Sateda (Stargate Atlantis)
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| Stargate Atlantis episode | |
|---|---|
| “Sateda” | |
 |
|
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 04 |
| Guest star(s) | Frank Collison as Keturah Alexandra Carter as Linor Chiara Zanni as Milena Curtis Caravaggio as Airman Dan Payne as Big Wraith David Pauls as Aton Todd Scott as Malik John Stewart as Villager |
| Writer(s) | Robert C. Cooper |
| Director | Robert C. Cooper |
| Production no. | 304 |
| Original airdate | August 4, 2006 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Irresistible" | "Progeny" |
"Sateda" is an episode of the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis.
[edit] Plot
During an off-world reconnaissance mission, Sheppard's team disover a primitive village. Unfortunately, it is not long before one of the villagers sees Ronon and lets out a shout of 'Wraithbringer!'. The villagers, armed with crossbows, open fire on the team, catching McKay in the gluteus maximus with one of the bolts; Teyla, Ronon, and Sheppard begin firing off rounds about the villagers' heads as warning shots, and begin to retreat back to the nearby Stargate. Teyla and Ronon lag behind to cover the other two, and Sheppard leaves Rodney at the gate, before returning to aid his companions. Unfortunately, all three are hit with tranquilizer darts, leaving Rodney as the only one to escape back to Atlantis.
The three awaken in a sparse cell, where Ronon is challenged by the village leader, Keturah. He and his people deeply resent Ronon for what happened to them, after they had tended to his wounds and given him food and shelter. Among their village Ronon is appropriately called "the Wraithbringer". He had been to this planet before, when he was on the run from the Wraith; after arriving in a near-death state, he was nursed back to the health by the villagers, who did not know that he was implanted with a tracking device. Soon after his arrival, the Wraith attacked, burning the village and culling many of the inhabitants.
Unfortunately, the Wraith have also left Keturah with a transmitter with which he can contact with them - as well as the promise that if he and his people can capture Ronon should he ever come back, they will be spared from future cullings if they turn him in.
Back on Atlantis, an unnamed Major unsuccessfully attempts to extract information from Rodney, who is under the effects of a considerable amount of morphine. He and the rest of the ranking personnel present leave, with Dr. Weir telling Beckett to call her back when McKay starts to make sense again.
Ronon, first by talking to one of the prison guards and then, when that fails, by stunning the man and holding him next to the cage with a knife against his throat, manages to call Keturah back. He attempts to convince the village leader to let Sheppard and Teyla go, eventually releasing the guard and holding the knife against his own throat. His rather forceful apology and promise to try to make up for what happen convinces the villagers to let his companions go.
When the two return to Atlantis, they find an assembled team preparing to come to rescue them; they return to the planet immediately, but after the 15 minute walk to and from the gate, find the village destroyed and the inhabitants all either dead or culled; Ronon being among those taken back to the Hive, where he is once again implanted with the tracking device, before being released onto a planet, after being promised by the Hive King that this is where he will die. Upon being materialized onto the surface, he has a flashback to a retreat he had to order during the last days of his planet's defense against the Wraith. After his flasback, he runs, apparently trying to find shelter and weaponry.
A dart flies over the city, dropping a young Wraith commander into one of the streets.
On Atlantis, Sheppard and Teyla assure the other officers and members of their team that Ronon is probably still alive, as the Wraith will most likely want to return to hunting him for sport. Teyla proposes that they attempt to intercept the subspace signal and find out where he is, and McKay starts to work on calibrating the long-range sensors to pick it up.
Inside a building on the planet's surface, Ronon finds an assortment of broken objects, among them a long, jagged pieces of broken glass and a variety of pipes. He has a flashback to his own home during the siege, and remembers a woman (presumably his wife), who died in an explosion. Using a torn bedsheet, he ties the metal shard to the stick to make a primitive knife, and then moves downstairs into the cellar when he hears the door open. The Wraith follows him, closes the door to make the darkness total, and then begins to search. Almost immediately, Ronon leaps out and attacks, wrestling with his pursuer before killing him.
Back on Atlantis, Sheppard finds McKay finishing the calibration of the sensors; there are seven subspace transmitters broadcasting from various planets in the Pegasus Galaxy, but McKay is confident that he knows which one is Ronon - one signal is coming from Sateda, Ronon's home world.
Ronon continues to run, and eventually retreats into the city's sewers, followed by a Wraith probe. As the Wraith walks in the sewers following the GPS tracker on Ronon, he finally comes to his exact location. Confused, the Wraith looks up where Ronon points a blaster down and shoots him point blank. Another shot is made to the probe, cutting off the video feed to the Wraith leader. Ronon then begins salvaging weapons and equipment left over from his world's final battle against the Wraith, all while he has disturbing flashbacks of the time where he was a soldier trying to fight off the Wraith. Eventually, the Wraith start sending squads of troops to hunt him down, but Ronon easily kills all of them. Eventually, the Wraith leader sends an large battalion to hunt Ronon down.
The situation looks hopeless for Ronon until Sheppard and the rest of the team arrive on a cloaked Jumper. They assist him in killing the Wraith troops, and Ronon taunts the Wraith leader, challenging him to come himself. Remembering his flashbacks, Ronon decides to stop running from his past and face it head on.
A fist fight ensues between Ronon and the Wraith leader, with Ronon obviously outmatched against the Wraith's superior strength. McKay and Beckett assist by shooting the Wraith leader with a drone weapon, effectively killing him. Ronon thanks the team for helping him, and after having the tracking device removed, returns with the rest of the team to Atlantis.
[edit] Notes
- This is the first episode to comprehensively explain the backstory to Ronon, depicting his life before becoming a Runner.
- The first time we see a planet that Ronon visited and, as a result, brought the Wraith. In "Runner", Ronon mentioned that he had stayed in a village for a brief time, and the Wraith had attacked it, but it is never stated if that village is the one shown in this episode.
- The Hive in this episode appears to have a male leader instead of a Queen, the first occurrence of such a being. It is unknown if this Hive was an anomaly or if the leadership of a Wraith Hive is unconnected to gender.
- Various Wraith technology is revealed within this episode, including glasses that possibly perform an unknown function, a locator device designed to track the homing beacon within a Wraith Runner, and a smaller version of the Wraith probe.
- In a flashback, Ronon and Milena argue about how he wants her to go offworld with Kell, who was Ronon's task master and was seen in "Trinity".
[edit] External links
- Official Stargate Atlantis site. MGM. Visited June 8, 2006.
- Spoilers from GateWorld. Visited August 4, 2006.
