Instinct (207)

[Shivan]

What I did appreciate about this episode though is its ultimate point; A Wraith can't stop being a Wraith even if they wanted to. I don't know that they needed to stress the point that there is no peaceful easy solution but it certainly didn't hurt to have it confirmed again.

The Wraith are fundamentally albino vampires.
Put simply.

Update - After thinking about my above comment, I realized that originally vampires were somewhat albino... Well, they are quite pale and do intentionally stay out of the sun...

I am allowing you to read both my original post above and now the post I would have made if I hadn't forgot about Wesley Snipes -

The Wraith are fundamentally albino mosquitoes, with the mental capacity of humans.

[kharn the betrayer]

Ok this was a good episode....

it was nice to see a FEMALE wraith for once...

considering most Wraiths we have seen up till now have been males that look alike for the most part....


and the ending though ;_; poor Elia

[JanusAncient]

The episode was nice, Conversion will be better, but what struck me as odd, was that iratus dna seemed more efficient than the usual Wraith/Human hybrid, why are the humans using a retrovirus, and not the Wraith, wouldn't it be simpler to merely eradicate the human dna within them, this would make them a more powerful race, at least physically, they could keep the current form for better brain capacity, dexterity, but taking on only the traits of the iratus bugs, would make them a unique race.

[starfox]

Starfox is one of those good, dedicated, and loyal Stargate fans who takes notes while watching.

Let's give him a pat on the back.

*laughs and accepts pat on the back, though it was all mental ramble and not notes*

Oh, and I'm a her, by the way.

[Mio]

Aww. Poor Elia. I don't see why Becket even brough the retriovirus with him. It didn't make much sense. In order to properly work on it, it probably would have made more sense to take tissue samples and bring them back to Atlantis, where he has the Ancient equiptment to work on it too.

[Nienna]

I'm not so sure I like this whole "wraith cure" thing that Carson is working on, it just seems a bit too fast and a bit too 'plot device'.

Aside from that, I did like the ep. We got some good info on the wraith and the whole 'nature vs nurture' issue with Elia was excellent.
Plus marks for making Elia a character who was sympathetic, even at the end, when she had to tell daddy the truth. Poor girl, she wanted so badly to be human and to have people like her. Up until the 'chat scene', I kept hoping we could somehow help her.
I liked that Teyla was the one to reach out and try to help Elia. It gave her some good character development and it was cute to see her teaching Elia how to use her powers.
Ronan was rude, but his actions were understandable. She is the face of every horror he has ever seen or imagined. And unfortuantly, he was right.
Carson, be more careful with the medical supplies next time!
Shepperd, so needs to stop running off into danger without back up. He's lucky Teyla woke up and set Dex straight about "how we take orders" lol.

A couple things did kinda stick out though,
1) why did no one, even Dex the wraith slayer, wonder why the wraith had recently started taking two people when it fed? Why did it suddenly need an extra person, and why start risking a larger hunt? Especially knowing that the time of the change in hunting matched the time that Elia needed to start feeding.
2) why did the adult wraith not go find Elia and take her to stay with him? It would have been easy when she was a child. Did he not care? How parental are the wraith? It also makes me wonder how valuable the female wraith are. Elia's only the second one we've seen, so I assume they're rare, but the adult didn't seem concerned about her safety.

[starfox]

why did no one, even Dex the wraith slayer, wonder why the wraith had recently started taking two people when it fed? Why did it suddenly need an extra person, and why start risking a larger hunt? Especially knowing that the time of the change in hunting matched the time that Elia needed to start feeding.

I'm guessing because they're used to thinking of the Wraith as evil life-sucking vampires. They don't think of the Wraith as actually having tactics when it comes to feeding, nor do they know how many victims a Wraith needs to sustain itself. And no one knew exactly when Elia needed to start feeding until the big ol' village talk scene where her father admitted to letting her feed off of him.


What I'm wondering is why it's been so long between cullings. According to the villagers, they're the stuff of legends, meaning that there hasn't been one in a long time. It's funny that no one picked up on that.

