The Long Goodbye (216)

[smushybird]

Rodney wouldn't have shot at Sheppard like that. Certainly, the post-Trinity and post-Grace Under Pressure Rodney wouldn't have.

I realize the idea of continuity is frightening and foreign to the producers of the Stargate shows, but that's purely bad characterization. The writer should feel embarrassed over such an error. I'd like to think even DH paused for a moment and said, "Hey, McKay wouldn't really do that--not now..."

That bothered me so much, I couldn't stop thinking about it through the rest of the episode.

Otherwise, it was an entertaining episode--apart from almost everyone behaving stupidly, but that, as has been mentioned, has been disturbingly par for the course, lately. And the whole alien possession thing along with schoolboy-level fake kissing that makes the other characters wince or laugh or look away has pretty much run its course. Time to move on to meatier, more emotionally complex stuff, guys.

[CalmStorm]

I really liked this episode!

At first, from the previews and from reading all of the reviews here, I was expecting it to be a predominately Sheppard and Weir centered episode.....and to some degree it was. However, I was impressed at how much it was a team episode. There was good focus on Teyla and Ronon this time around, as well as featuring Beckett, McKay and Caldwell. They were all involved in this episode and these are the kinds of episodes that I like to see. I also like episodes that take place within the city, so that was another bonus.

I cannot say enough great things about Torri's performance in this one. I loved the new little nuances attached with the intruding persona. Just an amazing job on Torri's part. Also loved action Weir/Phoebus.....was really a treat to see this.

I think Joe did a wonderful job as well with the double character part. He was much more subtle in his delivery as it was not necessary for him to stray much from his character, as his little intruder was military. I think if he would have tried to increase the difference it would not have played as well. With Weir, it was necessary to see such a dramatic difference in character as they were very much 2 different personalities.

Ronon....well, I can't believe he feel for Shep's/Thalen's little lies. Really shoud have used a bit more of that survivor instinct that's kept him alive for seven years. That must be a little bruising for the ego to survive the wraith for seven years only to have a woman shoot him in the gut.

I was pleased with Teyla in this episode as well. Good for her for not falling for the Shep trap. WOW....also like how she took charge in the end when Lorne came in. Very smart on her part.

Beckett....operating in the dark with nothing but "torches" for light. Of course the lights were going to come on right as he finished his surgery.....does he know nothing about how the stargate universe works How cute he was in ths episode.....he is also a hopeless romantic me thinks.

Caldwell.....he was really tolerable this episode.....almost redeeming.

[LORD MONK]

It was a throw away for me.
Although here are the parts I think made the ep. in any order.
1. Caldwell at the end saying how he understands. (being taken over by a host) That right there explained a lot of his actions suring the ep.
2. Tayla kicking the gun out of Shep.s hands.
3. Shep getting Ronin shot then telling him how Shep is screaming in his head.
4. McKay - fill in blank

[nicholas]

this episode turned out way better than i thot it was gonna be.. good stuff.. i like weir so it was good to see her with a story.. the end scene was kinda abrupt but not horrible..

*wishes there were reruns during the week*

[vaberella]

I loved this episode for obvious reason (take a look at my sig). Watching Caldwell in action was a great fun! But i agree the plot it self was naive and overally, if not for Mitch Pileggi i woud rate it average.

I'm a Caldwell and Daedy fan as well....can't live without them..if only they could be in every ep!
VB

[JUNIOR]

It makes zero sense for Sheppard to recover sooner after having been taken over later.

Spoiler:

Lesbian HiveQueen sex? In what episode?

Actually it does make sense since Dr. Beckett said in the beginning that Thalen/Shep's entity was weaker/closer to death than Phebus/Dr. Weirs Alien entity was.

Spoiler:

Already saw the whole season and I'm sorry to say, actually no i'm not sorry to say that there is no Lesbian HiveQueen sex.

[Raptor 1]

OK after seeing this episode I have to say that I was happy to see weir get some exposure. Instead of always seeing her give orders and never leave atlantis. Well maybe once or twice she has done so in the past. But one this I did not understand was why phoebeus(sic) lied in order to wake up the other guy. She heard how weak he was. Why didnt she just convince the team not to wake him. That way since it was so important, she could have just watched him die. Did she want the spirit of the last hunt? I dont know.

[NeoSaber]

But one this I did not understand was why phoebeus(sic) lied in order to wake up the other guy. She heard how weak he was. Why didnt she just convince the team not to wake him. That way since it was so important, she could have just watched him die. Did she want the spirit of the last hunt? I dont know.

I got the impression that Phoebus was very impulsive, and had a lot of personal hatred towards Thalan. Thalan seemed to put some thought into his actions, and wanted his mission completed more than the personal victory of killing Phoebus. I have the feeling that if their roles were reversed with Thalan being revived first, he would have made up a story about Phoebus being a dangerous criminal and should be left to die.

Once both were revived and the chase started, they each reacted quite differently. Thalan went and knocked out the power, where as Phoebus rounded up a bunch of security guards who would turn on her the moment they got word of what was happening. Thalan was thinking ahead and trying to avoid being tracked. Phoebus, thinking only of killing Thalan, surrounded herself with a bunch of enemies. It didn't totally backfire for her (since she got some extra firepower off them), but was poor planning.

