Stargate Atlantis: The Lost Tribe

By Wolfen Moondaughter

This ep, as I suspected, proved a fairly strong follow-up to the first half of the story arc; bravo, Gero! Lots of cleverness all around, from Todd’s decision to use the Daedalus itself as a weapon, to John’s idea to save the Daedalus, to Rodney’s idea to save the galaxy! I’m proud of our guys!

There’s only three points that I’m really disappointed/annoyed on: the fact that Sheppard and company are so slow on the uptake in the scene with Todd regarding the Attero Device; the lack of closure regarding this recent development with Wraith (but I can forgive that, as it adds tension to the story and, if there had been another season, would have given us something to look forward to); and the implosion of the Ronon/Keller ship (which, unfortunately, is a huge point — although not quite for the reason you may be thinking at the moment — so I’ll get into that at the end of the column). Well, okay, four points: there was no mention by Daniel of Vala, or even any of the rest of SG-1. But I think Ill get over that. And there are a few other little logic hiccups here and there, but I can forgive those, too.

5.11: “The Lost Tribe”

The story starts a moment before the explosion, with Teyla working to get everyone evacuated to the lower levels of the tower. (Wha …? Not to the outskirts of the city?) An explosion in the tower breaks the windows in it (a re-showing of the scene form last week) and rocks the building. Teyla radios Col Sheppard, asking him if he’s all right, but gets no response. She tries again, calling him John, panic bubbling out in her voice; still nothing. Marie finds Teyla and asks how many were up in the control room; Teyla tells her two, and Marie runs off to get a medical team. (So it was indeed just Sheppard and Zelenka left up there.) Teyla joins the medical team as they search through the remains of the tower, showing them the control area where she’d last seen the guys: the equipment is still there but looking blackened and a bit melted, with some big chunks of rubble around. (It’s in much better shape than I expected, though — I guess the windows just broke from the concussive blast, and the explosion looked scarier than it was.) Marie warns that, if the blast were hot enough, there might not be anything left for them to find. (What a horrible thought!!) They hear a moan, and follow the sounds a ways off; they find Sheppard laying over the Czech, having apparently tried to shield Radek. (For all his bucking of authority, Sheppard is a military man to the last, ‘ey? *Smile*) The two men are surrounded by, and covered in, glass. “We didn’t take cover,” Sheppard tells Teyla groggily. (Um, okay … so what were you doing, then, seeing as you weren’t by the computers anymore? Dancing a jig?) Teyla asks John if he’s all right; he has trouble hearing her and says he thinks he has glass in his back. Marie leads John off while Teyla helps Radek next, getting the man to his feet. Putting his glasses back on (which thankfully didn’t get broken — broken glass near eyes gives me the wiggins, and I can imagine he got some shards in his hand as he got up), he tells her that they’ve lost the Stargate and the control room. “But we did not lose you,” she says firmly. (Awww. Also, it’s nice to see her acting in something of a leaderly capacity — it’s easy to forget that she is a leader, in her own right. Her taking charge is also a nice bit of set-up/foreshadowing for later in the ep.)

On the Daedalus, Todd is informed that all the troops he requested are aboard. (Ah, so he’s leaving some of his people on the hive still — I guess to defend the ship once they shut the device off. Or because they can only fit so many on the Daedalus anyway.) In turn, he orders that the humans be wrangled into the hangar bay, then orders that his hive be told to wait for them there and to not engage their hyperdrive under any circumstances. (Because of the Attero Device, of course, although if we’ve forgotten that, there is no reminder here.) Sounding seriously pissed, Todd reveals that they’re taking the Daedalus to Atlantis.

Marie picks glass out of Sheppard’s back. (I know this pleases many Shep-whumpers, but that’s not the kind of whump I’m exactly looking for, seeing as it’s only a mild injury, comparatively speaking. I mean, it’s not an injury that has people telling him he needs to rest and makes him come off all the more heroic for persevering, or makes people weep over him. *Cough* Yay for an excuse to have Flanigan’s shirt off, though! *Snicker*) Teyla comes in, asking how he’s doing; he says he’s alive, not brushing it off but not milking it either. (Well, that’s something, I suppose.) Teyla doesn’t understand what happened. “Well, the ‘Gate blew up,” John informs her, as if she hadn’t been there while it was getting all sun-like. (Or rather, informs us, in case we didn’t see the prior ep.) With a wry smile, Teyla says she knew that; she meant why did it blow up? John doesn’t know. (Oh, that’s right, they don’t know about the Attero Device! Also, this scene might be providing necessary filler as much as being not-necessarily-necessary exposition, due to Hewlett and Shanks talking too fast.) “Where’s McKay when ya need him, huh?” John asks morosely. (Awwww. McSheppy *squee*!)

Meanwhile, on the ice planet of Hoth— no wait, wrong franchise. Well, on whatever the snow-world is called, McKay, much to Daniel’s annoyance, paces in their cell (which is just an empty room as opposed to the laser-walled cell they were originally put in) as he recaps what they know about the Attero Device. Eventually, he starts to reveal things that Daniel doesn’t know: that while the Attero Device is on, any time a ‘Gate in Pegasus is activated, it will explode, which could result in millions of casualties.

The Daedalus is still in hyperspace when Woolsey wakes up; Todd greets him cheerily. Woolsey tries to explain that they have no idea what happened to the cruisers. Ignoring Woolsey, Todd tells Kenny to drop them out of hyperspace. Kenny points out that they aren’t near Atlantis yet; Woolsey is alarmed to learn that they’ve approached the city. Todd tells Kenny that they’re in communications-range, adding that he doesn’t want to get too close. (Thus showing what a wise and practical Wraith he is, why he’s become such a powerful a leader among them. I wonder how he’d gotten captured by the Genii in the first place?) He remarks somewhat playfully to Woolsey that he’d hoped the man would be awake for this. (Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good.)

Thanks to John, we learn that the techs have rerouted the controls in Atlantis to another room. Power is back on, but without a gate, the rescue missions a bust. John calls out that he’ll give five bucks to anyone who can figure out a way to contact the Daedalus; a moment later, Amelia reveals that the Daedalus is hailing them, asking if that counts. (*Snicker*) John says it shouldn’t, but he’s going to pay her anyway. His elation quickly fades when he learns that Todd has taken over the ship. John asks Radek, in undertones, how close the Daedalus is; Radek replies that it’s not close enough to get there by jumper. (Nice lantern!) Todd assures them that he’s wiling to return the crew. (He could be lying, but I believe him, if for no other reason than that, as I’ve said before, he could have kept Sheppard’s lifeforce, way back when, but didn’t — and put himself at the humans’ mercy again in the process. So there’s grounds for believing that he will keep a promise made, at least if it won’t result in the ruination of his plans.) Todd wants them to turn off the Attero Device and give him its location, adding that it was clever of them to have lured him out so they could test it, admitting that he’s impressed they have the stomach to use it. (He really does seem impressed, but in a sad way. And I find myself wondering why he thinks the device isn’t there, at Atlantis, or somewhere on the Daedalus.) We learn that: the device was used 10,000 years ago (well, we could have guessed that, given that we know whenabouts Janus was around); Todd had seen it in action then (cool — we still don’t know his actual age, but now we know he’s at least ten thousand years old): and that the Ancients had shut it down because it was destroying Stargates and killing humans in the process. Of course, Sheppard and crew have no idea what he’s going on about. Radek remarks to John that it sounds like something Janus would have worked on. (Or else the Atlantis Stargate blowing up so soon after an invention that Janus — who lived when the Attero Device was first used — had made had been stolen is a huuuuuge coincidence …. *Snicker*) John looks a bit sickened. (I’m guessing he’s on board with a remark Carson once made about how, the more they learn about the Ancients, they less he wants to know, or something like that ….)

