Rewatch: Ghost in the Machine
Returning from an off-world mission in a puddle jumper, Sheppard, Teyla, Ronan and McKay suddenly find themselves in a ship that swings wildly between complete power failure and power surges that are blowing out some of the ship's systems. When they manage to get back to Atlantis, a diagnostics check reveals no problem whatsoever with the jumper.
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There's never a dull moment for our team. This time it's ... uh ... flying monkeys. Or something. Even Ronon's disturbed by them (and just how often does THAT happen?).
Let's get back to normal which requires going through a spacegate and back to Atlantis. Just one tiny problem: the 'jumper seems to have been possessed. Because of all sorts of malfunctions after the gate was dialed, they can't take the 'jumper through, but are on a collision course. The jumper's momentum causes it to impact against the rim of the gate which spins until its automatic thrusters return it to a stable position. [Quibble about there being pretty blue puddles on BOTH sides of the gate: how do ships know which side to enter? After all, planetary gates can only be approached from one side. Wouldn't it make more sense for only one side to have the pretty blue wormhole and the other side to be black? And while I'm at it, how could a wee 'jumper be able to dislodge something as massive as a gate - even in space. PTB, please explain yourselves.]
Just as inexplicably, the 'jumper's working again and goes through the wormhole safely.
Back in Atlantis, it's time to look for answers. Oh, hello, Richard. Nice of you to join the city today. I don't think he cares to hear about the flying monkeys while walking with John. Ah, the wonders of the Pegasus galaxy again.
Now it's time for John to visit the terrible twins, aka Rodney and Radek. Well, their names are alliterative, right? Unfortunately, they can't prove that there's anything wrong with the 'jumper, because there isn't at the moment. Though Radek doubts Rodney which elicits a new insult from Rodney (“Sammy Sceptic”).
Okay, let's leave these funny guys and follow the other guy who has been occasionally mocked. I'm talking about Richard who's reading his tablet while he's walking. Doesn't he know that can be dangerous? He steps out of the transporter but he's not at his destination. Luckily, a balcony edge stops him, otherwise he might have fallen overboard. Then, when he turns around, the transporter doors won't open. And his comm unit doesn't work, so he's complaining to thin air. [All I can think of when watching this is the cheap laughs the writers went for with his character having directional and structural problems or being saddled with a baby. If we hadn't seen him as the object of ridicule before, this would have been a much better scene IMO.]
Now it's time for John to be affected. At least nobody thinks it's funny when he avoids being struck by a bolt of electricity. At least he manages to contact the working wonder twins who are back to communicating without words (or at least with very few of them). [David H and David N are absolutely brilliant at this, because it takes such skill and control to have a dialogue like that.]
In several scenes during the episode, John manages to make a few screwed-up faces which usually mean "You'd better fix this sooner than later, McKay!!!"
So, it's apparently taken Richard until nighttime to walk back to the control tower. I hope his shoes weren't pinching. [I don't know how early it was when he was misplaced, but it shouldn't take forever to walk the length of Manhattan.] I suppose it's just luck that nobody was disintegrated by the transporters malfunctioning.
Aww, with all the things that are going wrong, Richard's worst fear is that they can't dial Earth.
And - then - ALL the lights go out. Until Rodney's computer boots up. And starts showing gibberish text that attempts to correct itself. So, is it really Elizabeth Weir ... IN the computer?
Via a gobbledygook explanation, the foreign entity is now transferred to a patch rather than affecting all of the city's systems. There's a means to communicate with it by voice. The voice that replies is a very deep male growl, so Rodney adjusts it to sound female. [I think they should have kept the male voice just to emphasize the unexpected arrival of the entity.]
They've established contact with someone who claims to be Elizabeth in the computer. It's sweet to hear John describe Richard to her as "the new you", So, with all of the introductions out of the way, she starts talking about her capture.
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