Stargate Atlantis Rewatch: Sateda

Ronon does the action hero walk (Photo from GateWorld.net)

Sateda

Written & Directed by: Robert C. Cooper
Guest Starring: Frank Collison (Keturah), Chiara Zanni (Melena), Curtis Caravaggio, Mitch Pileggi (Stephen Caldwell), Alexandra Carter (Linor), Dan Payne (Wraith Leader)

WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!

Summary
A Wraith makes Ronon a runner again and hunts him on Ronon’s devastated homeworld of Sateda.

General Impressions
This is Ronon’s day in the sun episode. It’s filled with flashbacks of his life on Sateda before the Wraith came. It’s also the episode where the team proves to Ronon that he really is one of their own and a part of the expedition. I believe this is also the episode in which they introduce leather jackets for our heroes. Yum!

Oh, I love this episode so much!

The Good
Post-apocalyptic Sateda looks fantastic, right down to the desiccated corpses of Ronon’s people. Seeing the dead, who had no one left to bury them properly, just left where they’d been fed on, was a powerful image. What must it have taken for Ronon to take the equipment off of one his fallen comrades for his own use?

The action movie shot: Ronon walking away from an explosion with the flashback PA voice saying, “Sateda will not bow to the Wraith…” Awesome piece of editing. In fact, the editing is amazing throughout. This episode is more like a movie than a TV show.

This is an action episode, but also manages to be a character episode. It also has that good old Stargate dash of humor, mainly from McKay (as usual) and Beckett. “Gluteus Maximus…THAT’S MY ASS!”

The Bad
I can’t decide if this is good or bad, but I’m listing it under bad because the episode does enough to show the team’s loyalty to Ronon; having the characters talk to each other about how loyal they are was a bit heavy handed. Why it might qualify as good is, it’s interesting to hear each character’s perspective on their relationship to Ronon.

The Awesome

Learning about Ronon’s past via flashbacks. It’s nice to see him as more than just “the muscle”, the guy who grunts and shoots. Learning more about him, makes him more sympathetic. We also get a taste of Satedan culture, and see through flashbacks how they fought the Wraith on their last day.

The whole team chips in to save Ronon: Sheppard convinces Caldwell to take them to Sateda in Deadalus. Rodney locates Ronon via the Wraith tracking beacon. Tayla runs and guns with Sheppard to kill the Wraith hunting Ronon. And Beckett kills the super Wraith with a drone and takes the tracking device our of Ronon’s shoulder (again).

On this show, this almost goes without saying, but the effects and music in this episode are simply, indescribably amazing.

Crowning moment of heartwarming: Ronon hugging Beckett for shooting the super Wraith with a drone. Also a crowning moment of awesome for Beckett.

Rating
10 out of 10, despite the lapse into telling, on top of showing.