During a bit of down time, McKay finally decides to pop the question to Dr. Katie Brown, the Botanist he's been seeing since season two. No sooner does he arrive at the Botany lab, but the entire city goes into Lockdown, trapping pairs of regulars all over the city. It's a level 5 Quarantine, an improved protocol McKay wrote after the last major outbreak — but he's cut off from computer access and communications are down. Each group is on its own to save the city.
Sheppard, trapped with Teyla, manages to hack into the Atlantis systems using McKay's password. The good news is, there's no outbreak — it's a malfunction caused by a (natural) energy spike in the planet's ionosphere. The bad news is, Atlantis is broadcasting a "stay away, we have plague" distress beacon to the entire galaxy. Carter and Zelenka, trapped in a elevator teleporter have discovered the same thing, but can't open the doors. Sheppard realizes the only option is to break the window and climb up the outside of the tower to the control room. But if Batman can do it, why can't he, right?
Ronon ended up trapped in the infirmary with Dr. Keller and no explosives. They rig up an ingenious way to escape (and get to all the sick people who no doubt need the doctor's expertise) involving oxygen tanks — which fails utterly. So they decide to hook up instead.
McKay passes the episode in ever-growing hypochondria and despair, even managing to psychosomatically contract the non-existent plague. He also totally fails to propose — even after Katie accidentally finds the ring (because by now it's all pointless, since they're all obviously about to die, right?) And then the city's self-destruct alarm goes off.
The alarm turns out to be in response to Sheppard "compromising containment" by breaking through the window into the control room. There he finds Major Lorne, Technician Chuck, and other nameless technicians Amelia Banks, who have managed to get the ventilation system back on, but can't do much else without McKay's password. They get the beacon shut off, but then all the computers shut down as part of the self destruct sequence. What's worse, there is no way of telling how long the countdown is. Someone will have to make it down six levels and cut the main power — and it's in the center of the tower, so pulling another Batman stunt isn't going to cut it.
With the help of Major Lorne and some C4, they blast out of the control room and, as an added bonus, manage to free Carter and Zelenka. That was the last of the C4, however, so the only access to the main power room is via the air vents. Which are slightly too small for Sheppard to fit through. Enter Dr. Radek "slightly smaller than Sheppard" Zelenka to the rescue! Accompanied by much swearing in Czech, he eventually makes it down to the power room and reboots the city. Computers come back online, doors open, and everything is returned to normal.
Except McKay's relationship, which doesn't seem likely to survive his realization that "If we got married now, I would make your life miserable," and the episode ends with symbolically closing doors.
Tropes:
- Air-Vent Passageway: A slightly more realistic version. Someone has to get to the city's main power room, and the air vents are the only way still open. However, Shepard notes that the vents are too small for him to crawl through. Zelenka, who's fairly thin, is just barely able to fit.
- Almost Kiss: Ronon and Dr. Keller. Twice.
- Almost Out of Oxygen: Alluded to as a problem, but the gate techs get it fixed before it really has any effect on the plot.
- Cannot Spit It Out: McKay with his proposal.
- Cut the Juice: How Zelenka saves the day.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Katie mentions the species of plant she named after Rodney has grown a lot.Katie: I've been kinda doting on it, giving it a lot of TLC and it keeps getting bigger... and bigger.
- Enter Stage Window: Sheppard’s entry into the control room. Unfortunately, the Quarantine program doesn’t react well to it.
- Feeling the Baby Kick: Sheppard is certain Teyla is going to go into labor at any moment, because in the movies a pregnant woman always goes into labor at times like this. A few scenes later, it seems like his prediction is about to come true, but it's just the baby kicking, and she invites him to come feel.
- Foreign-Language Tirade: As per usual, Zelenka, mostly in frustration with himself or the situation he finds himself in.
- Genre Savvy: Sheppard, regarding Teyla's pregnancy:Sheppard: It's just that every time one of these things happens in the movies, the pregnant woman goes into labor.Teyla: I'm still a long way from my due date.Sheppard: It's the same thing in the movies and then wham!
- It's Not You, It's Me: Although he didn't intend it as a breakup, just as a delay of proposal:McKay: The point is, I came here earlier today to propose marriage to you, but after what happened, I realise I may have been rushing things. I just don't think I'm ready for this. I mean, if we got married now, I would make your life miserable and you are far too good a person for that.
- Lockdown: Unlike previous episodes, featuring an illness affecting the base, a storm native to the new home planet triggers Atlantis’s new quarantine protocols.
- Locked in a Room: Pretty much everyone. Played completely straight with Keller and Ronon, but has the opposite effect on McKay and Dr. Brown's relationship.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Played with. At some point McKay told Sheppard his password — 16431879196842 — figuring Sheppard wouldn't remember because it's a seemingly random string of numbers. Sheppard, however, quickly figured out that it's a series of years and the number 42, and from there it didn't take much to figure out the significance.Sheppard: 1643 is the year Isaac Newton was born, 1879 Einstein and 1968—
Teyla: —the year Rodney was born.
Sheppard: Never underestimate the size of that man's ego. - Plot Tailored to the Party: Subverted; every one is locked in various rooms and each person has a part of the skills that they need to get out of the situation — except no one is in a situation where they can use those skills. McKay The Smart Guy doesn't have a computer so Sheppard The Hero has to do all the technical stuff, Ronon The Big Guy is forced to do nothing, and Zelenka, another Smart Guy, has to do the dangerous air vent crawl that is pretty much Sheppard's trademark. Plus Keller The Medic assumes it's a real outbreak, but can't go anywhere to treat anyone.
- Race Against the Clock: The Self-Destruct Mechanism has been activated, but the computers shut down before anyone got a look at how long they had. This means they have an unknown time to shut down the self-destruct.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: The malfunctioning quarantine protocols doesn’t react well to Sheppard breaking into the control room, treating it as an infected patient spreading a disease and the only measure to stop it spreading further is to blow up Atlantis.
- Ship Tease: Keller and Ronon begin showing interest in each other just before the quarantine is lifted.
- Shout-Out: to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:Teyla: Wait, what are the other numbers?Sheppard: 42.Teyla: What is that?Sheppard: It's the ultimate answer to the great question of Life, the Universe and Everything.
- That Came Out Wrong:
- Katie's Does This Remind You of Anything? regarding Rodney's cactus.
- Also Keller, suggesting she and Ronon "get to know each other better."
