doesn't think it is about the ZPM. Rodney says if the underling really does have a ZPM they are in trouble. Ineffecient energy production is the one weakness of the wraith. If they have a ZPM to power one of their hives, it will be nigh unstoppable. Woolsey says it's a threat they can't tolerate, and one that they won't.

Todd is brought to Atlantis and put into isolation. Jennifer examines him and says that there is no sign of the treatment or the disease it caused. He is perfectly healthy, back to where he was before taking it. Complete with feeding hand. Woolsey goes to talk to Todd, who implies that if they don't help him Atlantis might be destroyed. Woolsey asks where the ZPM came from. Todd admits that he might have recovered a few more from the replicator homeworld before it was destroyed than he had originally let on. Woolsey asks why the delay before installing it on the hive ship, then? Todd explains that the organic nature of the hive ships made adapting them for use with the ZPMs a challenge and they only just figured out how to make it work.

Woolsey asks if the underling knows the location of Atlantis. Todd says it is a pointless detail but then answers that yes, of course he does. Even if they don't believe him, he knows Woolsey can't take the chance that he isn't telling the truth. Todd then adds that the hive is a work in progress. It still hasn't reached its full potential, so they still have a chance to destroy it. But they have to attack now.

The I.O.A. approves the request to investigate the matter, though all of the team but John are worried that Todd has some hidden agenda. Still, it doesn't matter. Todd is right, they can't take the chance. They take the Daedalus to the location of the hive. They bring Todd along and John has him kept in custody, with his subspace transmitter removed, along with having him searched and put in a jumpsuit. On the way, John visits him and Todd asks if all of the precautions are really necessary and John replies they really are after Todd's last trip on the Daedalus. He tells Todd that every time they agree to work with him John walks around feeling like there is a live grenade in his pocket, just waiting for it to go off in the form of that one thing that Todd "forgot" to mention. Todd asks why John let him go free the last time if he really feels that way. John says they made a deal and Todd held up his end. He also admits he really didn't expect Todd to live. This time though, he tells Todd, if there's any hint of betrayal, he isn't gonna wait, he is just going to kill him.

They get close to the hive's coordinates and John and team have Caldwell drop them off in a jumper. They cloak the ship and approach the hive to check it out, promising to stay in radio contact. If it is what Todd says it is, then the Dadedalus can come in with guns blazing. As they approach, Rodney picks up some very unusual readings, though he isn't sure yet if it's from a ZPM. They move in closer and Rodney realizes that the readings are showing that the wraith do have a ZPM and they are using it to grow the hive ship past its normal limitations. Rodney says that once they are done the hull will be impenetrable. They realize they need to destroy the ship now before it gets to that point. They move in just a little bit closer and the hive ship powers up its weapons. Rodney says there is no way that the ship can see them, it must just be running a test or something, but the hive fires and aims directly for the jumper. John realizes the wraith can see them. With the addition of the ZPM they must have increased the sensitivity of their scanners.

Sheppard radios the Daedalus that their cloak is ineffective and Caldwell starts to move in. The hive continues to fire at the jumper and John drops the cloak so that they can fire back. They keep on dodging and get a glancing blow that disables most of the jumper's main systems. Caldwell arrives before the hive can take the jumper out completely and they manage to score a direct hit on the hive. Unfortunately the damage they deliver is minimal. The hive fires back from all batteries and the Daedalus takes on massive damage. They prepare for the next volley and try to brace for the impact but the hive instead jumps away to hyperspace.

The team gets the jumper back on board to find out that the larger ship's hyperdrive is down. Caldwell gets a team together working on a patch so they can return to Atlantis. They try to theorize why the wraith left when they only needed one more round to finish off the Daedalus. Rodney thinks maybe since the ship is still growing that one encounter maxed out its current energy resources. That doesn't bode well for their next encounter with it. Caldwell says with the amount of damage it could be days or weeks before the Daedalus is fully operational again. They are interrupted by this train of thought when Major Marks pops in and says they've found something.

They get to a control room to find Kavanagh, who has recently been reassigned to the ship. He tells them that just before the hive jumped away they picked up a weak subspace transmission. He pulls it up and Rodney recognizes it as wraith code. Kavanagh says that it is hard to decrypt because it is interlaced with a faint residual radiation that he's never seen before. Rodney recognizes it though as the marker of something from another reality. He tells them some wraith in some other reality sent a signal that punched a rift through space time into multiple realities. He pushes Kavanagh out of the way and quickly deciphers it. It is a set of coordinates. To Earth.

Caldwell wants to contact Atlantis as soon as communications are back up. Atlantis can notify Stargate Command of the approaching super-hive. Rodney has another idea, though. He asks how many ships they have at their disposal and Caldwell replies the Apollo and the Sun Tzu. The Odyssey is unavailable due to some super secret mission. Rodney says two will have to do and John asks what he has in mind. Rodney says the hive will have to drop out of hyperspace at some point before Earth to fully regenerate. He can extrapolate from its jump data where that will be and they can have ships ready to meet it. They can't afford to wait until the hive reaches Earth, otherwise it will be at full power by then.

The Daedalus makes it back to Atlantis and beams the team down to the control room. Woolsey tells them that the good news is they haven't detected any more hive ships headed toward Earth. Rodney says he suspected as much. The signal was too short and too weak. The hive likely only picked up on it because of their improved sensors. John asks for the bad news. Woolsey pulls up a subspace message from Colonel Ellis after the Apollo engaged the hive. The ambush did not go well. They did very little damage to the hive, and the Sun Tzu has been crippled, while the Apollo will not be able to make it to even the nearest stargate for at least a month. Meanwhile, the hive carried on its merry way after the battle, with no more ships to stand between it and Earth.

Rodney finds John in the city and they have both come to the conclusion that Atlantis itself is a ship that is capable of reaching Earth. The only thing stopping them from taking it is ZPMs, they would need to be fully powered with three of them. John agrees and indicates that he is working on getting them some. He goes to where Todd is being held and tells him that the plan didn't go as expected. Todd asks if John is going to hold him responsible, or if he has come to make good on his earlier threat. John tells Todd to tell them where to find the rest of his ZPMs and it will improve his situation. He convinces Todd it is in his best interest to help them and Todd agrees.

They send Major Lorne to go retrieve two more ZPMs and send them to Rodney to verify they are safe to install in the city. John heads for the chair room and Woolsey stops him. He tells John he won't be flying the city back to Earth. He will be gating to Earth ahead of them. Even with the ZPMs there is a chance the wraith will beat them to Earth and that means that the control chair there is their only defense. General O'Neill has requested that John be the one to man it. He and Woolsey shake hands farewell and wish each other luck. John arrives on Earth and is greeted by Sam.

Rodney and Radek get the ZPMs installed and the chair properly calibrated. Rodney says they are ready to go and asks who will be flying the city. Carson pipes up from the doorway that he'll be their pilot for this adventure. Rodney is surprised, but Carson says that apparently after John he has the best ability with the chair. Carson settles in and Woolsey orders the shield raised. He tells Carson to take them up and the city takes off.

On Earth John learns that Sam is in temporary command while Landry is setting something up in Washington. After that she'll be moving on to take command of their next Daedalus-class ship. It was going to be called the Phoenix but with the recent passing of General Hammond it has been rechristened to, well, the General Hammond. They share a moment of respect for him (in a very nice tribute to Don S. Davis, the actor who portrayed Hammond and who died not long before the episode was filmed). They enter the elevator and John asks if they are going to hop a transport to the McMurdo base. Sam tells him not exactly.

They get to the command center and Sam introduces John to Major Davis with Homeworld Security. They show John on the monitor that the hive has already arrived, even though they hadn't expected it for several weeks. Apparently the ZPM gave it more of a leg up than they had anticipated. For the moment it is just hanging out in orbit though, and they suspect that it is waiting until the ZPM is fully integrated into its systems before attacking. John says they can't let it get to that point and asks if they have any fighters. Davis says they have a squadron of F-302s on standby but they aren't equipped for attacking such a heavily fortified target. John asks how long to fit them with nukes. Davis answers that could take some doing but he gets to work on it. John asks if the fighter pilots have any experience fighting the wraith and Sam reminds him that is not why she brought him back to Earth, realizing he wants to lead the squad. He says he can sit in the chair and wait for an attack or he can take the fight to them and asks which she'd prefer.

In Atlantis Woolsey calls Teyla and Ronon to his office. He tells them they are almost to the edge of the galaxy and offers them one more chance to reconsider their involvement in the mission. There is time to drop them off if they wish it. He acknowledges that their priorities are not his or the rest of the expedition's and it isn't fair to ask them to join in a battle that isn't theirs. They thank him for the offer but tell him they are staying. They will fight with Atlantis.

John gets the F-302s ready to go but Sam and Davis arrive to tell him there's been a change of plans. They have detected a wave of darts headed for the planet. John asks if they know where the darts are headed and Davis says he thinks so. The transmission the wraith from the alternate reality sent included a warning about the planet's defenses, specifically the drone chair. In that reality, the chair was no longer in Antarctica, but had been moved to Area 51. He thinks the darts are heading there to take it out. John thinks this is an advantage, but Sam reveals that the chair was actually moved to Area 51 in this reality a month ago.

John leads the F-302s to try to intercept the darts before they get to Area 51 but the darts seriously outnumber them. John and his team put up as much of a fight as they can but they are overwhelmed and the darts pull off a kamikaze attack on the base. John's fighter is hit and he is able to prevent himself from crashing, but only just. Unfortunately, Area 51, and the control chair, are completely destroyed. John makes a split decision and changes his direction, heading to the upper atmosphere. He says he still has a nuke left so he's going to complete his mission. The hive has started moving toward Earth and John thinks if he powers down everything but life support once he's broken orbit he can get close enough that the hive won't detect him until it's too late. Sam reminds him that there is no way one nuke will take out the suped up hive and John agrees not from the outside. His plan is to go into the dart bay, get as far inside as he can, and detonate the nuke from within. Sam says she can't ask him to run a suicide mission and he says she doesn't have to, he's volunteering.