Todd reiterates his offer, saying that he will return the crew once he has destroyed the device. A bit exasperated and despairing, John insists that they had nothing to do with what happened. (Hell, he doesn’t even know what happened, yet; Todd didn’t actually say what the device did to the Wraith!) Todd threatens to kill one crew-member every minute until Sheppard complies; Woolsey is shoved into view. (Good start; using the most important member of the crew ensures that John will comply as quickly as possible, as well as making it unnecessary to actually kill any humans. If Todd were more malicious, he could have used a human of lesser status, and maybe, just maybe, gotten a meal out of it. Although, he might also have chosen Woolsey because Woolsey annoyed him and he’d be happy for the excuse to kill him. *Snicker*) Todd puts his arm around Woolsey, mock-companionably, and tells them the first minute starts “now”. Sheppard tells him to give them a second, and the screen goes blank. Woolsey nervously suggests that this time shouldn’t count towards the minute, pointing out that Sheppard didn’t say “no”. (Haaah! Woolsey’s so good for a laugh ….)

John asks Teyla and Zelenka what are the odds that the device Todd mentioned is the thing at the other end of the sub-space link. (Having him ask that, instead of stating something like, say, “Well, it doesn’t take a McKay to figure out that the device he’s talking about is what was taken from the lab,” makes him sound a little thick.) Zelenka says the chances are very good, adding that the planet they traced the beacon to is probably where Rodney and Daniel are. (Even if they weren’t there, it would have been a very good place to start looking!) Teyla remarks that the item must be a weapon Janus made during the war. (Maybe I’m wrong, but I think the war started before Janus was born, and was pretty much until he left: ergo, anything he made was made during it. Even if it started after he was born, Todd said he’d witnessed it used against his people before, so yeah, still kind of obvious.) “A weapon that blows up Stargates??” John points out, incredulous; Zelenka agrees that that’s not a very good strategy, suggesting that that wasn’t actually what the device had been intended for. (Well, Todd already told you that the Ancients stopped using it because it was blowing up the ‘Gates, so yeah, not the original intent or they wouldn’t have stopped, now would they? Honestly, I hope Gero was just filling time, because the exposition’s getting a bit insulting to the intelligence of audience! Our guys are essentially parroting Todd as if they realised these things on their own and he never said anything, as well as basically reiterating stuff they said already as if they’d just realised it now! I know they’re smarter than that; we don’t need to see them make intuitive leaps that pretty much just repeat what has already been said, just for the sake of spelling it out for us! When it is necessary to show the characters did in fact “get” something, I would expect them to not sound so clueless — the conversation could have been worded in a way where they sounded more certain, more assertive, rather than questioning.) John surmises that the ‘Gate thing is a side-effect, and that’s why they stopped using it. Teyla figures the thing that was taken from the lab must have allowed the thieves to reactivate the device. (Now how did she make that leap? She has no reason not to figure the device that was stolen was the Aterro device itself, and that the beacon was just a way to find it/know it had been activated.) John notes that “Todd seems pretty keen to stop it”, considering that he was willing to take over the Daedalus. (Hello, Captain Obvious!) Zelenka points out that, if they give Todd the address, Todd will destroy Rodney and Daniel in his efforts. (Okay, I don’t have a problem with radek mentioning that point — I can see a need to illustrate *that* intuitive leap to establish their own motives and a sense of jeopardy.) Teyla insists that they must give it over, pointing out that, without a shield like theirs, the ‘Gates could kill millions on other worlds. (That was a good piece of exposition — yeah, we could come to the conclusion on our own, but I do think it needed to be established that they realise this as well, as it wasn’t already stated somehow.) Realising she’s right, an unhappy John orders Amelia to put Todd back on.

Woolsey is very relieved to see John. The relief is momentary; John prefaces what he’s going to say with the statement that they aren’t behind this, and Todd, thinking John’s going to say no, moves to feed on Woolsey. (Poor Woolsey — how scary!) John quickly elaborates that while they didn’t do it, they may have what Todd needs; Teyla expands on this by telling Todd about the strangers that attacked them. His feeding hand still on Woolsey, Todd is nevertheless listening, expression thoughtful. Teyla goes on to say how they think the thing stolen may be a part of the Attero Device. Sheppard suggests that Todd come pick him up, and he’ll show them where it is; Todd’s not keen to come close enough to give John the chance to take out the hyperdrive with the drones. He moves to feed again; John asks why he would so that, pointing out that Todd is the only one with a ship that can take care of the problem. (Well, I suppose you could take out the drive, take the ship over again, then repair the drive, although it would be a bit risky — you might not be able to repair it ….) Putting an arm around Woolsey again, Todd says that he intends “to keep it that way.” Then, getting snarly, he demands John transfer the coordinates, or he’ll feed on Woolsey. Hesitating just a moment, John grimly orders Amelia to comply. The transfer complete, Todd tells John, “We’ll be in touch!” (He doesn’t really sound happy about how things have gone down. I’d like to think this falling out with Atlantis, or maybe even just John, has him bummed.) The transmission cuts off, leaving John and the others looking quite worried and helpless-feeling. (Poor John; he’s likely realising that McKay might be lost to him, and Ronon as well! But dude, why didn’t you tell Todd about McKay and Jackson? Todd might at least have made the effort to grab them as a bargaining tool, rather than killing them outright — wasn’t it worth a shot?) The ship jumps. (Exposition issues aside, I do at least love the scene for emotions conveyed by Sheppard and Todd, their interaction with each other. Each looked to feel genuinely betrayed by the other: would they feel that way if they didn’t like each other at least a little? They certainly do seem, to me, to respect each other — and not just in the way one has a healthy respect for a dangerous foe.)

Elsewhere on the Daedalus, Ronon tries to open a door while Keller remarks, a bit derisively (she’s spending too much time with McKay), on the futility of the effort, seeing as the doors are meant to keep out even the tiniest bit of air. “Yeah, well I’m a lot bigger than air,” he replies. Blinking, she says, “That’s kind of my point.” (*Snicker* Personally, though, I’m with Ronon — it’s better than just twiddling his thumbs.) A few moments later, he triumphantly gets the door open — only to nearly get shot by the Wraith guards on the other side. After a warning from Keller, he dispatches them. Ronon reveals his plan to go to Engineering and cripple the ship. Surprised, Keller asks, “You know how?” “Yeah, don’t you?” he replies. (What he fails to mention is that his “how” has next to nothing to do with knowing how the ship works. *Snicker*)

Near Atlantis, a hyperspace window opens; for a moment, Sheppard wonders if it’s Todd, while Zelenka worries that the Wraith have realised how crippled the city is. (I guess shields and weapons are down?) Amelia says they’re being hailed. (Couldn’t she tell right away that it wasn’t the Daedalus and inform them of such?) It turns out to be one Katana Labrea, a Traveler sent by Larrin; she’s there to ask why the Stargates are blowing up. (I barely know her, but already my gut likes her better than Larrin.) John looks sickened again. (I wonder if he’s feeling some misplaced guilt for the deaths …)

McKay is trying to open a panel in their cell when an alien comes in to take Daniel away at gunpoint. McKay tells the alien that they’ll both go peacefully, but the alien says no; Rodney realises that their captor only wants Daniel. “Well, I guess it must be your turn to use the fitness room,” McKay quips weakly. (*Snicker* He reminds me of Peter Parker in so many ways, always joking in response to stress. Come to think of it, Sheppard’s rather that way as well. No wonder I like them so much!) He wishes Daniel luck (awww); Daniel does the same.

