Be All My Sins Remember'd

Plot: The Atlantis expedition teams up with the Wraith and Larrin to execute a plan to destroy the Replicators once and for all.


This episode felt huge from the very beginning and it managed to deliver every step of the way. This is one of Stargate's finest moments, with a massive cast and spectacular action, bringing together plots that have been developing since before the beginning of this season.

Where to start? Firstly, the Daedalus and the Apollo arrive from Earth, commanded by Colonels Caldwell and Ellis respectively. Now that McKay has enabled the ability to locate the Replicator ships, the Daedalus and Apollo go about catching and destroying them. Problem is, the Replicators fall back to their homeworld before the Atlantis team have been able to destroy any more than ten of the ships, which is where McKay's plan comes in.

As we all know, weapons previously designed to stop Replicators worked by removing the bonds that held individual nanites together, effectively turning them to dust. The problem with these weapons is that the Replicators have always quickly found ways to counteract them, meaning that they were never much use in an ongoing battle. McKay proposes that they try the opposite. Instead of making the cells fall apart, they make them form stronger bonds, so that they're forced closer together. This will merge all of the Replicator cells in to one super big, super dense mass that can be destroyed.


To make the plan work, it would be necessary to get a few more ships, as the 30 or so Replicator ships would be a bit too much for the 2 Earth ships to handle. Fortunately, the captured Wraith still has contacts that he can use and rustles up 7 more ships. After that, a chance encounter with Larrin allows Sheppard to convince her to get several more ships from her people. All together, this was quite an impressive armada that helped to create one of Stargate's most spectacular space battles. It really was breath-taking. Not just that, but the replicator mass growing and taking over the planet was a unique and stunning sight. A really great vision by the shows creators.

As mentioned, this episode featured a huge cast. The captured Wraith has been a breath of fresh air when it comes to Wraith characters. He continued in this episode as fantastic foil for McKay. They worked well together and we'll hopefully see more of him in the future. Next, it was great to see Caldwell back on Atlantis. His presence isn't quite so necessary now that the intergalactic bridge is up and running, so he's not been on Atlantis quite as much. He always created excellent tension between himself and Dr. Weir and I'd like to see some of that now with Sam Carter. Finally, Larrin made a return and is already proving herself to be one of Atlantis' better recurring guest characters. Her relationship with Sheppard is being handled a little heavy handedly, but it's great to watch and I can't wait to see more of it in future.

What else? Teyla dropped the P-bomb on Sheppard and Ronon, finally explaining that she is carrying a child. Shep was a little pissed off, which I think alludes to the underlying sexual tension that's developed between them over the past few years. Ronon, however, was very caring and understanding. The pair have a strong friendship and the writers have done well to keep it at that, even though it could've easily gone up a level at any stage.

Finally, in the rubble of the Replicator planet, we see a remaining Lantean ship. It isn't quite what I expected, not a surviving Replicator ship. This one is under the command of our own Dr. Elizabeth Weir and she's eager to get started on something, now that the Replicators are out of the way. It was an excellent curveball to end and exceptional episode.

9 out of 10