Atlantis gets to the edge of the Milky Way and then drops out of hyperspace. Woolsey demands to know why and Rodney says they aren't sure. While Rodney tries to figure out what happened, Woolsey tells Radek to recalibrate the gate so they can dial in to Earth and check in and apprise them of the situation.

Sam joins Davis in the command center and asks for a progress report. The hive is still moving toward the planet and has almost reached Earth orbit. It has begun scanning the planet. She asks if there has been word from John and Davis says not yet. His best estimates put John at twenty minutes out from intersecting with the hive's orbit. Walter arrives and tells Sam there's a problem. They've been trying to dial up the Alpha site to send some I.O.A. dignitaries off world until after the attack but they can't get a lock on the gate. He's tried other planets and has had similar results. The gate is offline.

Atlantis dials up the SGC and Woolsey tries to open up communications but he gets no answer. Amelia confirms that the comm system is working, they are just not getting a response. Rodney says he's getting an energy signature back through the wormhole and it's wraith. Woolsey is afraid that the wraith are already at the SGC but Rodney says the readings are consistent with what they would pick up in the middle of a hive. They realize that the wraith are following their standard operating procedure for a culling: dial up the gate once in orbit to keep their victims from dialing out. That means there is a gate on the hive ship. The Pegasus galaxy gate takes precedence in any wormholes whenever a Pegasus gate and a Milky Way gate are in that close proximity to each other. Which means they have an open gate that leads directly onto the attacking hive.

On the hive wraith stand guard around the open gate and several flash bangs come through. In Atlantis Lorne, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon head through. Woolsey watches them go and receives confirmation from Lorne that they've cleared the gate and are heading further into the hive. He worries that he should have sent more marines but Radek assures him that a full-scale attack would have done little good. Woolsey admits that's probably true but he hates waiting in the middle of nowhere, unable to move to help if needed.

Radek says he has something he needs to talk to Woolsey about in that regard. He thinks he can do something about them being stranded. It's something Rodney has been working on for a while, an adaptation of Ancient technology. It was abandoned because of instability and power requirements, but Radek tells him about wormhole drive. It's like gate travel but without the gate. If it works it could have them at Earth in a matter of seconds. Of course, the calculations to implement it are crazy complicated and if they are even a little bit wrong they will be beyond screwed.

On the hive the team stops to assess. Teyla asks Rodney what he is thinking their best course should be. He says there are any number of systems they could sabotage but to take the hive out for good, their best bet is the ZPM. If they can create a fatal overload of the ZPM it will take the whole ship out in one shot. Of course the downside is that they likely won't have time to make it back to the gate once they start the overload process. Lorne chastises Rodney for not bringing this up earlier and Rodney says he's thinking on his feet, he didn't know it would be an issue earlier. Ronon says it doesn't matter. If they have a chance to destroy the ship, they're gonna take it no matter what. Teyla tells Rodney to lead the way.

John floats in space in his F-302 and deems the time appropriate to restart the ship and head for the hive.

On the hive the team runs into a group of wraith and gets into a fire-fight. Ronon and Rodney try to go around while Teyla and Lorne provide cover fire. They run into wraith that way too and Ronon fights them off, getting shot in the process. The bullet hits his lung and he starts to bleed out. He tells them to just go and Teyla says they are not leaving without him but it is too late, he dies. The wraith are still coming though so they are forced to leave his body behind.

John makes it into the hive and radios Sam in command. He tells her he made it inside but he doesn't have much time before the wraith shows up so he's arming the nuke. Lorne, Teyla, and Rodney, still pinned down under fire, pick up the transmission as well. Sam tries to talk John out of it but he tells her to tell Atlantis bye for him when they show up. Rodney breaks into the conversation and tells John they're on board the hive and to hold off on blowing them all up. John asks how they got on the ship and he says it's a long story but they are headed his way and will explain then. He says he can rig up a remote detonator for the nuke. John says that's all well and good but there's still no way off the ship and Rodney says that's where he's wrong.

Woolsey goes to the infirmary to let Jennifer know they are about to fire up the wormhole drive. If it works, he tells her, they could find themselves in the middle of a combat situation. She needs to make sure her staff is ready. She asks what if it doesn't work and he says the city will be instantly vaporized, so, yeah.

John meets up with the rest of the team, surprised but glad to see them. While Rodney gets to work on rigging up the nuke, John asks where Ronon is. Teyla can barely bring herself to tell John he's dead.

Of course, that is when we are treated to the sight of Ronon reviving elsewhere on the ship. The wraith recovered his body and patched him up then used their reverse-feeding to bring him back to life. The wraith says he has questions he wants answered.

Davis announces that the hive has completed its scan of the surface. Sam lists how the wraith will proceed to begin their attack.

The wraith asks Ronon how many humans are aboard his ship and is angered when Ronon refuses to answer. He moves to attack Ronon but is mowed down from behind by a stream of bullets. As he falls we see John and the others enter the room, glad to find Ronon alive. They radio Sam that they have Ronon and are moving to the gate. The wraith have powered up their weapons and she asks him how much time they need. He says five minutes to get there, five minutes to recalibrate the DHD. Davis doesn't think they will last ten minutes. John tells Rodney to give him the detonator. Rodney reluctantly does so and just as John is about to press the button Sam tells him to wait. She says they have detected another ship.

Atlantis arrives and Woolsey orders Carson to open fire. Sam tells John and crew what's happening and they resume their trip to the gate. Rodney gets to work on the DHD and the others hold off the wraith. Atlantis starts to take damage but Woolsey tells Carson to keep firing until the shield starts to collapse. Rodney gets the DHD calibrated and dials up the Alpha site. He and the team head through the gate, with John setting the detonator just before stepping through. The nuke goes off and the hive is destroyed.

Sam thanks Woosley for his help and he says they aren't out of the water yet. Atlantis has lost orbit and Carson is unable to stabilize the city, they are falling to Earth. Sam asks if they have enough shield left to survive reentry and Woolsey tells her they are about to find out. There is a tense silence in the command center as they wait for word from Atlantis. Woolsey gets in touch as soon as they are done with reentry and says that Carson is going to try to land them in the water so they should probably notify the necessary authorities.

Some time later John visits Ronon in the infirmary and asks how he's doing. He says he's fine, ready to get out of there. John tells him to take his time. The city is pretty banged up, they won't be going anywhere for a while. Ronon asks if John thinks they'll let really them take Atlantis back to Pegasus once it's fixed up. John promises they will make sure Ronon gets home and Ronon says Atlantis is his home. Amelia pops in and asks if she's interrupting. At a look from Ronon, John excuses himself. Ronon sits up a little straighter and she asks if he's up for taking a walk. She tells him there's something he needs to see.

John heads down to where Todd is being kept. Todd says all is well, the planet is saved, and it's all thanks to his ZPMs. John replies the question is what will happen next time. To which Todd asks, "is there going to be a next time?"

Amelia leads Ronon out to a balcony where they join Woolsey, Carson, Jennifer, Rodney, and Teyla at the rail. Woolsey welcomes Ronon to Earth and we see they are all looking at the Golden Gate bridge. Jennifer hastily remarks that no one can see them, right, and Woolsey confirms that they activated the cloak before landing. The entire area is under naval quarantine though. They all kind of settle in, enjoying the view, and John comes out to join them. The camera pans out as they all enjoy the view.

Commentary


Man, I just get so sad whenever I watch this episode. The ending is so bittersweet. I mean, it is a perfect ending for the season, and it works as a series ender. But they did such a fantastic job setting the stage for a really interesting future that I regret we never got to see what came next. Clearly a big challenge for season six would have been to get Atlantis back to the Pegasus galaxy. Then there would likely have been fallout from its sudden and extended absence to deal with once that was accomplished, especially with the coalition slowly rising to power throughout the galaxy. Plus, there is the lingering question of what to do with Todd. Would he finally become a true ally and join forces with the city for good? Or would he double-cross them and sneak off the first chance he got?

I think what makes this most frustrating of all is that right after the season ended there was a script written for a direct-to-DVD movie that would have wrapped up these final loose ends and served as a more proper close to the series (in the same vein as The Ark of Truth did for SG-1.) Of course, before it could be filmed, the bottom dropped out of the DVD market and MGM declared bankruptcy, so, we never got that final story. Grr. Argh.

Although for anyone craving closure, I do highly recommend the Legacy series of tie-in novels from Fandemonium. They are a non-canon continuation from where the series proper leaves off, but they are very well done. I have read the first two, which are in print (as well as being available as ebooks), and I see the next two are available in ebook versions, so I've snagged those as well and will be reading them soon. The second book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger itself, if I remember correctly.

But back to the episode. As I said, it is a fantastic ending to the season, and there are a lot of absolutely spectacular moments packed into "Enemy at the Gate." I love that, like, everybody gets something to do in this episode. Hell, they even brought back Kavanagh. Plus, Lorne got to go with the team to storm the hive ship. That was spectacular.

We got another instance for Atlantis to be the Amazing Flying City!! Always a win, and seeing Carson's confidence in piloting it, given his initial hesitance with the control chair way back in "Rising," well, it was like coming full-circle.

I could have probably done without another attempt at a suicide mission for John. Okay, self-sacrifice is noble and all, but jeez. We get it John, you are totally willing to sacrifice yourself to save Earth and your team and the Pegasus galaxy. That doesn't mean you have to jump at the chance, however. You've already died once this season, even if it was in another reality. That's enough, thanks.

Speaking of deaths, oh man, Ronon. Ronon. That always hits me especially hard, even after the first viewing and knowing that he is only temporarily dead. But this time around, given how much more fond I've grown of him during this watch-through, man. There may have been tears. He just. Wow. I think that overall during this rewatch it was his character's growth that surprised me the most. I never didn't like him, but I now have a much stronger appreciation for him than I did before. I love that he goes from "I can't leave this galaxy until every last wraith is dead" in season three to flat out telling John that Atlantis, wherever it is, is his home in this episode. Like he told Woolsey, the people in Atlantis have been sacrificing themselves for a fight that wasn't theirs ever since they arrived in the galaxy. He has no problem returning the favor. It's a bonus to see that he and Amelia seem to have a growing relationship, too. He deserves some happiness.