[MarshAngel]

I did notice that it's been a very long time between cullings. Add to that fact the Wraith on the planet couldn't contact any others either. Maybe it's just one of those planets that slipped through the crack, being far out of the way. Perhaps it was a place that never had any significant civilization until a while after the cullings that destroyed the original one. So the wraith had little reason to visit, assuming there was no one there.

[ShadowMaat]

Written by Treena Hancock and Melissa Byer. Huh. Guess TPTB are listening after all.

Not a bad freshman effort. It was steady throughout, and we did learn a few important things about the wraith (they CAN understand things like love), but the ep doesn't really stand out for me. Not many chances taken, not many wild directions explored (although the retrovirus removing the human part was a good twist, even if you know SOMETHING was going to go wrong).

I DID like McKay and the kid. LOL! McKay and kids are always funny, IMO, although it's something to be taken in moderation. Too often I've noticed TPTB take a joke and run it into the ground. Let's save the kiddies for special occasions, eh?

Loved the headsmack Shep gave McKay. Classic stuff. Heck, I loved the McKay stuff in general. But there's no surprise there. Beckett was good as well. Personally, I think he should have played up the fact that HE, Beckett, was willing to go offworld to do the research. That right there should have been enough proof of how seriously he took the situation.

Most of the stuff was good. Dex was fun, with some nice stuff going on with the tracking, the nasty reaction to the Wraith girl and the gunplay.

If I had ANY complaint, it would be the sheer, jaw-dropping STUPIDITY of Teyla. Ye gods, woman! Just when I was all proud of Shep for finding the magic words for Dex ("That's an order"), she goes and screws it all to hell by telling Dex, "Oh, you don't ALWAYS have to follow orders, it's up to US to decide when to disobey!" *headdesk* I both hope and dread that her statement will come back to bite them all in the ass. HARD. Stupid, stupid, stupid Teyla.

I suspect Carson will soon discover the truth about the stuff the scientist guy was working on. Pity, that, although I do agree that there should be SOME way to synthesize a serum for the Wraith to use. I mean, if they can invent a serum to cure Jaffa dependency on symbiotes, why not this, too?
As well. I've seen worse eps (*cough*Sanctuary*cough*) and Instinct DID have some good to it. Next time these ladies write, though, I hope they add more zing and more unpredictible twists. Keep us on our toes! Don't let us guess the ending.

[smushybird]

Sad ep. Poor Elia.

Beautiful forest. I want to move there.

I did love the little character bits. Ronon downing his drink in an instant, Rodney sniffing at his drink.

Sheppard smacking Rodney on the head.

Rodney sticking his hand under his shirt to make sure he was all right. Exactly what I would've done myself.

Lots of Beckett in this one. Yayyyy

Rodney's just a natural dad, isn't he?

Smart Elia, to figure out how to inject the retrovirus. Also found it hard to believe the villagers were able to slaughter all those injured wraith but never tracked down and killed the remaining one, even though it was killing their family members.

I too liked the conversation between Rodney and Teyla. I like Teyla much more now than I did last year.

Ronon's still got a little too much surfer dude in his accent, but he's funny sometimes. I liked the bit about between him and Teyla about taking orders.

I also agree with the poster who said Rodney seemed a little subdued. He seemed quieter to me, too. Complained less. If that was deliberate in light of last week's episode, kudos to the writers for the continuity.

The talk about hypochondria was funny. He's such a sweet man. You want to hug him and smack him simultaneously.

Poor Sheppard. He thinks he hates those bugs now...

[FoolishPleasure]

Some of the lines written for Sheppard fell rather flat, but I still like his character and the way Flanigan plays him, so I'm gonna blame the writers for that one.

I've felt the same way about Sheppard the last several episodes. He looks cool, he shoots guns. He says almost the same lines. He has become a bit . . .stale. "Conversion" looks like it will give Flanigan a chance to stretch.

Tonight's first impressions (which are tough as I just finished watching a rather awful episode of BSG, which put a bit of a damper on the whole evening):

The Good:

Jewel Staite was excellent and the ending was quite sad. Liked the twist about her "father" being only 34.

Rodney hollaring at the kid. I love Rodney.

Good episode for Beckett. He even got to shoot a gun. *LOL*

Teyla and Ronon - enjoyed their little convo about following orders. . and when not to. Along with Teyla being the one to calm Ronon when he pulled the gun on Elia. Those two continue to work well together. Ronon's unpredictability brings a bit of a edge to the character - one never quite knows what his reactions will be. I like that "edge".

