Just to mix things up.

>>Thanks for this clarification, I admit that expressions are definitely not my best point in english .<<

Not a problem. Idiomatic languages are tricky, even for people who grew up speaking them.

Sorry about that, I re-read myself and did realise indeed that I went off definitely too strong, I apologise.
As I said at the end (probably once I had calmed down a bit from the excitement :/) I’m definitely fine with us not seeing the same things in Todd, and in fact I think this is why he’s such an interesting character. If many of us see many different things in him it does mean that, as you said, he’s made of many layers.
Once I get excited about something I tend to forget than not everybody has to see things the way I do, so once again, my apologies.

Really ? I’ve liked Teyla since season 1 as she’s one of the only woman that the writers can write more or less properly (as in she can kick anyone’s butt without having to behave like a guy). In fact for a long while (until Sam came on board in season 4) she was the only woman I liked on the show .

Heh, she was too stiff for me, her speech patterns grated on me, and she seemed kind of two-dimensional as the wise native. And on a shallow note, that wig did not help — she looked very strange to me, and it was off-putting. I don’t get why they couldn’t let Luttrel keep her natural hair. But I only watche dthe show superficially in the beginning — I;ve come to like early teyla marginally bnetter now that I have become a fan. Marginally being the keyword.

I did think for a moment that she had seen Michael’s hive, but then I remembered that it might have been a cruiser only, I can’t remember in which episode that scene was.

It was a cruiser, yes. “Search & Rescue”

I wouldn’t call Todd sincere, ever since the first episode where we saw him he’s always had his own agenda, own motivations, my first though when I saw this scene was : Hum, reminds me of the very first time we were inside a Hiveship in Rising, with the Queen tring to make Sumner “comfortable” before realising it wouldn’t work.

The colouring in the queen scene was *very* cold, though, all blues & purples, while this was warm yellows and oranges. I did learn *something* from 9 years of art classes. XD

If animals on earth were able to comunicate with us with words and to interact the way we are able to interact with the Wraith, I think they would very much like to put us in restrain every single time we visit them. It’s a simple matter of : Who’s the predator. We are not a natural predator of the Wraith, they have no reason to “fear” us on that point, on the other side, they EAT us, we have every reason to protect ourselves.

Point taken. But the question wasn’t why they should want to put Todd in restraints, which I can certainly see, but why they shouldn;t expect to be treated as they had treated him, from *his* perspective. They may feel justified in having done it, but they should also expect equal treatment — they set the example/precedent for behavior. And since they were treated *better* than they had (understandably) treated him, I’m puzzled as to why they should complain when they could, I feel, very well have expected worse.

(Aww, come on, Shep, can’t you cut Todd a little slack already, especially after he saved Jeannie and his intel helped you find Beckett? Not to mention that he’s helped you in other instances and never betrayed you! Well, I suppose it’s best to be wary, especially since thus far any help Todd has given has been to his own advantage in some way, however vague; still, it makes me a bit sad, given how needlessly friendly he has always been.)

See I think you are mixing your liking of Hayerdal with the real Todd here. “he saved Jeannie” : yeah, after possibly pretending to be hungry and thus forcing them to feed him (in Common ground Todd has been a prisonner for years with apperently very very very little food and yet nothing like this appeard to have happened) with a human : he was already testing them. Yes it gave us a great McShep scene, but ultimately this was nothing more than blackmail.
He’s always been following his own personal agenda. Not once did he helped them without something in return or without something to be gained from them. Todd has never ever given anything for “free”.

Well, I did concede already that he did get *something* out of it, as I said in teh passage yu quoted. But he didn’t know for *sure* that he would — he didn’t strike a deal first, and did help for a while before collapsing. he looked genuinely ill, form the moment they brought him through the gate, when he had no idea they needed his aid — for all he knew at *that* point, they could have intended to dissect him. Even if he hoped they would be forced to feed hum, I don’t think he was faking needing food.

As for the “needlessly friendly”, I don’t think we’ve watched the same episodes, or once again you’re seeing Hayerdal more than Todd. Yes he is not deprived of humour, but he’s not friendly, at least no more friendly than the farmer is with the sheeps he’s going to take to the butcher later : he likes them well enough but will not hesitate to kill them. I don’t call this friendly.
This, in a way, reminds me of those saying “awww, poor Michael” (because they think Connor Trinnear is cute) when ultimately the guy just gives you the choice between “die or be my slave”. Seeing the actor and seeing the character is not the same thing and I think way too many people are getting confused, especially when it comes to the “bad guys” (I don’t like that expression, but can’t find another one right now).