Then there's that last scene, where everyone in on the balcony looking out at the bridge. It is just one of my favorite images from the whole series. The only things missing to make it perfect for me were Lorne and Radek.

Sigh.

Favorite Quotes


"I may have acquired a few more than I let on." (Todd)
"How many more?" (Woolsey)
"Let's not get caught up in unnecessary details." (Todd)
"I like details." (Woolsey)

"Well, things didn't go exactly according to plan." (John)
"So I heard. You intend to hold me responsible?" (Todd)
All I know is that everything went sideways, the way it always does when you're involved. You gonna tell me that's a coincidence?" (John)

"Am I supposed to be enticed by this offer?" (Todd)
"No. I'll probably kill you anyway. But don't forget this: this wraith betrayed you and got away with it. For no other reason, you might wanna do it out of pure spite." (John)
"You know how to talk to me, John Sheppard." (Todd)

"We've all grown so accustomed to having you here as part of the team, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that your priorities are not necessarily always the same as ours. You're being asked to fly to another galaxy, to take what might turn out to be the losing part in a battle that isn't yours." (Woolsey)
"Do you mean like everyone on this base has been doing for the last five years?" (Ronon)
"Thank you for your consideration, Mr. Woolsey, but I assure you it is not necessary." (Teyla)
"We're not going anywhere." (Ronon)
"Very well." (Woolsey)

"I've restored your life, human, and bound your wound." (Wraith)
"That was real nice of you." (Ronon)

"Hi. Heard you died and came back to life." (Amelia)
"Pretty much. There's uh...there's a few things I still need to to." (Ronon)

"You okay?" (Jennifer)
"I'm alive...and I've got you. What else would I need?" (Rodney)

~*~

...and that's it. That's the end of Stargate Atlantis. Stop back by on Monday for a final wrap-up and my thoughts on the series overall. Then, on Wednesday, I'll announce the next rewatch.

SGA Rewatch: Vegas

Alright guys, we have made it to the very last week of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch. It has been a fun ride. Thank so much for joining me! Let's kick things off today with season five's "Vegas." Spoilers for the episode, as always. Also, please note that the version I am talking about today is the extended episode from the DVD.

What Happened


Things kick off with a crime scene out in the desert. A reporter photographs the victim and stops when an old muscle car pulls up. John steps out and she greets him as Detective Sheppard. He is very wrinkled and unshaven, with a fresh cut under one eye as if he's been in a recent tussle. He seems annoyed to see her and moves to greet the officer on the scene and get the info dump. We learn this is yet another in a string of similar killings. The body is revealed to be almost mummified with a chest wound matching the other bodies they've found so far. The officer also notes that the vehicle used to dump the body was leaking radiator fluid.

The body is moved to the Las Vegas morgue and John gives the man's ID to the coroner, who turns out to be Jennifer. The two do not act as if they know each other. In fact, she seems rather irritated by his questions, letting him know he'll get a copy of her report when the autopsy is done. He tells her about the other bodies, and she says she read those reports. She gives him a clear dismissal and he throws out one last piece of information, the chest wounds on the previous victims all had traces of radioactive residue. He clearly wants her to check for the same in the newest case. He asks her name again and he expresses frustration that he's had eight victims in three months and now the lead coroner has been taken off the case and replaced with someone he's never met. He's not happy about it. She suggests maybe someone just wanted fresh eyes on the case.

As John leaves he makes a phone call asking someone to give him information about anyone treated for radiation poison within the last three months. It seems like he's got a source inside a hospital.

Elsewhere on the strip, a man is in a rundown hotel room being sick. He picks up the phone and resumes a conversation with someone we can infer is his wife and tells her the doctors don't know what's wrong with him. He ends the call and tries to sleep but his neighbor is blasting some very heavy music. He bangs on the wall calling for the neighbor to turn it down but gets no response. He drags himself outside and next door, knocking to ask in person. The door opens and we get only a small glimpse of the occupant of the next room, though we do see the back of his hand--it is a wraith feeding hand.

John goes over files in his office, looking over photos of the other victims. His captain stops by, asking what happened to his eye, and introduces a visitor, Richard Woolsey of the FBI. John instantly goes on the defensive, worried that he is about to lose his case. Woolsey says the jurisdiction hasn't moved yet, and he's not at liberty to disclose the FBI's interest, but he would appreciate John's cooperation. John says he's got nothing. No leads. Woolsey is disappointed. He notes that the killer has stopped hiding the bodies of his victims and wonders if the killer is either getting sloppy or more bold. While they are talking the coroner's report on the latest victim comes in and John asks why it shows no radioactive isotopes. It's strange to him that the eighth body wouldn't have them when the first seven did. He excuses himself, saying he has to go see a nurse.

At the hospital he gets a report from the nurse he had called about someone who was treated the day before with symptoms that could have been radiation poisoning. It didn't stand out at the time but when John started asking, the nurse put the pieces together. She gives John the address to the guy's motel and John heads out to try to talk to him. The hotel clerk says the man checked out the day before.

In a hotel room we see a wraith undergo a heavy cosmetic routine to make himself look human (and seriously goth). He makes to head out to the night and we see a desiccated body on the floor as he walks out, the man from the night before, presumably. In the parking lot, John sits in his car watching the hotel room next to the wraith's, where his radiation victim was staying. He watches the wraith leave with interest and sees him walk by an old school aluminum trailer.

Back to the strip at night and the wraith wades through the crowds and into a hotel. He strolls through the casino past the blackjack and roulette players and heads upstairs to a private poker game. The table is full of assorted Vegas types, and the wraith sits next to a few goodfellas as he plays, a large pile of chips stacked in front of him. He tries to ignore his opponents and one of the goodfellas takes offense, says it's like the guy can read minds or something.

John comes in and joins the game, meeting the wraith's eyes as he sits down. The wraith clearly senses something is up with John but they just play, eventually it comes down to the two of them. John folds and the wraith gathers up his winnings to leave. The goodfella says he can't leave now and tries to stop him. The wraith throws him out of the window and jumps over the table. He runs and John gives pursuit. Someone takes a few shots at the wraith but it doesn't even slow him down. John chases him through the hotel and out the kitchens to a roof. The wraith jumps over the side and when John runs to check on him he watches in disgruntled amazement as his suspect gets up from the several story fall and just walks away.

John goes back to the motel and has the manager let him in to the wraith's room. They find the body of the man from next door and John also finds a bag full of cash. He leaves, taking the cash with him, and notices that where the trailer had been is a puddle of fluids. He remembers the comment from the officer about the murderer's vehicle being leaky. Before he can go a line of black SUVs pulls up to the motel and out steps Woolsey.

John tells him he's found another body and was just about to call it in. Woolsey says he heard about what happened in the casino. John asks if they are following him and Woolsey says there is a satellite locator on his car. He invites John to join them for a drive. Realizing he doesn't really have a choice, John accepts. The SUVs head to a facility in the desert and Woolsey admits that he's not really FBI.

Inside Woolsey steps out of a room and Rodney walks up to him. Woolsey tells Rodney that John won't sign and Rodney says they should tell him anyway, he might be able to help them. Woolsey doesn't seem so sure but Rodney asks that he at least get to try. Woolsey nods and Rodney goes in.

He introduces himself and says he needs to ask John a few questions about his investigation and contact with the suspect. John says he's not going to sign anything and Rodney says that John needs to understand that if he doesn't cooperate, Rodney has the power to ruin his life. John says Rodney doesn't realize how little he has to lose and Rodney quips that he knows everything about John. He runs down a list of notables: never been married, only thing he owns is his car, broke and seriously in debt before you take into account his gambling problem, took him three tries to pass his detective exam, only rarely ever solves a case, and the charges hardly ever stick because he doesn't exactly follow the book when investigating. He doesn't have a partner because no one can stand to work with him. Rodney asks if he is getting it right and John covers his surprise and quips that he also like spearmint gum. Rodney hands him a pack. Rodney then goes into John's service record and his dishonorable discharge after the failed rescue attempt he underwent against orders. It is clear that John is a washout.

Rodney tells him that he once met another version of John and he was very different. He tells John that nothing is what he thinks it is and John says that doesn't surprise him. Rodney continues, trying to explain that they aren't the bad guys, they just want to keep the planet safe. John doesn't really buy it. Rodney starts to tell John about the stargates and multiple realities, and yes, even aliens. John tries to play it off as a big joke but he realizes that Rodney is completely serious.

The wraith, meanwhile, is hiding out in his trailer. He relives a battle with a hive ship over Earth. He had been in a dart and it crashed after the hive was destroyed.

Rodney takes John on a tour of the facility, Area 51, and shows him the control chair. He explains about Ancients and stargates. John asks if there are more aliens and Rodney says, yes, lots, but thankfully they are in another galaxy and for now don't know where Earth is. Next he takes John to a hangar and shows him the wreckage of several darts. Rodney explains that the murderer is an alien, a wraith. They got most of the stragglers after the attack on Earth but one apparently got through.

Rodney explains that his team usually operates out of Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy but was called back to Earth to help with the situation due to their expertise with the wraith. John asks what they normally look like, since he has only seen his suspect disguised as a human. Rodney takes him to a cell and shows him a wraith in captivity. It's Todd. A very addled Todd who keeps reciting sort of poetry. He calls John by name and Rodney tells him that wraith can get in your head.

In the corridor Jennifer walks by and greets Rodney. John connects the dots and asks about the radiation residue. Rodney admits it was in the eighth victim as well. Jennifer was put in place to try to help cover up the fact that an alien was going around killing people, but John found the wraith before they could do that. He says with serial killers you are supposed to look for the victims that haven't been found yet, which is how he found the motel. Rodney says that the radiation sickness the man was suffering was likely due to exposure to being so close to the wraith. He comments that they didn't think to look for bystanders accidentally exposed.

