Stargate Atlantis/Recap/S03 E02 Misbegotten

"What I am is not a disease you can cure"

- Michael

Weir is still off world, the Daedalus hasn't checked in, and a Hive Ship is bearing down on Atlantis. Teyla raises the cloak and has Dr. Beckett strapped into the drone chair just in case - when the Hive Ship hails them. It's Sheppard and the rest of the cast on board the captured hiveship with the battered but intact Daedalus in tow. Oh, plus 200 ex-Wraith hanging out in stasis. But we'll figure out what to do with them later.

Meanwhile, the IOA has decided that it's better to rerelease Weir into the wild than to actually make a decision about anything, so they send her home with Richard Woolsey in tow to keep an eye on her. Maybe it'll go better than his last trip off-world. The Asgard give them a lift, and they show up in a couple of weeks - during which nothing interesting happens.

There is still the problem of Michael, however. He notes that even though he completely saved their skins last episode, he's still constantly under guard and treated like a prisoner. He will never be welcomed or accepted by either the humans or the Wraith, and they can't just let him go to make his own way, for fear he'll divulge the existence of Atlantis. Teyla encourages him to take the treatment again - become fully human. But since they have yet to convince him that being human is objectively better, and they'll still never trust him, he doesn't really see the point. So Ronon shoots him in the chest and they give him the retrovirus anyway, against his will.

Apparently not having learned their lesson with Michael, they set up an offworld medical colony for the ex-Wraith, administered by Dr. Beckett. He tells them that they are victims of a plague that decimated their homeworld, and that they require constant treatment to stay healthy. He even starts training them to administer the retrovirus themselves. Everything is going swimmingly, and Sheppard and his crew take off, leaving Beckett and a handful of marines behind. And a nuke, in case anything goes wrong.

When one of the prisoners who refused the treatment is killed, Beckett suspects murder. And is correct. Michael has collected up those prisoners whose memory has started to return without arousing suspicion. When his own began to return, he was understandably pissed, feeling even more hurt and betrayed than the first time around. He and his small group of reverters pool their telepathic abilities to signal a Hive Ship to come rescue them, preserving the rest of the prisoners as a food supply. He also convinces Beckett to tell him about the nuke (although it's not shown how precisely), which he then deactivates.

Weir somehow figures out something is wrong, and sends Sheppard, McKay and Teyla over in the Hive Ship to investigate. They rescue Dr. Beckett, but the soldiers left behind to protect him have all been eaten. To his horror, they blast the encampment from orbit (after the nuke fails to go off), killing (they hope) all of the prisoners, reverted and human alike. Then the second Hive Ship turns up and blasts them out of the sky. They hide out on the cloaked puddlejumper until they are eventually rescued by the Daedalus.

After having watched the whole thing, Woolsey inexplicably decides to give Weir a glowing report and returns to Earth.

Tropes:
"Michael: You're exactly what I need, Doctor..."
 * Foe Yay: Michael and Beckett


 * Half-Human Hybrid
 * Heroic Willpower: Inverted with Michael
 * Inhumanable Alien Rights: Michael, since we clearly don't remember how well that worked out last time
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Michael gives Beckett a pretty good one.