The shield is successful in containing most of the explosion, but Atlantis is now without a Stargate. They are hailed by the Daedalus, which has been seized by Todd, who is holding the crew hostage in exchange for the "Attero Device". However, he changes his demands to the location of the Attero Device instead.
The only problem with allowing the Wraith to destroy the device, however, is that Rodney and Daniel are still on the planet. So; Keller and Ronan take back the Daedalus, Rodney and Daniel escape, and Sheppard and Zelenka hitch a ride to the fun on a Traveler ship. (Remember them?)
Daniel and Rodney take out the device in the standard life threatening fashion, the Traveler ship saves the Daedalus, Daniel and Rodney are rescued, and everybody's happy. Except the eponymous lost tribe, who are blown up.
Tropes:
- Brought Down to Badass: The Vanir lost most of their fleet after they were found by the Wraith, including the intergalactic ships which would have allowed them to flee the galaxy, but their technology is still formidable enough to make them a threat.
- Character Development: Subtle instance, but Daniel and Rodney's escape from their cell. When they're trying to figure out their game plan, we get to see how years of working with Jack O'Neill and John Sheppard respectively has rubbed off on Daniel and Rodney (especially at this point in the franchise timeline). Daniel wants to have a plan of attack (as Jack would do) whereas Rodney's favoring the Indy Ploy (as Sheppard would do).
- Continuity Nod:
- Daniel compares the Vanir's attitude and experiments to Loki's.
- The Asgard killing themselves in "Unending" is also acknowledged.
- Didn't See That Coming:
- Daniel deduces that the Vanir assumed that the Ancients would beat the Wraith when they originally came to this galaxy and were thus caught off-guard when the Wraith won, particularly since the Wraith were more ruthless towards their experiments where the Ancients would have just shut them down.
- Rodney name drops this Trope when Daniel passes on the revelation that the Vanir are renegade Asgard.
- "Die Hard" on an X: Ronon and Keller aboard the hijacked Daedalus.
- Internal Reveal: A variation. The Vanir, who've been cut off from the Ida Galaxy for 10,000 years, learn what became of their brothers and sisters at the end of SG-1 (though they're also not surprised given how serious the Asgard's genetic degradation was becoming even at the time).
- Godzilla Threshold: From the perspective of the Vanir, activating the Attero device is the only way to definitively protect themselves from the Wraith now that their homeworld is no longer capable of sustaining life.
- Last of His Kind: The Vanir are the last surviving Asgard.
- No OSHA Compliance: Standard issue on Traveler ships. Katana's engine room looks like it's cobbled together from spare parts, is subject to explosive sparking and "over-sensitive" radiation detectors, and is manned by a teenage Adrenaline Junkie who thinks all this danger is awesome. Much to Zelenka's consternation...
- Ramming Always Works: Todd's plan for the Daedalus is to ram it into the Attero Device after Ronon irreparably damages the weapons control system.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: The Vanir are a group of militant Asgard that fled the Ida galaxy for Pegasus to conduct experiments on the human population to fix their Clone Degeneration problems.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Even with everything at stake, Daniel and Rodney still go at it.
- Shout-Out: The Vanir exo-suit Heads Up Displays are reminiscent of the Iron Man HUD. This is probably a justified tribute, as Iron Man had just come out in the Summer of 2008 during the mid-Season hiatus (and while "The Lost Tribe" was in post production).
- Shut Up, Kirk!: When Daniel protests that the Asgard would consider what the Vanir are doing to be immoral and would never do it, the Vanir simply replies, "And look where that got them." For all their efforts to be ethical and benevolent, the Asgard are dead and the Vanir are not.
- Teen Genius: Mila, fifteen-year-old Chief Engineer on Katana's ship. Considering the Travelers' lifestyle, this just might be a typical thing.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Daniel when he realizes Rodney doesn't have a plan for shutting down the Attero Device and is going with an Indy Ploy.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ronon and Jennifer sabotaging the Daedalus unfortunately forces Todd to find another way to destroy the Attero device since the weapons systems are damaged beyond repair. He decides to ram the ship into the outpost after evacuating in his cruiser.
- Wham Shot: The reveal that the Vanir are Asgard (which shouldn't be possible as the entire species had, after all, committed suicide at the end of SG-1).