Rodney explains that the wraith himself isn't radioactive, but he has something that is. It's unfortunately shielded from them though. Rodney thinks the reason the target is feeding so frequently is to counteract the effects of the radiation. He is building a device of some sort, though they don't know what it is meant to do. The wraith managed to salvage some parts from the crashed dart before they got to it. It also explains why he is playing cards--that way he can win untraceable money to buy what he needs for his device.

They get to a briefing that Radek is giving the staff about a possible worst-case scenario. Radek thinks it is a bomb but Rodney doesn't. He thinks that the device is intended to signal up a flare for the other wraith to see and to tell them the location of Earth. They quibble over this theory while John watches. Radek doesn't think that's what the wraith is doing because it would require way less power than what he is trying to assemble. Rodney says he does if he wants to reach the Pegasus galaxy and hope to be rescued in his lifetime. Radek fires back that would take an insane signal boost, more power than the wraith has now, and unless he had a ZPM, it would be an uncontrollable burst that could cause all kinds of anomalies.

Rodney storms out and John follows. They make their way to the exit and Rodney thanks John for his cooperation and gives him his card in case he thinks of anything else that can help them. John asks if the wraith isn't done yet, why h as he stopped hiding the bodies? Rodney thinks it is overconfidence that he can't be caught. John pauses and tells Rodney that the wraith left some money behind but when Rodney asks how much he tells him two thousand (much less than it actually was). Rodney says it's not enough money for the wraith (or them) to be worried about.

They start to say goodbye and John wonders why Rodney even trusted him with the info in the first place. Rodney says he knows something else about John, something that wasn't in his file. The field medic he defied orders to try to rescue, he was personally involved with her. John tries to shrug it off but Rodney says it must have been a hard choice. He knows John didn't intend for things to go as badly as they did, sometimes things just don't go according to plan. He reminds John of the other version of him that he met. Rodney tells him they opened an inter-dimensional rift a while back and met another team on another Atlantis, but this one was led by John. He was a hero there. Rodney says it is amazing how one single incident can change the whole course of a person's life. He tells John he believes that he shares the same strength of character as that other version of him that he met, and that is why he told him the truth about the wraith.

Radek and Woolsey start getting damage control ready in case the wraith actually is building a bomb, despite Rodney's assertions otherwise. Woolsey wants to know how they have been looking for this wraith for months and yet a "nobody" detective was able to get closer than they ever had. He tells them he's done listening to excuses and waiting for the wraith to screw up. He wants the wraith found before anyone else is killed.

John returns to the police department and packs up his desk. His captain asks him what's going on and John hands him the box, clearly quitting his job. John cranks up the Johnny Cash and hits the road in his car with the bag of money he liberated from the wraith's motel room. He replays his conversation with Rodney and something that Todd said to him during their brief encounter. He remembers the trailer and the leaked fluid and starts putting pieces together. He pulls a u-turn on the highway and heads back the way he came.

Rodney and Radek are discussing ways to track the wraith when they get a call from John. He tells Rodney he's found the wraith. He tracked the trailer to a power grid, which the wraith can use to get his required power boost. Woolsey has the air force send a formation of planes to John's coordinates and Rodney tells John not to engage the wraith. Inside the trailer the wraith starts to boot up his device.

After a moment's thought, John drives up to the trailer. The wraith hears his approach and seeing him out the window grabs a shotgun from the closet. John pulls a gun out of his glove box and heads toward the trailer. The wraith opens fire and John retreats to behind his car, trying to hold his own as the wraith attacks. John is hit and the wraith moves in to finish him off. Before he can, the planes arrive. Realizing what that means, he runs into the trailer and activates his device.

In their command center Radek calls out that they are getting reports of power outages from throughout the state and that the Daedalus is sending new readings. Rodney calls out that it is picking up a massive subspace event, more powerful than a stargate, and increasing the longer it stays active. It is a transmission coded in wraith. Rodney starts trying to decode it. Walter reports that the target has been acquired and Woolsey orders it taken out. The planes destroy the trailer and the device's signal is shut down.

Rodney, having decoded it, says that it contained the location of Earth. Woolsey asks if there is any chance it reached Pegasus and Rodney answers him no. But Radek says he's seen this energy signature before. Rodney says it looks like it tore a small hole in the space-time continuum. The transmission might have made it through to another reality. Rodney says that if John hadn't found the wraith when he did then the signal definitely would have reached Pegasus.

John, meanwhile, double checks the wreckage to make sure the wraith is dead. Then he limps away from the flames and lies down in the desert to die.


Commentary


So, this entire episode (often referred to as "CSI: Atlantis" within fandom, for somewhat obvious reasons), takes place in a reality alternate to our own Atlantis. In this reality, John Sheppard never joined up with the stargate program because after that failed rescue attempt he ended up getting kicked out of the military rather than just landing crap duty in Antarctica. Instead, he became a lousy loner detective with a grumpy disposition and a serious gambling problem. Because fate is a funny thing, however, he still ends up eventually getting drawn into the world of stargates and aliens, however. Of course, in this reality it doesn't really end that well for him, does it? Still, at least he ends up with a little bit of hope that Rodney's initial faith in him, despite his clear tendencies as a screw-up, might not have been that misplaced after all.

This is, for the most part, a completely stand alone episode. These are not our characters. Everyone carries themselves just a little bit differently, the dynamics are just a tad off. This is just one of the infinite number of ways these people's lives could have played out. One hive, perchance belonging to Todd, managed to find its way to Earth somehow (there have certainly been a few opportunities along the way). Earth was able to deal with it, but the fallout of that was a wraith loose on the planet, trying to find a way to get back home and to earn favor with his people by showing them the way to a new feeding ground. It is a fascinating concept to explore.

Nothing that happens in this episode has any bearing on our Atlantis though.

Not until the very end, at least.

I can freely admit that the first time I saw this episode I completely missed that one throwaway line at the end about the wraith's signal punching through to another reality with the location of Earth. The full implications of that comment were totally lost on me. But when you stop to think about it, there's no reason to feature an episode set completely in an alternate reality like this one unless it leads to some complication for our own familiar reality.

And that's exactly what "Vegas" does. It sets the stage for the next big conflict. Remember, at this point, things are actually pretty quiet in Atlantis. The wraith are busy fighting each other and so, while a problem, aren't really a big one. Michael has been dealt with. Carson is working his way through the galaxy helping to heal and care for those affected by the Hoffan virus. It's just business as usual in Atlantis at the moment. Until something goes awry in another reality, that is.

A few things about this episode that I just really enjoyed (sorry for the wacky formatting but it did that on its own and I am having trouble fixing it):

• Love, love, love the use of Johnny Cash. John's appreciation of The Man in Black has always been a background staple of his character throughout the series, and carrying it over into this other version of himself was quite beautifully done. It gives us that little extra insight into this other John Sheppard that helps us to understand our own just a bit more. 
• The washed out lighting. It is subtle, but fitting. It is a small visual cue that what we are dealing with here is something other than the familiar. 
• Similarly I like how everyone was all dressed up in suits and much more snazzy looking than usual. It made an even starker contrast with John's own super rumpled and disheveled appearance. 
• Like I said, everyone in this reality acted just a little bit differently than our versions of them, and this was most apparent to me in Rodney. He carried himself with more confidence than arrogance, it seemed, but also his demeanor was much quieter and more serious. I can't help but think that might be due to the lack of an epic bromance with John like the one their counterparts in our reality have developed. 
• I also really love that we are just dumped into this alternate reality and left to figure out for ourselves that this is what's happened. That cold open really puts us in the right frame of mind to understand how upside down John's world has been turned by all of these new revelations. 

Favorite Quotes

"Am I getting this right?" (Rodney)
"I also like spearmint gum." (John)
"Have some." (Rodney)
"I was joking." (John)
"No you weren't." (Rodney)

"You know, I once met another version of you. He was very different." (Rodney)
"What?" (John)
"Nothing is what you think it is." (Rodney)
"It doesn't really come as a surprise to me." (John)

"We met a team much like the one I work with, only you were the leader. You were a hero, saved the world several times over." (Rodney)
"Doesn't sound much like me." (John)
"I don't think there's much difference between you and that other John Sheppard I met. It's amazing how one incident can entirely alter the course of your life. Still, I like to believe you have the same strength of character. That's why I told you the truth." (Rodney)

~*~

Well, only one more episode left. See you back here on Wednesday for the series conclusion, "Enemy at the Gate."

Also, don't forget to vote in the poll for my next rewatch series! Today is the last day to vote and the winner will be announced next week!

SGA Rewatch: Identity

Well folks, it's another Wednesday and that means another installment of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch! Today we get the obligatory for science fiction body swap episode. Awesome! Join me for season five's "Identity."

Spoilers for the episode and all that came before, as always.

What Happened


A strange and confused-looking woman stands in a corridor of Atlantis. She hears people and ducks into a lab. She is peering at one of the screens when Radek comes in, surprised to find her. He asks if she is looking for Rodney and she clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. He asks if she is feeling alright and tries to get her to lie down. When he goes to take her arm she grabs a nearby pair of pliers and stabs Radek in the gut. As she looks up from doing this she catches a glimpse of her reflection, only it doesn't show her face, it shows Jennifer's. She stares at the mirror in surprise for a moment and then runs out of the room leaving Radek bleeding on the floor.

The woman makes her way back to a more populated part of the city and ducks out of a balcony, looking around the city in wonder. A puddle jumper flies by overhead and she watches it in awe. She makes sure no one is watching her and drops the pliers off the edge of the balcony. Ducking back in she sees her reflection once more in a window and stares at Jennifer's face for a few moments, clearly still confused about what is happening. She is surprised by Rodney, who finds her and asks what happened to her, they were supposed to meet half an hour ago for lunch. He herds her along toward the mess, clearly thinking she is Jennifer. Noticing her confusion he asks if she is alright, worried he might have done something wrong.

