Suspicion (105)

[ShadowMaat]

Maybe it's time to go hunting again. Although I still love what Wang Paul called 'em in Space: Above & Beyond: Meals Rejected by the Enemy. hehe. Everyone has their fave definition of MRE. That one's mine.

I still want to know if Russian food is really that bad...

[Yu Huang Shang Ti]

I used to get modern MREs from a military surplus store for quick lunches. They're really pretty good, provided you don't need your food or drinks warm.

As for shutting the gate down... either these gates can be manually deactivated (although I kinda hope not, having to weather enemy attacks makes for nice action), or the guy who said "shut down the gate!" didn't fully understand how gates work and it was just a coincidence. Hrm...

[Newbie]

Never tried MRE....but have tried Russin food...ofcourse I have...I'm Russina....wht and idot...anyway..what was i gonna stay....stop talking to yourself...oh yea...Russian foooooood!!! Good food, soups, salads, a lot of bread and potatos...good food, WAY better than fast food you just gotta have it home made, some real Russian friend gotta do it..never go to the restaraunt...they make it wierd...

McKay & Sheppard in Wiers office talking about the medalion...McKay's remark about Sheppard saying something - FUNNY....but don't remember...

[gwangung]

As seen in one of the previous episodes (don't remember which one), the gate control panel in Atlantis has a button which shuts down the gate. I believe it's the same button you open it with after punching in the address, like on a DHD.

The DHD's don't have a way to shut down the gates at all, so this is obviously an upgrade. Perhaps the Ancients redesigned it so you would be able to shut down incoming wormholes as well as outgoing ones. Just a thought...

Hmm. With neighbors like the Wraith, I wonder why....

[jyh]

I thought it odd that Weir--the diplomat--immediately wanted to follow drastic measures to isolate the Athosians (is that their name??) in order to determine if they're the source of the leak. I know she had to protect all the Atlantis crew, but it seemed odd, especially when...

Sheppard--the military guy--argues that such an act would be unfair and not nice. Doesn't that seem backward, like they're each thinking the way the other person should think? THe military guy should be hard-line, and the diplomat should be more open to non-extreme alternatives.

I too didn't like the new security guy, Stackhouse. And I thought it odd that Weir appointed him as security chief. I would have thought that security would have been in Sheppard's bailywick, and HE would have been in charge of appointing a head of security. (And it doesn't sound like he would've chosen Stackhouse.)

Just my two cents....

[aAnubiSs]

If there was a spy, which wasn't an Arthosian, then he could just wait until the Athosians were back on Atlantis. It doesn't take much intelligence to do that.

[jyh]

If there was a spy, which wasn't an Arthosian, then he could just wait until the Athosians were back on Atlantis. It doesn't take much intelligence to do that.

I take it this is in reply to something in my post. To which point exactly are you referring?

[hooliocah]

McKay: "How could I possibly know that? What am I, Answerman?"

[IWantToBelieve]

They've changed MRE's a lot. My DH brought some home a while back after one of their exercises they go on. Back when I was in (long time ago), it was the cold, dried stuff. Not great. Now, it's like meals you get in the store (frozen food thing). They've got a chemical reaction in a bag that heats up the entree, making it steaming hot. They also have things like M&M's and skittles for dessert. A far cry from what they used to be.

Anyway, I'm late to the discussion. I liked this episode also. Not as much as last week's, but that's because this episode wasn't 'on the edge of your seat' like last one. It did have some excellent character development, and the ending really blew me away, I did not see that coming. Capturing a wraith was pretty ballsy, and I have to wonder what the writers have in store for us later this season. Obviously this is going to be a story arc, but from the episodes we have spoilers for, I'm not sure where it fits in.

And I agree about it being a good continuity thing to show us for the first time just how hard they are to kill. I do disaggree with the thought that Weir handled it poorly. I think she's new to this type of leadership, she is a civilian, not a military, and Bates was a paranoid ass giving her a difficult time with his advice and help, something Sheppard caught on to eventually. She also hesitated to open the shield because if she was wrong, if her gut instinct on trusting Teyla was off, then she would be essentially handing her people and Atlantis to their doom. One decision could have ended it all for them. Sitting at home, we know Teyla isn't a traitor, but Weir doesn't have that insight.

[Liv]

Good episode! But... It's been three months since our heroes came to Atlantis. And they've been on nine missions. How come we haven't seen any of them? I suppose it is logical to conclude that nothing of particular interest happened on these trips, but I thought that Stargate Atlantis would, by "starting from scratch", be going back to the kind of "exploring the galaxy" type of stories SG-1 used to tell. Yet, after five episodes we have yet to get even one "regular" exploration episode. I'm not complaining - I've loved the series so far - it's just an observation.

As for the rest of the characters: It appears the team members must have been growing closer to each other over the three months in Atlantis. They show concern for each other (Felt kind of strange to see McKay so passionately sticking up for his team mates, rather than just complaining and making sarcastic comments - of which there were unusually few this time, by the way) and they all seemed genuinely certain of Teyla's innocence.

This is something that´s been bugging me a bit about the team itself, too. I don´t feel like I´ve had a chance to form a bond with them yet (except for Sheppard and McKay, I lööööv them) and that makes me feel somewhat cheated. It´s all well and good that they care for each other, I wouldn´t have it any other way, but I would have loved seeing some of those three months in front of the camera, as well. Not just, "oh, look here´s the team, and yep they´ve been on a whole bunch of adventures already, but regretfully you missed out on them...". I felt like there are a couple of episodes 'missing'. Like there are things that have happened to the characters 'off-camera' that has put them in the place they are right now, that I should know about.

[Tokraed]

PS: I have a confession. I also like airplane food.... and hospital food ain't bad.... Never tried military rations though. *ponders*

MRE's are pretty good, better than airplane food (if you can get any nowadays) and hospital food. A friend brought some to work one day after his Reserve gig. They cook in their own bag and include dessert!

[Tokraed]

I don't think he's stereotypical so much as single-minded about base security. He also clearly dislikes Sheppard and resents him for "usurping" the command that was Colonel Sumner's. And as it turned out, he wasn't entirely wrong to be suspicious of Teyla or the Athosians. If it wasn't for him, they wouldn't have found out about the necklace transmitter. They probably should check the other Athosians for similar necklaces or trinkets.

This would be the "tired and trite" part of the episode that I mentioned earlier. There could've been other ways to reveal that Teyla's necklace was a transmitter, but that plot point was exposed by walking down a path paved with cliches.

Sheppard didn't usurp Col. Sumner's command. Sumner died in the line of duty and Sheppard was appointed to his position by Weir, the same person who made Sgt. 2D the Chief of Security.

And WHY is a Sgt. in charge of Security?? Did they not have enough Lts. or Capts. in the expedition party???

[Major Fischer]

Unless i'm mistaken, the only officers we've seen thus far are Sumner, Sheppard, and Ford.

[NurseRatched]

Strangely enough, when you first see Bates in part 1 of "Rising" it looks like he's sporting silver bars on his collar...

It's apparent in the screencaps here: (Link to Jackfic deleted...sorry...)....I just wish the resolution was sharper. The caps preceding and following this one also seem to support this.

[Major Fischer]

You're right. I took out the tape and watched, through can't tell if he's a second or first lieutenant in it. Oh well, yet another Stargate Uniform Inconsistency for me to rant about