(S04E12) "Blind we are, if creation of this clone army we could not see." - Yoda

I can't be the only one that had the clone wars running through their noggin through half of this episode. I'm not even a big Star Wars fan, but as soon as Todd started in explaining how the base worked, and how they used it in the war with the Ancients, it was all I could think about. I'll be hearing Yoda in my head all weekend now. That's not to say it was a bad episode. The idea is certainly familiar, but it brought with it some interesting backstory, and that's more than a fair trade.
But first, I'm sure we're all aware of that giant elephant over there in the corner. It's easily my biggest gripe with this episode, and probably not a fair one. After the big cliff-hanger ending last week, I was really looking forward to getting some kind of answer as to just what the hell is going on with the artist formerly known as Dr. Weir. The real deal? RepliWeir? Good? Bad? Does she like long walks on the beach and smooth jazz? Anything. Alas, those answers will have to wait for another episode. I should really know better.

As it became clear we weren't going to be getting anywhere on that front, I was a little disappointed, but the episode rebounded and had me hooked back in by the end. It paled in comparison to the Weir question, but I was also rather curious to know what happened with the Wraith after they bugged out and missed the rendezvous.

We got right to that, finding Todd harvesting ZPMs for the next step in his evil plan. That was a bit of a relief, as my initial thought was that Todd was harvesting raw material so he could rework the replicator code in some way. ZPMs to power the Wrait-O-Matic is a much better way to go. I was with just about every aspect of that story, including the bit where Todd escapes to return again in the future.

First, we had the facility itself, which was all manner of creepy. Then we got another Queen and more than you ever wanted to know about where Wraiths come from. Add to that Todd's little history lesson about the war with the Ancients and it made for a nice bit of backstory on the Wraith. The other little bit that slipped in there that I liked was the floated prospect of a civil war. After the destruction of the Replicators (for now?) things were looking like we were back to square one where Atlantis and the Wraith were concerned. But if this has all led to some sort of civil war between different factions of the Wraith, it could buy Atlantis some time. Time which I vote be spent finding out just what the hell is up with the new and improved Dr. Weir.

We also got a good dose of Teyla story here. As soon as she took to the controls of the hive ship with such ease I was thinking, "Because of the baby?" More a guess than anything, but it played out well in her mind battle with the Queen. She was so menacing in her threats to Teyla. It also served as a nice springboard to righting the ship where Sheppard and Teyla are concerned. It was the push she needed to realize where Sheppard was coming from when he benched her.


The big final play, dive-bombing the cloning facility with the high-jacked hive ship, looked great, and reminds me that I need to call the cable company for my monthly whine about not having SciFi in HD yet. The only disappointment being that they couldn't manage to pull any of the ZPMs before blowing the whole thing to hell.

Finally, my favorite comedic bit of the night came from Rodney. The look on his face and the tone of his voice when the Queen chose him to feed on and he complained that now is when he gets picked first for something was hilarious. Overall, it wasn't the episode I was hoping for, but it was still a really good installment.