The woman's earbud chirps and she gets a call from a nurse calling Jennifer to the infirmary to see to Radek, who has been found stabbed. Rodney goes with the woman, concerned about his friend, and when they arrive one of the nurses briefs her on Radek's status, saying he needs immediate surgery. Not wanting anyone to discover that she doesn't belong there (or that she stabbed Radek in the first place), the woman goes along with things, getting scrubbed for surgery. Of course, she doesn't actually know how to do the surgery. After a moment she says she isn't feeling well and excuses herself to go lie down.

John and Rodney go to report to Woolsey. Radek is better but not out of the woods. He is in a (medically induced?) coma for the time being. Woolsey asks about Jennifer not doing the surgery and Rodney tells him what happened. He notes that she has been acting strangely all day. Woolsey is concerned but not alarmed and comments that Carson is due back to the city soon. He should be able to take over in the infirmary until Jennifer is recovered from whatever she has come down with. He then asks if they have any leads on who stabbed Radek and John says they've got nothing. Woolsey tells him to get to work looking for the culprit. He wants to know who did this.

Meanwhile, the mystery woman starts going through Jennifer's things in an attempt to make sense of what is going on. She sees a graduation photo of Jennifer with her father and starts to realize she is actually in someone else's body, or people are at least seeing her as that person. The door opens and Ronon comes in, saying he heard she wasn't feeling well. She is clearly worried by his presence. He asks what's wrong and she says she's just tired. He comments that she's been pushing herself very hard and when she replies gives her an intense look. Rodney stops by, less than happy to find Ronon there, to see how she is and let her know that Carson is on his way back. He mentions that they sent a puddle jumper for the other doctor and at the woman's clear confusion Rodney and Ronon exchange a sideways glance of surprise.

Carson gets back and scans "Jennifer," not finding anything out of the ordinary. He asks her how long she's been feeling out of sorts. He decides to keep her overnight for observation, hoping that in the morning she'll feel much more like herself. He steps aside with Rodney and Woolsey and tells them that physically she's fine, but he's worried there may be something psychological going on.

That night the woman waits until no one is watching and sneaks out of the infirmary, hastily donning Jennifer's uniform. She finds a guard and casually asks him for directions to the puddle jumper. He is distracted by his duties and so directs her easily enough. She gets to the jumper bay and runs into the first jumper she sees. She finds the weapons storage and grabs herself a gun then sits down in the pilot seat, trying to start up the ship. Rodney finds her there and asks what she's doing. She plays it off like she couldn't sleep and just wants to go for a ride. Rodney is skeptical since she doesn't have the gene and can't fly the jumpers but she quickly realizes he can. She switches gears and asks him to take her out, somewhere secluded where they can have sexy fun times. He is tempted for a moment but then steps back and says no, telling her he doesn't know what's going on but she is clearly not herself at the moment. He wants to take her back to the infirmary but she refuses and pulls the gun on him. Before she can shoot him Ronon shows up and stuns her.

They move her to the isolation room. The team, Carson, and Woolsey look over her from the observation room, trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Rodney realizes that she likely might be the one responsible for stabbing Radek. Ronon says that she is not Jennifer Keller, something has taken over her. They see that she's awake and go down to question her. They ask her who she is and she tries to play it off but they aren't buying any more.

Finally she admits that her name is is Neeva Casol and she has no idea how she got to Atlantis or into Jennifer's body. She tells them one moment she was searching through some artifacts in a village and the next she was in Atlantis in Jennifer's body. Rodney asks her what kind of artifacts and she says that she and her associates steal valuables from planet to planet. They heard about a stash of Ancestral artifacts and went to check it out. She flashes back to the robbery and we see her find an Ancient communication terminal and put the stone on it, and there she was in Atlantis. She apologizes for hurting Radek but says she felt threatened
and reacted on instinct. She doesn't want to hurt anyone else, she just wants to get back to her body.

Rodney goes through some records and shows the others the communication terminal that SG-1 found a few years back. They wonder how Neeva connected to Jennifer but Rodney says that there were some communications stones in Janus' lab and that Jennifer was in there fiddling with the stones a few weeks back. Those stones and the ones Neeva discovered must have been connected. Woolsey looks concerned, pointing out that from the reports on SG-1's encounter with a similar device, disconnection had been difficult. Then it dawns on them to wonder, if Neeva's mind is in Jennifer's body, does that mean that Jennifer's mind is in Neeva's body?

Cut to Jennifer, wearing Neeva's clothes, sitting in a prison cell. She stares at a mirror on the wall, seeing Neeva's reflection looking back at her. She hears footsteps and an official of some sort arrives at her cell. She asks if they contacted Atlantis and the man tells her no. He tells her he contacted some of his contacts on other planets first and learned what kind of crimes Neeva and her associates committed elsewhere in the galaxy. They are responsible, he tells her, for no less than five murders. Jennifer tries to explain that she is not who he thinks she is but the man says she is also known to be a very convincing liar and it is clear he thinks she is just trying to talk her way out of the cell. He pronounces that as magistrate of this village he is taking it upon himself to find her guilty not only her crimes there, but also her crimes on all of the other planets in the coalition. He says that on the morrow she will be executed. Jennifer watches in horror as he walks away.

In Atlantis the team discusses their options. John says there's only one. They go to the planet where Neeva found the device and shut it down to break the connection. Woolsey asks if they have found a way to safely do that. Rodney says not yet but he'll figure something out. Carson pipes up that they need to be very careful. The connection is more than just psychological. If one of the people dies while connected to the device, then they both do. If they screw up the disconnection they risk killing Jennifer and Neeva both. Woolsey says they need to hurry then and gives the mission a go. He asks if they know where the village is and John says they will.

He goes to ask Neeva its location. She says she'll happily tell him where it is. In fact she'll take him there herself and lead them right to the device. On one condition. They have to promise to let her and her accomplices go free once the connection is severed. John agrees to this but then she says she wants a puddle jumper too. He denies that request and she next asks for weapons. He says no, take them to the device and he won't pursue her or her friends.

The team, Carson, and Neeva go tot he planet. They exit from the gate and she points them in the direction, saying the village is a few hours' walk away. Rodney grumbles about this and she asks John in disbelief if he and Jennifer are really dating.

The magistrate comes for Jennifer and tells her that it's time.

The team gets to the village and Neeva tries to talk them into giving her a weapon. John says they aren't sneaking in, they are going to ask the villagers for help. Neeva realizes that John tricked her when he promised to let her go, since he has no intention of breaking her out of the villagers' custody if Jennifer has already been captured in her body. He says he never said anything about not letting the people she robbed pursue her. She eventually agrees (grudgingly) to accompany them into the village.

The team gets to the magistrate's office and John introduces himself. Rodney asks about their Ancient artifacts, the terminal in particular. It is clear the people recognize it from his description. The woman in charge asks why they want to know about it and tells them that it's well hidden and they have no chance of getting to it if they are thinking of trying to take it. They quickly reassure her, explaining they just need to see it because they are afraid it might have accidentally be turned on. They don't want any trouble, they just need the villagers' help. The woman says they need to talk to the magistrate and they ask where he is. She says not there, he will be back when the execution is over. They realize who he is likely about to execute.

In the woods the magistrate's men lead Jennifer to a stump and the magistrate declares her conviction and sentence. We see the team running frantically through the woods. Jennifer tries to proclaim her innocence but the executioner raises his ax and prepares to swing. Shots ring out and Jennifer takes advantage of the chaos to flee. She encounters two men in the woods, one of them holding a knife. He approaches her and Jennifer stares at him in fright but he simply cuts her bonds. Then he asks if he gets any thanks for the rescue.

The team reaches the execution site to find the magistrate shouting orders to his men. He orders them to find the escaped prisoner as well as to guard the stargate. No one leaves the planet until the prisoner is returned. The team fades back into the woods and Neeva says her men must have rescued Jennifer. They ask how many people she is working with and she says two.

Jennifer, meanwhile, finds herself hiding in a cave with Neeva's cohorts. They remark that she actually look scared in the clearing and are a bit offended that she didn't think they'd rescue her. Jennifer tries to find an answer. They ask her what the plan is and she says she doesn't know and at the look they exchange she hastily adds "yet." They tell her to think fast because the villagers will find their cave soon enough.

Ronon tracks Jennifer's escape with the team following behind. They stay out of sight from the village patrols but note how numerous the patrols are. Neeva takes advantage of their momentary distraction and bolts. Ronon gives chase but she quickly evades him and manages not to leave any tracks for him to follow. The team looks at each other, lost for how to proceed next.

In the cave Jennifer says she thinks their best bet is to leave the planet. The men point out someone will be guarding the gate and she says they need to create a diversion. She suggests setting an explosion but they shoot that idea down. They suggest waiting until nightfall and then launching an attack on the gate, killing the guards and making their escape. Jennifer is so not on board with this plan but clearly doesn't want to make them angry. They hear a sound from outside and both men draw their guns. Neeva comes in and they are instantly on guard. She tries to convince them she actually is Neeva and to explain what happened but they are skeptical.

Neeva starts listing experiences that they have had together to try to convince them and then says that in order to fix the situation they need to act fast. They have to go back to the village and turn off the device. She says they have to be super careful because not only are the villagers but so are the people from Atlantis. Jennifer is understandably relieved to hear that her people are on the planet but Neeva shuts her down pretty quickly saying that the Lanteans will turn them in to the villagers if they catch them so they need no problems from her.

Jennifer seems more than willing to go along with the angry armed people. Neeva begins giving orders but one of her men, Jannick, says no. He is more than a little freaked out by this turn of events and doesn't really believe Neeva about what's going on, saying he doesn't know her. He says that they are going to attack the gate now, get somewhere else, and then sort out who's who there. He promises to Neeva if she is lying she is good as dead. They move out to the gate, Neeva commenting to Jennifer that she could do better than Rodney.

Before they get far a village patrol finds them and starts firing. They take cover and Neeva's men try to return fire. One of them, Bordal, is killed. The team from Atlantis hears the gunfire and runs toward the fray. Jennifer runs and Jannick turns to shoot her. Neeva, seeing him, grabs his arm to stop him and she is shot by one of the village men. Jannick takes off and the team arrives in time to stop the villager from finishing Neeva off.