Katana, now in the city, tells how her people had built their first settlement in a hundred generations, only for it to be leveled in mere moments; she saw the explosion from space. Zelenka explains that the ‘Gates are made of naquadah, which makes for massive explosions (a point SG-1 fans know well, but I can’t recall ever being covered on SGA before). Katana adds that they lost over 3000 people and two ships, including their Ancient vessel, and says Larrin apoligises for not coming herself; Sheppard waves off the apology, fully understanding. He goes on to say that the aliens who attacked them abducted two people and need to be stopped, but while they have coordinates, they have no ship to go after them with; Katana figures she arrived just in time, then. (The appearance of the Travelers was a surprise for me; I never thought I’d be so happy to see then!) Pleased, Sheppard orders Zelenka to come with him. He then informs Teyla that he needs her, someone he can trust, to stay behind, in case Todd goes after Atlantis next. She reluctantly agrees. (It makes sense, and again it’s nice to see her utilised in a leaderly capacity, but it’s also a bummer — for her, not being able to help save her friends, and for us, since now she’s out of the picture again. She’s not given anything to do as a leader. I wonder if the fact that she’s a mother now had anything at all to do with John’s decision, or even just the fact that two of his team is already in danger, and she might be a tiny bit safer staying behind ….) “Good luck,” she tells him. (Oooh, they’re mirroring John and Rodney’s scenes again — I like!)

Ronon enters an engineering room of the Daedalus, blasters blazing as he takes out the Wraith within. Keller asks how they’re going to deal with their situation, rattling off an option. “That’s one way to do it,” Ronon supposes. Keller goes on about needing a pass-code to keep them out of the mainframe (which she oddly says like its two words, “main frame”; I guess as a doctor she’s not that familiar with the term?) Nope, he replies. Exasperated, she asks what he’s thinking, then; he pulls out a tray of crystals and starts firing on it. The Daedalus drops out of hyperspace; Todd guesses what’s happened and orders his troops to get down to engineering. (Couldn’t he beam someone there directly?) Back in engineering, Ronon shoots more and more crystals, Keller frantically protesting that he’ll destroy a vital system like life support while he’s at it. (Whoa, she’s reminding me of Rodney again in tone here. Not that I blame her for freaking ….) He tells her not to worry, saying that life-support is this other tray — he thinks. She insists that getting the hyperdrive down was enough, that he doesn’t need to shoot anymore, and turns to unlock the door. (I never realised that Ronon was such a chauvinist! Basically treating her like a helpless little girl who needs protecting whether she wants it or not, like he knows better than her, and not really listening to her. They did squabble a little in “Quarantine”, but he seemed more attentive and respectful, on the whole, last year. In fact, I have to wonder why he’s interested in her, if he doesn’t think her input is worth taking five seconds to consider. Then again, I suppose it’s a good thing that he’s not so smitten that he’ll listen to her against his gut, or McKay have died in “The Shrine” …. Also, while he does like to shoot stuff, I have to wonder if he would have gotten quite so overzealous with the shooting up of engineering if Keller hadn’t been there for him to show off of in front of. Doing something so thoughtless on his own would be one thing, but if Keller’s presence made him extra thoughtless? Would be just another reason for me to resent her influence on the characters. If he’s going to do something with bad consequences, oddly, I’d rather he did it on his own, without an external influence/excuse.)

Daniel is brought before the lead alien; he tries to reason with the fellow and convince him to turn the device off, but the guy refuses. The aliens don’t use the ‘Gates, and don’t care what happens to the humans; they are intent on destroying the Wraith. When a mortified Daniel accuses the aliens of being as bad as the Wraith, the leader concedes the point, then explains that, as his people’s planet is dying and they are finding themselves forced to venture out into the galaxy for the first time in hundreds of generations, they must eliminate the Wraith for the sake of their own survival. (Interesting — unlike the humans, they don’t seem to be attaching a concept of “evil” to the conflict; it’s simply a matter of kill-or-be-killed, nothing vengeful. If they care so little for humanity, though, why is this guy even bothering to justify their actions to Daniel?)

On the Traveler’s ship, John and Zelenka express the importance of speed to Katana, explaining that the Wraith already have a head start and won’t care about collateral damage when they destroy the device. (Won’t care? Won’t know, since you didn’t even bother to tell them! But yes, even if he knew, Todd might not see saving the doctors as worth the effort, despite how it might save their alliance with the humans — I guess it would depend on whether Todd believed John and felt said alliance with the human to be worth saving.) Katana brings them to the engine room, which is a nightmare of wires, a fire hazard of epic proportions. She assures the guys that hers is one of the fastest ships in their fleet. She also introduces them to Kaylee — er, Mila, the ship’s fifteen-year-old engineer who has been working on the ship since she was four. (Okay, potential shout-out to Staite’s other claim to fame aside, I like Mila; she amuses me. And it makes sense, in their society, that everyone, even children, would have to work. In fact, it reminds me a bit of an ep of Battlestar Galactica, where there was an engineer boy who was something like twelve.) Zelenka is suitably mortified, by both the condition of the engine room and Mila’s age; John leaves him there to work with the girl on getting the ship to go faster. (I bet Radek is now pining for the kid-planet ….)

We see a control panel with want seems to be Asgard runes with some extra lines added — and for a moment, knowing what’s coming already, I assume the scene is actually set elsewhere than where it actually is. But no, we’re in the engine room on the Daedalus, where Kenny is informing Todd that the damage looks to be “significant.” Todd tells him to begin repairs, remarking, “Every second the Attero Device is active, we risk losing more and more of our alliance!” (Ooh, that’s right — they don’t have any way to send a warning message quite so far!) Todd then announces over the intercom that he knows some humans are still loose, and that their “freedom is becoming a nuisance.” (He was content to just leave them in the halls last ep, proof that he’s not merciless/vindictive/evil. Also, he didn’t need all the crew to make his threat to Sheppard — he could have let his crew feed, but has not; further evidence to me that he’s tolerant/willing to show kindness, at least until doing so becomes inconvenient.) He warns that he will start killing their fellow prisoners if they don’t turn themselves in. Keller grows alarmed; Ronon insists that Todd is bluffing. (As much as I’d like to believe Ronon thinks Todd is a big ole softie, I’m thinking that he’s just telling her that to try to keep her from freaking out.) Keller believes Todd, though (even I do), and wants to comply with Todd’s wishes. Ronon insists that Todd will just kill her, and that they need to go get armed and free the people. They bicker about it for a moment, Keller saying that if she goes, it will buy Ronon’s plan time, and Ronon saying he won’t let her do it. (Won’t let her? All I can figure is that he’s thinking of Melena, his late wife, and is getting overprotective because of how Keller reminds him of her, how, in his eyes, his “letting” Melena do what she wanted got her killed. I can’t see him trying the “I won’t let you” line with Teyla — she’d kick his ass. It could also be the military mentality, similar to what Sheppard gets like: he’s there to protect the civilian at all costs. But there’s still a current of that “I know better, little lady” sort of chauvinism from earlier, n his tone and expression.) She tells him okay, he’s right — and the moment his back is turned, she makes a quiet break for it. When he realises what’s happened, he gets a snarl on his lip and growls in disgust. (*Snicker* Knew she was going to do that. And on one level, I even approve. On another, I’m feeling that she should not be used to make Ronon look bad/put him in his place/show him up. But I rant on this at length at the end of the article, so I’ll let it go for now.)

Daniel, meanwhile, speaks to the alien leader with deep loathing, asking how the guy can be so callous about the deaths of millions. (I applaud Daniel’s sense of morality, but at the same time, he’s forgetting that alien races may have their own moral code, may not see the right to life in the same way. He does tend to get a little black and white — which is why Vala’s a good foil for him. Also, while I am thrilled to see Jackson again myself, am enjoying this scene and firmly believe that there should be crossovers within the same franchise, it occurs to me that non-SG-1 fans might be mightily annoyed at Daniel getting all this time alone, without Rodney — or any SGA regular — in the shot. My condolences.) Daniel then ponders about the suit, wondering what the alien is, remarking that the guy’s obviously not human, nor Ancient (because they wouldn’t have needed help with the device — well, accept that just because one has the gene doesn’t mean one knows how to work it), nor Wraith. The alien turns around, the suit opens, and, ta-daaa! To Daniel’s astonishment, an Asgard climbs out. (I confess, I’d seen this shot in a sneak peek already. At the time, I didn’t know it would be an Asgard, but I wasn’t all that surprised, as someone — Mallozzi, maybe? — had hinted a whiiiiile back that the Asgard may have also visited Pegasus. I’m of mixed feelings: yay for the Asgard not being completely wiped out, but if they are so markedly different than their fellows in culture, it’s like a different race anyway. In fact, when I’d heard the Asgard had visited Pegasus, I’d assumed it was the earlier, taller, pale, and slightly more human version. Anyway, yay for the appearance of some non-human aliens, but I was kinda hoping for a new life-form entirely to show up at some point …. I wonder if the race we saw in “Daedalus Variations” was meant to be a red herring? ‘Cause they were my first guess for who was in the suit.)

