Instinct (207)

[Colonel_Sheppard]

If you remember. The story of the Wraith was basically legend. They didn't know what they looked like. And If a wraith acts just like a human until "puberty" then, they can grow past the ugliness of a wraith and love the child. If you think about it, it isn't that weird. I mean, he adopted it, not really knowing what it was, took care of it, thought of her as a human and when she went through the "need to feed" he did what he could to help her, he grew to love her as his own daughter. Personally, I think they guy had more conviction than I do, I dunno if I could allow a wraith to feed on me so it could survive.

[the fifth man]

Good episode. Going to be cool to see what happens exactly with Sheppard. Can't wait for the next episode to find out. But man, that poor little Wraith girl. Yeah, she was a killer, but she didn't like what she was. She wanted to be human, normal like us, and look how it turned out for her. Hope we encounter similar situations with Wraith. It would be cool to see a "good" Wraith for a change.

[Dr Weir]

Instinct was depressing to me. It just doesn't seem fair that

Spoiler:

the kid didn't survive! If I was in the dad's place, yeah, I probably would have done the same thing. If there's the slightest hope that some of the child's humanity remains -yes, I'd try and make her better. But in this case apparantly, time proved the greater enemy. I say whatshisface (I keep forgetting his name, I'm sorry, so many characters!) better whip up that serum quick! I mean, hey, if all you've gotta do is get a kid and revert it back to it's human side, STEP TO IT ALREADY!

Spoiler:

She dies? I read in the ep thread it wasn't shown if she died. Did she definitly die?

[ShippyChick]

I agree that knowing what a wraith is, there is no way I would take one in at any age. As Colonel_Sheppard pointed out, they weren't sure what the child was. That being said I would probably help a lost kid. After bring it home and taking care of the wraith by conventional means, I would have formed an emotional bond with the child that would be very hard to sever.

On a side note, I am new to the board and don't know if there are any Firefly fans here. I knew I reconized Ellia's voice as that of Kaylee's.

[Apogeal Alpha 01]

Yes, but not before an interesting plot twist or two. That isn't the whole story by any means. You'll still enjoy the episode.

[MarshAngel]

Spoiler:

She dies? I read in the ep thread it wasn't shown if she died. Did she definitly die?

No doubt about it, unfortunately.

[TyrionLannister]

If you look at her hand on Shep's arm at the end, she's totally turning into the bug. I imagine the retrovirus has the bug DNA and she was turning into it. I'm GUESSING that's what's happening with Shep too, in CONVERSION.

Oh, okay. Now that makes more sense. I slightly missed part of that scene due to my dog HAVING to go out NOW! Thanks.

[ShadowMaat]

I liked this episode, but I had one major complaint with it. Someone here may have said italready, but I didnt see it. I hated how Elia looked totally weird after taking the retrovirus. She didnt look like a normal Wraith. She looked like a cross between Nightcrawler (from Xmen) and Two-face (of Batman fame). Her skin looked darkblue/black instead of the normal white. The left side of her face (our right) was much darker than the left (especially at first) which was almost the normal white.

A lot was made over the idea that Wraith are a combination of human and iratus bug. Beckett synthesized a retrovirus that he hoped would remove the iratus bug portion of Wraith DNA/physiology/whatever and leave nothing but pure human. Unfortunately, as he said, it had the opposite effect and removed the human portion of the Wraith... leaving mostly iratus bug. As I recall, the bug in 38 Minutes was bluey-purple in coloring. That would make Ellia's appearance consistent with that of an iratus bug. Well, more or less. A human-shaped bug.

[MarshAngel]

If you look at her hand on Shep's arm at the end, she's totally turning into the bug. I imagine the retrovirus has the bug DNA and she was turning into it. I'm GUESSING that's what's happening with Shep too, in CONVERSION.

While I got the idea they were trying to get across with this episode, I found the concept of stripping a wraith of its insect DNA a little ridiculous. I'm no geneticist but I don't think in our DNA we don't have two separate sets belonging to one species and another to another that you can just get rid of one and have everything be just fine. Unless this retrovirus is going to fill in the blanks as well,which is also far fetched... this seems a bit much to have happened in such a short amount of time. That's probably why Instinct wasn't my favorite episode. The whole retrovirus thing only existed to get the outcome they wanted. I wish they'd saved it for later.

