SGA 4.13 "Quarantine" Episode Guide

Précis

Atlantis suddenly activates a quarantine lockdown, trapping personnel in various parts of the city with no way in or out and, more importantly, with no medical help.

Guide | Transcript

MGM/SciFi.com Official Summary

Rodney McKay makes a momentous decision — to propose to his girlfriend, Katie Brown. Just as he's working up the nerve to pop the question in her plant cultivation lab, however, the room's door slams shut and locks. The city has automatically initiated an emergency quarantine, which means that it has detected a dangerous contagion.

Unfortunately, Katie's lab contains no computer or radio, so McKay can't learn the facts or take action. All he can do is worry. Eventually, he convinces himself that he has caught the fatal disease. As Katie tends to his various "symptoms", he warns her that she will also soon fall sick and die.

All her attempts to cheer him up fail, and then, at this inauspicious moment, she happens to find the engagement ring in his pocket.

McKay and Katie aren't the only ones trapped. Ronon and Dr. Jennifer Keller are stuck together in the infirmary. Keller feels profoundly frustrated to be cut off from sick people who probably need her help, and Ronon, too, is impatient with this forced inaction. The two concoct a bold plan to blast their way out of the infirmary. They don't succeed, but mutual admiration — and attraction — are the unexpected fruits of their teamwork.

Carter and Zelenka, meanwhile, are caught in one of the city's elevator-like transporters. Using Zelenka's tablet computer to get a status report, they discover that Atlantis's communications, scanning, ventilation and even plumbing systems are malfunctioning because of a power spike from an ionospheric storm in the planet's atmosphere. The quarantine is just another malfunction — there is no real contagion.

Locked together in McKay's lab, Sheppard and Teyla access McKay's computer and learn the same information. They also discover a disturbing additional malfunction: The city is broadcasting an automatic distress beacon. Any second now, the beacon could attract a passing enemy ship and lead it straight to Atlantis's top-secret location.

With no time to lose, Sheppard breaks out of a window and climbs up the side of Atlantis's huge central spire, risking his life to reach the control room near the top. Once there, he breaks another window to get in and then shuts down the beacon.

To his dismay, the city's self-destruct mechanism immediately activates. Interpreting Sheppard's broken windows as a sign that the quarantine has been breached, Atlantis is going to respond by blowing itself up. Sheppard must make his way to the city's main power room and turn off the self-destruct, but his mission is doomed unless he can free some of his teammates to help him.

Cast

• Joe Flanigan as Lt. Col. John Sheppard
• Amanda Tapping as Col. Samantha Carter
• Rachel Luttrell as Teyla Emmagan
• Jason Momoa as Ronon Dex
• and David Hewlett as Dr. Rodney McKay

Guest Stars

• Jewel Staite as Dr. Jennifer Keller
• David Nykl as Dr. Radek Zelenka
• Brenda James as Dr. Katie Brown
• Kavan Smith as Maj. Lorne
• Chuck Campbell as Technician (Chuck)
• Sharon Taylor as Technician

Production

• Written by Carl Binder
• Directed by Martin Wood

Related Articles

Keywords

• Atlantis

Other

• Season Four Episode Guides
• Episode Guides
• Season Four Transcripts
• Transcripts
• Previous: SGA 4.12 "Spoils Of War" Episode Guide
• Next: SGA 4.14 "Harmony" Episode Guide

Related Links

Official

• Official MGM Stargate Atlantis Website
• SciFi Channel 4.13 "Quarantine" Episode Guide

Fan

• Solutions On-Site Forum: Season Four Discussion Board
• Solutions News and Spoiler Blog
• Stargate Screencaps: Season Four

Production Notes

• "We also discussed Carl’s new story which we’ll probably break next week - potential for a lot of nice character moments in this one." (Joseph Mallozzi's April 20 blog)
• "And Carl has started work on the relationships episode. He’ll be moving onto the cross-over episode once he’s done." (Joseph Mallozzi's May 7 blog)
• "And Carl is putting the finishing touches on Quarantine, an episode in which an imposed isolation tests various relationships around the base." (Joseph Mallozzi's June 1 blog)
• This is one of Carter's 14 out of 20 episodes. (Joseph Mallozzi's June 1 blog)
• "There are some nice character moments for Ronon throughout the season, but Reunion and Quarantine stand out in particular in this regard." (Joseph Mallozzi's June 13 blog)
• This episode will be the first to be filmed upon the cast and crew's return on July 16, 2007, following their summer shooting hiatus. (David Nykl's July 8 blog)

Further Reading

• Joseph Mallozzi's Blog
• David Nykl's Blog
• Alex Levine's scifi.com blog, January 18, 2008.
• Solutions: SGA "Quarantine": Testing Relationships, January 18, 2008.
• MGM: Close Up: Brenda James, January 22, 2008.
• MGM: Behind the Scenes: Quarantine, January 23, 2008.

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--DeeKayP 08:22, 1 June 2007 (PDT)