Daniel reveals that he not only knows what this alien is, but that he has worked with the Asgard and counted some of them as good friends. “Indeed,” the Asgard replies. (*Snicker* Love how this word is such a favourite among aliens! Teal’c used it a lot, Todd uses it ….) Daniel goes on to call the Asgrad of Milky Way noble, saying that they helped the human race. The Asgrad asks where his brethren are now. “… Dead,” Daniel has to admit. The Asgard makes an I thought so sort of noise. Daniel protests that their demise had nothing to do with humanity, explaining how the Asgard he knew were clones, and how their copies were degrading. (Weeeellll, technically they blew up their own homeworld in order to keep the human Ori-followers from getting their tech; they might have otherwise stuck around long enough to find a solution to their problem. In fact, it was Daniel who drew the Ori to Milky Way, accidentally, so not only was humanity in general responsible for the circumstances of their deaths, regardless of whether or not the Asgard would have died soon anyway, but Daniel was more responsible than most!) This new Asgard reveals that his people, too, suffer from the cloning problem, but, in the time they’ve spent unbothered in Pegasus, have made significant progress towards a cure. Daniel realises that they’ve been experimenting on humans because of how similar the original Asgard from was to humanity, physiologically. He also notes then how similar these Asgard are, in mindset, to Loki, a renegade who also experimented with humans. (He made a clone of O’Neill, one which happened to be a teenager. If SGA had been renewed, I would have pushed for Clone!O’Neill to have been added to the cast of Stargate Universe! I mean, really, seeing as the kid has all of Jack’s memories of the programme, how could he be satisfied doing anything outside of it? And shouldn’t Jack be eager to get him offworld? Okay, yeah, off-topic. I can’t help it; I miss SG-1 ….) Daniel adds that Loki was brought before the Asgard council for his actions. “Because they did not believe the end justified the means,” the Asgard remarks. Daniel agrees. “And look where it got them,” the Asgard points out. (Weeeell, who know if they still would have died if they hadn’t committed suicide ….)

When John comes to engineering to check on Zelenka and Mila’s progress with the hyperdrive, a little fire starts; Mila bats it out, telling them, unconcerned, that that happens sometimes and not to worry about it. (*Snicker* Well that’s a first — usually engineers in sci-fi are very overprotective of their engines. So she’s not so like Kaylee after all. She’s as careless about the engine as Ronon tends to be with his body! Which I guess makes sense, seeing as the ship is sort of an extension of herself — as much as a skateboard is to a skater or a car to a racer — and kids have a tendency to not believe in their own mortality ….) Zelenka takes Sheppard aside and tries to impress upon the man how the girl is taxing the ship beyond what is safe. (Wait, wasn’t Zelekna the guy who wanted to talk the Atlantis computers out of noticing the safety protocols back in “Adrift”, when Rodney argued that such things were there for a reason? Oh, how the tables have turned! Of course, what Zelenka proposed was meant to save many lives, while now they are risking many lives to save two. Poor Zelenka — John’s already risked the man’s life twice in the past few hours ….) Sheppard points out that if they don’t push the ship, they’ll lose Rodney and Daniel. Zelenka explains that the engine is just cobbled together; Sheppard figures that the girl must be a genius to have put the thing together out of mismatched parts, then. Zelenka warns that they may not be able to re-engage the hyperdrive once they stop; Sheppard figures they’ll worry about that when they get there. (Yeah, so long and he and Rodney are together, it doesn’t matter if they end up stuck there forever! *Snicker*) An alarm starts beating; it’s a radiation warning. Mila turns it off, explaining that the thing is a little oversensitive and assuring them that she wouldn’t worry about it. Sheppard abandons Zelenka for the bridge, refusing to acknowledge the potential danger. (Poor Zelenka; now you know how Keller is feeling with Ronon — or, really, how McKay feels when Sheppard goes into la-la-la-I’m-not-listening-cause-I-know-you-can-do-it-if-I-just-act-confident-in-you-enough mode ….)

The Asgard continues his story. He explains that the Ancient/Wraith war kept both sides busy enough so that the Asgard were free to experiment, but the war ended “with an unexpected result”; Daniel realises that they were expecting the Ancients — who wouldn’t exterminate them — to win. (Wouldn’t they have exterminated the Asgard? If the Asgard were non-humans killing — or at least doing terrible things to — the humans, why wouldn’t the Ancients eradicate them much as they would the Wraith?) The Asgard confirms this, pointing out that “the Wraith do not tolerate the presence of advanced technologies other than their own.” The Wraith attacked them, and the Asgard lost their intergalactic ships in the fight, with no means to make more. They hid on a world too toxic for the Wraith to look for them on; the suits protected them for a long while, but now the atmosphere is too toxic, for even the suits. They were forced to venture back out into the galaxy; they found the lab and knew what the stuff in it was for, but couldn’t activate any of it. Daniel gives his condolences but not forgiveness, declaring that their actions still are not justified. The alien argues that, with their other Asgard brethren dead, he now has all the more reason to do anything to ensure the survival of his own civilisation and its history. (I can’t really fault him for feeling that way, either, although he needs to face the fact that all civilisations will fall someday.)

Keller is brought to the bridge; Todd’s skeptical that she’s the saboteur, asking where her weapon is. She claims she got rid of it so that the Wraith wouldn’t get it. (Because such a weapon would tip the odds soooo far in their favour, even though they already outnumber her, have weapons of their own, and have access to the armoury. *Snicker* But I suppose if she’s got to give a reply, that’s the only one there really was to give. And I have to admire her bravado, especially since you can tell that she is indeed afraid. I just wish it could have been Teyla in such a situation — or Rodney, or Carson — instead.) Todd informs her that they’re on the same side, as he’s on a mission from Colonel Sheppard. (Sidenote: I love how Todd says human names.) She asks why he took the ship over then; he says it’s a long story. (Todd could very well just be telling Keller all this in the hopes that she will reveal Ronon’s plan, but his manner at this point suggests that it’s more than that — he’s not trying to be charming, seems chagrined about the takeover — that is, he doesn’t say “it’s a long story” in a way that would suggest he’s telling her not to worry about it, but that he simply really does think it’s too long to get into — and even seems to genuinely want something of a peace between them. But in the next moment, his tone is more manipulative — and a tad threatening.) He then remarks that the mission is time-sensitive, adding that now she’s given them a major setback in taking out the hyperdrive, weapons, and shields. She says that’s a shame, in a way that says she thinks it’s anything but. He informs her that it is, seeing as “hundreds of thousands of humans could die because of it,” remarking that such a happenstance would probably weigh heavily on her in the future. (He sounds as much like a friend who’s annoyed at the behavior of another friend and wanting to drive home a reprimand for their foolishness as he sounds like he’s threatening her. Of course, he could just be upset at the loss of so much food.) Keller, clearly unsettled, ask what he’s talking about, but before he can reply, Kenney inform him that the hyperdrive is back but the weapons are irreparably damaged. Keller remarks that she guesses they won’t be able to finish the mission the. (Yeah, well, that’s not a good thing, girly. And isn’t it interesting that you actually should be rooting for the Wraith to finish their mission, at least in part?) Todd assures her that they’ll find a way, and orders her locked up with other humans. (Either he’s decided that he won’t get Ronon’s plan out of her, or else he figures with his new plan, it won’t matter. Because I instantly realise he plans to ram the enemy facility with the ship, like they did with his cruiser back in “Spoils of War”.) The Daedalus jumps to hyperspace.