Just saw that you play Todd in a RPG : could that explain the fact that you only see him as a friendly helpful and ultimately non-dangerous character ? Are you seeing yourself in Todd more than seeing the real character ? (because non-lethal, friendly and helpful in my mind seem to apply a whole lot more to you than to him).

Only in the sense thatI play Todd BECAUSE I felt a resonance with his character, sameas how I play Rodney — seeing the character as I do is *WHY* I play him, not the other way around. I play him *bacause* he stuck me as a wraith that isn;t so cut-and-dry evil, one capable of thinking outside of the box compared to the other Wraith we’ve seen.

By making the Wraith more “human like” they had to give them the exact same flaws : Individual thinking adn fear of death. If changing your diet meant that instead of living a potential 80 years you would only live 15, how do you think most humans would react ?
What they are proposing is to make the Wraith mortals when they are seemingly immortals. Do you think Humans would give up immortality that easily ?

They made a point in this ep of pointing out to us that their culture, n a number of ways, is drastically difefrent form our own, though. I asked those questions looking at them from the perspective of a hive mentality. (The study of animal behaviorism is a hobby of mine.)

And concerning the strenght, given that they are in the middle of a war including with their own kind, I think it’s only fair to worry about being at least as strong as your ennemy, if not stronger. So when someone (should I remind here that humans are cattle for Wraiths ?) comes around to propse that you make yourself weaker, well objection is fair.

That’s a good explanation.

Once again, if cows were to propose us with a way of eating grass to stop eating them, but that this would also mean we only live for 15 years, I’m not quite sure people would be all that happy about the proposition (in any case, vegetarians and meat eater can’t even agree on anything to begin with).

Yeah, but if you had a hive mentality, and if eating the grass would give you a profound tactical advantage — namely that you’d sudenly have an endless food supply that ould ensure that your hive would survive for years to come, whereas in your current state of being it looked like your hive would very soon starve right out of existence? If you have a hive mentailty, your hive’s survival/longevity comes before your own — especially if you’d probably die soon of starvation yourself anyway …

And keep in mind that this proposition is also asking a whole race to change a way of life that has existed for millenias, fear of change is probably the strongest fear after fear of death.

Except that, save for that exception in Broken Ties, Wraith have on numerous occasions shown themselves to be utterly unafraid of death as they died (at least as it’s delivered by humans — I imagine death by queen is often a painful experience they would rather avoid), which was why I posed the question in the first place. Most times we’ve seen one die, they’ve been all “You may have killed me but my people will kill yours” and died with a grin …

But I do think that like all change it’s not going to be easy, just like on Earth, it takes generations for the tinest of changes to be not only recognised but accepted. I think patience is the key word here, and that’s not something the modern humans have a lot of .

Wow wow wow, I seem to recall that to test stuff on prisonner is not really part of the Geneva Convention and SGA has been crossing that line quite enough as far as I’m concerned. As for Michael ? Given that he’s completely lost his mind and has become and egocentric arse bent to the domination of the galaxy, I wouldn’t really say that he cared much about anything but himself and his revenge against the universe. So nothing coming out of what he did should be easily trusted in any case.

I can’t say the testing on the enemy exactly made me happy either, but as Sheppard pointed out before, the Wraith aren’t part of the Geneva convention (even here on Earth, those who are not members don’t recieve it’s protections). And I was thinking of it from Todd’s hive’s perspective, that they the hive could test it on their enemies, not specifically Keller.

And it doesn’t make sense to me from Michael’s perspective to deliberatley weaken his own force — it wouldn’t servve his end to do so. His group took over the galaxyyin the other timeline — they couldn’t have been tooooo weak, if they managed that.

See my above point, it’s only a reasonnable offer from one side of the fence. There is still nothing reasonnable about it in the short term as far as the Wraiths are concerned.

Er, I didn’t quite get the reasoning in that one, I’m afraid you lost me there. XD

And once again I’m thinking we’re not watching the same person. To me, about every word coming out of Todd’s mouth to the humans is definitely sarcastic. He’s mocking them at all times, and so he should, given the fact that compared to him the humans are nothing more than newborns trying to teach him how to walk. I would be sarcastic too !

Body language and vocal tonalisation-wise, he doesn’t come across this way to me at all there. In other instances yes, but not there, and not in several other instances. I’m afriad we’ll just have to agree that we do seem to be watcching different shows there. XD (Happily, if I am totally wrong, I’m not alone, as I know others who interpret him as I do. I can go be delusional with them, then.)

