(S03E04) This has to be one of the best episodes yet. Shep's team starts out on some random planet. Ronon has a bad feeling, and Rodney is his usual pessimistic self. Upon entering the village, someone starts shouting Wraith bringer and things turn ugly. Rodney gets uh, shot with an arrow, and they make off to the gate post-haste. The villagers manage to stun Teyla and Ronon before Shep gets back to help up. In the end, even Shep gets a stun dart in the arm. (oops.)
After nap time, we find out that the backwoods villagers are REALLY backwoods villagers. They've actually called the wraith to come get Ronon. (Seriously, Hi guys you ate my daughter, but I believe you'll leave us alone now.") Meanwhile Rodney's hopped up on Morphine.
Ronon shows off some serious character. He forces the villagers to let him go by actually threatening to take his own life. He finally cracks his shell of cool/angry. It was the most emotion I think he's ever shown.
While Shep and Teyla are getting sent home, the wraith drop by the village. They collect Ronon and enjoy a light village snack while they're visiting. The wraith implant another tracking device in Ronon, and take him home. It looks like we're in for a bit of Ronon hunting.
We're treated to some of Ronon's memories as the episode progresses. We see him in battle, and he even had a girl. Ronon whips up a knife and our first Wraith hunter is on the scene with his glowing night vision eyeballs. Ronon shows just how bad ass he is by making some Wraith sashimi.
McKay tunes Atlantis' sensors to look for a runner transmitter and notices one on Ronon's home world. Back to Ronon, he's busy running from some sort of Wraith probe a'la Batteries not Included. Back on Atlantis, they're trying to figure out how to rescue Ronon. The Stargate's giving them no love, so it'll be a hop in the Daedalus [Thanks Guillermo] and a cloaked jumper.
Ronon is busy stocking up on armor and weapons. I just can't help think of Quake as I watch this part. Ronon pops another Wraith and pulls the classic action move: egg on your enemy with the radio (or alien probe).
More flashbacks and we find out that Ronon tried to send off his wife/girl to be safe during the attack. It seems that he initially fought because he had nowhere else to go. Ronon is one seriously motivated guy, and we're finally finding out why. Ronon follows up the flashback session with some major Wraith whoopin'.
On Daedalus, Teyla and John have a semi one sided chat about what Shep's willing to go through for Ronon. It was actually pretty touching. Ronon got tagged in the leg by the enforcer Wraiths uh, instant cremation with style outfit.
Beckett grills Rodney a bit about his relationship with Ronon, and we get to a really interesting bit. Ronon made his way to a hospital and removes some shrapnel from his leg. During the pain, we get his most painful memories. His lady (a nurse/doctor) just couldn't leave everyone and was killed by an explosion before his eyes. After this intense scene, we see loads of wraith converging.
Just as Ronon calls the head Wraith a coward via handy Wraith probe. Teyla and Shep appear, ready to get Ronon out, but he refuses to leave.
Shep goes for Ronon's plan to kill all the wraith to draw out the bad guy. (He must really like Ronon. My friends usually don't even want to help move furniture.) I had to laugh as McKay and Beckett start arguing over who's going to go help. By the time they finish, all the Wraith are puddles. Ronon is still a bit grumpy, and challenges the head Wraith to come get him.
This part is almost right out of the old west. Ronon's standing in the middle of the street, ready to rumble. Ronon gets hyped up and goes for the big guy... and gets tossed like a salad. Teyla and Shep watch while its happening, but the ending was sweet. Beckett uncloaks the jumper.
Ronon says "I win." and Mr. overbite gets his butt whipped by an Ancient probe. We roll up with a bit more of the geeks being scared of Ronon, ending with a "Thanks Doc" from Ronon just before he passes out.
This was the best episode of Atlantis I've seen in a while. Getting Ronon out from his shell made a great episode. We were treated to Ronon's emotional drive and some of the best action scenes yet. I couldn't help laughing as Shep kept increasing his Wraith kill count.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-05-2006 @ 8:51AM
Guillermo said...
Man, I can't wait to see this one. Minor correction, though: you must be talking about Daedalus; Prometheus was destroyed last season in SG-1.
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8-05-2006 @ 11:06AM
bluehmstr said...