Daniel gets tossed back into the cell, where McKay is surprised but relieved to see him still alive, having been sure the man was “a goner”, asking if he’s okay. (Awww! How scary it must have been for him, thinking he was alone in his situation!) Not knowing when to shut up, he goes on to say (with a minimal sense of ego, actually, more of just practicality) how he figured they needed him but Daniel was expendable. Getting annoyed, Daniel says he knew what Rodney meant already. (*Snicker*) Daniel reveals that the leader just wanted to talk — and that the aliens turned out to be a group of Asgard that splintered off from the ones they knew thousands of years ago. “I did not see that one coming,” Rodney breathes. (Nice bit of almost-fourth-wall-breakage there. He must not have seen that Sci Fi Channel vid. *Snicker*) Daniel mentions that they aren’t “fans of the Wraith, either.” (Daniel has just claimed the title of Captain Obvious — dude, that was established before you’d even gone to talk to the leader!) McKay asks if they’re going to turn the device off; Daniel says no. Rodney says he doesn’t care, then (don’t care that they’re not fans of the Wraith, or don’t care that they’re Asgard?), seeing as millions of people are going to die. He adds, happily that he may have found a way out; Daniel perks up. Rodney guides Daniel over to a bit of wall, saying, “This … is an Ancient facility — and Rodney McKay knows a thing or two about Ancient facilities!” Daniel remarks that speaking of ones self in the third person is a sign of mental instability. “Mentally unstable like a fox!” Rodney agrees with a grin, removing a panel. (Heheheh, glad to see him roll with the jibe.) He explains that if he makes the system think there’s a fire, it will unlock the doors for safety. (Genius!) It works; Daniel tells him “Good job!” (*Squee!* It’s always nice to hear someone praise Rodney ….) Rodney remarks that it’s a good thing Daniel had been brought back when he was, as Rodney was going to leave. “Lucky me!” Daniel replies. (Is it just me, or did this snippet of convo make anyone else think of a chatty little kid and an amused parent?) Hands clasped in anticipation, Daniel asks what they’re going to do now. Seeming confused that the man even needs to ask (but not using his you’re an idiot tone), Rodney replies that they’re going to go shut down the device. Daniel asks how; Rodney doesn’t have a real answer, finally replying that they’ll just have to improvise, his tone uncomfortable in a why are you even asking me this? way. “Right,” Daniel says, with a why me? expression. (Heheh, Rodney’s used to having to improvise with Sheppard around. And maybe Daniel was hoping that Rodney would be more like Sam but is finding him to be more like Jack — or Vala. *Snicker*)

As a couple of dronesbring Keller to the hangar where the other humans are being kept, Ronon drops a ways out of the ceiling and opens fire. (Clever! Also makes me think of the Alien portion of “The Great Movie” ride, at the Disney-Hollywood studios …) His foes fallen, he swings down and out (and suddenly makes me think of Disney’s version of Tarzan, especially with the dreadlocks ….) He hands her a rifle; a moment later, they end up in a firefight. Once it’s over, Ronon remarks cheerfully that Todd didn’t kill her. She replies that Ronon almost got her killed, pointing out that she’s never fired a rifle outside of the range. (Uh, ungrateful much? What were you doing at the range if you didn’t expect to ever use the skills you were learning there? Besides, the Wraith just use stunners — they would have just gone back to taking you to the hangar bay, not killed you. Oh, wait, were you afraid that you could have shot yourself?) Ronon assures her, somewhat dismissively, that she did great. (Well, nice to see him treat her as capable for a change!) She stares after him like he’s a nutter. They go free the crew from the hangar bay. Woolsey tells him good work. (hey, now Ronon’s scenes are paralleling Rodney’s!) Ronon reminds him that it’s not over yet, announcing that they need everyone to go to the armoury and get armed, so that they can take the ship back.

Rodney and Daniel make their way down a hall, Rodney saying that they need to get to the room where the device is. (Yes, that would probably be the best way to shut it down ….) Daniel points out that the place is crawling with soldiers. Rodney says they need a diversion, and suggests they blow up a power relay; Daniel remarks that he never understood how explosions made good diversions, asking why one would assume that guards would go to the source of an explosion. Rodney argues that he would. “I rest my case,” Daniel replies. (Oooh, ow!) A little miffed, Rodney points out that he’s a good guy and would want to check the explosion out to see if anyone was hurt, plus find out what caused it. Daniel says he, on the other hand, would order guards to go guard whatever the people who caused the explosion might be trying to get to. (Okay, there’s some logic there, but that’s assuming that the people would immediately think the explosion was on purpose and not an accident. Power relays could blow up on their own, couldn’t they?) Rodney stares at Daniel in disbelief, shaking his head as the man walks away; he argues (civilly — he’s still being very well behaved) that the explosion is the epitome of diversions. Daniel (being a bit catty still and therefore little less well-behaved) counters that Rodney just doesn’t have any better ideas; Rodney concedes that point.

They turn a corner and walk right into a pair of suits. Rodney starts begging for his life, saying that they need him to keep the device in working order. “Rodney?” Daniel say, Rodney misunderstands, correcting himself and telling the suits “You needs us,” continuing to babble at an astonishing rate of speed about how the Asgard aren’t a violent race, while Daniel cocks his head curiously as he regards the suits. Daniel tells Rodney that they’re suits; hardly breaking stride at all, Rodney says yes they are, housing one of the smartest races ever know. And the sycophant routine goes on until Daniel stresses that they’re empty suits. Rodney claims he knew, and starts to say that he was just … “You were …?” Daniel prompts. “Yeah, it’s not important,” Rodney say half-heartedly. (Awww, poor Rodney. Also, the Gateworld transcript says that Rodney is saying “Yeah, snowboarding,” here, but I’ve listened to the line several times now and watched his lips, and really don’t think so. Maybe that’s what the closed captioning says, I don’t know, but even if it does, closed captioning isn’t always accurate — far from it!) Daniel notes that, from what he saw, the suits form around the wearer. (To that degree? There’s an awfully big height difference! As to the question of what the Asgard made the suits so tall, I’m guessing so that they would be able to be on equal footing in fights against humans or Wraith, and so that either group would assume them to be human and not hunt them down for being Asgard.)

On the bridge of Katana’s ship, Katana asks Sheppard, who sits at a set of consoles, if he’s sure he’s figured it out. (I note a sound in the background that reminds me of the Enterprise. Heeee!) Sheppard remarks that he’s flown bird a lot more complicated; he’s surprised Larrin never mentioned it. Taking a seat at a station behind him, Katana says that Larrin’s never mentioned him before today. He tries to act nonchalant, but he’s obviously stung by this fact. (Haaah, the look on his face is priceless!! I so love this man’s facial expressions …. ) Katana warns the crew that they’re about to fall out of hyperspace. (And for a moment, I forget that they were flying straight to the coordinates, not following the Daedalus. *Doh!* It was a lucky thing Ronon knocked the hyperdrive out for a bit!) In engineering, there’s some sparking; Radek says that they’ve burnt the drive out. Mila doesn’t much care, figuring the fact that they got there is what matters. (And she probably figures it won’t be that hard to fix.) Katana confirms that they beat the Daedalus, but then two other ships show up. (Here’s a question; if the Asgard don’t have ships capable of intergalactic flight, how did they make the trip into hyperspace to reach Atlantis? What, they can only make little jumps?) There’s the usual in-battle chatter, with Katana suggesting to Sheppard, “Evasive maneuvers might be good!” (*Snicker* Funny that she comes off as respectful to her guest and catty at the same time.) We see a bit of the fire-fight.

