Recap / Stargate Atlantis S01 E19 "The Siege (Part 1)"

We are at war, Elizabeth. In war, there are casualties.

— Dr. Zelenka

So, there are three hive ships en-route to Atlantis which will arrive shortly. Luckily, they will pass within range of the defense satellite encountered earlier, although the satellite is offline. McKay is confident that they can repair it and let it wipe out the Wraith ships. As McKay, Grodin and a pilot fly out to the satellite Zelenka raises a concern with Dr Weir. The self destruct system built into the city is not powerful enough, large chunks of the city will survive which the Wraith could reverse engineer advanced technologies from. Not to mention the Ancient database that the computers contain. Zelenka begins work on an alternative.

Meanwhile, the puddle jumper has arrived at the satellite, McKay believes that the damage is mostly superficial but that the power source has simply been depleted. They have brought along a generator which he intends to hook up and repower the weapon. McKay dons a space suit, makes his way through the airlock and starts to connect the generator.

Back in the city, Teyla has a run-in with the chief of security, he believes that her psychic connection to the Wraith is a liability and that she is involuntarily providing them with intel. She furiously denies this and a scuffle ensues. Zelenka shows his new self destruct system to Weir — detonating all of their generators at the same time results in much smaller chunks which should be enough to prevent the Wraith from recovering anything useful. He also has an idea to write a virus which will activate just before detonation and wipe the computers. Weir is understandably distressed at the prospect of deleting the single greatest repository of Ancient knowledge, but Radek gives the page quote and informs her that with the large number of computers they brought with them it may be possible to take a copy of perhaps 7 or 8 percent of the data.

The satellite now has power, the life support is back online and Grodin manages to reactivate the artificial gravity, unfortunately it comes on a bit faster than they were expecting and Rodney didn't make it to the ladder in time.

McKay: Oh yeah, that's permanent back damage.

Grodin: Sorry, I assumed it would come on more gradually.

McKay: Well you assumed with my life.

Back on Atlantis, the security officer from earlier is found unconscious and badly injured, suspicion falls on Teyla and she is detained. It is suspected that the Wraith are somehow controlling her and using her as an agent within the city.

Grodin runs some diagnostics and confirms that the satellite and weapon are fine, but the circuit which supplies power to the weapon is damaged, they need to reroute power through an alternate circuit. Which can only be done from outside. After drawing straws, McKay suits up and heads out. He locates the damaged circuit and Grodin identifies an undamaged one they can reroute through. McKay begins the repairs.

Beckett has completed an examination of the DNA samples recovered from the injured officer's wounds. It's Wraith. A scan of the city uncovers a single Wraith hiding in an unused section of the city. After a quick battle he is captured and imprisoned.

Meanwhile, McKay has finished his repairs and Grodin confirms that everything appears to be working. The puddle jumper comes around to dock with the satellite and pick up Grodin so they can get clear. But something has gone wrong, it seems that the circuit that they used to repair the weapon was the one that supplied power to the airlock. Without a spacesuit Grodin cannot get out of the satellite and back to the jumper. Knowing that there isn't enough time for McKay to go back and rework the repairs Grodin orders them to get to a safe distance. He will operate the satellite and destroy the hive ships, then they'll have plenty of time to rescue him.

Presently, the Wraith arrive. Grodin powers up the weapon and switches it to automatic firing mode. After a short charge up time the satellite fires, and neatly slices the lead hive ship into two pieces. Which then explode. McKay radios Atlantis, "We have a kill!" and there is much rejoicing. McKay asks why Grodin hasn't fired again, inside the satellite there are flashing lights, alarms and showers of sparks. Grodin explains that the circuit they used to repair the weapon has fried itself. The satellite cannot fire again. Grodin tells McKay that there's no point risking themselves to save him and apologizes for his failure to get all the ships. McKay ignores him and orders the pilot to get them back to the satellite, but it's already too late. The remaining Wraith ships turn and fire on the satellite, completely obliterating it. McKay passes on the bad news to Atlantis. Weir tells them to return, at the very least, losing a hive ship has given the Wraith a scare. They are now holding back and seem to be re-evaluating their plans, Grodin having bought Atlantis some extra time. Zelenka puts the self-destruct program into standby mode, ready for Weir to give the order.