Surgery? This confuses me — I assumed it would be a matter of transforming her, genetically, similarly to the way John was in “Conversion”, or even as Michael was when Carson first altered him. Is this cosmetic surgery, then? How in the world do they give her that vein-y look and such, as Wraith have? I would have thought, if a retrovirus wasn’t doable, prosthetics would be the way to go ….)

If they had given us even the tiniest hint and maybe expand on it in another episode it would have been okay, but this big nothing ? Pissed me off to no end. Because they never hint that we might one day get an explanation. I would rather they didn’t do the surgery scene at all because the way it was done was completely useless. What’s the point of showing it if you don’t give ANY explanation ??? Might as well say “Abracadabra” and have Teyla appear as a Wraith !

Yeah, that’s the plot point that I had the biggest problem with in the ep too.

“I can’t! I’ve had like three cups of coffee; I’m completely wired!” (Only three?)

I think fandom has made Rodney a much much worse coffee drinker than he really is. Not drinking coffee myself, I had to rewatch a lot of episodes (ahahahah the torture :p) to realise that this was definitely not canon. Yes there are a couple of times where we see Rodney drink coffee, but never in the show does he hoard the stuff, nor drink 15 cups or anything like I’ve seen in fics (not that I mind, I think it’s a funny trait in fics, but still that makes it fanon ). And thus, it’s not surprising that as a normal coffee drinker (maybe the one cup in the morning and another one for lunch ?) Rodney could be “wired” after 3 successive cups. To be honest I think Rodney is wired enough as it is without any help, that he doesn’t need all that much to get even worse !

LOL, true, I think they had him mention the cofee supply in an ep, and then there was the siege, where he kept hitting Carson up for stimulants. Add that to personal experience with science geeks, though, and it’s not an unreasonable assumption that he would be a heavy coffee drinker, especially with all his late nights. My dad was a 12-cups-a-day drinker for 20 years before it gave him such heart problems he almost never has it now.

Hum, I don’t think this came out the way you meant to (well I hope, because comparing Ronon to a dog is not very flattering).

SDear, did you forget my name? I’ve studied wolf behavior for over twenty-five years and I adore dogs — believe me, it was a compliment! *G*

I was not at all surprised, after all I’ve already established that Todd only ever does something “for” the humans according to his own agenda. As soon as he had the knife out I knew we would finally get to see his plan, which for him was clearly the one and only plan all along.

I meant in the context that I hadn’t expected the Primary to bite it, at leass not so soon, I thought the writers would play with her longer. It’s too bad, I thought she was interesting.

This is very bee-like or ant-like, so nothing new. But I don’t really understand the second point you are making though (the power to decide if a queen is worthy). Todd doesn’t kill her because he thinks she’s not worthy, he kills her because he wants the power, it has nothing to do with being worthy or not.

Todd said that she had to convince the rest of the hive that she was a strong queen, or they (Baldy and crew)would kill her. Therefore, it’s by their discrestion that a queen lives.

He very obvioulsy don’t care about a queen at all. All he want is, once again, the power. And I don’t think he’s really alone in this, see how all the hives have a male Wraith owning them ? The queen might be the “official” representative, but in truth the power is in the hands of those captains (reminded me of the Queen of England, who’s only there for show as she has no power to decide anything). I don’t think he’s all that much of an exception either, maybe compared to the clone yes, but most “captains” seems to be fairly independant and only respond to the queen because she’s supposed to be the one in charge.

Except that he said the Wraith want a queen lead them, which suggests that wanting one is the norm. Bees go a little nuts if you kill their queen — they get kind of lost, and I suspect the wraith are the same. Actually, the dog analogy works well here — many non-alpha dogs get nervous when their human leader is absent. They can operate just fine so long as the human is in earshot — the human just being there is a calming influence, and an absence distracts them from everything, even eating. Their status quoe is upset.

I still feel that Todd seemed saddened by the loss of his queen, and was impressed by Teyla, but yes, I do agree that control was his ultimate goal, even if I may disagree about the motive. I would even go as far to say thatthe prrior queen was a puppet — but that doesn’t preclude him having afffection for her, as much as his people can feel such.

As soon as the plan changed for the very first time it became obvious that NO, Todd had no plan for any change appart from himself getting the power in the end. No matter how much you want to believe he’s honorable and has good intention, he is all about decieving the humans, over and over and over and over again just to get what he wants. And that’s why he’s such a great villain, he keeps outsmarting them but just like you, because of some of his human qualities (humour for example), they can’t get it in their head that he’s never going to do anything for them until it has a great potential for him before all. He’s got no interest in the humans except for whatever they can bring him to serve his plans. And he’s right to think that way, after all in 200 years he could still be alive while the expedition might have been forgotten or whatever by then. Because they can live for such a long time, there is no reason why the Wraiths should worry about a few dozens years. To take it even further, in 10000 years, they might still be at it in the Pegasus Galaxy, while there might not be any human left on Earth. Why should they even want to put themselves to our level ?