They take her to the village and Carson starts to tend to her wounds while Rodney explains to the magistrate what has happened. He listens in shock as he realizes Jennifer was telling the truth. John asks him to show them where the device is and the magistrate leads the way. Carson removes the bullet and Teyla assists him while the rest of the team tries to figure out how to turn off the device. In the woods Jennifer runs into Jannick. He says she is definitely not Neeva and she says she thinks she can help him. He says she's not helping anyone. He draws his gun and says he is going to return the favor for her getting Bordal killed and almost getting him killed, he cocks his gun.

In the village Ronon shoots the device in the hope that will sever the connection. Jennifer wakes up in the village in her own body with Carson telling her she should be alright. Neeva returns to her own body and finds Jannick holding a gun on her. She tries to convince him she's herself again but he doesn't believe her. The screen goes black just as there is the sound of a gunshot.

Back in Atlantis Rodney runs into Woolsey as he is on his way to visit Jennifer in the infirmary. Woolsey tells him that Lorne's team just got back from searching the planet and there was no sign of Neeva, so it seems that she got away after all. Rodney isn't so sure, recounting what Jennifer said happened just before the device was shut down. He thinks likely Neeva is dead and disposed of, although Woolsey wonders if maybe she wasn't able to talk her way out of getting killed. He says if she did, she likely won't be free for long, as every planet in the coalition is now keeping an eye out for her. As soon as she steps foot on one she'll be arrested.

In the infirmary both Jennifer and Radek are recovering nicely. Rodney asks Jennifer if when she's feeling better maybe she'd like to go for a romantic puddle jumper ride and have a picnic under the stars. She teases him about how unlike him the idea seems but then says it actually sounds like a great idea. They smile at each other as the camera pulls away.

Commentary

Well, I guess it's been a while since the writers messed with Jennifer. Can't go too many episodes without that happening, can we? We made it, what, one? Huh.

While this is a pretty fun (and upon rewatch, surprisingly kind of dark) episode, it doesn't serve very much purpose within the greater arc of the season, or of the series really. I mean, it does show some of the further consequences of finding Janus' lab, as well as reiterating the "don't play with Ancient tech unless one of the experts says you can" rule, but that's really it. Now, I will note that SGU's first season was in development at the time* and this does serve as an excellent introduction/reminder of what the communications stones are and how they work. Considering how important those were to the other series, that could actually very well have been the intention here.

I do suppose it also gives a little more of an idea of how the galactic coalition is coming along, as well as Atlantis' emerging place within it. I really have to wonder if that wasn't meant to be a big part of how season six would have played out. It is certainly an idea for speculation at least.

I do love that Jennifer has been hanging out with Rodney long enough that she's totally on board with the "explosion as a diversion" tactic, expecting people to run toward it. Either that, or they are way more alike than I thought. But it is a nice little reference back to "The Lost Tribe" regardless, and I always enjoy a good running joke. Also, I found it terribly amusing just how hard Neeva failed at seducing Rodney because she so just didn't get him.

It was interesting that Ronon seemed to cotton on the quickest that Jennifer was not, in fact, Jennifer. Rodney definitely noticed the strange behavior, but it took him much longer to put two and two together. He was just worried that he did something wrong to screw up their new relationship.

Favorite Quotes


"Oh, you could take me somewhere secluded and we could make love underneath the stars." (Not!Jennifer)
"Really?!" (Rodney)
"Would you like that?" (Not!Jennifer)
"Well, yeah! I mean, I'd have to get a blanket though, because the mainland's ground cover is loaded with allergens..." (Rodney)

"They'll be guarding the ring." (Jannick)
"I know. Maybe we could create some kind of diversion?" (Not!Neeva)
"Well, how do we do that?" (Bordal)
"I...I don't know. Um, maybe...maybe we could set an explosion?" (Not!Neeva)
"And why would they run towards an explosion?" (Jannick)

~*~

Happy Independence Day folks if you're in the US and celebrating. If not, well, have a lovely Wednesday, won't you? See you back here on Monday for something a bit different in "Vegas."

*Just in case there is any confusion or temptation to be a SGU hater in the comments, please, just don't. This blog is really not the place for that. That show was already greenlit and in production before the decision was made not to give Atlantis a sixth season. Would I have liked another year (or ten) of SGA? Hell yes. Do I blame SGU for its demise? Hell no. 

SGA Rewatch: Infection

Hello everyone! We are getting very close to the end of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch, with only two weeks and four episodes left to go. Today we'll be looking at season five's "Infection." Spoilers for the episode and all that came before it, as per usual.

What Happened


Things open up with Atlantis cloaked and on high alert. It seems that  a wraith ship has been headed straight for them and is due to arrive at any moment. John is on standby in the control chair, ready to fire the city's drones if necessary. The ship arrives and doesn't do anything. After a few moments they receive a transmission containing an encrypted file. The encryption is similar to that used by the Daedalus. Rodney gets it cleaned up enough to see that it is a video message from Todd. They get "do not fire," and something about Jennifer and a formula, but the file is apparently too corrupted for them to make out the entire message.

The group in the control room apprises John of the situation and then they discuss options of what to do next. They wonder why Todd would send a message file instead of contacting them directly. Rodney thinks clearly this must be a matter of some importance. The team gears up and takes a cloaked jumper up to the hive ship to investigate. When they get close to the ship they try making contact by radio but get no answer. Rodney scans the ship and doesn't pick up any life signs. Teyla says she cannot sense any wraith either.

Rodney makes the reasonable assumption that the wraith on board are probably hibernating and John makes the call for them to board and check it out. They radio Woolsey for approval and then dock with the wraith ship. Inside everything seems to be in extra creepy mode. Rodney hacks the systems and sees that the wraith are in hibernation but notes that they did not set themselves a "wake up call." This seems strange considering they did not leave anyone awake to revive the rest of them.

There is a power fluctuation of some kind and then Rodney manages to find an intact version of Todd's earlier message. He pulls it up and plays it for the group. Todd tells them that he and his crew have developed a sickness as a complication of Jennifer's treatment (to make the wraith no longer dependent upon humans for feeding). Todd admits to swiping the formula when he had control of the Daedalus during their last interaction. The wraith's normal healing abilities have had no success in fighting the sickness. He asks for their help, reminding them that if he and his crew die so do their chances of distributing the treatment throughout the galaxy.

They return to the city and update Woolsey on what they found. John says now they know what's up they can just fire on the ship with their drones and destroy it. Woolsey tells him to hold that thought. He thinks that they need to find out what went wrong with the treatment, since according to Todd it did work as advertised at first. He tells them that the I.O.A. is very committed to developing this particular gene therapy and it's pretty much the only thing they all agree on. They need to find out how and why it backfired and if it really just is not a workable project.

Ronon thinks they should leave the treatment as is and start distributing it, using it as a weapon to kill the wraith, which he is sure the I.O.A. also agrees is a worthwhile goal. John points out that they have to figure out a method of delivery and would be back to where they were with Carson's retrovirus. Teyla also comments that it is unlikely that they would be able to wipe out the wraith entirely, probably managing only to weaken them, whereas if they got the treatment working properly, they would not have to worry about any wraith feeding on humans again. Woolsey thinks they should help Todd's hive. He orders the team to go back with Jennifer and Lorne's team and an extra unit of marines (just in case it is a trap).

They get the party back to the ship and set up patrols while Rodney gets settled in trying to stabilize the ship's systems, which are acting flaky. One of the marines finds something weird and calls Lorne. The wall in front of him appears to be melting. He moves in to get a closer look and a wraith lunges out and grabs him.

Rodney checks on Jennifer. She tells him she managed to figure out what was killing the wraith. The treatment worked like it was supposed to. The problem is that it also managed to create a virulent cancer-like disease at the same time that weakened their immune systems. Rodney asks if she can cure it and she says she thinks so but he senses her uncertainty. She admits that she is just not used to being the one making such huge decisions and she feels a little in over her head. Rodney gives her a bit of a pep talk.

John and Lorne go to check on the marine's last known position. One of the other men finds his gun where it was dropped. John makes sure Rodney has loaded the ship's schematics into the life signs detector and they use that to try to search for their missing man. John and Lorne get to a wall and are confused because per the schematic it is supposed to be an open corridor. Teyla radios that she and Ronon found the missing marine and he is dead. He was attacked and whatever did it tried to eat him, like an animal.

Lorne picks up a new life sign on the detector and John tells Teyla and Ronon to join them. They follow the life sign but when they get to its location they don't find anything. They examine the room and then the wraith jumps out and attacks John. He kills it and they see that it no longer has the feeding mouth on its hand. It seems the sick wraith, now starving as well, have gone feral.

The team gets back together to go over the new information. John wants to know how the wraith got out of its hibernation pod. Rodney says it must be the power fluctuations. It is probably a safety protocol that when the power to a pod flickers the pod shuts off and wakes up its occupant. Jennifer worriedly asks Rodney if he stabilized the problem and he admits he never actually figured out what was causing the fluctuations. Teyla wonders if any other pods have been compromised. John decides they aren't sticking around to find out. He tells them they are leaving and to hell with the I.O.A.'s desire for this data.

They head back to the jumper. Ronon says that he knows they are going back the way they came in but comments that it looks different. Just as John tells him he is imagining it they run smack into a wall that wasn't there when they arrived. Rodney looks up an alternate route and they backtrack. They get to a door that should lead to a corridor that takes them straight to the dart bay. When they open the door, however, they find a gaping chasm in the middle of the ship. They have no way out.

They fall back to the control room. Rodney says he thinks he's figured out what happened. The ship is largely organic and automatically repairs itself when damaged. Because of the malfunctioning systems, the ship seems to be reconfiguring itself incorrectly and has, as a result, cut them off from leaving the ship. John wants to call Atlantis for reinforcements to cut them out but Rodney says that's not an option, communications have just gone off line. Rodney suggests reviving Todd, he is the only one with enough knowledge of the ship to be able to help them find a way out. They don't have much time either, as the ship's systems continue to degrade.

