- The random nature of this drug's distribution is clear and calculated. It's obviously intended to throw the Wraith completely off balance. They have no way of knowing which of their food sources has been infected.— Col. Carter
The episode opens with Teyla standing before a funeral pyre, her people around her. On the pyre is Kanaan, the father of her child. As she lights the fire, he turns and begs her to save him...and she wakes up.
Teyla is convinced that her nightmare is a vision, and a message from Kanaan, who shares her gift. When she experiences a second vision, directing her to a specific village, she asks for permission to go and investigate. Although the base is spread pretty thin at the moment dealing with a strange and deadly new plague, Carter authorizes the mission and Sheppard's team goes to check it out. And finds absolutely nothing.
When they get back, there's a message waiting for them from their old buddy Todd the Wraith. He has discovered the source of the "plague" - someone has poisoned the well, so to speak, distributing a drug that makes humans toxic to Wraith, but at a 30% fatality rate. The team has a fairly good guess at what it is: the drug the Hoffans developed way back in Season 1. They also have a fairly good guess at who's doing it: the only person in the Galaxy with a grudge against humanity and wraithdom alike - Michael!
Meanwhile, Teyla has had another vision and returned to the planet with Major Lorne's team. This time she does find a lead on the missing Athosians...and is promptly kidnapped by Michael. He has been busy - not only has he learned to plant false visions in Teyla's head, he has also begun turning the Athosians into hybrids under his control (starting, sadly, with Kanaan), and, most importantly, has altered his own biology so that he no longer needs to feed. But, he says, he's had help.
Ignoring that bit of Foreshadowing for the moment, we cut back to Atlantis, where the expedition has agreed to give Todd all the information they posess on the Hoffan drug. In return, they enlist his help in tracking down Teyla and launch a rescue mission in the Daedalus. They find Michael's secret base, but it seems they're too early. Teyla is still on the hiveship that just appeared and started blasting the Daedalus. Sheppard radios Caldwell and tells him to disable, rather than destroy, the hive - but it jumps back into hyperspace and disappears before they can take out its engines. Teyla is gone.
Before they call the mission a complete wash, however, Major Lorne points out that the people they just fought were certainly guarding something, which is probably worth checking out even if it wasn't Teyla. They open the cell door to reveal...
...To be continued
Tropes
- Aborted Arc: The Bug People that Michael was developing during "Vengeance" as his army to take on the Expedition and the Wraith. Michael admits in retrospect that his early efforts were "a little crude" and abandoned that particular R&D once he refined his Wraith-Human Hybid research.
- Arc Welding: The Hoffan storyline from "Poisoning the Well" is merged with Michael's ongoing campaigns against the Wraith and Atlantis. The Todd storyline is also tangentially tied in as a repercussions of Michael's actions.
- Asshole Victim: The entire Hoffan civili
sation. No-one seems particularly broken up to learn they were wiped out.- The lack of any sympathy or mourning is justified by the ending of "Poisoning the Well". The Expedition left Hoff disgusted and appalled that they were still moving forward with inoculating their entire opulation despite a 50% mortality rate.
- Batman Gambit: How Sheppard's able to enlist Todd's help while they're trying to discover Teyla's whereabouts. Todd's given a portion of their original data on the Hoffan Drug; it's intentionally just enough data to whet his appetite, but not enough to allow him to devise a countermeasure on his own. The Expedition will provide Todd with the rest of the data if the Wraith can use his network of contacts across Pegasus to discover actionable intelligence on Teyla. It works.
- The Bus Came Back: Michael returns nearly a year after his last app. Justified, as the Asuran conflict threw the entiee
- Bus Crash: The Hoffan civilisation from "Poisoning The Well". Despite their belief that the Wraith would ignore them after their miracle drug made them immune to feeding, the Wraith instead responded by wiping them out in a fit of pique.
- Cassandra Truth: Sheppard warned Druhin during "Poisoning the Well" that the Hoffan drug's toxicity to the Wraith would not make them leave Hoff alone, but would instead get them exterminated by the pissed-off Hives. Druhin blew off Sheppard's warnings, but Sheppard's prediction was ultimately correct.
- Enemy Mine: Atlantis and Todd, again. Both want to put a stop to the Hoffan plague Michael is spreading- Todd because it will eventually render all humans in the galaxy immune to feeding, spelling extinction for the Wraith, and Atlantis because the plague has a 30% mortality rate and will kill millions of humans.
- Hypocrite: For all his bashing of the Atlantis Expedition for experimenting on him without his consent, Michael proves to be no better by forcibly converting the kidnapped Athosians into Hybrids.
- Never My Fault:
- Played with when Sheppard holds Todd responsible for the events of "Midway". A confused Todd points out he had no part in the attack on the Midway Station. Rodney angrily counters Todd actually is indirectly responsible, as the attack was made possible because of intel he stole while he was on Atlantis earlier in the Season. Todd counter-argues that intel was stolen from him, so in a way they're both victims.
- Played straight with Michael, as always. If anything, he's gotten even worse since "Vengeance"
- Not Me This Time: The Atlantis Expedition and Todd end up being this to each other, as both sides initially think the other party deployed the Hoffan Drug. After all, Todd knows the Expedition helped the Hoffans refine it and believes they would be willing to accept the large loss of life as an acceptable cost for crippling the Wraith. Likewise, the Expedition knows Todd has the scientific acumen, resources, and creativity to deploy the drug against other Hives.
- Todd also cites this as his defense for the events of "Midway". While he is indirectly responsible for the attack (thanks to his hack of Atlantis' systems), he had no part in the actual attack (as that intel was stolen from him).
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: During Sheppard and company's follow-up visit to Todd's base, the Wraith confirms the Expedition's suspicions the culprit behind the Hoffan drug is Michael without giving up anything in exchange. Sheppard even points out how uncharacteristically generous this is of Todd. Justified, though, as Todd knows Sheppard's team wouldn't have come back unless they need his help and so he's opening the bargaining.
- Pregnant Hostage: Teyla
- Seen It All: McKay's reason for purportedly believing Teyla.McKay: Hey, I've been cocooned inside an alien space craft, I've had another person living inside me, I've encountered, not one, but two different versions of myself, so who am I to judge? If you say it was a vision then I believe it was a vision.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Although one Gilligan Cut later;
McKay: *To Shepard* I seriously doubt it was a vision. - Shoot Out the Lock
- Starts with Their Funeral: Teyla witnessing Kanaan's funeral. Subverted, in that it turns out to be a dream.
- Teenage Wasteland: Hoff after the culling, now is home to kids who are either survivors or scavengers.
- Tranquil Fury: Rodney during the first meeting with Todd. He's still pissed that the Wraith hacked his systems and got one over on him.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Michael. He's been repeatedly cast out and betrayed by both Wraith and humans, and has nothing to lose by wiping out both of them.