Okay, again, we’ll have to agree to disagree. I think he has more depth than that — particulalry since JoeM himsalf has basically said so. It may be “obvious” to you maybe, and you have a right to your perspective, but uh, I feel like you’re on the verge of calling me blind idiot fangirl now, and I do think there’s more to my opinions than just emotional whims. I think Todd can have multiple reasons for the things he does, just like many other characters do, and can change his needs/opinions as the situations change/more options become available. He can add to his plans, or drop ideas.

I’m not saying you’re absolutely wrong, but I do think there’s a good chance I’m not wrong, that it’s not so “obvious”. But if he is as devious and manipulative and uninterested in befriending humanity as you say? Then to me he really *would* be a black-and-white, 2-dimensional villain, and would lose all appeal for me. I mean, his appeal is that he makes the Wraith *not* so cookie-cutter and *not* automatically “evil”, that they *are* capable of compassion. Even wolves have been shown to befriend other animals now and then.

I also think the writers leave it deliberately open-ended so that people *can* take away what would best satisfy them from it, so that you CAN see him as a villain and yet I can see him as something else.

And I see you keep on being as naive as the Atlantian lol. It would be cute if it wasn’t so scary in a way :p.

Okay, I’m sorry, but you’re getting condescending there and I’m getting offended. >:(

Although I agree on the fact that they are “better off” with Todd as a leader than with the previous queen, I still think Todd should not do anything about that treatment. Putting myself in Wraith shoes I know I wouldn’t. If anything I would try to give the treatment to my enemy Wraiths as to make them an easier target and get rid of them :p.

Unless the treatment doesn’t diminish their other abilities — they don’t know either way yet. If it doesn’t, or it’s only very slight, then not needing to feed on humans gives them a significant tactical advantage — they will be well-fed and therefore stronger than starving wraith ….

Thanks for this clarification, I admit that expressions are definitely not my best point in english .

>>and forgive me, I’m translating a french expression as I don’t know if there is an equivalent in English) : You can’t catch flies with vinegar.<>Hum, I don’t think this came out the way you meant to (well I hope, because comparing Ronon to a dog is not very flattering).<<

It depends on the context of course, but dogs are loveable, loyal, reasonably inteligent, and good at their jobs, if they have jobs. Most people like dogs. In english comparing someone to a dog isnt’ quite the insult it might be in, say, the Bible (Where it’s always an insult), or a pirate movie (Where it’s generally an affectionate insult), or in some country where dogs are food.

Really ? I’ve liked Teyla since season 1 as she’s one of the only woman that the writers can write more or less properly (as in she can kick anyone’s butt without having to behave like a guy). In fact for a long while (until Sam came on board in season 4) she was the only woman I liked on the show .

Conversely, I had worried that the boyos wouldn’t be in it much, but they had a fairly firm presence too, without actually stealing the spotlight from Teyla and Todd.

Yep, same, it’s nice to see that, so far this season, they have been able to keep the team together when there is character development (as you might know already, I’m totally in love with the team, so it’s no wonder I worry about this for every single episode lol).

It turns out that the network’s decided that the intro was too long; they fear people may change channels during the wait,

Wow, I’m so [irony] impressed that this is the type of audience they are aiming for in SG:90210 !!! People who can’t stay in front of their screen for a one minute credits !!! No really, I’m really impressed. [/irony] I saw this movie once, it was really bad but, in it the whole humanity had become dumber than dumb… Seems we’re getting there already ! Congratulation humanity ! I’m so glad I’m never going to have children to see this…

They come upon a hive ship. Keller is awed, and deeply unsettled, by the size, never having seen one in person before.

I did think for a moment that she had seen Michael’s hive, but then I remembered that it might have been a cruiser only, I can’t remember in which episode that scene was.

The atmosphere, thanks to the candles, looks warm, and lacks the typical Wraith fog, reinforcing the feeling that Todd is sincere in his hospitality.)