They wake Todd up and he isn't really enthused when he learns what's going on. Todd goes over the systems and is even less pleased. After a moment he says he thinks he knows what it is, he thinks the disease has moved into the ship itself. When wraith hibernate there is a certain connection to the ship, and its organic components must have been infected. He says they have about four days before the ship is completely uninhabitable and the only way to get off alive is to cure the disease.

While Todd and Jennifer get to work John takes Lorne, Ronon, and Teyla to check on Rodney's progress in keeping the ship afloat. John says they definitely need to make sure that no more of the other wraith come out of hibernation. Rodney says he's figured out how to disable the safety protocol, but it would effectively kill all of the wraith in hibernation. He hesitates to just do that though, since they no longer feed, but they remind him of what happened to the dead marine. Teyla wonders how Todd will react if they take this step, this is his crew after all. John tells Rodney to do it and says they will write it off as another malfunction.

Jennifer works with Todd and notices that he is suffering from the illness too. She apologizes for getting him into this mess, saying she really thought the treatment would work better. He laughs at her apology and they have a debate about compassion.

Rodney tries to override the safety protocol but the pods in the last chamber won't accept the new code. John takes the soldiers to check out the room and along the way they encounter another awakened drone. They take it out and get to the room finding that all of the pods in that chamber are empty. They split up and spread out to hunt down the loose wraith.

Going over Jennifer's data Todd sees she used iratus bug DNA in the treatment. She tells him she thought using pure iratus DNA would help them keep their abilities. He tells her he has an idea. She calls John to the lab. He puts Teyla in charge of the soldiers and heads to the lab. Todd says he has found a way to undo the treatment. He tells them back in ancient wraith days super sick wraith would cure themselves by allowing a queen iratus bug to feed on them. He knows of a planet nearby where they might find one. John is not even remotely in favor of the idea and Todd gets mad. They fight and then Todd tells John that he owes him. John says no and has the marines take Todd away. The ship shakes and Rodney calls John to the control room.

Rodney tells John that the chasm they found is a getting bigger and threatening to rip the whole ship in half. If that happens they are looking at explosive decompression and the death of all. John orders everyone to fall back. Teyla says they are not done handling the wraith yet and he says leave them. They try to fall back but encounter a locked door and cannot get it open. John gets to it on the other side and while Teyla and Lorne hold off the oncoming wraith he and Ronon manage to get it open and everyone makes it through and beyond the bulkhead just before the ship tears in half.

The force of the separation altered the ship's orbit and the half holding the team is headed for the planet. They frantically try to figure out a way to survive reentry into the planet's atmosphere and impact with their landing zone. Rodney thinks he can reroute power to the forward thrusters to slow their descent and give them a chance to survive. He says he needs help though. He goes to Todd and asks for his help. Todd is not so forthcoming but John promises that if he helps they will take Todd to the planet where he can find the iratus queen. Todd asks about his crew and John admits they are dead, though he does play it off like that happened when the ship broke in half rather than when he had Rodney, you know, kill them. Todd is angry but he agrees to help and they manage to make a very rough landing in the ocean.

Woolsey sends rescue jumpers to the wreckage to retrieve the survivors. Afterwards John convinces Woolsey to let Todd go to seek out his treatment. Woolsey is surprised that John pushes for that but John says that it is unlikely Todd will live anyway. If he does, then he will remember what they did for him and remain an ally, especially if they do manage to get the treatment perfected. His parting words to John as he leaves the city seem to confirm this. They share a meaningful look and then Todd steps through the gate, once more gone from their lives.


Commentary


I think to me the most interesting thing about this episode (apart from that there was so much Lorne in it, yay!) was the revelation that Todd swiped Jennifer's research on the treatment. He plays it off as curiosity, yes, but that's a hell of a risk to take merely to satisfy one's curiosity, no? I would definitely think that Todd would have at least only treated a few of his crew and kept them under observation for enough time to determine if there were any negative long-term effects (especially as he was so concerned about them losing their innate wraithy abilities). That he didn't speaks of either a lot more enthusiasm for the idea than he ever let on to the humans or a lot more desperation on his part than he has shown.

I do think the idea of the wraith hive getting infected was really a stroke of brilliance. All along it has kind of been demonstrated that the wraith are very connected to their (largely organic) ships. That the ship could provide sustenance for hibernating wraith seems like a reasonable step, and from there, even more so that the sick wraith might infect the ship itself. As plot points go that one was really nifty and I think it was portrayed very well in the episode too.

I am amused that "curing" the wraith of the need to feed on humans is the one thing the I.O.A. is in complete agreement on. That is pretty funny. As much as Ronon is right that they wouldn't mind someone or something just killing the wraith off, you can bet your butt not a one of them wants to have to accept any sort of responsibility for that kind of action either.

Speaking of Ronon, I do think it is very interesting that he continues to hold his "kill all wraith" attitude while still continuing to stay so firmly under John's command. I think, at heart, he knows he can never forgive the race for the atrocities done to the galaxy and to his planet and himself in particular. But he also sees the benefits in finding a different way. That doesn't mean he's not gonna at least advocate for taking the "kill all wraith" path whenever it is an option though. I am not sure what it says really, I just think it is interesting. It's good character development, because it keeps him from being one-dimensional, I suppose.

Lastly, I did very much enjoy that little moment between Jennifer and Rodney. It was very much a "couple" conversation but I loved that it wasn't all overly sappy and sentimental and it was both of them still very much being themselves. But it also demonstrated just how well they actually fit together. Huzzah for realistic and yet still entertaining romance!

Favorite Quotes


"I'm flattered you think Todd would go to so much trouble to kill me." (John)

"I look at you and Colonel Sheppard, the rest of the team. You guys are so used to making decisions that affect the lives of thousands and even millions of people. I'm not so used to having the fate of the galaxy hang in the balance." (Jennifer)
"Oh, that. You get used to it. Helps to have a massive ego." (Rodney)

"I find it amusing, human apologizing to wraith." (Todd)
"That's 'cause you don't understand compassion. You view it as a sign of weakness." (Jennifer)
"Isn't it?" (Todd)
"No, not by a long shot." (Jennifer)
"I'm not sure Colonel Sheppard would agree with you." (Todd)
"Colonel Sheppard's a soldier. I'm a doctor." (Jennifer)
"Ah, yes. His job is to take lives and yours is to save them." (Todd)
"No, his job is also to save lives. He just has a different set of tools." (Jennifer)

~*~

That wraps up another episode. Please join me back here on Wednesday for "Identity."

And don't forget to vote for the next series I rewatch! The poll is in the left hand sidebar.

SGA Rewatch: Brain Storm

Well well, we've made it Wednesday and that means it's time to rewatch another episode of Stargate Atlantis! Today's episode is season five's fantastic installment "Brain Storm." Lots of laughs ahead, and spoilers of course, as always.

What Happened


John and Ronon are in the mess and we learn that Rodney and a bunch of other people are going to Earth for leave but John is staying behind on Atlantis. Instead he is going camping with Ronon. John sees Rodney and Jennifer eating together and asks Ronon if he thinks Rodney will ever makes a move. Ronon makes a grumpy "who cares" reply and stalks off.

Rodney, meanwhile, asks Jennifer (very awkwardly) if she would be willing to attend a super secret science presentation with him while they are on Earth. She teases him that he doesn't have to come up with some big hoopla to ask her out, he can just ask her on a date. He stutters and then asks her if she'll go with him and she smiles and says yes.

On Earth, a scientist named Malcolm is getting ready for the aforementioned presentation. Another man comes in and asks if he is sure everything is good to go. Malcolm assures him that everything will be fine and the man says that some of the other scientists are worried there is a chance of bad things happening. Malcolm assures him again that nothing will go wrong.

Jennifer and Rodney are all dolled up and on a private plane headed to the presentation. Jennifer oohs and aahs over the accommodations and Rodney tries to shrug them off. She tells him he should be happy for his friend and Rodney says he and Malcolm were never really friends and that Malcom's really just showing off. Jennifer reminds him to just enjoy the moment.

They arrive at the facility and are given huge non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements before they are let in. Rodney balks but Jennifer tells him to just sign. They proceed through to a reception area with food and lots of people mingling. They are approached by Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson who flirt with Jennifer and tease Rodney about his lack of published work. Rodney makes their goodbyes and they find their seats. He grumbles that this was a bad idea and she reminds him that not everything is a competition. He doesn't have to remind everyone how smart he is, he could try being humble for once. She points out that they are on their first date and she agreed to come to a physics lecture, he could bend a little too. He agrees and they sit back as the presentation begins.

Malcolm begins with a video about global warming and then gives a speech about his research. He is very full of himself, so much so that even Jennifer points it out. He says with financing from his friends at Kramer Innovations he has come up with a way to cool the planet in a safe and controlled way. Rodney sits forward, intrigued. Malcolm explains that he has created a heat sink that draws heat from the environment and then vents it from the environment with a space time bridge that vents the heat into an alternate space time. Rodney starts to get agitated, recognizing the bridge as his own dangerous design.

Malcolm says that he's surrounded the complex with a plasma grid to seal it off from the surrounding environment and will demonstrate his new tech by lowering the temperature in the facility by ten degrees. Rodney flips out, realizing that Malcolm means to activate the bridge while they are all there. He is unable to remain quiet despite Jennifer's urging and stands up, interrupting Malcolm's speech and claiming that turning on the heat sink is a Very Bad Idea. Malcolm dismisses Rodney's objections, pointing out that the NDA included consent for the experiment. Rodney says they just need to go over the data first because he has some experience with this and of course no one believe him. It has been made clear that he is a bit of a joke among the community.

Rodney tries to explain that bridges to other space times can be very unpredictable but without any papers or evidence to support his claim, no one will believe him. Malcolm turns on the heat sink and the audience adjourns to the lobby for hot chocolate while the experiment is in progress. Rodney looks over the brief with the data that Malcolm hands of out and realizes that it really is based on his own work. He wonders how Malcolm got hold of it and he and Jennifer sneak off to Malcolm's office so that Rodney can hack into his computer and find out.

