Stargate Atlantis/Recap/S02 E11 The Hive

"And that's what happens when you back a brilliant scientist into a corner!"

- McKay transforms into the Incredible Hulk

...and now, the conclusion.

The hive ship queen is about to get down to the serious business of sucking the life out of Sheppard for information, when suddenly a second hive ship drops out of hyperspace. The queen stops in disgust and the guards drag Sheppard back to his cell. With the use of many concealed knives, Ronon eventually manages to trigger the door opening mechanism, an the five of them (Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, Ford, and Ford's last remaining follower Kanayo) are able to escape. As they go, Ford injects himself with the last of the enzyme.

They get sidetracked by a call for help. Some of the cocooned humans, far from being too far gone to bother with, are in fact awake and lucid. Against Ford's urgings, Sheppard stops to free them. It turns out that they are two very pretty and very grateful girls. Unfortunately, all the racket brings the Wraith running, and they are captured and thrown into cells again - this time with Sheppard, Ford, and the girl Neera in one and Teyla, Ronon, and Kanayo in a separate cell.

Meanwhile, back on Ford's planet, McKay is getting ever more antsy over how late Sheppard and the others are in reporting in. He tries, unsuccessfully, to convince the two guys guarding him to give him the dialing crystals so he can get backup from Atlantis. When even begging won't work, he decides to take matters into his own hands. He sneaks into the back room and injects himself with a super dose of the enzyme...and then proceeds to beat the two guards into a bloody pulp. As the mental effects of the drug set in, he has just enough wherewithal remaining to retrieve the crystals and escape through the gate.

Once he gets to the other side, he's completly incoherent, but exceptionally pleased with himself. Weir tries to get information about the rest of the team out of him, but he finally passes out from his overdose and has to be rushed to the infirmary. Without a supply of the Wraith enzyme, Beckett can't wean McKay off of it gently, and it takes all of his efforts to prevent the withdrawals from being fatal.

The folks on the hive ship, however, aren't nearly so fortunate. Teyla and Ronon are starting to experience violent withdrawals themselves, and are understandably freaked out when Kanayo, who has been on the drug much longer, suddenly drops dead. The Wraith remove his body, and likewise Ford's when he starts exhibiting violent withdrawals as well a little while later. Neera explains that they are most likely going to cocoon him to keep him alive. She cuddles up to Sheppard and proceeds to pump him for information about his world, but he restricts himself to a fairly accurate description of British Columbia and an explanation of his coulrophobia.

Rightly so, for when the Wraith queen summons Sheppard again, she reveals that Neera serves and worships the Wraith. She questions Sheppard about the dart, and he tells her that he was hired by a rival queen to assassinate her. Which queen? Well, the one who just dropped out of hyperspace right next to her. While she screams in rage, Ford turns up, glowing with a new dose of enzyme, and rescues him. Sheppard steals a dart while Ford stays behind to hold off the Wraith, then vacuums up Ronon and Teyla and joins the darts leaving the hive ship to begin the culling.

By this time, McKay has regained his capacities enough to tell everyone where the rest of the team is, and he and the Daedalus come screaming to the rescue. The Wraith are able to jam their transporters so that they can neither transport Sheppard and his team out nor beam a nuke in. They are happily surprised, therefore, when the two Wraith ships start firing on each other. The cause is a single dart attacking one of the hive ships - Sheppard, stirring up trouble. The ships annihilate each other (and all the surrounding darts) and everyone goes home happy.

Tropes
"Sheppard: Oh yeah, the clowns. We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens. We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in."
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: Ford and Ronon, briefly
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: McKay's withdrawl-induced rants against Beckett.
 * The Determinator: Beckett surmises that the only reason McKay was able to survive such a high dose of the enzyme was his natural stubbornness.
 * Extended Disarming: Ronon removes a succession of knives from about his person while the team is trying to escape the Wraith holding cell.
 * Going Cold Turkey: Everyone who's been given the Wraith Enzyme (except Ford) sooner or later, with varying results. Played straightest with McKay.
 * Gut Feeling: Type 3. Sheppard is convinced at the end of the episode that Ford is still alive.
 * Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: see page quote
 * Well, more like a Post Ass Kicking One Liner, since he says it after he's kicked their asses.
 * Stealth Pun:

"Beckett: I feel not unlike the priest in The Exorcist."
 * Shout-Out: Beckett, after treating McKay


 * The Farmer and the Viper: rescuing people from hive ships seems to be just universally a bad idea.
 * Unstoppable Rage: McKay, although it's drug-induced.