Those days are long gone.

Ronon Dex has turned out to be a multi-layered individual and his growth has been phenomenal over the last few years. Tracker, on the surface, was a Ronon, McKay, Keller episode, but underneath it all, I believe this episode was about Ronon Dex and Rodney McKay.

Several episodes have really played up the relationship between these two so-very-different guys. Tao of Rodney, The Shrine, each show picked up the thread and wove it expertly, and now, in Tracker, I have no problem believing there’s true affection between Rodney and Ronon.

In Tao of Rodney, Rodney uses his healing abilities to remove Ronon’s scars. Those scars represented his past life, his runner history, and removing them was a gift from a dying Rodney McKay.

In The Shrine, Ronon is determined to get McKay to the place where he can be himself for one more day. He doesn’t hope to gain anything from Rodney, and no one in Atlantis is looking for that one piece of information only Rodney can give them before he dies. They want only to have the opportunity to say goodbye.

Tracker has no overt theme of friendship between Ronon and Rodney, but their interaction as they try to save Dr. Jennifer Keller is fun to watch. They act like friends who know each other well and they seem to have fallen into a rhythm of conversational byplay that really shows the bonds are there. These guys are friends and you can tell.

In fact, after watching Tracker, I’ve had to go back to Tao of Rodney and revisit the developing friendship. One of my favorite Rodney and Ronon exchanges happens after Rodney begins developing what he calls “superpowers.” He uses telekinesis to swipe Dr. Beckett’s doughnut as he’s walking out of the room with Ronon.

“We could be a team. You could be my sidekick.” (Rodney)

“Sidekick?” (Ronon)

“Yeah, it’d be like Batman and Ronon. Has a nice ring to it.”

“Yeah, you keep eating like that it’s going to be more like fatman.”

You can’t build these kinds of relationships in movies. There just isn’t enough time. So I find myself hoping this final season of Stargate Atlantis solidifies these relationships between Sheppard, McKay, Teyla, and Ronon. Once the movies start, there just won’t be these opportunities again.

Not only was I amazed by her physical changes, I was amazed by how the episode just zipped right past them. I guess I’m supposed to understand how she went from human to Wraith and back again, without any apparent lasting physical reminders of the surgery. It was surgery, right? I’m pretty sure I saw Dr. Jennifer Keller wielding medical instruments, an anesthesiologist putting Teyla under…. What was that if not surgery, and what purpose might it have had if it wasn’t to physically alter Teyla and turn her into a Wraith?

I can suppose and speculate as to how the whole thing happened, but I would rather have had Keller explain it to me, even if it were only a short thirty second comment or two.

I was able to overlook these issues simply because that’s the kind of viewer I am. I don’t usually dwell on issues of believability when it comes to the science of the matter, because I believe wholeheartedly that science fiction is more fiction than science most of the time. That’s the way it should be.

When you take the transformation out of the show, you’re left with one of the best episodes of the series. This has been a one-two shot with Whispers and now The Queen. Although I wasn’t that sure it was going to be great, because I’m not usually a big fan of Teyla centered episodes, I can’t say enough good things about how this episode played out.

Not only is there action and intrigue, there was Todd. Todd is one of my favorite recurring characters and I loved seeing his plot line carried forward. Todd is someone I definitely want to see again. He has given me a glimpse of what the Wraith should have been from the beginning–complex villains who are shaped by their society and their genes, not the cardboard bad guy monsters they’ve mostly been portrayed as.

The Queen rules, and with those parting remarks from Teyla at the end of the episode, this one just screams for a sequel. Let’s just hope it’s not too late, since Atlantis won’t be back for season 6.

Other views of The Queen:

• Science Fiction Stuff – Stargate Atlantis “the Queen”
• TV Squad – Stargate Atlantis: The Queen
• Film School Rejects – Stargate: Atlantis 5.8

Having one of the team members masquerade as one of the enemy isn’t an unusual concept in the Stargate universe. Remember Daniel in the Stargate SG-1 episodes Summit and Last Stand? However, I haven’t seen an episode before in Atlantis that covers the same ground, until now.

The Queen brings back Todd the Wraith and begins with a meeting between his hive ship and Sheppard’s Atlantis team, Dr. Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, and Teyla Emmagan. The team would like to convince the Wraith through Todd to consider the treatment Dr. Jennifer Keller has developed to cure the need of the Wraith to feed on humans. Todd considers the idea, and frankly, Lt. Col. John Sheppard is suspicious, and rightly so. Todd comes back with his own proposal–that Teyla masquerade as his Queen.

Teyla’s DNA has traces of Wraith DNA (mentioned in previous episodes) that will allow her to disguise herself as a Wraith Queen and successfully fool the Primary, the Wraith Queen who is in charge of the entire Wraith alliance. No one else has the ability to pull this off, and so Teyla feels bound to help.

But when she and Todd are successfully aboard the Primary’s hive ship, they encounter unexpected developments that appear to force a change in their plans. Does Todd have a hidden agenda? Will Teyla be able to maintain her masquerade, or will they be discovered and killed?