Rewatch: Remnants

[twinsarein]

It's time for Woolsey's performance appraisal and he is, not surprisingly, somewhat apprehensive. He welcomes Ambassador Shen Xiaoyi who is there to undertake the evaluation but it soon becomes apparent that she has her eye on his job. Woolsey meets a new arrival, Vanessa Conrad, who seems to have good advice for him on how to deal with his current

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[helenkacan]

Vanessa visits Richard in his quarters while he's holding up a suit in front of a mirror, thinking of having to wear them again rather than his Atlantis uniform. Vanessa's inviting him to a double-bill at the movies, tonight ... or tomorrow, but he declines. Richard tells Vanessa why he's not in a good mood and she tells him not to just accept the decision but to fight it. Not only that, she brings up a logical point: if the IOA wanted to can Richard, then why didn't they just do it; instead they sent Xiaoyi on a three-week trip. So Richard confronts Xiaoyi, accusing her of being rewarded with Atlantis if she gets rid of him but he's not going to play along.

Back on the mainland, Kolya's getting exhausted from punching John repeatedly. He wonders why John has such resistance, much greater than any other man's. John says it's because he was married once. Thanks for the misogynistic drivel, PTB. Kolya makes more threats, saying that John can't save his people this time.

Back in Rodney's lab, Rodney's stymied by the device, but Radek assures him he'll figure it out. Why? Because Rodney's “brilliant”! Whoa. Since when does Radek hand out such compliments, especially to Rodney. Even Rodney's confused, thinks Radek said it because either of them is sick.

Back on the mainland, Kolya says he'll have his men repair the damage they caused to the Jumper. Oh, really? It looked like a disaster. Also, what's with the weird familiarity of calling John “Johnny boy”? ::shakes head:: The next bit is gruesome, because Kolya's men hold John while Kolya chops his hand off. ::squirms:: When John comes to, his stump has been neatly bandaged and Kolya's trying to psychoanalyze him.

Time for more talk between Radek and Rodney where we learn that “brilliant” does not mean “genius” in Radek's vocabulary. Then Radek spurs Rodney on by intimating that the information is protected by an alien password. Oh, sure it is. /sarcasm.

The set design people have given us a new, really cute balcony. Richard walks out to what he considers to be his personal private spot, but Vanessa's already there. They talk and he ends up inviting her to dinner. They're interrupted when Amelia approaches. After he leaves with her, we see Xiaoyi lurking around the corner, having heard the entire conversation.

Rodney gets to talk all about the device to Richard. It's got the records of a long-dead civilization, but also the building blocks for a silicon-based life form. Well, this particular probe didn't make it to its intended destination, but Rodney wants the Daedalus to drop it off.

No problem for Richard, as long as they can copy the data. But Rodney tells him the bad news. If they interfere with the data, the biological samples will be destroyed. It's an either/or decision. And it's lovely to see a scientist on the ethical side of the answer. So ... Rodney's more aware, I'd say since Doranda.

Back on the mainland (where I'm so tired of Kolya already), John's being taunted and told his two scientists are dead. So, is it likely that genetic material from a severed hand would operate Ancient tech? If that were the case, then couldn't Atlantis peeps just dab someone's blood on a device to activate it? I smell rotten science. And writing fail. While Kolya's distracted, John disappears from view. Kolya orders him found ... and killed.

Back on Atlantis, it's let's make fun of Richard time. So, this man is aware enough to greet two techs by name (well, they were female) but call Chuck “you”. Sounds not only sexist but stupid. Hello, other shoe dropping. Richard wants info on Vanessa from Amelia. Just one problem: Vanessa doesn't exist in the computer system. Oops.

We then see John doing his military special ops stuff - because he's a very inventive kind of guy.

Time for more confusion between Richard and Amelia. Okay, what's going on?

We're just in time to see how John ambushes the enemy.

By this point, Richard's checked himself into the infirmary. Vanessa's with him. Poor Jen thinks Richard's asking her questions. Until Vanessa clears things up and says that only Richard can see her. Oh, terrific. A personal hallucinogenic experience. No wonder Richard's not listening to Vanessa's advice as he leaves the infirmary with sleeping pills in hand.