Spoils of War

Plot: The Atlantis crew manage to track down the Wraith Hiveship that went missing after the attack on the Replicators. Finding the ship leads them to a Wraith cloning facility, where they discover that an army is being readied.

It's fair to say that this episode doesn't quite hit the dramatic heights that last week's did, but it is still a fine concluding part to this trio of episodes dealing with the preparation for and aftermath of the elimination of the Replicators.

Little in Stargate ever happens without a reason and we discover that the Wraith certainly had an ulterior motive for participating in the attack on the Replicators. We find out that the Wraith managed to get away from the Replicator planet with several ZPMs. Todd, the formerly captured Wraith had planned to use them for activating the cloning facility and breeding an army to fight the other Wraith himself. Unfortunately, he was captured and instead, another group of Wraith were using them to breed an army, I assume to fight the humans with. This discovery facilitates some back story on the Wraith/Atlantean war. We learn that the Atlanteans were rather careless in allowing some of their ships to be captured by the Wraith. The Wraith then used the ZPMs to power a cloning facility, increasing their numbers exponentially and effectively turning the tide of the war from that point onward. It is a story that fits in perfectly with what we know so far and really helps to add depth to the Stargate universe. Very well handled indeed.

Sheppard and Teyla have further disagreements about her fitness to join in on off world missions, in regards to her pregnancy. He lets her go along on the mission to the Wraith Hiveship and it's a good job she does. It transpires that Teyla's unborn child is enhancing her telepathic powers, firstly allowing her to activate the Wraith ship and secondly to control the mind of a Wraith Queen. It's a frightful showdown as Teyla battles to keep control of the Queen's mind to free Sheppard, Rodney and Ronon who had been captured, while ensuring that the Queen is not able to touch the mind of her child. Teyla wins out in the end, but only just and quickly realises how easily she could put her child in danger under any number of circumstances.

In the end, the team have little choice but to crash the Hiveship in to the cloning facility. It was one of the coolest special effects I've seen in a long time and helped to cap a decent episode.

There was no word of what Elizabeth Weir is up to at the moment, but I guess it's safe to assume that whatever she's doing, good or bad, it's continuing behind the scenes. I wouldn't expect to find out any further details until the end of this season. For now though, I think we can all sit back and appreciate the conclusion of a very fine three part story.

7 out of 10