On the Daedalus, Ronon tosses a flash-bang onto the bridge before stepping on, followed by armed crewman. (Funny that the Wraith didn’t bother to clear the armoury out, just in case. But then, maybe they simply didn’t see the humans as much of a threat or figured the humans were mostly captured anyway, and that the armoury was as good a place to keep the weapons stowed as any ….) The bridge is deserted, and Ronon wonders why they haven’t run across any Wraith yet. (I’m guessing because they’ve all gone into Todd’s dart, so that they can abandon ship when they get near the facility. Hey, that means it’s like a clown car!) “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Keller says (in a classic Gero homage to Star Wars). Woolsey orders the ship scanned for life-signs. (Um, where’s Caldwell?) Marks reveals that they’ve fallen back to their five (which was in a different hangar bay than the one the humans had been kept captive in). Keller suggests maybe they’d seen that the humans had armed up, and retreated; Ronon doesn’t think that sounds like Todd, and offers to check it out. Woolsey orders marks to take them out of hyperspace. (Okay, I’m getting nervous here; again, where’s Caldwell??) Marks discovers that they’ve been locked out of the flight controls; Woolsey asks if he can get back in, and Marks replies “Not quickly ….” (Well, Ronon’s destroying the weapons system didn’t really leave Todd with any other option if he wanted to minimise the damage to the hives. And lest ye doubt that theory, Mallozzi himself confirmed as much. I’d like to say I couldn’t blame Ronon for what he’d done either, especially if he actually intended to put out weapons rather than having done it accidentally, but putting out weapons doesn’t make sense, unless he figured the Travelers would help Atlantis and didn’t want them shot down, or that the SGC would send the Apollo — and in both cases, he had no reason to think the ships would be able to find them, so he basically was potentially making the ship unusable for when they did manage to get it back. Of course, to be fair, he had no cause to know that his shooting up engineering would put the entire galaxy at risk, either. And his trying to disable stuff would have made more sense if he had also disabled the controls for the doors — otherwise, why not go after the armoury first and then free the humans, and let an engineer disable the hyperdrive? Well, aside from the obvious reason of there not being much of a story then. And I can certainly believe that none of that ever occurred to Ronon anyway.)

Daniel and Rodney, wearing the suits, take out the guards in the lab with stunners. Daniel and Rodney take off their helmets. (Huh! I wouldn’t have thought that the helmets came off, given how the back opened …. And of course this scene is making me — as well as some other fans, I see —- think of Luke and Han in the Stormtrooper suits in the first Star Wars. *Grin*) McKay says that turning off the device will take about five minutes, but then lets out an angry exclamation. He starts to explain that the workstation has been encrypted, which actually isn’t too much of a problem in and of itself, considering that Rodney can break it (as Daniel points out, and I love how confident he is in Rodney’s ability there, no question in his mind that Rodney can do it), but the Asgard also removed the “key” that they’d taken from Atlantis, the thing that turned it on in the first place. (Kinda like those car remote keychains, I guess.)

The Asgard ship on the planet takes off, while two other ships remain engaged with the Traveler ship. The Traveler ship takes one out; a console explodes on board. Katana picks up the third ship heading straight for them — but the ship jumps to hyperspace at the last second. Another window opens behind them; “It’s coming right back at us — what kind of messed-up battle technique is that?” Sheppard grouses. (Actually, it sounds like a really clever one — too bad for the Asgard that they didn’t actually think of it!) The ship that comes out of the window, though, is actually the Daedalus! They hail them, and are surprised to see Woolsey on the screen; Sheppard quickly fills the man in, asking if they have control of their ship again. Woolsey, in turn, tells Sheppard that Todd gave up the ship without a fight, retreating to the 302 bay. As Sheppard wonders why the hell Todd would do that, Marks reports that the moment they came out of hyperspace, “a pre-programmed subroutine kicked in.” Their guidance system is locked onto a facility on the planet. (I assume it was programmed to pick up on the energy signature signal of the Attero Device.) They realise that Todd put the ship on a collision course in order to destroy the device.

In the facility, Daniel asks if they can’t just power the entire building down; McKay insists that the best they can do without the missing component is turn the lights on and off. (Independent power source or some sort of lock?) Then McKay gets the idea to use the suits to get to the antennae, which is surrounded by lightning-like discharges, in the other room, and pull the control crystal; neither of the men is thrilled at the idea, figuring their chances of survival aren’t too high with the radiation and the electricity, but nothing else comes to mind. (Of course, fans who didn’t watch SG-1 have no way of knowing that Daniel’s got more lives than a cat. Then again, he was told last time he’d Ascended that he wouldn’t have help the next time, but maybe he’s far enough along “The Path to do it on his own anyway. I’m happy that McKay is so adamant that they try this, despite obviously not wanting to do it, and despite his trying to suggest in the last ep that he was more selfish than that.)

On the Daedalus, Keller tells Woolsey about how Ronon took the weapons system out. (Well, she says “we”, despite it not being her fault — have to give her props for that.) She figures Todd didn’t have a choice now but to use the ship — and that Todd wasn’t too concerned about the humans aboard at that point. (Which really begs the question of just how many people a Dart can fit in its buffer. I still think he would have returned the ship and it’s crew, given the chance, though) Marks notes the departure of Todd’s dart. (And that’s the last we see or hear of the Wraith for this ep, which doesn’t bode so well for the next encounter …. Hey, did they take Caldwell with them? Is that why we don’t see him again, either? *Snicker* Seriously, though, I really hope Caldwell is all right and that we see him again this season ….)

Rodney and Daniel don their helmets. Rodney points out that Daniel doesn’t have to go in (awww, he cares), and Daniel replies with a shrug that, when Rodney gets killed by one of the discharges, he’ll have to finish the job. “Oh, great pep talk! Thanks!” Rodney says. (*Snicker* I’m glad to see Rodney taken a bit more seriously; Daniel may be teasing him, but despite his words, I think it’s apparent that he really does think Rodney is competent and has at least some respect for him — and vice versa.) After a really long wait, the men enter the room with the scary antennae that would make a mad-scientist drool/ (Well, I suppose Janus was a mad scientist.) Rodney says he’s pretty sure they want to avoid being hit by the electricity. “Thanks, coach!” Daniel replies. (So the suits probably wouldn’t be enough to protect them from the bolts, just the radiation. Maybe.) Rodney slowly gets to the antennae and pulls off a panel, but then just sits there while a HUD scrolls around on the inside of his helmet (a la Iron Man, and I wonder how on Earth anyone could keep track of all that). Daniel wants to know what he’s waiting for; Rodney explains that he has to take the right one lest the thing explode. Daniel tells him to hurry up — but also get it right. (*Snicker* Okay, Sheppard! No wonder I see chemistry in McJackson, too …. Oh, and Daniel? I’m thinking standing to the side of the antennae like that, where most of the bolts are coming from, is a bad idea. In fact, so is standing up straight, as the bolts seem less prevalent towards the ground …)

On the Traveler vessel, Sheppard asks how long they have until the Daedalus strikes the planet; Katana says a minute. In turn, she asks how many people are aboard; he answers a couple hundred. (That many? Wow! Ship’s bigger than I thought ….) Sheppard tells her he has an idea, but he needs her to trust him. She agrees. He then radios Mila and Zelenka, explaining that he’ll need them to open a hyperspace window in about thirty seconds, so they can make a short jump. (You know, one of these days, he’s going to expect something his scientists just can’t deliver on ….) Of course Zelenka says it’s “impossible” (“for a plain county pumpkin to become a golden carriage” — sorry, I can’t encounter that word without that damn song from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s version of Cinderella getting stuck in my head) while Mila says that it’s “not a problem!” (She’s a mini-Rodney! Too bad we don’t get to see her interact with him ….)

