The Return (Stargate Atlantis)

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“The Return”
Stargate Atlantis episode

Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 10, 11
Guest stars	Richard Dean Anderson as Major General Jack O'Neill Robert Picardo as Agent Richard Woolsey David Nykl as Dr. Zelenka Ryan Robbins as Ladon Radim Bill Dow as Dr. Lee Beau Bridges as Major General Landry Mitch Pileggi as Colonel Steven Caldwell
Written by	Martin Gero
Directed by	Brad Turner
Production no.	310, 311
Original airdate	Part 1: September 22, 2006 Part 2: November 20, 2006
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Phantoms"	"Echoes"
Episode chronology

"The Return" (Parts 1 and 2) are episodes from Season 3 of the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Plot
- 1.1 Part 1
- 1.2 Part 2
2 Quotes
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Plot

[edit] Part 1

With Atlantis's ZPM depleted, McKay and Samantha Carter devise an ingenious solution to solve the problem of transportation between the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies. Using 34 Stargates from both galaxies, Stargate Command has constructed a massive chain of Stargates between the galaxies that would reduce the time to travel between Atlantis and Earth from three weeks to thirty minutes. The test is successful, but after Sheppard returns from the test, McKay detects strange readings on the Daedalus's sensors.

Upon closer examination, McKay finds out that the anomalous contact is actually an Aurora class battleship moving close to the speed of light. McKay hypothesizes that the ship is a damaged Ancient battleship making its way from Atlantis to Earth, but because its hyperdrive is damaged, it is forced to move at near lightspeed. Though the trip would take millions of years, relativity from moving close to the speed of light would mean that only a few years would pass from the crew's perspective. The implications of this would mean that there could be living, breathing Lanteans on board.

The Daedalus manages to make contact with the ship, the Tria, and transport the Lantean crew, numbering roughly a hundred survivors, back to Atlantis. The Lanteans are overjoyed to see that their city is still intact, but reveal shocking news. They intend to reclaim the city and ask the Tau'ri to leave. Gen. O'Neill and Woolsey arrive in Atlantis to try and negotiate, offering manpower, resources and infrastructure to help the Lanteans make Atlantis great again, but the Lanteans' position is steadfast. They acknowledge everything the Tau'ri have done and the debt they owe them, but say they need time alone after ten thousand years and that at some point in the future, they will be welcomed back.

With no support from the Lanteans, and with an Ori invasion of the Milky Way galaxy to deal with, the Atlantis expedition is disbanded and returned to Earth. Teyla, Ronon, and the Athosians are relocated to another planet. Everybody attempts to deal with their sudden separation from Atlantis in their own way. Sheppard is assigned to an SG team, McKay is reassigned to Area 51 and Beckett is given a surgery post at the SGC. Weir essentially drops out of the radar and becomes a virtual hermit until Beckett coaxes out to have dinner with the others.

Meanwhile, back in Atlantis, O'Neill and Woolsey (who the Lanteans welcomed to stay as ambassadors) report that an Asuran ship was detected, but the Lanteans are confident that they won't be harmed, since the Asurans' base programming prevents them from doing so. Unfortunately, the Lanteans are taken completely by surprise when the Asurans suddenly attack and invade Atlantis.

Sheppard, McKay, Beckett and Weir are summoned to the SGC. After hearing O'Neill's final transmission, Gen. Landry decides to send the Daedalus to Atlantis and destroy the city with a nuclear warhead. With the gate bridge in place, the Asurans could use it to gate to any planet in the Milky Way, which the SGC cannot allow. The four Atlantis expedition members told of this are horrified at the news, and hatch a daring plan to try to save O'Neill, Woolsey, and Atlantis. Before anybody at the SGC realizes it, the four steal a cache of upgraded Replicator disruptors (calling them "Anti-Replicator Guns" or ARGs), hijack a Puddle Jumper, and use the gate bridge to travel to the Pegasus galaxy.

On the new Athosian homeworld, Teyla and Ronon are approached by Ladon Radim, asking them consider working for the Genii. After Radim leaves, the two discuss this: Ronon has no desire to join the Genii, but Teyla comments that he may not be happy as a farmer.

At that moment, Sheppard, McKay, Weir, and Beckett arrive, and recruit Ronon and Teyla to help retake the city. With the team assembled, McKay uses a special backdoor program embedded into the Stargate's programming to open a wormhole to Atlantis and disable its Stargate's Iris shield. Sheppard then flies the Jumper straight through the gate, uncertain of what is waiting for them on the other side.

