Michael (218)

[AutumnDream]

I have TPTB read this thread and actually explore these concepts in the future.

[Dromag67]

The part where he looked in the mirror and saw a Wraith scared the living crap out of me the first time.

Caught me off gaurd, probably even moreso if I hadn't of read the spoilers

[adk06]

Spoilers highlight below to read

Ok so by now everyone knows the stargate atlantis episode's are all over the net. Has anyone seen Episode 218 yet Michael cause I wanna know if my theory about whats gonna happen is correct
oh and could someone tell me how to do a spoilers tag?

[Peoples_General]

[ spoiler ] ....blah blah blah.... [ / spoiler ]

Spoiler:

Orion is the name of the Ancients ship found in Inferno.

[adk06]

Spoiler highlight below to read

Spoiler:

thanks oh and actually i've seen the episode Michael it was pretty good what did you think of it?
i'm most excited about Inferno

[JUNIOR]

I think the Ep. would have been better if *possible spoilers*

Spoiler:

they would had used the memory recall machine from SG-1 in Ep. 9X13 to insert selected memories of someones life into his head and try to erase the bad ones he had.

Who knows, maybe they'll do it in a future Ep. in season 3 or a later season. But that could be the key to defeating the Wraith along with the Wraith drug. The things that they could have possibly learned from "Micheal" with that machine oh well too bad!! maybe next Wraith.

[T'saria]

There is a problem with the "human or death" choice when it comes to the Wraith. The wraith are immortal, and by making them into human, removing their ability to regenerate, you are artificially shortening their otherwise limitless lifespan. While it may take a few years for them to die of aging, you are still killing them.

It could be considered an extremely cruel way of killing them, since this formally immortal sentient being KNOWS his lifespan is know limited.

I completely agree with you about the cruelness of making a
wraith into a human and the lifespan thing. how awful...why do
they feel the need to make wraiths "human" anyway?
isn't the real issue how they eat, not what they are?
I think it's arrogant of humans to decide the best fate for the
wraith is to make them human. pardon if it has been said before.

why not just fix it so they can eat differently and be done with it!

aside from the immortality thing...just think of what it is like
to go from being a wraith to being a human *shudder. shudder*

[PG15]

They're doing this "cruel" thing to him because they know how to. They have no clue how to make a Wraith eat something else.

[maxbo]

I loved this episode. Seeing events unfold through Michael’s eyes gave this episode such a different, edgy feel that I wish I had seen it spoiler free. By focusing on Michael's feelings, our regulars came across as almost Dr. Frankenstein-like characters. We were meant to sympathize with Michael and I did. However, Michael was a Wraith and what the SGA team was attempting was too experimental (and too dangerous) for them to be so lack in security, but I put the blame on TPTB for that bit of foolishness, not the characters. Even in terms of plot-driven writing, it didn’t make any sense that Michael wasn’t set up at the Alpha site from the beginning and it wasn't believable that anyone in Atlantis would think it was a good idea to allow him access to Atlantis. That was just lazy, incomprehensible writing.

Anyway, getting back to the SGA team. As different as each Atlantis member’s reaction was to Michael, I could see where each was coming from:

Elizabeth: She has had to move away from her usual peaceful mediation stance to accept that they are dealing with an enemy that is not receptive to negotiation. Whether it’s because the Wraith need to feed on humans to survive or because they prefer to feed on humans to survive, the fact is that the Wraith and humans can’t co-exist. As leader of Atlantis she has had to consider using a means of defense that she would normally find repugnant and her way of dealing with this (at least in this episode) was to become cold and stoic -- a different Elizabeth from the one in Critical Mass.

Carson: He’s such a soft touch that he seems to still have the hope that his research will some day benefit the Wraith as much as humans. He seemed to have misgivings more about the timetable of using his retrovirus than the actual using of it and his discomfort (about rushing the use of the retrovirus and keeping the truth from Michael) was painful to watch. That same almost dangerously optimistic and compassionate guy shown in Duet was present here.

Teyla: Her belief that Wraith experimentation wouldn’t work (and/or was wrong) and her ability to connect with the Wraith (and thus feel Michael’s fear, pain and confusion), clouded her judgment here. Because she seemed to feel everything that Michael was feeling, she realized that his pain was real and as a result she dropped her guard. I don't believe she was more susceptible to Michael's influence because of her Wraith DNA, I believe she was more susceptible because she felt too much compassion for him.

Ronon: I believe he was the only one who kept his wits about him from beginning to end. Yes, he came across as a hardass, but that's the way everyone involved should have been. Especially, when Carson informed them that the current form of the retrovirus only had short-term results. To Ronon's credit, he showed remarkable restraint considering his up close and personal experience with the Wraith for so many years.

Sheppard: As a military leader, his no-nonsense "this is war" stance is what I expected from him. As was mentioned in Season 1, the humans are vastly outgunned and outnumberd by the Wraith so they have to find ways to tip the scale in their favor or else accept their current position on the food chain in the Pegasus galaxy.

