Stargate Atlantis/Recap/S03 E04 Sateda

"Have you seen a guy around? He looks like you, but he's got messy hair. I think I lost him somewhere, and a pretty girl and a caveman."

- McKay discovers the joys of morphine

The team is tromping through redwood forests, and come across a settlement of friendly villagers - who immediately shoot McKay. It turns out that this is a planet Ronon visited in his days as a runner...thereby bringing the Wraith down upon them. McKay makes it back to Atlantis, but the others are captured and held. The Wraith have promised to spare the villagers future cullings in return for Ronon. Ronon convinces them to release Sheppard and Teyla by holding a knife to his own throat, and they race back to Atlantis for reinforcements. By the time they get back, however, the village has been utterly destroyed and Ronon is gone.

Ronon is taken back to a Wraith hive ship and implanted with a Runner tracking device. The Wraith General laughs at him and then releases him in the ruins of his home planet of Sateda (after disabling the Stargate somehow). The rest of the team has happily inferred that this might be the case, and manage to calibrate the long-range scanners to detect Runners. There are seven; they guess that Ronon is the one on Sateda and give no thought to possibly rescuing the other six. It's too dangerous for the Daedalus to mount a direct rescue, but they can get close enough to send in a cloaked puddlejumper. Beckett comes along to remove the tracking device, should an opportunity arise.

Meanwhile, Ronon undergoes a series of painful flashbacks, while the Wraith send wave after wave of hunters after him. He draws on every bad action cliche at his disposal in order to deafeat each one in turn. A new wave is sent down from the hive ship, 26 strong - but fortunately Sheppard and Teyla turn up and are able to help him out. After they kill all the Wraith, Ronon calls the General down for a one-on-one fight, warning Sheppard and Teyla that he'll kill them if they interfere.

So Teyla and Sheppard sit passively by while Ronon gets thoroughly pounded by the Wraith General. That is, until Beckett decides to blast the General in the face with a drone from the jumper. That does the trick, and Ronon is so grateful that Beckett escapes with no more than a hug.

Tropes
"Beckett: (grabbing a gun) I'm going to help them.
 * Bear Hug: Ronon to Beckett. The latter is justifiably a little terrified.
 * Conflict Ball: Sheppard boldly calls Caldwell out on not valuing the non-human members of the team! Which he has shown no evidence of ever in fact doing! OH NO!!!
 * Curb Stomp Battle: After all the pain he's been dishing out to the other Wraith, Ronon doesn't stand up against the General at all.
 * Dead Little Sister: Well, dead wife. Part of the reason Ronon hates the Wraith so much.
 * Flash Back
 * Goggles Do Nothing: The first Wraith to come after Ronon is wearing nifty shades for some reason. At first it looks like they let him detect the tracking signal, but no, he's got a device on his wrist for that.
 * Guns Akimbo
 * Gun Fu
 * I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: subverted

McKay: What, are you crazy? You're a doctor!

Beckett: What does that have to do with it?"

"McKay: Oh, how much time did you spend thinking that up?
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Sheppard's "pain in the ass" joke.

Sheppard: More than I'd care to admit..."

"Beckett: You have an arrow, Rodney, in your gluteus maximus!
 * Leave Him to Me
 * No One Gets Left Behind
 * Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: The villagers think they can buy their freedom by trading Ronon to the Wraith. It doesn't work.
 * Shot in the Ass: Summed up beautifully by McKay

McKay: (on morphine) Gluteus maximus... Gluuuteus maaaximus... Oh my god! That's my ass isn't it?"


 * Stop or I Shoot Myself
 * The Most Dangerous Game
 * This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Ronon vs. the Wraith General. Of course, he proceeds to get his ass handed to him and is actually (and unexpetedly) relieved when Beckett saves his life.
 * Who Is Driving?: Turns out it was McKay - Sheppard makes him return to the pilot's seat when he figures it out.