[edit] Part 2

O'Neill and Woolsey locked up.

Woolsey and O'Neill are hiding out in a section of the city where the sensors are not working when Sheppard's team comes through the gate, taking fire from the Asurans. Sheppard contacts the two and tells them to stay put, dropping an explosive device into Stargate Operations before piloting the Jumper through the window directly behind the gate. The device detonates, damaging critical systems and all but destroying the upper section of the central spire.

The team then take the Jumper to retrieve Niam, who is still floating in space where they left him ("Progeny"). McKay plans to use Niam to transmit a program that will make all the Asurans freeze, allowing them to finish them off with the ARGs. Niam has been damaged by his long exposure to vacuum and solar radiation, and is unconscious. McKay begins uploading the program but notes that they need to be very close to the city in order to make it work.

When the Jumper returns to Atlantis, it is attacked by drone weapons. Sheppard maneuvers the Jumper between the city buildings but cannot shake them. He takes the Jumper into the ocean, heading for an underwater docking bay. However, the bay will not repressurize, and due to the damage taken earlier, the Jumper is taking on water. They radio O'Neill for help, and he swims down to the docking bay control room, holding down a dead man's switch to drain the docking bay while Woolsey keeps a lookout. O'Neill succeeds, but an Asuran search party finds and captures both him and Woolsey.

McKay continues to work on Niam, as the others discover that O'Neill and Woolsey have been taken, possibly to be mind-probed. This is indeed the case, and having discovered Sheppard's plan, the Asurans reactivate Niam, forcing McKay to destroy him with an ARG. With "Plan A" gone, Ronon suggests they simply go on a killing spree with the ARGs but McKay warns them that eventually the Asurans will determine the frequency the disruptors use and develop an immunity. McKay comes up with another plan and asks Sheppard how much C-4 they have.

The team splits into three groups, each going to different shield control units around the city. Sheppard and McKay go to the cell where O'Neill and Woolsey are being kept. McKay tells the two captives that the plan is to disable the city's shield emitters with C-4, allowing the Daedelus to beam nuclear bombs directly into the city and vaporize it after they get away. However, McKay is apparently unable to override the coded lock to free them, and he and Sheppard are forced to leave.

The Asurans finish repairs to Stargate Operations and, with the city now being powered by ZPMs, activate the city's stardrive. Beckett and Teyla head to the chair room where Beckett launches drones to damage the stardrive. The Asurans, however, have extracted information about the plan from Woolsey's mind, and capture Sheppard's team just as the last of the C-4 is planted. The Asurans remove the C-4 and gloat to Sheppard that the humans' plan has failed. Detecting the Daedelus entering orbit, the Asurans raise the shield…

…and, in flashback, McKay describes his plan to Sheppard: to insert the disruptor crystals from the ARGs into the shield control units, turning the Atlantis shield into a giant disruptor weapon. A fake plan is told to Woolsey and O'Neill to feed disinformation to the Asurans and the C-4 left as misdirection. When the Asurans activate the shield they are destroyed in one fell swoop. At the last second the team contacts the Daedalus and convinces Col. Caldwell not to destroy the city.

The city recaptured, the Atlantis expedition moves back in, and with O'Neill and Woolsey's approval Weir will once again be in command.

[edit] Quotes

McKay: Okay, we need to send them a message before they get out of range and we have to jump ahead. Uh, something like, you know, "We are humans from Earth, currently occupying Atlantis, uh, yada yada yada…"
Sheppard: Why don't we just ask 'em to slow down?
Kleinman: Colonel Caldwell. The unidentified vessel is slowing down.
Sheppard: Maybe they heard me.
McKay: No, they saw us. They're not just slowing down — they're slamming on the brakes something like twenty-seven G's.
Woolsey: Keep in mind that when they left Atlantis we were basically a hunter-gatherer species.
McKay: Well, did you remind them if we hadn't hunted and gathered them out of the void between galaxies they would still be stuck there?
Woolsey: That sounded like another explosion!
O'Neill: Yes. Yes it did.
Woolsey: Well, what does that mean?
O'Neill: Something exploded.
Woolsey: But is it Sheppard attacking the replicators, or the replicators attacking Sheppard?
O'Neill: We'll find out.
Woolsey: How did they even get here? Through the Gate?
O'Neill: I've been sitting next to you, through the whole thing. Why do you think I would have more information?
O'Neill: But in the unlikely event that you don't fail miserably… You're fired.
Sheppard: Yes sir. I look forward to it.
Beckett: The water's not draining out.
McKay: Yeah, excellent observation, thank you.
Weir: It is, however, draining in.
McKay: Oh, not again!
Cetus: What were you doing in the flooded sections of the city?
O'Neill: The backstroke, I think
Talus: What are you planning?
O'Neill: I was planning to retire, but man, Is that overrated. It's not that I'm a workaholic or anything, but I like to stay active in the community. It's a health thing, you know?
O'Neill: That sounds like a plan F! As in 'We are totally'.