Really wasn't much to complain about, but there were a few questions. Would have been interesting to actually see a scene with Elia and the other Wraith. Would also like to know why a "child" was on that Wraith ship, and why the lone Wraith didn't seem to care that "she" was living with a human. We still don't know much about Wraith family structure (if they have any).

[derrickh]

The writers weren't even trying. Not only did they bring in the Wraith with a heart of gold (which sadly, I predicted a couple of eps ago). They even had Shepard come out and say she was a Wraith with a heart of gold. I'll quickly go over what I didn't like and then get to the part that I did

Ronan -is- a heavy drinker. He downed a huge tub of 'beer'(?) in about 5 seconds.

How did Elia know the retrovirus was in the case? She overheard Beckett, but she wasn't watching him. And he never said 'I'm putting the super drug in this unlocked case beside the computer'.

Why was the super drug in an unlocked case, by itself, when given the situation, it shouldn't have even been on the planet?

The father was screwed in the head and the relationship he had with his 'daughter' was really skeevy. Even under the crazy sci-fi circumstances, that guy had issues.

Now the good stuff.

Yes, the entire episode was by the numbers and telegraphed. But when SkeevyDad was pleading with Elia 'I know you're still in there', I'm so happy she didn't break down and say something like 'Father? I dont want to hurt you.' Blah blah. Nope. She killed him. Nice curveball.

And Teyla's currupting of Ronon continues! This could be the set up for the biggest swerve EVER. Last week, she convinced him to keep a murder secret from everyone. This week, she tells him that the whole following orders thing, isnt really binding, and you can basically do what you want. Teyla is setting up her own little alien conspiracy against Atlantis and using Ronon as the muscle.

It would be so great if Teyla turned out to be a Wraith spy or a super villian working with the Wraith. The foundation is already there. She can go into telepathic communication with the Wraith. She's driving a wedge between Ronon and the team. And she was the one who woke up the Wraith in the first place(kinda). Maybe the TPTB will have the guts to let this happen. If so, SG:A would get a lot less predictable.

D

[FoolishPleasure]

It would be so great if Teyla turned out to be a Wraith spy or a super villian working with the Wraith. The foundation is already there. She can go into telepathic communication with the Wraith. She's driving a wedge between Ronon and the team. And she was the one who woke up the Wraith in the first place(kinda). Maybe the TPTB will have the guts to let this happen. If so, SG:A would get a lot less predictable.

I don't exactly see Teyla driving a wedge between Ronon and the others, but Shadow was right - her talk about not following orders reminded me of "Letters From Pegasus" where she got all snippy with Sheppard. She didn't want to follow "orders" then (she knew it all. . .like a teenager. )

I've always felt Teyla was patterned after Lyta from "Babylon 5". . using that special, genetic ESP stuff to read the enemy minds and "confuse" them, find their location, etc.. After a few years Lyta was. . uh, well. . let's just say the SGA writers really don't have the guts to take a main character and go in that direction. But it certainly would be different if they did!

[Whistler84]

If I had ANY complaint, it would be the sheer, jaw-dropping STUPIDITY of Teyla. Ye gods, woman! Just when I was all proud of Shep for finding the magic words for Dex ("That's an order"), she goes and screws it all to hell by telling Dex, "Oh, you don't ALWAYS have to follow orders, it's up to US to decide when to disobey!" *headdesk* I both hope and dread that her statement will come back to bite them all in the ass. HARD. Stupid, stupid, stupid Teyla.

Wow. While I don't share the zeal of your statement, I do think that it was a poor decision on Teyla's part. Especially considering that she knows he's a loose canon by his actions in "Trinity." How could she not realize that the consequences of this will come back to haunt them later? Dex is still learning how to fit in with this crowd, and Teyla has become something of a guide to him. Now, his "guide" is telling him that he can disobey orders if he really wants to? That Atlantis allows people to break rules as they see fit? I like Teyla's character, and especially like where she's going this season, but c'mon! She's just asking for something to go wrong by saying something like *that* to a guy like *Dex*!