Keller and Woolsey, meanwhile, play cheerleaders for Marks. He says he’s almost got it, but they start to enter the atmosphere, and the ship starts to break up a little. Suddenly the Traveler vessel flies in front of them; a hyperspace window opens, and both ships disappear into it. Back in the lab, just as Rodney is about to pull a crystal, Daniel gets hit by a bolt. Rodney hurriedly pulls the crystal, cutting the power. Out in space, a hyperspace window opens, the ships flying out again. John explains to the Daedalus crew that he opened the window so that it was big enough for them to follow and took them through the planet. (Very clever — I’m quite impressed! Looks like John is MENSA material ….) Marks announces that he’s gotten control of the ship back. “And not a moment …. Too late,” Woolsey says. (*Snicker*) The other Asgard ship comes in and attack again, but the Traveler vessel blows the ship up. (I like the continuing McShep parallel — Rodney saved the universe by pulling the crystal at the same moment John saved their friends with his little stunt.)

Rodney kneels beside Daniel, and both men remove their helmets, Rodney insisting in his panicked way that Daniel will be okay. Daniel painfully disagrees. Daniel asks if Rodney turned it off. “I did — we did — you did,” Rodney says. (Aww, that’s a sweet attempt to be selfless, Rodney, but Daniel did ask if you did it, not “we”, so the “I” was okay ….) Rodney then asks Daniel what hurts; bitng back the pain for a moment, Daniel replies, “Everything,” saying that he doesn’t suppose there’s a hospital around; Rodney half-jokingly says that they’re on their own, but he figures that they’ll be dead of dehydration in a few days anyway, so Daniel won’t have to put up with him much longer. Daniel smiles a moment at that, but it suddenly becomes evident that he’s in really bad shape, tears of pain in his eyes; he tells Rodney that he’s busted up and doesn’t think he’s going to last that long. (Aww, it makes me think of a Disney animated movie, like the end of Jungle Book or Beauty and the Beast! I love this sort of thing, and I’m glad they had a scene like this together! Yay, Daniel-whump! Although, it would have been ever better if it had been John in Daniel’s place. *Cough*) Rodney starts to say, “Okay, um … I know it may not seem like it, but … I want you to know, I-I-I really resp—”

And then they’re beamed aboard the Daedalus, where Keller and a team wait; she says she’s very glad to see them both. Stepping back to give them room to work, Rodney tells the team that Daniel is badly hurt. (Reminds me of the bit in “Search and Rescue”, where Rodney insisted that they help Lorne first. Glad to see some of the positive changes have stuck around!) Woolsey remarks that the suit is a new look for Rodney. “Well, you know me: function over fashion.” (*Snicker* Actually, I was thinking it looked really good on him! And just think, Rodney, you still have the suit so now you can play with he tech, maybe make some more …) Wolsey then asks if the device is still active; Rodney proudly shows him the crystal, saying that it won’t work without it. Woolsey’s understandably not satisfied, and, radioing Sheppard, asks that, as their weapons are down, they do the honours of seeing to it that the device is destroyed. Rodney looks unhappy at the loss of the, but doesn’t argue, and the facility is leveled by the Traveler vessel. Rodney asks Woolsey to “unzip” him. “I’ll look for a can opener,” Woolsey replies, walking away and leaving Rodney at a loss (and perhaps a bit alarmed).

Back in Atlantis, Sheppard walks with Katana down a hall; she tells him that Zelenka’s helping with their ship’s repairs (I guess the Daedalus towed them to the city?), and then, she supposes, they’ll start a new settlement. John tells her to tell Larrin that he’ll help with whatever they need. (He’ll help? Not we’ll help? *Snicker*) He then says for her to tell Larrin that she doesn’t need a crisis as an excuse to see him, promising that he’s “more charming” when his “friends aren’t about to die.” “That’s not what she says,” Katana replies with a grin. John pounces on the revelation that Larrin does talk about him, asking what she says. Katana won’t comply. (Heh, I might not like him with Larrin, but it’s still a cute scene. He’s such a boy, sometimes.)

Ronon hurries to catch up with Keller in another hall, asking if she’s done for the day She hesitantly says yes, another doctor is taking her shift, he asks if she wants to get something to eat. She stops, faces him, and awkwardly tells him that she’s glad he came on the mission, and they’d probably all be dead without him (or gee, because of him, under the circumstances), but also that she’s interested in someone else. (As much as I would love to believe, as some have suggested, that the someone else isn’t Rodney, I’m afraid it’s highly likely that it is him.) Equally awkward, Ronon says he wasn’t interested, he just wanted to get something to eat. She tries to push the issue, saying she thought he was; he says she thought wrong. (Personally, I think he’s lying to save his ego.) She asks if he still wants to eat; he declines, saying he should go do something but doesn’t say what. (While I can’t blame her for turning him down, given his behavior in this ep and last especially, what a disappointing end to an arc that I thought I might rather enjoy when they first hinted at it last season. I’ve been on both sides of this equation; I feel sorry for both of them, albeit a bit more for him. But my being upset at this scene is more complicated than that, and of broader scope; I’ll get to that in a minute….)

Rodney visits Daniel in the infirmary; when asked how he’s doing, Daniel replies that it hurts to eat the fruit cup. “Well, don’t eat the fruit cup, then,” Rodney tells him. (Badump-bump.) “Thank you, Groucho,” Daniel replies, then asks if Rodney shouldn’t be working on a way to keep the Asgard out of the shields. Rodney says he;s one step ahead of the man, but then asks if he thinks the Asgard would make a run at them again; Daniel suggests that they might hold a grudge. The thought puts a damper Rodney’s mood. Daniel remarks that he won’t be around to find out, but this time it turns out that he just means, as Rodney tells us he’s heard, that he’s going back to Earth. Daniel explains that Landry wants him doing his recovery back there. McKay assures him that the Daedalus has brought them a gate left over from the space bridge, and his people are installing it as they speak. There’s an awkward moment of silence; then McKay says it’s been … “unique.” Daniel says he wants to thank McKay for saying that he respects him. McKay feigns ignorance; Daniel repeats the sentence back to him that McKay has said when Daniel was dying. Rodney points out that he never actually finished that sentence; Daniel pointedly asks how else he would have ended it, then. Rodney replies that he would say he regrets Daniel coming there, because none of it would have happened otherwise. “Do you can only give compliments to the dying?” Daniel asks, incredulous. “It’s something I’m working on,” Rodney admits, chagrined. (Well, at least he admits it’s a flaw. And hey, he visited Daniel; that’s got to count for something ….) Daniel offers Rodney his food tray, which Rodney heartily accepts. (Hmm, interesting: Rodney offered Keller his fruit cup in “the Shrine”, and now Daniel offers Rodney a whole tray, sans the fruit cup. A surely-unintentional-but-nevertheless-interesting parallel between Keller and Daniel. *Snicker*)

Getting back to the Keller/Ronon scene — or rather, the topic of Keller and her love life in general …. (The rest of what I have to say has little to do with this ep in particular, so feel free to bail now.) Not that I was a die-hard Ronon/Keller shipper, but I did think they were cute last year, whereas the more I see signs of McKeller, the more I want to hurl. I’m baffled as to why the writers — who have been adamantly against pursuing any ships between main characters on either show before, despite, in some cases, admitting their own ship preferences — have seen fit to follow through with McKeller — especially since this is the second relationship they’ve given Rodney, with Sheppard having no long-term on-screen relationships of that nature. Is it because Rodney is the one least likely to have a successful relationship? Well, I can see the merit of taking the opportunity to work with that, I guess. I just wish they’d chosen a character with an actress who could actually pull off her side of the relationship believably for me, and stop acting like she’s simply flattered/thinks Rodney is sweet; I just don’t get the right vibe from Staite’s side of the equation. I didn’t like the idea of John/Teyla all that much, but I at least found the chemistry believable from both of them, even when it was supposed to be ambiguous.

