Coup D'etat

"Coup D'etat" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of Stargate: Atlantis.

Synopsis
Ladon Radim of the Genii contacts Atlantis and wants their help in staging a coup against Cowen, in exchange for a Zero Point Module. However, not all has changed since the expedition's last encounter from the Genii.

Previously on Stargate: Atlantis
Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and Cowen, the leader of the Genii, decide to form an alliance but Sheppard informs him the Wraith have awakened and the Genii plan to destroy the Wraith as they sleep with atomic weapons five years from now was no longer possible. Dr. Rodney McKay warns the Genii that the shielding for their atomic weapons research was insufficient. A strike force lead by Commander Acastus Kolya invades Atlantis but Sheppard is able to retake the city and activate Atlantis' shield to protect it from a powerful storm. During the Wraith siege of Atlantis, Dr. Elizabeth Weir traded C-4 to the Genii for two of their atomic weapons.

Plot
Atlantis receives an emergency call from Major Evan Lorne's team on M1K-177. Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team comes to investigate only to find them dead, having been burned in a fire. After returning to Atlantis, the Stargate is activated by Ladon Radim, a member of the Genii strike force lead by Commander Acastus Kolya, with the prospects of a new Zero Point Module in exchange for weapons to orchestrate a rebellion and overthrow Cowen, the current leader of the Genii.

After informing Cowen of Ladon's plan, Atlantis decides to raid Ladon's base in order to get get the ZPM. Ladon sends his sister Dahlia Radim and a few Genii civilians, all of whom are later discovered to be afflicted by terminal radiation poisoning, to pick up the weapons. While investigating the death of Lorne and his team, Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex discover a hit list for members of the Atlantis expedition that have the Ancient Technology Activation gene. Dr. Carson Beckett determines that the remains of the men found in the fire are not those of Lorne and his team but Genii.

Sheppard then leads a raid on Ladon's undermanned compound. However, though they stun all of Ladon's guards, they find that the ZPM has long run out of power, and they are gassed. Sheppard wakes to be confronted by Cowen, who planned Ladon's trap. He is soon thrown into prison, where he finds the rest of the raiding team, as well as the captured off-world team led by Lorne.

In Atlantis, the team receives Cowen's demands. They inform him that Dahlia and the others can be saved, with their technology, from death but Cowen does not care. Ladon, who was still planning a coup the whole time, frees Sheppard and company, escapes through the Stargate, and detonates a Genii A-bomb, killing Cowen and his elite guard.

Back on Atlantis, Ladon is reunited with his sister after Beckett cures her, and Weir offers medical treatment to the rest of the Genii on the promise that there is no more bloodshed when he returns to the Genii homeworld. Sheppard and Weir are happy that they may have made an alliance with the Genii.

Notable Quotes
McKay: Look, we all know that eventually the Wraith are gonna discover we're still here. Having more power means that we have more options. We might even be able to light up the engines and get the city to fly.

Sheppard: Really?

McKay: .. No. But we still need it.

Ladon: I'll only talk to Weir.

Sheppard: Do I make you nervous.

Ladon: Not at all, Major. I'm just not interested in talking to the errand boy.

Sheppard: That's Lieutenant Colonel Errand Boy to you.

McKay: You know, I'm not sure that you've sufficiently trained me in actual combat. I don't know how much use I'd be in a fight-our-way-out kind of scenario.

Sheppard: Well, I look at it this way: the Genii have tried to kidnap you on numerous occasions to mine that big old brain of yours.

McKay: Yes.

Sheppard: Well, if we get into trouble, I'll just trade your life for mine.

McKay: Oh, funny.

Weir: A raid?

Sheppard: Hell, yes, a raid! If this is their main base of operations, I'm willing to bet the ZPM is there.

Weir: And, what? Just steal it?

McKay: Well, the Brotherhood stole it from us. Ladon stole it from the Brotherhood. It's not really stealing, it's, um ...

Sheppard: ... recovery!

Ronon: (about a 'wanted' list) And why aren't we on it?

Weir: Excuse me?

Ronon: Sheppard's on the list; McKay is on the list. Why aren't Teyla and me?

Weir: What, you're feeling left out?!

Ronon: I just wanna know who thinks I'm not a threat and give 'em a chance to change their mind.

McKay: See how I almost stunned that guy?

Sheppard: I must have missed it.

McKay: Yeah, but if he was, like, a step to the right, I would've stunned him for sure.

Sheppard: Good for you!

Sheppard: What do you want with the Jumpers?

Cowen: What do I want with invisible spaceships that could fly to other worlds and even deliver our atomic weapons?

Sheppard: Well, since you put it that way ...

Sheppard: (in cell) Major. Boys.

Lorne: Colonel.

Sheppard: Way to be alive.

Lorne: Thanks, sir. So, have you come to rescue us?

Sheppard: Well, until about a moment ago I thought you were dead, but now that I see you speaking and breathing... yeah, I'm thinking about it.

Lorne: Well, good. Let me know if there's anything we can do to help, huh?

Ladon: I needed Cowen and his elite guard together in one place. I knew the chance of some Puddle Jumpers would get him here.

Sheppard: Good one.

Ladon: Most of my men are waiting for me on our homeworld. Tonight, the leadership of our people changes hands.

Sheppard: You were just gonna leave us here to be vaporized with the others?

Ladon: Yes, I was... but things have changed. Let's go.

Goofs

 * Dr. Rodney McKay has no military combat training and as such he would not be on point in a breach and clear situation. As a specialist in the squad he would be at the back and only allowed to enter once an "all clear" had been given.
 * Even if the people of Pegasus knew English, "Coup" is a French word so Ladon could not have known what the word meant.
 * Upon returning to Atlantis at the beginning of the episode, the shadows of the people carrying the bodies can be seen on the ground before coming through the gate.

Death

 * Cowen