In the lobby an assistant finds Malcolm and pulls him aside. She says he told them to turn off the heat sink once the temperature reached the desired level and he says that's right. She says that they've tried but they have been unable to turn it off. He races back to the lab to try to find the problem. The man from the previous evening is on hand and very irate but Malcolm brushes him off. He sees that the bridge won't deactivate, though he doesn't know why. The man, Kramer, suggests shutting down the facility's power, Malcolm says no go, the bridge powers itself once activated. Then he suggests shutting down the containment field so they can evacuate. That won't work either, it is tied to the basic operations of the device. As a safety protocol it can't be shut down until the bridge is. The temperature will continue to drop. He's turned on the facility's heat to try to buy time to figure out how to fix the problem before they all freeze to death. He claims that someone has messed with the system.

In the lobby, Bill Nye is trying to convince Rodney that he was out of line interrupting Malcolm's speech. Rodney says he didn't have a choice, he had to say something before the device was turned on. He still maintains that Malcolm stole his work. A security guard comes to their table and tells Rodney and Jennifer that Malcolm would like a word with them, Rodney thinks it is to apologize to him. They are taken to a conference room and Malcolm and Kramer come in.

Malcolm says that Rodney is the one who should be apologizing. He tells them that the device won't shut down and he and Rodney start squabbling and Kramer cuts in, asking what they did. They defend their innocence and Kramer pulls up footage of Rodney in Malcolm's office. Rodney explains that he was looking for a paper he published a little over two years ago dealing with a matter bridge. Malcolm scoffs that Rodney hasn't published anything in ages and Rodney says not that he can take credit for, no. He lays out a scenario: Malcolm was working with the government and someone let him see something he wasn't supposed to see, a paper about a matter bridge that was shut down due to a problem with exotic particles. He realized that the exotic particles wouldn't be a problem if the matter bridge was used to get rid of something rather than draw something in. So he took the science as his own and jazzed it up a little and totally ignored the original author's warnings about how dangerous matter bridges are.

Kramer retorts that Rodney's suggestion is ridiculous but Malcolm is just quiet for a moment. Rodney looks at Malcolm and says that was his work. Malcolm says Rodney may be able to help them. They take Rodney to the lab and he looks over the situation. He declares it bad. Kramer asks about the sabotage and Malcolm admits he may have rushed to judgement. Kramer asks Rodney if he can turn the bridge off and Rodney says he isn't sure. They notice that the bridge isn't drawing a consistent level of energy from the heat sink, it is wavering. If they can find a way to overload the heat sink then the bridge should shut down.

In the lobby there is a flash of light and a man hit by it is left half frozen. Malcolm is sent for and Jennifer examines the injured man while Malcolm and Rodney discuss the occurrence. They believe it was caused by the irregular power draw from the heat sink and dub it freeze lightning. Jennifer asks if this is the first time it happened and Rodney is afraid it is just the first time anyone's been around to notice it. It is definitely going to keep happening and probably with more frequency, which will definitely hamper their efforts to shut down the bridge (if it doesn't end up killing them outright).

Rodney wants to call in the military and Jennifer and Malcolm agree. Kramer refuses, however, worried that the project would be shut down for good. Jennifer asks for Malcolm's cell phone but he says it won't work inside the containment field. They try the land line in Malcolm's office but the phones are dead. Malcolm and Rodney get to work on solving the problem. Jennifer points out that they have a room full of geniuses available and talks them into getting everyone to work on the problem together. This goes...about as well as you'd expect. Everyone starts squabbling and Jennifer has to shame them into playing nice with each other. Rodney thinks he is on to something so they all take a look at that. Jennifer goes to work on Kramer next, convincing him that his work on saving the planet is really about saving lives and begs him to let her call in backup. He agrees and they head to the communications room but the freeze lightning has already struck and the equipment they need is destroyed. They are completely cut off.

Back in the lab they reassess. They are alarmed to find out that the containment field is starting to die. Jennifer thinks this is good but they explain that if they turn it off before letting the temperature normalize within then it will cause a brutal storm once the cold air inside meets the desert air outside the facility. Worse, if it dies before the heat sink is shut down, the sink will continue drawing heat from the rest of the planet. But they do realize that with the field weakening, if they get someone in the right place, they might be able to punch a cell signal through and make a phone call. Jennifer volunteers to go make the call so that Rodney and Malcolm can keep working on getting the bridge dismantled.

The idea is to overload the heat sink when the bridge is drawing its peak amount of energy to cause the bridge to collapse. The problem means that they will need to dial up the heat sink to full power, which means it will get super cold super fast and cause a proportionate increase in freeze lightning. As they are going over this, they learn that the facility's furnace has given out. They just lost their protection against the cold. Rodney says the plan is the only one they've got so they need to make sure they are ready to implement it at the first available opportunity, they might not get any more.

Jennifer goes hunting a cell signal and calls the SGC. Walter answers but he can't hear her, all he is getting on his end is static so he hangs up. Jennifer loses the signal and curses, then moves on.

Malcolm, Rodney, and Bill dial up the heat sink, wondering if they should tell everyone what they are about to do. They reason that it is probably a bad idea since they can't move everyone to a safe area and there's no way to know where the freeze lightning will hit. Lightning strikes in several places, including the corridor Jennifer is in. It hits a water pipe on the wall, spraying her and shorting out her phone. In the lab Rodney says that the plan seems to be working, they just need to hold out until the bridge collapses. The lightning continues however and Malcolm turns the sink back down.

Jennifer tries to leave the corridor but the door is frozen shut. She radios Rodney to update him on her situation. Malcolm sends a security team to try to break her out of the corridor. She tells them to hurry. The hall is flooding, she's already soaked, and with the temperature dropping like it is she doesn't have long before she succumbs to hypothermia. The containment field around the facility dies and a storm starts to surge around the facility. They are all running dangerously low on time.

Rodney and Malcolm talk over the situation and try to approach it from another angle. Rodney thinks instead of overwhelming the generator they should try to starve it. If they open another space time bridge it will be too much and the whole thing will shut down. They get to work on reconfiguring the system to let them do that.

Jennifer radios Rodney that she is starting to be in trouble. Rodney asks Malcolm how long until the rescue crew gets there and Malcolm says they are cut off. It will take them time. Rodney looks at a floor plan and sees that he has a straight shot though. He leaves Malcolm and Bill Nye to implement the plan despite Malcolm's objections and goes to find Jennifer. He grabs an ax from the fire-hose case and chops down the door to Jennifer's corridor. She is unconscious but he does CPR and is able to revive her. Meanwhile Malcolm and Bill Nye are able to use the second bridge to shut down the first one. Everybody celebrates and Jennifer tells Rodney she loves him.

Jennifer and Rodney, wrapped up in blankets, head home on the private jet. Rodney grumbles that everyone thinks Malcolm is the one who saved the day. He says he knows he is supposed to be humble but that kind of thing matters to him and that's something she should know about him. She tells him if he really feels that way then he should quit and join the private sector so everyone can see his work. He says he has been thinking about it and she says he'll never do it, no one loves their job more than he does. She then changes the topic to point out how much privacy they've got and they move on to more pleasant pursuits as the screen fades to black.

Commentary

Man, poor Rodney. I can only imagine how hard it must be to do so much amazing work and make so many technological breakthroughs and not be able to tell anyone in the scientific community about it. Add to that an ego like Rodney's and, well, is it any wonder he's looked at so askance by his fellow physicists? That's gotta be hard. It goes back to the discussion he had with Daniel in "First Contact," doesn't it? Why would anyone looking for fame and glory get involved in top secret super duper classified research? As Jennifer says though, Rodney is a man who clearly loves his job. Also, I think this episode demonstrates that while some of his rivalries with other physicists might be more friendly than with others, there is no way he would have found the family among them that he has found in Atlantis. There are just too many egos to get in the way for that kind of thing.

Speaking of which, I love the appearance of Bill Nye (the Science Guy!) in this episode, as well as Neil deGrasse Tyson. Though Bill Nye clearly shines in his much larger role as the episode gets underway. Plus, the casting of Dave Foley as Rodney's long-standing academic nemesis was just freaking brilliant. This is probably one of my favorite episodes of the entire series for the casting alone. Also, I really want to learn how to make GIFs just so I can make one of that moment where Bill Nye slaps Dave Foley. Because, seriously. Just, yes.

Also, we do get the demonstration that a) Rodney in the private sector would probably be insufferable, and b) he is so not the most arrogant man in the field by a long shot. (This is probably good for Jennifer to see too.)

Like season four's "Miller's Crossing" and "Outcast," "Brain Storm" also gives us another glimpse of how the work done in the stargate program filters through to the rest of Earth's science community, and the dangers inherent in taking away the original creator's ability to claim credit for their work, I think.

Also, this episode officially seals the Rodney and Jennifer Are Dating story line. We see Ronon is still a bit sore about losing out, but I think we can all agree it worked out like it was supposed to. And if we can't, well, I won't bash your ship if you don't bash mine.

Favorite Quotes

"Some of these worst-case scenarios are terrifying." (Kramer)
"Of course they are! They're worst-case scenarios. They are the worst possible thing that could happen ever!" (Malcolm)

"It's amazing what a nice smile and a PowerPoint presentation will get you." (Rodney)

"What could he possibly be doing back there that needs to be kept two hundred pages secret?" (Rodney)
"If you want to go inside, sir, you need to sign the agreement." (Receptionist)
"Dinosaurs?" (Rodney)
"Excuse me?" (Receptionist)
"Do they have living dinosaurs back there? Because I'll sign this if he's brought dinosaurs back to life..." (Rodney)

"Why don't we just destroy it, just bash it apart?" (Bill Nye)
"Because that could create a tear in our space time?" (Rodney)
"Never mind then." (Bill Nye)
"Yeah." (Rodney)

~*~

So there we'll wrap up another week's rewatching. See you back here on Monday as we plow forward with "Infection."