[smushybird]

While I got the idea they were trying to get across with this episode, I found the concept of stripping a wraith of its insect DNA a little ridiculous. I'm no geneticist but I don't think in our DNA we don't have two separate sets belonging to one species and another to another that you can just get rid of one and have everything be just fine. Unless this retrovirus is going to fill in the blanks as well,which is also far fetched... this seems a bit much to have happened in such a short amount of time. That's probably why Instinct wasn't my favorite episode. The whole retrovirus thing only existed to get the outcome they wanted. I wish they'd saved it for later.

Maybe it doesn't get rid of it. Maybe it just represses or prevents the mutation from continuing to occur, the way the new cancer drugs like glivec suppress the dna mutations in myelogenous leukemia.
I'm not really clear on how a "retrovirus" works, though.

[Jwizzman]

man, that scene with the wraith girl and ronan was so cool...scared the sh*t outta me, LOL

[Redwall]

Maybe it doesn't get rid of it. Maybe it just represses or prevents the mutation from continuing to occur, the way the new cancer drugs like glivec suppress the dna mutations in myelogenous leukemia.
I'm not really clear on how a "retrovirus" works, though.

A retrovirus embeds itself into the host's DNA.

Of course, the whole mutant bug/human thing is still as patently ridiculous as it was when they first brought it up.

[Osiris]

Very sad episode. Poor girl. I almost cried...

Good episode!

[Biscuit]

One thing I just realised:

Also : WTF ronon, just goes crazy. Guess he doesn't like biscuits.

What up with that, Dex? You eat food off the floor! All of a sudden Wraith biscuits aren't good enough for you? Biscuit bigot.

What was I saying? Ah yes. The episode! Loved it. It was just a fun, fun ride for me. Let me lay it out with bullet points:

* The headsmack made my day. Because one smack upside the head between buddies is worth a thousand pages of awkward expository dialogue about trust issues. I've missed my Sheppard and McKay buddy scenes! Next thing you know, they'll be progressing to noogies and purple nurples and voila! Their friendship will be back on solid footing.

* Little Wraith girl broke my thumping heart. Because what parent wouldn't sacrifice themselves to save their child? And then the child sacrificed herself in a doomed attempt to spare her father further suffering. Wow, say I.

* I'm liking Dex. I do wish I could wave a magic wand and make him e-n-u-n-c-i-a-t-e his freaking lines (I re-wound four times and still couldn't make out what he was trying to say to McKay before the headsmack scene. But he's not the cliche I thought he was going to be. The following orders scene cracked me up.

* Although I'm with the people who think Teyla went briefly insane. Dex needs orders! When he goes off on his own recognizance, people get shot in cold blood and biscuits get stomped. The dude is an exercise in poor judgment. He undergoes surgery without anesthesia! He dresses in fringed buckskin! He runs around with a sword he never uses!

* I talked it over with a pathologist friend of mine and she's finally convinced me that there were sound scientific reasons for Beckett to bring samples of the retrovirus along on this little field trip. Something about testing on cell cultures and blah blah sciencebabble. So I'm going to stop fuming about that.

*McKay continues to be my favorite part of the show. Pestering Beckett, hunting down the wraith with Extreme Twitchiness. I love that he continues to be plagued by an infestation of small, cute children with questions...many questions. But did you notice that when Elia went missing, McKay knew just how to track down a miserable runaway teen-ager? (He jumped right in with "Does she have any favorite hiding places? Places she liked to go?") Aw. Woobie.

* What was that look Weir gave Sheppard after he cracked that joke about Wraith puberty? (Pimples, rebellion, life-sucking...ha!) She needs to never, ever make that face at him again. That's the sort of face *I* would make if I rounded a corner and came face-to-face with Joe Flanigan. I'd like to think Weir had a lot more personal dignity than I do. That was a look that said: "Puppy! C'mere and let me rub your belly!" Brrr...

[PugGate]

I liked this episode, it shows that the Wraith can understand love with regard to the parent-child relationship between Elia and her father.

As for the father, he said he lost his own kids before. I think that much like ONiell with Skara, he took in Elia as in own child, but unlike O'Niell's relationship... his was an actual parent-child one.

I felt so sorry for Elia. I really liked her character and with there would be more others like her. Its interesting to see a "light" in a group of people that is normally seen as dark and evil.

Speaking of which, aren't we supposed to meet more "good" Wraiths sometime this season?

I think it would be a horrible thing if TPTB had 'good' wraith in the story. Oh, they might as well live in crystal tunnels and have their main goal to be to undermine the Goa'uld- I mean the Wraith...

And if you still don't know what I'm talking about, I'm simply pointing out that it would be too similar to SG-1. Especially if they're introduced in the second season!