In Season 3, I hope the TPTB follow up on the many issues raised in this episode because as much as I enjoyed this episode, it would be frustrating to watch it again if TPTB hit that damned reset button after the Season 3 opener.

[Puddle Jumper 1]

ok i just watched micheal and i was FREAKED out when he looks in the mirror and the wraith was in it i had my volume up heaps and my heart skipped like 25 beats

[birdieey]

The wraith aren't like the borg. They were NEVER human. Michael isn't going to spontaneously generate memories of a life he never had and can't begin to fully understand and I think it was incredibly stupid of the entire Atlantis crew to think that this ruse might work.

This (above quote) is the essential reason this episode did not work for me. Forget the ethics (for the moment). Michael was a wraith with "amnesia" and therefore, spoke, acted and reacted like a human?

Memory may be important but nothing is stronger than instinct. His language and mannerisms were all human, (he did walk a little funny, but that may just have been the actor) I think he even said "see ya", to Rodney. Even Teyla doesn't say "see ya".

Imagine if when he was fighting with Teyla he had slammed his hand against her chest instead of choking her. It would have been embarrassing and shocking (and would have added another dimension to Ronan freaking out). Or if instead of just recognizing the language on Rodney's computer he had spoken some of the words.

Since wraith have telepathic abilities and seem to use them to communicate it may have been interesting to see him accidently begin to speak to Teyla telepathically on instinct. Or have itchy hands, or ask if his hair has always been this short, or question what floss is, or have trouble using cutlery... anything that might have actually differentiated him from the rest of the Atlantis team. Something that would have made it believable for him to be so accepting of the fact that he used to be a wraith.

BTW - I don't think he had a very wraith like reaction to finding out that they had tampered with his DNA, or human like reaction for that matter. Sheppard freaked out a hell of a lot more when he found out he was turning into a bug.

[vaberella]

Hey...remember though that Dr. Heightmeyer was in teh helm of all this when it was going on. And we know she knows hypnosis. How do we know she wasn't feeding him subliminal messages while he was being drugged? How do we know they weren't all messing around psychologically with teh guy when they would come to visit and see him, so that in the long run he would pick up on things.

Further more..mannerisms are easily picked up. Remember in Elia she pretty much was able to learn everything and react very humanily besides the effect of the hunger she felt. Plus remembr the food-eater wraith and how his mannerisms were....pretty much human with an evil streak----who's to say how they talk amongst each other. Plus I always thought there was an heirarchy amongst the Wraith and the way they fed.

The higher ones were more human hence their more humanistic mannerisms besdies the ones with something on their face. So there's that..and then there's also how they feed off of people..i thoguth they picked up a bit of their memories and also more human mannerisms and see things into the human.....like let's say Rogue..albeit minute. But of course the baser instincts of the iratus was always present and diluted those human feelings over time depending on how long they've fed...

i don't know..just speculating on the Wraith...

VB

[Falcon Horus]

I'm not sure if this is going to make sense, and whether it's tied in with the current discussion...

Michael's memory was just wiped clean during the transformation from Wraith to human.

So, when you can't a remember a thing of who you were before the "trauma" isn't it logical then that you start picking up things from the people around you.

They fed him stories which he believed to be through and reacted accordingly. Though Michael always felt something was off otherwise he wouldn't have told Heightmeyer that.

[Callie]

After Michael and Teyla have gone through the Alpha site’s Gate, we see John standing at the DHD. His face is reflected in the central blue button. The camera moves around behind him and something else reflects in the bottom of the button. I think that we briefly catch the reflection of either the top of the camera or the boom.

[birdieey]

Further more..mannerisms are easily picked up. Remember in Elia she pretty much was able to learn everything and react very humanily besides the effect of the hunger she felt. Plus remembr the food-eater wraith and how his mannerisms were....pretty much human with an evil streak----who's to say how they talk amongst each other. Plus I always thought there was an heirarchy amongst the Wraith and the way they fed.VB

Elia was different she was raised by humans, and while I agree that mannerisms are easily picked up nothing is stronger than instinct. I watched the episode again a couple of nights ago and I noticed that when Michael knocked Teyla down he did sort of have his hand on her chest, I wish they had played that up more.

The higher leveled wraith do have more "human" mannerisms but not human from Earth,(ie. see ya) it was too natural. I would have prefered for his demeanor to be more hesitant and forced. Sort of a "I know I'm supposed to do this, or say this, but it really doesn't feel natural."

If you watch the season finale (small spoilers below) ....

... you'll see how different Michael speaks, it's very formal (similar to Teyla). I think it would have been interesting for him to have spoken that way in this episode. He complained to Heightmeyer about feeling different, about something feeling off, but these feelings were never really demonstrated through his interactions with other people. He got a long so well with everyone (except Ronan), that it seemed weird to me that he was so sure something was wrong. But hey that's just me.

Falcon Horus: To me the fact that his mind was wiped completely is even more of a reason for him to occasionally "wraith out". Instinct is all he had left.

cheers,

b.