The expression on Rodney's face when he gets hit by the arrow and shrieks, "That did NOT just happen!" was absolutely hilarious. Great episode.
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8-05-2006 @ 11:26AM
starrgayzer said...
Last night's episode was definitely my favorite. I have always wondered about Ronon and to see some of his background was cool. I also liked the part where Ronon ran out of the Shack when the Wraith armor was about to explode. And, finally I agree the "Thanks Doc" moment was awesome and a perfect ending. This show gets better every week.
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8-05-2006 @ 11:54AM
Susan said...
I agree...this was a truely amazing episode...the best probably since the season one two parter. The one thing this show has been lacking are those golden character moments that help you relate to the characters. This episode got the mix just right, and it was a joy to watch.
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8-05-2006 @ 1:04PM
tau'ri said...
Ronan got skills!
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8-05-2006 @ 1:53PM
Sue said...
I don't really watch Atlantis that much; well have for Ronan; a girl what can I say; watch Stargate for Daniel and watch Atlantis for Ronan :)
But this is the best backstory eps written on a character; Mitchells was ok but man this gave you a lot of insight on Ronan.
Excellent eps.
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8-05-2006 @ 2:13PM
Jimmy said...
I couldn't agree more: this was one hell of an episode. It was great that we finally got some backstory on Ronan; too bad to took a year for them to do it. I absolutely love the back and forth between Beckett and McKay; they have a great chemistry. I just wish they could flesh out Mitch Pileggi's character more; although, I did like his take-down of Weir when she presumed to lecture him on leaving a man behind -- rich coming from a civilian doctor who has more than once expressed contempt for military action. They just seem to bring Pileggi in for one scene fights with Shep, and he always loses. Considering he is the more season military person there you'd think his opinion would carry weight -- even if Weir got Shep promoted to the same rank. Doesn't seem realistic to me. Besides Pileggi and Higginson have are so great together -- they should hook up.
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8-05-2006 @ 3:53PM
Morjana Coffman said...
Absolutely agree -- this was a terrific episode.
Also, the Joel Goldsmith music was just wonderful for this episode. And kudos to Robert C. Cooper for writing and DIRECTING this episode.
Thank you, Will, for an enthusiastic and joyful review on "Sateda." Looking forward to your reviews for the rest of the season(s).
Morjana
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8-05-2006 @ 6:37PM
RevJonathan said...
Oh man, I couldn't disagree more. Ronan is such a weak character, bring back Ford!
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8-05-2006 @ 9:13PM
Carole Ketterer said...
I agree that this was one of the best episodes in a long long while, and made even more so by the deliciously evil Wraith that tried to hard to get revenge on Ronon for haveing escaped them once before. I've heard that they plan to get away from Wraith driven stories, I sincerly hope they don't and this episode shows why.
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8-06-2006 @ 1:20PM
Chris Barnes said...
I havn't seen this episode yet but please can the guy who wrote this review to them every week , i liked your style and it made me laugh , so hats of 2 you for taking the time to write it
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8-06-2006 @ 6:57PM
erroneous_nick said...
Great episode and some long overdue depth to Ronin via the flashbacks.
Did I miss it in the past, or was this episode of Atlantis the first episode from either Stargate series to get a TV14 rating? Since I watch it with my two daughters, I'm usually aware of that little ratings box, but can't remember seeing a 14 before.
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8-06-2006 @ 8:10PM
Mack Swift said...
Awesome episode!!!!!
These character driven stories are almost always the best both on SG-1 and Atlantis when they are done right. It's what's made SG-1 so great so more many years, the relationships between the various character, their interactions and motivations, and the back and forth between them (Carson and McKay arguing over who gets to go help with the M60 was a hoot).
I hope we get more eps like this. THe little speech by Shep definetly seemed heartfelt, and I would definetly like to see more of Shep's past and his motivations for going to Atlantis and so forth.
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8-08-2006 @ 1:04PM
Katie said...
I was also surprised with the TV14 rating on this episode but after watching this I can understand. Loved the episode. Everything about it was great. I've been waiting to see an episode that was focused on Ronon and I was very pleased!
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8-16-2006 @ 12:07PM
Mack Swift said...
Hey, those were some spiffy leather jackets they wore in this episode. Where can I get one?
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