And I don’t feel that the ideal of “having the geek get the girl for a change” is a good reason to throw Keller and McKay together; besides, I like Ronon, and see no vengeful reason to deprive him of the girl he’s been seeking just because they decided to have McKay be interested in her too. Ronon’s not the antagonist in some high school movie. Keller could continued to be an excuse for Ronon to show his sensitive side, like she was in the beginning, instead of his chauvinistic one, like she was recently. She and McKay are too alike in non-interactive, uncomplimentary ways (young geniuses but of differing interests, both a bit skittish, stubborn and set in their ways) to be interesting to me anyway, although those same factors do make for them being good friends, since their similarities help them understand each other. I would be quite fine with them being buds. If he’s got to be paired off (and really, not everyone in the universe is cut out for that sort of thing), let Rodney find a girl (or guy!!) who suits him better, who challenges him more, who keeps him on his toes, and who lets him be whom he wants to be for himself (Gee, who fit’s that description? Is it any wonder I’m such a McShepper?), rather than spurring him to decide he needs to change for her sake.

Now, regular readers of this column know that I’d actually been supportive of Keller for a goodly while; the McKeller ship isn’t the only aspect of her story that’s starting to sour her presence for me. It’s almost funny: I’ve seen many others complain about her being whiny and “helplessness”, but her behaviors seemed perfectly natural for her role and never bothered me — in fact, that fact that she’s handling herself better these days may even be part of why I’m losing my affection for her. I appreciate that she’s grown as a person this past season-and-a-half, but it’s starting to come at the expense of the other characters. It doesn’t seem right to me that Keller has been in the thick of things more than Carson ever was when he was a series regular. Keller is even seeing more action — both physically and in terms of relationships — than Teyla this season, and that, to me, is just wrong! So is the fact that Keller’s grown out of her “whinier” and more helpless aspects far faster than Rodney has been doing so. I can understand her learning to fight and be more self-sufficient — I even approve of it, if we’re talking about a lead character. But she should never have become a “lead” character, with contributions on par with the fab four, any more than Janet or Carolyn were, and certainly not more than Carson. The lives of the core team and their character development should take priority over anyone outside it. Keller shouldn’t have shown Rodney up in the fight with the Wraith in “Tracker”, for example (especially if she really did only have a few sparring lessons), or negated the need of Rodney and Ronon’s (the heroes of the show, who ended up taking a back seat in the latter half of that ep) rescue efforts, or have been reprimanding Ronon/used as a vehicle to paint his actions negative light when he was trashing the lab in this ep. If anyone should be reprimanding Ronon, it should be his teammates, particularly Sheppard, or an enemy. Hell, I would even argue that Ronon was being overzealous and risking lives for the sake of impressing her, so her presence contributed to the creation of a scenario for him to fail in a most spectacular way; he might not have been quite so trigger-happy without her around — he did take a couple of extra shots with a look in his eye that said he did it just because she told him not to and wanted to prove her concerns wrong. And then she was in a position to break his heart (or Rodney’s, if she should choose), and has shown herself to be wiser at times; she has too much power over two core characters. If she were just a plot device, and would fade into the night after, the way Katie and Chaya did, that would be one thing, but since she has a role of her own ….

If Keller had her own show, her level of development would be fine, but as things stand, to me? She’s getting to be too much of a “Mary-Sue” — she’s an outside character who steals the spotlight by either needing saving or saving the day herself on a frequent basis, and has been an ongoing love interest of not just one, but two of the main characters, to the point where they (sort-of) fought over her! I hear she’s even going to be abducted (as opposed to just captured) a second time this season! (Well, I suppose that might be an attempt to work with a theme, since Teyla was rescued from her own abduction at the beginning of the season, Ronon was abducted himself, and I think John will be, later in the year, if I hear right. I guess Rodney got an early jump on the theme with his abduction last season. *Snicker*) I was willing to overlook her youth as CMO — I was a Doogie Howser fan, after all, and I know there are young geniuses out there — but if you couple her genius with those other factors, over the course of the season (and including “Trio” and “Last Man”), that just increases her “Mary-Sue”-ness. Especially when, as a fan pointed out to me the other day, Marie, who we know had experience working with Carson (whereas we never saw Keller before “First Strike”) and who proved in this ep that she knows how to take charge in a crisis, was apparently overlooked for the job. I will concede that, if not for McKeller, I probably would remain more tolerant of Jennifer’s “Mary-Sue” qualities, but it’s just gotten to be too much for me — straw and camels and backs, and all that.

Yeah, yeah, I can here some of you now. Ronon was a new character that was brought in and stole the spotlight, you say. Except that he was brought in to be a core character, to replace Ford. Same with Jonas in SG-1 — he replaced Daniel. Mitchell replaced O’Neill. Vala was technically an antagonist until the writers decided to make her a member of SG-1; she caused problems as a quasi-villain, and even as a team-member, she hurt the day as often as she saved it. Not to mention her presence was, in the beginning of season nine, meant to fill Carter’s shoes while Tapping was on maternity leave, so she was playing a core teammate, in essence. (And as far as pairing her with Daniel goes, to me, they, unlike McKeller, had fantastic chemistry. I guess that, with McKeller, I’m getting an idea of how those who hated Daniel/Vala, and didn’t agree that they had chemistry, felt. *Sigh*) Now, if Keller’s meant to be core team instead of just support, the way Carson was, if the team is intended to be seen as expanded, then they should stop pussyfooting around the concept of her role, declare her as such formally and bring her on more Sheppard-team missions rather than having them accompany her.

I’m going to run with an analogy I used elsewhere, for a moment. Core team are main courses, while Keller is a side dish. I liked her in small portions, but now the chefs (writers) have decided she’s a main course, and she’s staring to overpower the meal. There’s only so much room on the plate, and in serving more of her, the vegetables, they also seem to be serving less of Teyla, one of the meats, and Keller’s sauces have, as far as I’m concerned, tainted two of the others, Ronon and Rodney. I also don’t think Keller compliments Rodney very well, but that’s a matter of taste to me — she spiced up Ronon better, in the past, although now an ingredient has been added to their mix that’s purposefully made them unpalatable as well. With Rodney, she was fine to start with, when they were just side-by-side on the plate, but again, a new ingredient was added in “Trio” and they were nixed together starting in “Last Man”, and instead of spicing things up, as far as my tongue is concerned, she’s starting to spoil his flavour. So now I’m starting to wish she were just taken off the menu altogether. But every body’s taste buds are different. Some people are liking it better this way; good for them, bad for me and others like me, who are having some difficulty swallowing a meal we once enjoyed so well. (Some call McKeller sweet — for me, it’s the aspartame kind of sweet, fake-tasting with an even worse after-taste, and I have a bad reaction to it.) So far, I’ve been managing to eat around McKeller, or enjoy them separately, but with Ronon/Keller out of the picture, that may prove more difficult than ever.

I suppose it’s too much to hope that, once she and McKay hook up, Keller’ll disappear like Kanaan has? Yeah, I know, dream on. As it is, I’m now dreading the upcoming Rodney-centric “Brain Storm”, which she’ll be in, when I should be thrilled, especially since it’s a Gero ep. Now I get to see Rodney spend another huge chunk of time with Keller instead of Sheppard? And I’m supposed to be happy about it — that, with only nine episodes left, I’m being cheated of more team (and McShep) screentime in favour of McKeller? *Sigh* In a perfect universe (at least by my standards), Firefly and Atlantis would both be renewed and Staite would go back to playing Kaylee — which hey, would have the added benefit of leaving the door open for Carson to come back full time!

And if wishes were ZPMs, cities would fly.

Ah well. As unhappy as I’m finding myself regarding Keller in general and McKeller in particular, I won’t stop watching the show over it or anything — I enjoy McShep, and the stories as a whole, far too much. And I can be gracious enough to be happy for my McKeller-loving friends. (I just hope they keep an airsickness bag handy for me!) And I can pray that Staite’s performance in the future finally changes my mind regarding the lack of chemistry on Keller’s part towards Rodney.

See you all next week, for “Outsiders”!

Never miss an update. Subscribe to Pink Raygun by Email or subscribe via RSS

Wolfen Moondaughter is on the editorial board for the comics industry webzine Sequential Tart, for which she has written since late 2001. She’s an artist, too, having done spot illustrations for Dragonlance, among other things. In her spare time, she’s a rabid fanficcer/fanartist. See more of her work at her site, Wolfen’s Webworld.