I wouldn’t call Todd sincere, ever since the first episode where we saw him he’s always had his own agenda, own motivations, my first though when I saw this scene was : Hum, reminds me of the very first time we were inside a Hiveship in Rising, with the Queen tring to make Sumner “comfortable” before realising it wouldn’t work. My second thought was (and forgive me, I’m translating a french expression as I don’t know if there is an equivalent in English) : You can’t catch flies with vinegar.
Mind you I like Todd as a character, he’s the best Wraith they’ve ever written (for me he’s far above and way more interesting than Michael will ever be), Hayerdal is absolutely fantastic in his portrayal, but I would never ever trust him even one bit (and that was my opinion before this episode, after that I’m even more certain that I was right ! lol)

They put Todd in irons when he visited them with a proposal — with good reason, to be certain, but why should they have expected any less of him regarding their visit?

I agree (morally) and yet not (practically). The thing is, no matter how much you like the character, you still can’t trust him, plus he can feed on you with his hands. If animals on earth were able to comunicate with us with words and to interact the way we are able to interact with the Wraith, I think they would very much like to put us in restrain every single time we visit them. It’s a simple matter of : Who’s the predator. We are not a natural predator of the Wraith, they have no reason to “fear” us on that point, on the other side, they EAT us, we have every reason to protect ourselves.

(Aww, come on, Shep, can’t you cut Todd a little slack already, especially after he saved Jeannie and his intel helped you find Beckett? Not to mention that he’s helped you in other instances and never betrayed you! Well, I suppose it’s best to be wary, especially since thus far any help Todd has given has been to his own advantage in some way, however vague; still, it makes me a bit sad, given how needlessly friendly he has always been.)

See I think you are mixing your liking of Hayerdal with the real Todd here. “he saved Jeannie” : yeah, after possibly pretending to be hungry and thus forcing them to feed him (in Common ground Todd has been a prisonner for years with apperently very very very little food and yet nothing like this appeard to have happened) with a human : he was already testing them. Yes it gave us a great McShep scene, but ultimately this was nothing more than blackmail.
He’s always been following his own personal agenda. Not once did he helped them without something in return or without something to be gained from them. Todd has never ever given anything for “free”.
As for the “needlessly friendly”, I don’t think we’ve watched the same episodes, or once again you’re seeing Hayerdal more than Todd. Yes he is not deprived of humour, but he’s not friendly, at least no more friendly than the farmer is with the sheeps he’s going to take to the butcher later : he likes them well enough but will not hesitate to kill them. I don’t call this friendly.
This, in a way, reminds me of those saying “awww, poor Michael” (because they think Connor Trinnear is cute) when ultimately the guy just gives you the choice between “die or be my slave”. Seeing the actor and seeing the character is not the same thing and I think way too many people are getting confused, especially when it comes to the “bad guys” (I don’t like that expression, but can’t find another one right now).

Just saw that you play Todd in a RPG : could that explain the fact that you only see him as a friendly helpful and ultimately non-dangerous character ? Are you seeing yourself in Todd more than seeing the real character ? (because non-lethal, friendly and helpful in my mind seem to apply a whole lot more to you than to him).

Todd’s second points out that the way they feed now is what gives the Wraith their strength and longevity. (I’m surprised they really care so much about these points, considering that they seem pretty ready to throw their lives away for the hive, and that they likewise seem unconcerned with the lives of other individual Wraith. If this plan would ensure the ultimate longevity of the hive as a whole, what matters the individual life spans?

By making the Wraith more “human like” they had to give them the exact same flaws : Individual thinking adn fear of death. If changing your diet meant that instead of living a potential 80 years you would only live 15, how do you think most humans would react ?
What they are proposing is to make the Wraith mortals when they are seemingly immortals. Do you think Humans would give up immortality that easily ?
And concerning the strenght, given that they are in the middle of a war including with their own kind, I think it’s only fair to worry about being at least as strong as your ennemy, if not stronger. So when someone (should I remind here that humans are cattle for Wraiths ?) comes around to propse that you make yourself weaker, well objection is fair.
Once again, if cows were to propose us with a way of eating grass to stop eating them, but that this would also mean we only live for 15 years, I’m not quite sure people would be all that happy about the proposition (in any case, vegetarians and meat eater can’t even agree on anything to begin with).
And keep in mind that this proposition is also asking a whole race to change a way of life that has existed for millenias, fear of change is probably the strongest fear after fear of death.
Don’t misunderstand me though, I absolutely love the idea of the Wraiths not needing to feed on humans (even though I do think that instead they would enslave them to cultivate their food, but that’s another story), I think it’s the most acceptable solution they’ve come up with as it means that they will not exterminate the Wraiths as a race (genocide makes me very incomfortable, even when it comes to the “bad guys”). But I do think that like all change it’s not going to be easy, just like on Earth, it takes generations for the tinest of changes to be not only recognised but accepted. I think patience is the key word here, and that’s not something the modern humans have a lot of .