To Be Continued

Tropes

• Exposition Diagram: Zelenka uses one to explain why the self-destruct program is insufficient.
• From Bad to Worse: As Rodney grimly observes in the Teaser, they know now thanks to the events of "The Gift" that Wraith are more interested in Earth than Atlantis. So now the stakes are no longer just about the Expedition members defending themselves, but also preventing the Wraith from reaching the Milky Way Galaxy.
• Hannibal Lecture:
  Bob the Wraith: I will tell you this: no matter where you flee, we will find you. Just as surely as we will find Earth. And when we do, we shall feast!
• Heroic Sacrifice: Dr. Grodin
• Inhumanable Alien Rights: Sheppard repeatedly shoots Bob the Wraith in an effort to extract information, technically a form of torture.
• Kill Sat: The Ancient weapon satellite complete with a Wave-Motion Gun.
• Mauve Shirt: Grodin
• Metaphorgotten
  Rodney McKay: In military parlance, surprise is... an element on our side.
• No OSHA Compliance: The weapons platform, further cementing the Ancients as Too Dumb to Live Neglectful Precursors.
  • The artificial gravity goes from zero to 1G instantly, in an open space several stories high. Grodin even apologizes because he assumed that gravity would dial up gradually for precisely that reason.
  • The power conduits are routed through the outside of the platform, making repairing them unnecessarily difficult.
  • The airlock runs off the same power as the weapon (and the rest of the platform), causing it to deactivate when McKay reroutes power and bypasses the airlock in the process; an emergency power supply to the airlock would've easily saved Grodin.
  • All that being said, the Ancients were in a losing war with the Wraith at the time, and likely skimped on safety features to crank the platforms out as quickly as possible. They presumably never considered that they'd need to be repaired under a time crunch; either the platform would destroy the Wraith or it would be scrapped.
• Once More, with Clarity: The Wraith Dart's flyover of Atlantis during the events of "The Brotherhood". The Expedition realizes now that the Dart pilot wasn't just scanning the city, but also transported down. The self-destruction of the Dart was meant to disguise his insertion into the city (where he's been active in the weeks since).
• Pyrrhic Victory: The Atlantis crew manages to destroy one of the Wraith hive ships and slow down their advance, but at the cost of Peter Grodin's life and the loss of the last weapons satellite.
• Red Herring Mole: It's initially suspected that Teyla is being remotely possessed by the Wraith to spy on Atlantis, until they realize the Wraith simply slipped an actual Wraith into the city.
• The Reveal: There's been a Wraith loose in Atlantis since the events of "The Brotherhood". The pilot of the Dart didn't do a kamikaze run, but actually beamed down to gather intel and sabotage key systems. His presence in the city is why Teyla began experiencing visions/dreams of the Wraith during "The Gift".
• Rock–Paper–Scissors: for who is going to go outside and repair the satellite - until they realize you can't play Rock, Paper, Scissors with three people and end up Drawing Straws instead.
• Sacrificial Lion: Dr. Peter Grodin
• Salt the Earth: Deconstructed. Knowing now that the Wraith want Atlantis because it's the gateway to Earth, the episode explores the logistics of ensuring that scenario doesn't come to pass. Options considered include deleting the entire Ancient Database (which would cost the Expedition timeless knowledge) and self-destructing the city (which poses the problem of the Wraith recovering enough intact parts to reverse engineer its intergalactic drive and make it to the Milky Way by conventional means).
• Season Finale
• Some Call Me "Tim": Sheppard immediately names the Wraith prisoner "Bob."
• Stiff Upper Lip: As befitting an Englishman, Grodin doesn't even bat an eyelid when he tells them to leave him behind and get clear while he makes his heroic sacrifice.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Ancient weapon satellite has one and it's powerful enough to slice a Wraith hive ship in half in one shot. Too bad it craps out immediately afterwards and it's blasted to bits by the remaining two.