The Hive

"The Hive" is the eleventh episode of the second season of Stargate: Atlantis.

Synopsis
The team are captured by Wraith, and notice that a second Hive Ship is joining them. Meanwhile, Dr. Rodney McKay manages to escape his captors and returns to Atlantis, where they resume the search for the rest of the team.

Previously on Stargate: Atlantis
Lt. Aiden Ford captures Major John Sheppard and his team and dose them with the Wraith enzyme. Ford forces Sheppard to help him fix a Wraith Dart and use it to infiltrate a Hive ship and makes Dr. Rodney McKay stay at his base. When they reach the Hive, the alarm goes off and the team is captured. Sheppard is brought before the Wraith Queen for interrogation.

Plot
Before the Wraith queen can interrogate Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, she senses that a second Wraith Hive Ship arrives (which is also sensed by Teyla Emmagan) and he is brought back into the cell. Meanwhile Dr. Rodney McKay, still on Aiden Ford's hideout planet, tries to convince his guards to let him go since the mission seems to have gone awry, but they refuse. After much hesitation he decides to inject himself with a massive amount of the Wraith enzyme. Thanks to this he easily disables the guards, then takes the control crystals Ford has removed from the Dial Home Device. He replaces them, and escapes to Atlantis where he babbles excitedly and then collapses due to enzyme overdose.

Sheppard, Ronon Dex, Teyla, Ford and Kanayo are able to escape from the cell by throwing knives into the device that controls the cell door. They then try to escape with the Wraith Darts. Soon, however, they are captured once again after stopping to rescue some cocooned live humans. They are separated into two cells, with Teyla, Ronon, and Kanayo in one cell, while Ford, Sheppard, and the woman they rescued earlier are in another.

At Atlantis the Daedalus arrives to help while McKay is facing withdrawal from the enzymes. Because they have none, McKay faces a hard withdrawal which causes him to become very hyperactive and speak excitedly. Dr. Carson Beckett tries to help him by talking with him but in the end McKay has to make it alone. Meanwhile, the people on board the Hive ship who have taken the enzyme experience the same withdrawal. While Teyla and Ronon are able to withstand it without damage, Kanayo dies shortly thereafter because he was addicted too long. Ford also is near death but Sheppard convinces him to fight. The former Lieutenant is later taken away by the Wraith to be cocooned while they also take Kanayo's corpse away.

Later the woman (named Neera), imprisoned with Sheppard, flirts and snuggles and tells him about herself, her world and what has happened to them. She then tries to acquire information from him, particularly the name of his world. He refuses to tell her anything, and is taken away to be interrogated by the queen again. During the interrogation, the woman in the cell is revealed to be a "Wraith worshipper" like thousands of others in the galaxy. Sheppard then tells her that he is the same and has made "deals" with the other queen that arrived earlier in the episode. Suddenly Ford appears and rescues Sheppard. After giving Sheppard Ronon's Particle magnum, Ford stays behind to cover him while Sheppard escapes and also rescues Teyla and Ronon. Sheppard then boards a Wraith dart with Ronon and Teyla dematerialized in the "cargo hold". He then leaves the ship while hundreds of other darts leave both Hive ships.

McKay in the meantime finally became free of the enzyme and informs Weir about what has happened and that the Wraith plan to cull a planet. The Daedalus then travels to Edowin where the culling is to take place and arrives just when it begins. When they try to contact Sheppard they get no answer and prepare to destroy the ships. The attempt to beam Nuclear warheads onto the ships fails due to the transport inhibitor the Wraith have developed, and immediately after, the ships attack Daedalus.

Sheppard saves the day by using his dart to attack the other Hive ships, causing them to fire on each other, while he escapes through the local orbital Stargate prior to the explosion, which destroys everything in a 15,000 meter radius. He later returns to Atlantis with Teyla and Ronon after dialing in from another planet. He did not go directly because he doubted the dart would fit in Stargate Operations.

In the end the command crew discuss the current situation of the Wraith and that their battles among each other can be used for their advantage. Sheppard pointedly reminds the others that Ford, presumed killed when the hive ships exploded, "was last seen aboard one", but may have escaped once more.

Notable Quotes
Sheppard: Last time we were on one of these ships, McKay was able to open the door by cutting right into the wall.

Ford: You mean like with a knife?

Sheppard: You have a knife?

Ford: One for them to find, one to keep. Everybody knows that.

Sheppard: Right, I forgot all about that rule.

(McKay returns to Atlantis, high on the enzyme)

McKay: I know what I need to do!

Weir: Rodney, what's happened? Where are the rest of them?

McKay: There's no time, no time. The planet, not Ford's, the one the, uh, ship's headed towards, we need to get there and we don't have much time. I was barely able to escape myself, but I managed to take out the guards. Oh, you should have seen me! I was amazing! I wish we'd got it on camera because... That's not the point.

Weir: Rodney, slow down. Are you alright?

McKay: Yes, yes. I mean, um... I dunno. I mean, I did take out the guards and they were huge and dumb and stupid and...

Weir: What guards?

McKay: Ford's guards! Haven't I mentioned Ford?

Weir: No, you didn't, and you haven't even mentioned Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon either.

McKay: Yes! They were there too, and there were the two guards. They were huge and massive and I had to take 'em out, so I had to inject some of the enzyme.

Weir: You took some of the enzyme?!

McKay: No-no-no-no-no-no-no. I didn't take some of the enzyme. I took a lot of the enzyme, because I had to, because I had to take out the guards, which I did, and you should have seen me, I was amazing!

Weir: Are you insane?!

McKay: Yes, yes, now that I've taken the enzyme, yes.

Weir: Rodney, focus. Where is Colonel Sheppard?

McKay: No, no, no, I had to take the enzyme because, because I had to take out the guards! But that's not the point, the point is we don't have enough time. We need to stop the ship from getting to where the ship is going.

Weir: Come on, come on, let's take a walk to the Infirmary, alright?

McKay: Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa, what are you doing? No-no-no-no, I don't wanna go to the Infirmary. I wanna go to the, to the, uh... the, um... (faints)

Neera: How will you get us out of here?

Sheppard: Okay, I haven't figured that part out yet, but when I do it's gonna be real impressive.

Neera: The wraith will not allow us to escape.

Sheppard: Yeah, well I try not to let them tell me what I can and can't do.

Neera: You do not fear them?

Sheppard: The wraith, nah. Now clowns that's another story. They scare the crap out of me.

(Talking about clowns)

Sheppard: We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens. We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.

Beckett: (after treating McKay) I feel not unlike the priest in The Exorcist.

McKay: (surprised) Why aren't you dead?

Sheppard: Nice to see you too, Rodney.

McKay: No, you know what I mean. Why aren't you... dead?

Goofs

 * When Dr. Rodney McKay is activating the Dial Home Device a protruding arm reveals that someone is hidden behind the DHD.
 * At the end of the episode when the gate activates with an incoming wormhole, Chuck says they are receiving Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's IDC, yet you can hear the wormhole still opening in the background.
 * When McKay is lying in the infirmary on Atlantis, you can see trees out of the window behind him.
 * However, they may be decorative plants, as Atlantis does have them.

Nominations

 * Nominated Gemini for "Best Sound in a Dramatic Series" (Steve Smith, Dave Hibbert, Gord Hillier, Kirby Jinnah and Kevin Sands)

Deaths

 * Lt. Aiden Ford
 * Kanayo