[edit] Notes

General Landry states that the distance between the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies is three million light years, implying that the Pegasus Galaxy is the Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy.
When McKay is leaving Atlantis, he tells Helia that the "grounding station on the South Pier is a bit twitchy. It got shot up — it wasn't our fault." A Genii strike team was responsible for this in "The Storm".
Beckett comments that his relationship with Laura Cadman didn't work out, which he claims was partially due to getting his first kiss from her while she was in McKay's body (in "Duet"), though the others prod him to call her.
In one scene, the scientist Bill Lee reveals that he is an avid World of Warcraft player, although there is a great deal of incorrect game information in that scene. Lee says that he "had" the beta for the game's expansion pack, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, implying that in the Stargate universe, the game has already been released. He also states that his character is level 75, although with the new expansion pack, the level cap will be 70, so attaining level 75 would not be possible. It is also strange that Lee did not notice when Weir claimed that her character's race was "mage", because Mages are a class, not a race; a fact that most World of Warcraft fans would know. These discrepancies may be attributable to differences between the Stargate fictional universe and ours...or that Bill was so stunned that Doctor Weir was an avid WoW player that he didn't really notice or care.
This is the first episode in either Stargate series where Richard Woolsey is seen firing a weapon.
The man working in the Puddle Jumper that Sheppard shoots with a Zat appears to be the accident-prone Sgt. Siler, continuing an in-joke in the Stargate universe about similar things always happening to the character. This is partially because Siler is played by stunts coordinator Dan Shea.
The Jumper that Sheppard and co used to go back to Pegasus was one from Atlantis, denoted by the familiar Atlantis mission stickers inside the jumper.
This episode marks the first appearance of a Zat Gun in Stargate Atlantis, although it was only shown being used inside the SGC, however, in part 2, Sheppard was carrying the gun.
Despite the recent attack, at the end of Part 1, it is quite calm in the Atlantis control room. As noted later in Part 2, the Asurans are able to repair damage to the city fairly rapidly.
Part 2 has the Atlantis stardrive power up for the first time in 10,000 years. While the city itself doesn't fly, it appears the drive was still functional, at least before the drones damaged it.
It is revealed by the Asuran Talus that all the Ancients who occupied the city following the human withdrawal were killed.
It is not explained how the Asurans launch the drones. Usually, control of the drones via the chair requires the use of the Ancient Technology Activation gene, which the Asurans, as mechanical lifeforms, presumably do not have.
Atlantis is revealed to have an underwater Jumper bay, which would act as a lower jumper bay when in flight or on land.
When the Jumper starts to leak, McKay moans, "Not again." The first time McKay was trapped in a leaking Jumper underwater was in "Grace Under Pressure".
Talus refers to the Jumper as a "gateship" (the name McKay and Aiden Ford originally wished to give the craft) which may imply that gateship was what the Ancients called the vessel.
The Asurans brought ZPMs with them to power the stardrive. As revealed in "Echoes", these were left for the expedition to recover, although not all of them will be for the city's use, with two being sent back to defend Earth from the Ori. The Atlantis expedition may also have access to the Tria, although when contacting the Asurans they used a puddle jumper, perhaps sending the Tria to a safe distance or dismantling it. It is also possible it was destroyed, or even still sitting in Intergalactic space near Midway station and that the Daedalus transported the ships crew back to Atlantis. It is most ;ikely still between galaxies dur to its damaged hyperdrive.
"The Return, Part 2" was aired on Movie Central on November 20 and aired in the United Kingdom on Sky One on 10 January 2007. It has yet to air in the US