Perhaps the future is predetermined by the character of those who shape it.
— Davos the Seer
Tropes:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Atlantis season 4 takes place after Stargate: Continuum. Both teams at this point have had more than enough experience with evolved humans, ascended beings, demigods and time travel to know that a man who claims to see the future is absolutely possible. McKay and Carter immediately dismissing the idea out of hand this late into the series is borderline Idiot Ball territory. Carter was even witness to Maybourne doing something very similar in the episode It's Good to Be King just by different means.
- The Bus Came Back: Todd the Wraith (who won't actually be nicknamed on-screen by Sheppard until "Spoils of War") makes his first appearance since last Season's "Common Ground". He'll remain a recurring character for the remainder of the series.
- Continuity Nod: When considering whether to work with Todd, both Woolsey and Carter separately bring up that the last time the Expedition tried working with a Wraith Hive, it didn't go well.
- Didn't Think This Through: This is the key mistake Rodney and the others made with reprogramming the Asurans. By reactivating their 'Attack the Wraith' protocols, Rodney and company assumed this would mean conventional warfare (ground engagements, ship-to-ship, etc.). What they did not consider was that a race of machines might instead conclude that the logical, most efficient way to fight back against an enemy with a very specific diet would be to eliminate their food supply...
- Enemy Mine: The Atlantis expedition allies with Todd's faction of the Wraith against the Asurans.
- How Did You Know? I Didn't: When a second Wraith ship shows up, Carter has to decide either to cloak Atlantis or to put up the shield and fight.Woolsey: How did you know the two Wraith ships would fire on each other?
Carter: I didn't. Are you going to put that in your report?
Woolsey: It probably would be better if I didn't. There may be such a thing as being too thorough. - The Inquisitor General: Richard Woolsey is on board for Carter's quarterly performance review.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Teyla hides her pregnancy from everyone except Dr. Keller, who is the one who discovered it in the first place.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: McKay's rewriting of the Asuran base code and reactivation of their commands to attack the Wraith worked for a time, until they realized the most efficient way to destroy the Wraith is by wiping out their food supply, which has caused the deaths of over 150,000 Pegasus humans already.
- Not Me This Time: Zigzagged with the arrival of a second Hive after they take Todd into custody. This Hive has no relation to Todd and it's not his doing — at least not directly. However, said second Hive only there because Todd has a tracker on him for his own Hive — and the second Hive is naturally curious what another Hive is doing in the middle of nowhere.
- Prophetic Fallacy: Davos' visions have always come true, but not always in the ways expected when they're first seen. The vision he shows McKay depicts the team being surrounded by Wraith and captured, but it doesn't show the two cloaked ships the team brought along as backup. And the vision he shows Carter of Atlantis being destroyed by the Replicators eventually turns out to be a duplicate Atlantis built by Niam's renegade Replicator faction.Davos: Believe me, catching glimpses of the future is not always as helpful as you might think.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Teyla's pregnancy was written in because of Rachel Lutrell's real life pregnancy.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Given what happened back during "Allies", everybody on the Expedition is naturally very uneasy about working with the Wraith again. Knowing they were betrayed by Michael's Hive, Todd is actually understanding of their reluctance and doesn't hold it against them.
- Todd's time as a Genii prisoner eroded his standing among the other Wraith. While he still has resources and followers, they're a shadow of what they were prior to his imprisonment.
