- We are both going to have to overcome our instincts in order for this alliance to work.— Michael
The Hive Ship Zelenka has been tracking for the last three weeks is bearing down on Atlantis. Weir cloaks the city and puts the Daedalus and the Orion on standby in hyperspace - and then the Hive Ship hails them. It is their old friend Michael Kenmore, and he is offering an alliance.
An Alliance with the Wraith?? Michael and the Hive Queen explain that the scarcity of humans in the Pegasus galaxy has caused widespread civil war amongst the Wraith - a civil war to which Beckett's retrovirus could provide the perfect solution. With it, they could turn angry enemies into tasty snacks, solving the overabundance of rival Wraith and the underabundance of human food supply in one go. They are willing to trade anything and everything - including information on how to get around their jamming technology - and just want the retrovirus (and a reliable way to deliver it) in return. It seems like a great deal - and the alternative is telling the rest of the Wraith that Atlantis still exists.
Well, it seems too good to pass up, so everyone gets to work. Beckett and Zelenka help the Wraith weaponize the retrovirus, McKay downloads all the Hive Ship data he can get his hands on, working with Hermiod to penetrate their jamming fields, Michael tries unsuccessfully to flirt with Teyla, and Sheppard...doesn't tell anyone about the Orion. When all their preparation are complete, all they need is a Hive Ship to test it on. McKay and Ronon stay aboard Michael's ship, while the Daedalus takes the canister of aeresolized retro-virus to beam into the enemy Hive.
No sooner has the Daedalus jumped away than Zelenka, always the bearer of bad news, discovers a virus in the data that the Wraith have been freely giving them - a virus whose sole purpose was to download the location of Earth and then destroy all the Wraith data. Well crap. The Daedalus jumps out of hyperspace to find both Hive Ships firing on them. Caldwell launches the F302s, but to little avail. McKay's transducer to beam him out if things go wrong doesn't work, and he and Ronon are taken and cocooned by the Wraith, who say they couldn't have done it without his help. Just as the Daedalus seems lost, the two Hive Ships open hyperspace windows...and head for Earth.
Tropes:
- Cliffhanger: Michael's Hives betray Atlantis. Sheppard appears to have been KIA and the Wraith now have access to every world in the Atlantis/Tau'ri database — including Earth.
- Adding to the cliffhanger in the larger context of the franchise was that this aired the same night as the SG-1 Season 9 finale "Camelot" (wherein Earth and its allies failed to stop the Ori Crusade's invasion of the Milky Way. So, the SGC closed out the 2005-2006 TV Season with two incoming invasions from outside of the galaxy.
- Evil Plan: Use the humans' here to acquire the location of the human homeworld and then feed on them.
- Hope Spot: Upon getting a look at a portion of the Wraith's Jamming codes, Rodney's confident he can crack it and they'll be able to nuke any Hive again — including Michael's. If they take it out, they can remove the Sword of Damocles hanging over their head and the rest of the Wraith will never know Atlantis survived. However, it's quickly deemed unfeasible. Rodney admits they'll likely need several tries to get the 'Beam-A-Nuke' to actually work — and in that time Michael will be able to alert every Hive in retaliation (and this is also assuming Michael was being truthful about keeping their existence a secret in the first place).
- Let's You and Him Fight: Subverted. While Sheppard hopes the fist test deployment on an enemy Hive will work, part of him also can't help hoping the two Hives will destroy one another (thereby removing the Blackmail thread Michael's Hive is holding over Atlantis). However, once that scenario comes to pass, the Daedalus ironically has to intervene to save Michael's Hive (as they can't risk Michael Hive's giving up Atlantis to save themselves).
- Mythology Gag: James Lafazanos, who played pretty much all of the male Wraith during the first and second series, makes his first appearance out of make-up as the Human-Wraith test subject killed by the Wraith Queen. This incidentally was also his final appearance on the show.
- Shame If Something Happened: Michael 'encouraging' Weir not to betray them, as it would be a shame to alert all the other Hives that Atlantis is still intact.
- Xanatos Gambit: The Micheal's proposal of alliance: You don't help us, we tell the other Wraith were you are and earn good will by appeasing enemies. You help us, we get the retrovirus. You help us but decide to betray us at some point, we don't care because we are going to betray you anyways.
