History Recap / StargateAtlantisS04E06TabulaRasa

* DieHardOnAnX: Not the main plot, but at least parts of the episode are "Die Hard starring Zelenka!"

* ShoutOut: Rodney starts writing notes and directions on himself with a marker, not unlike the protagonist of ''Memento''.

14 hours earlier, [=McKay=] is visiting Dr. Katie Brown, whose botany team has just returned from the mainland. She has named a new species of cactus after him - ''Rodneyana valosa.'' When she complains of headaches and dizziness, they head down to the infirmary, where Dr. Keller reveals that she's the eighth person to come in for the same complaint in the last hour. It is caused by a bacteria, presumably picked up on the mainland, and the entire city has been exposed. What's worse, it is soon revealed that as it progresses the disease causes amnesia...and then death.

** [[spoiler:Lorne]] also has one, although it's just a picture of Sheppard with a label explaining who he is and that he can be trusted.

* AmnesiaDanger: Everyone in Atlantis. Lorne and his team are able to retain more of their memory as they have been taking stimulants, but unfortunately, they've forgotten that they've been taking them for ''too long'', making them highly erratic. Furthermore, while they remember that their last order was to round up everyone into the Mess Hall, they've forgotten this doesn't include the people working to ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero cure]]'' the disease.

Carter suspends all gate travel, and just to be sure, makes Zelenka remove the gate's control crystal. As more and more people start forgetting who they are and what they're doing, Sheppard dispatches Major Lorne round them up and hold them in the mess hall for their own protection.

Back in the present, [=McKay=] wanders the corriders looking for Teyla, and finding no one. Suddenly, he comes across Zelenka, armed with a metal pipe, and warning about soldiers shooting everybody and taking them away. He himself has been constantly on the run evading capture. Major Lorne and his troops arrive and Zelenka runs off, but [=McKay=] is captured and taken to the mess hall. Teyla isn't there, and he manages to mobilize the rest of the patients to stage an escape. [=McKay=] and Carter make it out and reconnect with Zelenka. The three of them track Lorne, who leads them straight to Teyla in Atlantis's holding cell.

* AnachronicOrder / HowWeGotHere

* LaserGuidedAmnesia

* StockEpisodeTitles: 8 uses.

It turns out Teyla and Ronon are immune to the disease, which is a mutated version of a common Pegasus galaxy childhood ailment. Ronon and Sheppard are off on the mainland collecting the plant which cures it, and [=McKay=] had been working on configuring a fast distribution method when Teyla was captured and his memory finally gave out. They let Teyla out of the cell and she directs [=McKay=] back to the override he was working on so that he can finish it. Ronon and a completely amnesiac Sheppard arrive back with the plant via jumper - whereupon they are promptly captured by Lorne's squad. Ronon directs Lorne to his own pocket - which contains a photograph of Sheppard and a note saying "This is your commanding officer. Trust him." Lorne yeilds the floor to Sheppard, who yeilds the floor to Ronon. The plant gets distributed via the ventilation system and everyone begins the slow path to recovery.

* ShoutOut: Rodney starts writing notes and directions on himself with a marker, just like the protagonist of Memento.

* NoteToSelf: Rodney leaves one when he realises he's starting to lose track of what he was doing.

* AmnesiaDanger
* AnachronicOrder

* LaserguidedAmnesia
* NoteToSelf

-->'''Lorne:''' He [Zelenka] gave us the slip. Must have heard us coming. Cracked one of my people over the head with a metal rod and disappeared [[AirVentEscape down a service hatch]] before I could get a shot off. There's no telling where he is now.