(So capture an enemy Wraith and test it already! Besides, would Michael have been so keen to rid his hybrids of the need to feed if it meant they would be substantially weaker than the Wraith? I wouldn’t think so.

Wow wow wow, I seem to recall that to test stuff on prisonner is not really part of the Geneva Convention and SGA has been crossing that line quite enough as far as I’m concerned. As for Michael ? Given that he’s completely lost his mind and has become and egocentric arse bent to the domination of the galaxy, I wouldn’t really say that he cared much about anything but himself and his revenge against the universe. So nothing coming out of what he did should be easily trusted in any case.

Sheppard then gives the best argument: the Wraith are low on food, and this is their chance to do something about the problem. Todd still looks shocked, saying nothing.

Here I’m thinking that Todd has been reading the Earth news for some times and knows that in many countries people are dying from hunger, that in other countries other humans throw away half their plate in the trash, just because they can’t plan and prepare less food (or bother to put what’s left in the refregirator for the next meal !), and that every single time they’ve been asked to share their wealth all it has done is nothing. There isn’t enough food to feed everyone everywhere on earth either and yet somehow Todd still hasn’t seen any Earth news announcing that Mankind was going to change their way of life to make this better. And this only concerns one planet mind you, not a whole galaxy ! So yeah, I’m very well on Todd’s side when he’s just speechless about the lousy excuses.

Teyla asks why Todd shouldn’t, saying, “It is a reasonable offer.”

See my above point, it’s only a reasonnable offer from one side of the fence. There is still nothing reasonnable about it in the short term as far as the Wraiths are concerned.

Which is a nod to the fact that Carson was trying to “help” the Wraith. Me, I was always confused as to how making them human was his answer to relieving them of their “unnatural state — shouldn’t he have been trying to make them bugs again, then? Ah, well, I digress ….)

I’ll disgress too just to say that changing something scary (or unknown) into something familiar (or kill it if you can’t change it) is also a very familiar human trait, after all that’s what happened since the very begining of mankind : either you are similar to one tribe or you get eliminated. Happened during colonisation everywhere on the planet and is still happening today.

Pausing, Todd apologises, asking if he’s disturbing them (and seems genuine about asking, not sarcastic).

And once again I’m thinking we’re not watching the same person. To me, about every word coming out of Todd’s mouth to the humans is definitely sarcastic. He’s mocking them at all times, and so he should, given the fact that compared to him the humans are nothing more than newborns trying to teach him how to walk. I would be sarcastic too !

Ooh, with the Goa’uld! That hadn’t even occurred to me. He has a point, though: they’d need someone to gather and farm for them, after all. But were I one of their potential victims, I think I’d prefer farming and giving a tithe of fruit to being drained of life ….)

As bad as it seems, I also think the same. After all as long as you are alive there is still hope of freeing yourself from slavery (after all there are enough empty planets around that the Wraith could even learn to cultivate by themselves instead o fenslaving other to do so for them… but then that’s wishful thinking on my part :p), while being dead doesn’t help much lol.

(Another great bit of veiled exposition/lantern-hanging, exploring the “whys” and “why not”s and coming up with sound reasoning, as far as I’m concerned, for the why. Also a nice bit of interplay between these two good friends, and great exploration of the core of their characters!

Once again I agree, as much as I understand (and even agree with) John’s point of view, I also support Teyla’s. There is truth in what they both say, and if John had been the one risking his life he would not have thought twice about it, I like that they can remind him that if he’s entitled to behave like this then he shouldn’t be surprised that his friends, his family, the people that surrounds him, will act the same.

Surgery? This confuses me — I assumed it would be a matter of transforming her, genetically, similarly to the way John was in “Conversion”, or even as Michael was when Carson first altered him. Is this cosmetic surgery, then? How in the world do they give her that vein-y look and such, as Wraith have? I would have thought, if a retrovirus wasn’t doable, prosthetics would be the way to go ….)

I think this must be the biggest plot hole in all five SGA seasons. I never EVER fall asleep in front of a screen, but right then I thought that I must have had a 5 minutes’ coma or something. I was all “hum, okay, what are they doing exactly here ? Genetical manipulation ? Prosthetics ? Surgery ? What the hell is going on ?
Then I thought they would explain it later, but they never ever did. And when Teyla turned back they was no scars nor anything, so it couldn’t really have been surgery ? Or could it ? Or what ????

I mean if it had been about something else I would probably have minded (I don’t like even small plot holes), but not as much, but this ? Making Teyla look and sound like a Wraith ? It has so many implications, so many possibilites, so many everything, that it’s completely unacceptable that they didn’t even hint at to what was going on.