Thalan used Ronin to try to lure out Phoebus, and set up an ambush later that Telya walked into instead. He also was able to get ahold of the only lethal energy weapon on the base. Phoebus nearly walked into Thalan's traps, and kept firing wildly with a gun with a limited ammo supply. When cornered, Phoebus locked herself in a room and tried to control Atlantis with Weir's codes, leaving herself reliant on everyone else to kill Thalan for her.

When Thalan's imprint was fading away, his last words were along the lines of "You can't let her win." It was somewhat soldier like in that he was thinking about his mission, as opposed to saying something like "Damn, now I can't kill her". It didn't seem as personal for him as it was for her. Phoebus could have killed Shepard as Telya backed away, but instead wanted to see his face when she killed him.

Anyway, that's why I think Phoebus concocted a story to get Thalan revived.

[Zat]

This episode was disturbingly bad. What's disturbing is not the episode itself but the fact that this episode is pretty much par for the coarse for Atlantis this season.

The entire episode is built on the premiss that the Atlantis team will do something stupid at every moment up until the end when McKay finally 'fixes it' and the episodes built in safety feature kicks in.

In the end I asked myself what this episode was really about... and the answer is 'not much.' Basically we find two aliens who we know little about, who trick us, and then run around trying to kill each other for 40 minutes while the Atlantis team makes more and more mistakes to keep the plot going. A story needs to be about something. There has to be something that we think about long after it's over. By the end of this episode we basically hit the reset button and the series itself is no better for it. The two stars of this episode are two aliens inside of Shepard and Weir's bodies who all we know about them is that they came from an extinct civilization who were at war and they obviously want to kill each other. Why do they want to kill each other so bad? All we know is its because they were at war and they were trying to kill each other at the moment they went into stasis in the first place. Who are these people? Who knows, and since they writers mention that they are probably extinct (as if anyone could possibly know that) we are told not to care.

I can forgive an occational episode like this but as I said, this is pretty typical this season. I don't know why, but while season one spent enough time developing characters and putting them in situations that allowed THEM to react in character, season two is simply about writing stories with no complexity nor emotional attachment where the characters only serve to progress the show into Battlestar Galactica at the top of the hour. It's very disapointing. The stories this season, while typically not great, have all at least presented an opportunity to add the shows mythology or give us new aspects of the main characters but very few have done that. I mean last week we found Atlantis' sister ship burried under 10,000 years of dirt and all we gaind from the show was.... a few new jumpers and a few drones to replace the ones we've shot off or blown up in the first 1 1/2 seasons.

This is season 2 now and when was the last time we discovered ANYTHING cool in the city? Outside of the first episode the city has simply turned into the SGC: Ancient Edition. This is a huge city seemingly near the size of Manhattan Island and yet the show gives off the impression that we've seen and found everything there is to see and that there was really nothing cool. This might seem silly but obviously the Ancients didn't take everything they owned in their little backpacks, they left a lot of stuff behind, a whole bunch of stuff that a character like Daniel Jackson would love to spend YEARS going through and talking about. There is so many potentialy interesting storylines that can be told but are simply ignored while they come up with more and more rediculous episodes like this one.

Now sorry for the rant but I enjoyed season one very much and I am very surprised to see the drastic turn for the worse this show has taken in season two. I can understand SG-1 getting stagnant but at least they've been able to pick up the pace recently and at several moments through out this season. Sadly IMO Season 2 of Atlantis is quickly turning into the least memorable of all 11 stargate seasons.

[GatetheWay]

Well, from what I remember of SG-1's season 2... it wasn't that great either...

[ShadowMaat]

Well, from what I remember of SG-1's season 2, it wasn't that great either...

What a shame that TPTB didn't learn from their mistakes.

[GatetheWay]

I'm just saying I'm not going to jump the gun and say Atlantis is finished just because season 2 isn't as great as season 1. Some of the best SG-1 eps came from season 3 and 4.

[Mio]

Why did they need to install a fire supressant system at all? This is Atlantis, surely it has something capable of putting out a mere fire. We've seen the city has sensors capable of detecting something as itty bitty as a little nanovirus. Surely its sensors can detect a fire and respond accordingly.

[AGateFan]

Why did they need to install a fire supressant system at all? This is Atlantis, surely it has something capable of putting out a mere fire. We've seen the city has sensors capable of detecting something as itty bitty as a little nanovirus. Surely its sensors can detect a fire and respond accordingly.

You would think.

[xfkirsten]

Why did they need to install a fire supressant system at all? This is Atlantis, surely it has something capable of putting out a mere fire. We've seen the city has sensors capable of detecting something as itty bitty as a little nanovirus. Surely its sensors can detect a fire and respond accordingly.

I wondered about that myself. I can see why they might need one, and it would just take a line or two to explain it. Maybe something in the original fire suppression system was damaged over ten thousand years that Atlantis sat on the ocean floor, or has been damaged since then (eg in the Wraith attack or the storm).