Coup D'etat (217)

[macktheknife]

Speaking of military types. Did anybody else notice that on of the soldiers in the gateroom had a British flag patch on. I guess the security team on Atlantis is now also multi-national rather than just USAF and Marines.

There's been a couple of military guys who have a 1 south african and 1 Zimbabwean patch on since the start of the show (I'm sure he was in Rising), so maybe they are people who use the patch of the country they were born in or something.

[ToasterOnFire]

I think this was the best episode in the second half of the season, easily edging out Critical Mass. If only all of the episodes could be like this!

-Ladon (Laiden? Layden?) made this episode, hands down. His arrogance, determination, and cool head all worked. PTB, please make every effort to have him return!

-The twists and turns in the plot were well done. I was never sure which side of the Genii was the "true" enemy, and when Ladon seemed to join with Cowen I was certain that was the final twist. Having Ladon go ahead with the coup in the end was pleasantly unexpected.

-The pacing seemed better in this episode than in other recent ones - the ending didn't feel rushed and all the plotlines didn't feel like they were cramping each other.

-No mention of the Deddy, presumably because it's on a run to/from Earth. The beaming technoloy would have made the mission much easier.


Nitpicks/critiques:

-Why on earth didn't Weir and the others ask for the charge status of the ZPM before making any agreements? That was the first thing I thought of, and sure enough it came back to bite them in the end. They were this close to losing Shep, McKay, and a good chunk of their military, all because they didn't think of something so simple.

-When the enemy has an unopened box and you have no idea of the contents, you get him to open it before sliding it to you. Come on Shep, you should know this stuff.

-How did the Genii know which team members have the ATA gene? I can guess that they knew about Shep and McKay from earlier dealings, but what about Lorne, who I'm guessing came over with the Deddy? If they were spying on offworld teams then either they're extremely clever and sneaky or the offworld teams are getting lax...


All in all, a fun episode that reaffirmed my faith that the Genii can be a damn cool enemy. I already can't wait to see them again.

[GatetheWay]

-Why on earth didn't Weir and the others ask for the charge status of the ZPM before making any agreements? That was the first thing I thought of, and sure enough it came back to bite them in the end. They were this close to losing Shep, McKay, and a good chunk of their military, all because they didn't think of something so simple.

If they had asked the Genii could of just lied about it or said they didn't have the technology to know. Anyway, Laden said they stole it from the Brotherhood and Atlantis knew for a fact that had been a fully charged ZPM.

[watcher652]

Where was the Dedalus it could have just beamed Shepard and the other hostages up.

The Daedalus is not hanging around Atlantis all the time. It spends more time traveling back and forth between the Milky Way and Pegasus. It takes 18 days to get from Earth to Atlantis. That's one way. Even if the ship just left and had to turn around, there wasn't enough time for it to get back before the Genii deadline.

You can't use the ship as a crutch in every episode. As McKay said in The Long Goodbye

Spoiler:

Caldwell is only around one week out of six.

[GatetheWay]

Hey, did anyone hear when Weir said Miller (Siege, part 1) was doing a fly over scan of Laden's base? I though PTB had forgotten all about him.

[Steven_the_Atlantean]

OMG I don’t understand how it is depleted I know for a fact that the genii can not use it. So what drained its power, If the ZedPM was actually found on the Genii home world in their archives, that means there could have been an ancient technology because how else what a power source appear their.

[Agent_Dark]

OMG I don’t understand how it is depleted I know for a fact that the genii can not use it. So what drained its power, If the ZedPM was actually found on the Genii home world in their archives, that means there could have been an ancient technology because how else what a power source appear their.

More likely someone found it on another world, depleted, and brang it back to the Genii world.

[rexpop]

Great episode. Kept me guessing the whole time. Though, when they said Kolya was presumed dead, I couldn't help but say "I don't think so!" I get the impression he's pulling the strings on this. I doubt Leyden came up with this all on his own.

I can remember reading somewhere that Kolya was originally supposed to be in the episode, but the actor (Robert Davi) was unavailable and so they had to work around it.

I would suspect Kolya will remain missing, presumed dead until someone comes up with a use for him (assuming of course that the actor is available and willing to return).

[AutumnDream]

WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

GO MARTIN! Awesome ep! I think the writing team from now on should be strictly Martin/Carl/Rob/Brad. THIS is the real Atlantis! Everyone mentioned most of the awesome stuff already. The changes in Weir, Shep being funny, McKay being his lovable self, Teyla's lovely clothes/hair, Weir being HAWT, the awesome plot and use of backstory...

Episodes like this surpass BSG, in my opinion. But that's just cause' I'm heavily biased.

- Interesting how our humanity/soft-hearted sides won it for us in the end. What with us being kind and altruistic in treating the enemy's illnesses. Woo!

Heyyy... the rest of the season is all Carl/Martin episodes.

[rexpop]

The Daedalus is not hanging around Atlantis all the time. It spends more time traveling back and forth between the Milky Way and Pegasus. It takes 18 days to get from Earth to Atlantis. That's one way. Even if the ship just left and had to turn around, there wasn't enough time for it to get back before the Genii deadline.