If they had given us even the tiniest hint and maybe expand on it in another episode it would have been okay, but this big nothing ? Pissed me off to no end. Because they never hint that we might one day get an explanation. I would rather they didn’t do the surgery scene at all because the way it was done was completely useless. What’s the point of showing it if you don’t give ANY explanation ??? Might as well say “Abracadabra” and have Teyla appear as a Wraith !

“I can’t! I’ve had like three cups of coffee; I’m completely wired!” (Only three?)

I think fandom has made Rodney a much much worse coffee drinker than he really is. Not drinking coffee myself, I had to rewatch a lot of episodes (ahahahah the torture :p) to realise that this was definitely not canon. Yes there are a couple of times where we see Rodney drink coffee, but never in the show does he hoard the stuff, nor drink 15 cups or anything like I’ve seen in fics (not that I mind, I think it’s a funny trait in fics, but still that makes it fanon ). And thus, it’s not surprising that as a normal coffee drinker (maybe the one cup in the morning and another one for lunch ?) Rodney could be “wired” after 3 successive cups. To be honest I think Rodney is wired enough as it is without any help, that he doesn’t need all that much to get even worse !

(Yup, for an ep I worried would be all Teyla, this ep has a lot of fantastic team interaction, exactly the sort of stuff I was looking most forward to this season!)

I was so glad that they had the whole team being here for her. After all she’s facing the ennemy while in a skin very not her own, has to act very unlike herself and it must be quite taxing. It’s a real pleasure to have the boys supporting her in this (plus just like you I love the team interaction).

(He’s polite, too! So the Wraith culture is very courtly, all prim and proper behavior masking back-stabbing, it seems ….)

I had the same reflection, reminded me a lot of the European past (from the many Caesars stabbing each others in the back (litteraly !) to the royalties of the 15th century (and other centuries too, I just had to chose one) poisoning each other to be the one to reign and so on…)

(Oooh, beautiful example of how Ronon defers to Sheppard even over his own instincts! He’s so very like a dog in some respects!)

Hum, I don’t think this came out the way you meant to (well I hope, because comparing Ronon to a dog is not very flattering). In my opinion Ronon is a good soldier who listen to his commanding officer (unlike the gals in Whispers, who had forgotten what a commanding officier was, they should take a few lessons with Ronon), the way it is supposed to be in the military. Add to that the fact that Sheppard is one of the very few that has Ronon’s respect adn you get that beautiful interaction.

when Todd suddenly draws a knife and stabs it into the Primary’s neck, killing her! (Whoa, I wasn’t expecting hat!!

I was not at all surprised, after all I’ve already established that Todd only ever does something “for” the humans according to his own agenda. As soon as he had the knife out I knew we would finally get to see his plan, which for him was clearly the one and only plan all along.

(Interesting that males cannot assume power, no matter if they are strong enough to kill a queen, and are treated as a lower order despite being powerful leaders when the queen is not present. And yet they have the power to decide if a queen is worthy and execute her for failure t meet standards, in a bizarre sort of checks and balances.

This is very bee-like or ant-like, so nothing new. But I don’t really understand the second point you are making though (the power to decide if a queen is worthy). Todd doesn’t kill her because he thinks she’s not worthy, he kills her because he wants the power, it has nothing to do with being worthy or not.

Todd goes on to remind her that Wraith culture is different from that of humans. (And how wonderful that he is insightful enough to understand this and respect the fact!)

Hum, yeah, not really all that much so on this one. Wraith culture is different from American culture, but other cultures on Earth (now and in the past) have worked or are working this way, or close enough.

She’s probably wondering what would happen if there were some who didn’t feel they needed a Queen. Me, I’m wondering if Todd is an exception, or does he want a queen too?

He very obvioulsy don’t care about a queen at all. All he want is, once again, the power. And I don’t think he’s really alone in this, see how all the hives have a male Wraith owning them ? The queen might be the “official” representative, but in truth the power is in the hands of those captains (reminded me of the Queen of England, who’s only there for show as she has no power to decide anything). I don’t think he’s all that much of an exception either, maybe compared to the clone yes, but most “captains” seems to be fairly independant and only respond to the queen because she’s supposed to be the one in charge.

But will they? I want to believe they will, given his honourable track record, but will Todd really follow through, or is he only saying so to mollify Teyla now? Todd very much strikes me as the type who will do whatever is necessary to reach an end result that he perceives as right, a sort of ends justify the means sort of guy, but with good intentions. Like he’ll be honourable if the situation allows, but wouldn’t allow the desire to be honourable interfere with getting the job done ….)

