Rewatch: Tabula Rasa
Rodney McKay awakens in his lab, tied to a chair and with no memory of who or where he is. He did seemingly leave himself a video message telling him to look for Teyla. The problem began some 14 hours before when Dr. Katie Brown returned to Atlantis with plants from a planet she had visited. The plants had been cleared through the normal quarantine
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For starters, as there seemed to be a delay in how quickly people became infected, what happened to the command staff actually trying to make decisions once they'd seen what was going on. They still had several hours. It's as if all of their brains took a vacation. Let's put everybody in the mess hall together. Plus, I see TPTB wanted to save money, so had omitted several familiar faces.
Let's NOT try to implement protocols to keep people from getting in a panic because they don't know who they or others are. Such as issuing everyone with an ID they can wear on their clothing, tell them WHO and WHAT they are. Yes, that's only a first step, but at least it's something. After all, if they could come up with the unorthodox instant photo of John to slip into Evan's pocket (so someone actually brought a Polaroid to Atlantis?), they should have come up with a city-wide ID system. The IDs may have made a tiny bit of difference in lowering military paranoia.
I was really squicked out by the gangs of soldiers roaming through the city chasing and stunning people. Especially after reading some hideous reports of unnecessary police brutality this summer in the Occupy protests, I hated the idea there were guys (and I believe they WERE all men ... so that's another mark against TPTB) zoned out of their minds on stimulants in charge.
Speaking of (more) stupidity, who decided it made sense to give stimulants ONLY to the military and not to the scientists and other crew?
I'm of two minds about the loss of memory except for what appears to be inherently unique to an individual. Teyla had to prompt Rodney to remember what Pi was (oh, yeah, 'cuz that's just science) and then Ronon told John that flying was in his blood. The latter seems more likely than the former. Then, only after so many of them had been suffering for a while, FINALLY Sam and Rodney put their heads together, heads that apparently NOW are able to formulate plans.
In some ways, this seems to be a distorted mirror image to the episode where Michael's Wraith all suffered from amnesia.
Getting back to the idea of the newcomers to Pegasus coming down with a normal childhood ailment, I'm struck by the fact that Elizabeth, Carson and other medical staff did not even consider the implications of bringing a crew with no immunities to a different galaxy. Should this not have been something they would have discussed with Teyla, considering they met with her so soon after their arrival, to see what diseases might be unique to Pegasus? I just want to scream.
Okay, enough screaming by me. Let's look at something else. Rodney's one-time girlfriend, Katie Brown, returns to Atlantis and she's naming a prickly cactus after him. Awww, it's a sign of affection on her part. Even though Rodney's interaction with her is sweet, you just know it's not going to go anywhere when he wipes his hands off before leaving the icky lab with living things. I wonder if he has nightmares about a relative of Audrey lurking and waiting for him.
It was really touching to see the ending, where John believes for a moment that Rodney didn't make it and we're getting ready for the worst (even though we know it couldn't happen, not to Rodney). We already know how committed John is that Rodney not die ... that John simply can't lose Rodney (Doppelganger) and we'll see a lot more of it in S5.
But, then, we see Rodney is alive, just asleep by Katie's bed. And, even though they won't make it as a couple, they still have cute moments together that seem to be very natural and believable. [I'm sure some of you know where I'm headed with this argument in S5.]
And in uh-oh, we're screwed territory, I love the looks on faces when they wonder just how big this place could be to go room-by-room and then they see the vast city, all lit up.
Anyway, I am SO done with this episode. Let's just move on, please.
P.S. Ronon stunning John really doesn't get old. That did give me a laugh.
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