The last episode of Stargate Atlantis, “The Seer”, presented the Atlantis Expedition with some of the dire consequences of their actions, and laid a heavy burden on the decision makers by allowing them a glimpse of a possibily catastrophic immediate future. It’s hard to predict what brings that ill-fated future to fruition, but Dr. Rodney McKay realized that his personal actions had more of an effect than he ever realized at the time he made his decision to reactivate both the nanites in Elizabeth Weir and the Wraith attack commands in the Pegasus Replicators.
Even with this lesson, in tonight’s episode, “Miller’s Crossing”, written by Martin Gero, Rodney contacts his sister Jeanie to help with the programming of the nanite technology, and it is because of her involvement that she gets kidnapped from her very own bed in her home in Vancouver.
Henry Wallace wants to save his daughter from a fatal disease. He’s aware of the McKays’ e-mail correspondence concerning the alien nanite technology through his position in a medical technology firm contracted by the government and sees that Jeanie has a better grasp on the healing capabilities of the technology than Rodney. But, getting both McKays to work together is a bonus, as he takes his opportunity to capture Rodney as Rodney attempts to rescue his sister. This situation once again reminds Rodney that his actions have far-reaching consequences that even he could never have begun to calculate.
“Miller’s Crossing” is not only about nanite technology, but chemistry, according to script coordinator Alex Levine in his scifi.com blog. The chemistry to which he was referring had to do with that between actors: “The character Henry Wallace is played by Stephen [sic] Culp of Desperate Housewives fame. According to David Hewlett, Culp and Kate Hewlett (David’s real and on-screen sister) have great chemistry, great repartee. And I concur. It’s a fast paced episode which you’ll enjoy. I also love seeing David and Kate work together. You get the feeling their real life relationship is a lot like what we’re seeing (whether it actually is or not!).”
Even executive producer Joseph Mallozzi identified this episode as having “that incredibly angsty McKay-Sheppard scene” in his personal blog, so it is possible that more actor chemistry will be evident tonight. But why is McKay so angsty? Fan speculation has that Jeanie meets an untimely death, to which Mallozzi responded, “No comment.” Tune in tonight at 10pm Eastern on the Sci Fi Channel to find how far the consequences go.
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