As soon as the plan changed for the very first time it became obvious that NO, Todd had no plan for any change appart from himself getting the power in the end. No matter how much you want to believe he’s honorable and has good intention, he is all about decieving the humans, over and over and over and over again just to get what he wants. And that’s why he’s such a great villain, he keeps outsmarting them but just like you, because of some of his human qualities (humour for example), they can’t get it in their head that he’s never going to do anything for them until it has a great potential for him before all. He’s got no interest in the humans except for whatever they can bring him to serve his plans. And he’s right to think that way, after all in 200 years he could still be alive while the expedition might have been forgotten or whatever by then. Because they can live for such a long time, there is no reason why the Wraiths should worry about a few dozens years. To take it even further, in 10000 years, they might still be at it in the Pegasus Galaxy, while there might not be any human left on Earth. Why should they even want to put themselves to our level ?

Truthfully, I have to wonder if she’s lost it — she’ll negate the whole point of the mission if she gets them killed!)

The way I see it, she has the possiblity of not only stopping a culling but also destroy a hive in the process. From someone who has been living under those very menaces for so long, it’s only fair that she wants to acts. So yes, she does loose it a bit in the fact that it becomes apparent that she might also die in the process, but I think that by that point in her mind it has become worth it in a way. It’s like this one hive that she’s attacking has suddenly become a representation of all that she hates and she becomes overwhelmed by that desire to destroy it at any cost. In her mind the mission has probably taken a far seat in that moment, and she’s become more of an angel of revenge.

(He seems genuinely upset by the prospect, which makes him all the more endearing to me; he does seem to genuinely care about his race, and would prefer to make peace when possible, it seems.)

True, he does care about the Wraith as a race, he might also be highly distubed by the realisation that by putting some of the “cattle” in a powerful position, they might rightfully decide to retaliate. It also disturbs his plan to take power if they are discovered.

Rodney admits he was just thinking they would be great for a situation like this. (Sorry, but I have to do it: *ROFL!!* I couldn’t blame Sheppard if he decided to smack Rodney upside the head then, but instead he just moves on — good for him.)

Hahahaha, this was so Rodney and his brain ! Precious scene

(Gotta love those Star Wars sort of maneuvers! Not to mention the fact that the special effects here are better than in most movies — it’s a really fantastic space battle!)

I know !! Can you believe they didn’t won the special effects award ? I love SGA space battles, they always look absolutely fantastic .

“Well, if I had to guess, I’d say we’ll be taken in front of the Queen who will demand answers and threaten to feed on us — at which time … I hope to have a plan to get us out of here,” John replies. (Haaaa! Great line, and fantastic delivery!)

Hahahaha, it’s become so frequent for them to get captured on a Wraith ship that they know have habits about it ! lol ! I’m sure has taken to wear kneepads under his trousers, just so he could finally kneel without risking his kneecaps constantly :p.

(Glad to see she’s come around on Todd’s plan — much like she expected Todd to do with theirs, as it makes sense.)

At that point I did wonder how naive she could keep on being. But well, in the interest of the episode we need her to have no clue so…

“Of course … although I think it might be wise to let matters settle for a bit, first,” he suggests. (Yeah, it sounds like he has no intention of following through Still, it does make sense to wait a bit, so hopefully he’s not planning to go back on his word.)

And I see you keep on being as naive as the Atlantian lol. It would be cute if it wasn’t so scary in a way :p.

Teyla gets thoughtful, saying it strikes her as odd that Todd has become the leader of the entire alliance; Sheppard asks if she thinks that was his plan all along, and she confirms she has considered it. John says even so, he thinks they’re better off. (Good! I’m glad to hear him say that! I’m fairly sure Teyla and John are right, that the whole reason Todd had agreed to that meeting in the beginning in the first place was because he wanted Teyla’s aid in taking control of the alliance. I hope he is considering the treatment, though, for the reasons I mentioned earlier ….)

Although I agree on the fact that they are “better off” with Todd as a leader than with the previous queen, I still think Todd should not do anything about that treatment. Putting myself in Wraith shoes I know I wouldn’t. If anything I would try to give the treatment to my enemy Wraiths as to make them an easier target and get rid of them :p.

I’m disappointed that we never got to see Rodney shout “Oh my god, they killed Kenny!”

You know I thought the same ! hehehe, but then I thought that maybe southpark had copyrighted the sentence or something…

All in all I liked this episode a lot. It was interesting to see more of Todd (even if we both see him in complete and opposite ways lol) and I was very happy about all the “team-time” we had .