Other than that, good episode. Favorite moment: Sheppard hitting McKay upside the head! Hehe.

[lionel_pendergast_rocks]

So, in tonight's ep, as the wraith girl was about to attack McKay, Beckett shot her in the back with his 9mm Beretta. The Beretta 9mm has a reputation of often doing colateral damage by completely penetrating the target (if it is a person) and continuing on. So, the shot should have gone through the Wraith, and then hit McKay. Oops.

Also, one other thing:

- Why did Col. Sheppard look so surprised when Beckett told him about the serum he's working on? Isn't Sheppard part of the 'senior staff', and as such, shouldn't be informed as to what the other staff members are doing?

[ToasterOnFire]

Two major problems I had with this ep:

1) The retrovirus. It apparently can remove wraith DNA, leaving human? No way, not possible with today's science. Silence wraith DNA maybe but remove it? Nope. Of course, I can always write that off as the science fiction part and everything's ok. My bigger problem is: why did Carson even bother bringing the retrovirus when he knew that it wasn't near ready to be used? It's not like you can simply add something to an imperfect retrovirus and poof, it starts working; you need to completely resynthesize the virus again. I don't think Beckett brought the proper equipment to synthesize the correct retrovirus, so why bring the imperfect one at all? Sure it means that Elia gets transformed and the plot moves along, but the setup was flawed.

2) The end fight with Elia. Teyla gets a knock in the head and Shep orders Ronan behind? Shouldn't Ronan be the one to hunt her down while Shep stayed behind? He does have this (continually referenced btw) seven years of experience hunting down wraith and he appears to be quite good at it. Shep in the meantime would likely have been a wraith kabob if Ronan hadn't caught up. It sets up Shep's scratch that impacts the next ep, but that could have happened before Teyla got knocked out and Ronan could have hunted her down. Either poor writing or a poor command decision by Shep.

Above flaws ignored, I actually enjoyed this ep. There was an interesting setup of mystery with the townspeople, the monster, and the secret with Elia and her "father". McKay was much more subdued in this ep, presumably after the events of Trinity, but I could have done without the smack to the head. Just made Shep look overly mean to me. Great interaction with Ronan and Teyla, and I like how TPTB are setting up a potential "alien vs SG" conflict. Ronan's sword is total cheese though.

[Shivan]

*laughs and accepts pat on the back, though it was all mental ramble and not notes*

Oh, and I'm a her, by the way.

Honest mistake, it won't happen again.

[GatetheWay]

Concerning Teyla and the orders thing... Unless that was a purposeful set up for a later story by TPTB I think it would of been better if Teyla had said "Sheppard ordered you to stay with me then I'll go with you to save Sheppard." Then gets up, suported by Ronnan, and limps off to find Shep.

[smushybird]

McKay was much more subdued in this ep, presumably after the events of Trinity, but I could have done without the smack to the head. Just made Shep look overly mean to me.

I'm interpreting it as a sort of friendly smack, a guy-bonding-thing signifying friendship. I think it's Sheppard's way of easing back into his normal relationship with Rodney and letting Rodney know, too, that they're moving back toward things being okay between them. And I figure that's why Rodney didn't complain about it, either. If Shep was really pissed at him, he wouldn't have smacked him at all.

As for Teyla telling Dex it was okay to go against orders in certain situations, well, she's seen Sheppard do the same thing several times...and anyway, I got the impression that they both understood that Sheppard was a dead man if Ronon didn't go after him. Both Teyla and Ronon are more experienced in dealing with wraith and alien worlds than Sheppard. They wanted to protect him. I think it was sweet.

[smushybird]

So, in tonight's ep, as the wraith girl was about to attack McKay, Beckett shot her in the back with his 9mm Beretta. The Beretta 9mm has a reputation of often doing colateral damage by completely penetrating the target (if it is a person) and continuing on. So, the shot should have gone through the Wraith, and then hit McKay. Oops.

That occurred to me too, that Rodney was terribly in the line of fire. It seemed like the bullet might have gone through the girl but it missed Rodney, considering the way he flinched right after the shot, unless he was just flinching at the sound of gunfire. Or else maybe the wraith, being stronger, have thicker muscles and/or bones and the bullet didn't make it through?