You can't use the ship as a crutch in every episode. As McKay said in The Long Goodbye

Spoiler:

Caldwell is only around one week out of six.

I was kind of expecting Shep to pull this out of the hat as an ace in the hole and beam everybody out. I'm glad that they didn't as it would have lessened the episode.

Actually that does bring up an interesting question: Do the Genii know about the 'Daedalus' ?.

[AlphaBlu]

Well, I thought it was great. The only bad part was that they killed Cowan.

BYE

[Michelle05]

Gee, was this a great episode. So well written and executed. Interesting, tense, original (as in not a Star Trek rip-off), unpredictable. Well, I guessed that Lorne wasn't dead and thought that the mission to get the ZPM was probably a trap, but I sure didn't guess the last twist, that the coup was real. And along the way I never stopped analyzing what was going on, trying to figure it out. Every scene kept my attention. This is good plotting and dialog.

Beckett was great as were Rodney and Sheppard. I love Rodney trying to learn military lingo and John being nothing but annoyed with him. Cowan was awesomely slimey yet I believed him in the first scene. I'm still not a big Weir fan but at least she was written well this time.

I wish Martin Gero would write a lot more scripts, for both Stargate shows.

[gambit]

Wasn't Ladon the one in 'The Eye' who you could see run and stumbled like a little coward back through the stargate after Sheppard killed the retreating Genii when Koyla was trying to pull Weir through?

[randy]

Corollary for thought: now that the Genii have nearly procured a means of utilizing ancient technology by synthesizing the ancient gene from the detained soldiers, what will the expedition's new safety precautions be? This might be an insidious plan by Layden to befriend the enemy, standing idly, waiting for the time to usurp Atlantis, now knowing they possess the gene. Any comments?

[Wick]

I was kind of expecting Shep to pull this out of the hat as an ace in the hole and beam everybody out. I'm glad that they didn't as it would have lessened the episode.

Actually that does bring up an interesting question: Do the Genii know about the 'Daedalus' ?.

I don't think the Genii know about the Daedalus but i can bet you in another season they will find out and try to take it or something.

[Dorka]

O.K I have to say I loved this episode... nearly as much as TLG and yep, besides that episode and Critical Mass one of the bests in the second half...

So:

- The women were veeeeery good styled....I loved Teylas outfit and her hair was very nice done too...and to Weir it gives a while new self-awareness with a little-more feminin clother and high-heels

- I was happy I read the spoilers already, or I would have freaked out in front of the TV when they let us think Lorne was dead....they just can't kill this guy, he's sweet, he's cute, he got a niiiice humour and he's just Lorne and a part of Atlantis!!!! I'm still up for "Major Thomas Lorne"

- Elizabeth/Torri were great in this episode...really good character developement. She's getting darker...ohhh yes and I definitely like it! I also liked, even as a shipper, that she rather would have risked Johns life than giving atlantis such a handycap of loosing all the jumpers. That destroyes Kavanagh's coment about being too driven by her feelings and gives her more strengh... in the first half of the season many people were saying she's too weak, I haven't seen it that way then, but I definitely like the way TPTB are going with her!

- Last week I wasn't really impressed by Joe's acting...well this week it was just the opposite... I totaly loved how he was acting IMO the best in this episode

- The camera work was once more very nice in this episode... good work!

- Ronon can talk and even make an investigation...wow...never thought of seeing that *lol* IMO in this episode you saw once again the great chemistry between Ronon and Teyla...

- Yeah I'm a Liz/John shipper but first of all I ship for their friendship, and that one was very visible in this episode again! I love how their trust toward each other grew and John is listening and not arguing too long when Elizabeth tells him something, and she is the one who finally can say NO without changing her mind 3 minutes later I just love the chemistry between these two!
And well the last scene I found really flirty *coughs*

- Return of the Genii...definitely cool, I love and hate these people at the same time *lol*

So far that it is...I'll rewatch it once more, maybe I'll notice more things

[AutumnDream]

- Yeah I'm a Liz/John shipper but first of all I ship for their friendship, and that one was very visible in this episode again! I love how their trust toward each other grew and John is listening and not arguing too long when Elizabeth tells him something, and she is the one who finally can say NO without changing her mind 3 minutes later I just love the chemistry between these two!
And well the last scene I found really flirty *coughs*

I caught that too. GO SHEP/WEIR! I hope he takes her to a prettier place in Atlantis on their first midnight picnic than he took that dirty, dirty ancient girl Chaya.

Oh, spring is coming, and loving is blooming...

[macktheknife]

Actually that does bring up an interesting question: Do the Genii know about the 'Daedalus' ?.

I doubt that very much.

If the genii knew they had a ship that could beam\fire a nuke right into their city, I doubt they would have done this.

[macktheknife]

BTW, No sora makes mack a sad panda.

[AutumnDream]

I was glad she wasn't in it. Her whiny voice bothers me. XD