The Kindred (Part 2)

Stargate Atlantis Season 4 Episode 19 - Plot: The story behind Carson's incarceration is unveiled, as the Atlantis team works to find and rescue Teyla.

Carson

Understandably, everyone's a little sceptical about Carson's return. They fear he may, intentionally or not, do something to hinder their attempts to find Michael and Teyla. We learn this much, the real Carson did die a year ago in an explosion. This Carson is a clone, who believed he was the real Carson and that he had been in captivity for two years, having been taken following the events of Misbegotten.

There's a problem though. Carson had been receiving regular injections from Michael. His original belief was that these were designed to keep him sedated. In fact, they were designed to keep him alive, as a side effect of the cloning process causes cell decay. Carson begins to suffer organ failure, but is determined to help in the search for Teyla.

Teyla

Teyla is taken to a facility on an abandoned post-cull world. There, she is re-united with the Athosians, before being taken to Michael where he explains his plans for her child. As the child will be the product of two parents with The Gift, Michael believes that it could be vital in his research in to developing Human/Wraith hybrids.

The Atlantis team gets a lead on their location and invades the facility. Following a confrontation with Beckett, Michael escapes with Teyla.

Stasis

Dr. Keller's efforts to save Carson have not been successful and there's no choice but to put him into Stasis while she works to find a way to regenerate his cells.

In an emotional 'see you later', the team gathers to watch him go in to the Stasis Pod, knowing that he may never be revived again.

The review

I'd say this was something of a disappointment following last week's episode. It certainly felt like it was building up to more than this. Maybe the fact that it wasn't our Carson made me a little disenchanted with the episode from the start.

It did pick up towards the end, with some exciting action scenes during the Atlantis team's assault on Michael's facility. It was interesting to see that the Teyla in captivity plot will roll over to another episode. I'd imagine it might even roll over to next season. She certainly appears to be heavily pregnant up to this point. She's already had her baby, but it'd stand to reason that she'd need to take a break away from the show for that reason.

Mixed feelings about putting Carson in to Stasis. On the one hand, it means we're likely to see him again. On the other, it's a rather big dangling plot thread that might never be resolved.

Well this episode floundered for twenty minutes or so, it picked up a head of steam eventually to produce a half satisfying/half frustrating climax.

The season 4 finale is up next!

8 out of 10

Trio

Plot: Rodney, Sam and Dr. Keller fall in to an abandoned Genii mine shaft that is in danger of collapsing during regular earth tremors.


Sam gets involved in some proper action for the first time in ages and wouldn't you know it? She gets a busted leg for her troubles. The room that the trio fall in to is suspended on stilts above a very deep sheer drop down the mining shaft. Quite a daunting prospect, especially when their weight puts too much strain on the stilts.

It all feels a bit like a company team building exercise gone wrong, or a really mean Crystal Maze game. They try all kinds of clever ways to climb up the 20ft to the hole that they made coming through. From stacking crates, to a grapple hook and then to stacking crates on planks laid across beams suspended from the ceiling. The latter of these leads to Sam falling and breaking her leg.

During a penultimate tremor, Dr. Keller gets thrown out from the room, hanging on to a rope. She notices an escape shaft down the pit and swings to it. From there, the trio are able to escape to safety.

Perhaps most interesting is that Keller proves herself to be a bit of a hussy. She learns that Rodney and Katie split up after the quarantine incident and ends up going for a drink with Rodney at the very end of the episode. This, of course, after she and Ronon nearly ended up making out during that very same quarantine incident. She's one to watch out for. She certainly put a braver face on than when she was stranded on New Athos with Teyla in 'Missing'. She's getting to be a fun character and I hope we'll see more of her in to the next season.

I can't say this was the most thrilling episode, but it was fun to watch them trying out different ways of escape. It seems that the writers have tried to split the team up in to smaller groups during the past few episodes of the season. This has allowed for strengthening of bonds between the individual characters. It's worked well, though episodes centering around only two or three of the main cast are always going to lack a little excitement. This is especially going to be true when considering the fact that any major events are going to involve all members of the cast by default.

7 out of 10

Quarantine

Plot: New settings for the Atlantis quarantine system wrongly enforce a lock down, leading to several members of the expedition getting trapped in different parts of the city.
With various amounts of partying and dissertation writing this week, I've not had much chance to watch any Stargate this week. Fortunately, I was able to sit down and enjoy a really fun episode of Atlantis this evening.

There are four pairs of characters trapped within the city, each limited in their ability to fix the problem that caused the malfunction. First of all, Rodney gets stuck in the botanics room with Katie. He'd gone there to propose, but was interrupted by the lock down. While there, Rodney becomes increasingly negative as the situation seemingly grows more desperate. Unfortunately, they both decide to hold off on getting engaged for the first time. Rodney believes that he has some character flaws to work out and Katie admits that she's not ready either. Though that admission is a little weak and you can tell that she did really want to get married. Hopefully they'll get it together next season, because I really think that Katie has been a positive part of Rodney's character.

There's more romance as Ronon and Dr. Keller get stuck in medical bay. They start off by discovering a little about each other, Ronon tells her about the siege on Sateda, Keller tells about her lost youth. Turns out she skipped ahead a few grades and was something of a child prodigy. She regrets missing the parties, the dances and the social interaction. Ronon's become a gentler soul over the past 18 months ago and he helps her to realise that she's a lot stronger than she realises. They're about to kiss when the lock down ends and interrupts them. I'd never have imagined them together, but I think it'll work really well. I'm interested in seeing how it all develops over the next few episodes.

Sheppard and Teyla are stuck in a room in the tower together. Sheppard worries that Teyla might go in to labour. Apart from a few baby kicks there was no drama there though. Sheppard opts to break out through a window and climb up the tower to the control room where he meets Major Lorne. Problem is that his breaking the window makes the city think there's been a containment breach and it engages self destruct. They set out to get to the power control room to shut it down.

On the way, they run in to Sam Carter and Zalenka who were stuck together in a turbo lift. Sam was working on opening the doors when Zalenka blew up one of the control crystals. Obviously he was a little embarrassed by his mistake, but soon got the chance to make amends. This happened when someone was required to crawl through a rather slim air duct to get to the control room and shut down the self destruct. He manages it and saves that day.

I think Zalenka's part in this episode was played particularly well. He's a good character, but is always in Rodney's shadow. This time, he was able to step in to the limelight and take all the accolades. Good for him, I say.

I think this episode was a lot of fun. Lots happened without the characters needing to leave Atlantis or get involved in any great action sequences, especially in contrast to the last three or four episodes. Character development of this quality is not often seen in Stargate, but it was refreshing to see such excellence here. Thumbs up from me definitely.

8 out of 10