Stargate Atlantis - "Trinity" (TV Episode Review #5)

“Trinity” is an episode about hubris.  It centers on Rodney McKay and Ronon Dex (in one of the earliest episodes with the classic lineup) as they let their arrogances get to their heads.  First, there is Rodney’s arrogance in believing he is smarter than the Ancients after the Atlantis team discovers an Ancient superweapon.  In addition, Ronon shows his own persistence, preferring his own ends over the grander scheme of things, when accompanying Teyla on a peaceful trading mission.

Ronon has just joined Atlantis, so he still has trouble readjusting after spending such a long time as a Runner.  During an ordinary trading mission with Teyla, Ronon is shown to be very persistent and aggressive, much to the point of toxicity.  As such, Teyla has to teach Ronon how to behave; for example, when Ronon draws out his knife during a simple trade deal, Teyla has to lecture him on how diplomacy works.  In both cases, we see a Ronon who was willing to jeopardize the whole mission just to satisfy his own ends.  And not once but twice did he endanger himself, Teyla, and any potential friendly relations between Atlantis and the world they were visiting—all in the name of personal intentions.

Meanwhile, Rodney discovers a very powerful Ancient superweapon built in the war against the Wraith.  Naturally, he believes this could still be useful today, so he begins researching it—even though the weapon is potentially dangerous and can easily overload.  It is great that the episode does not try to portray Rodney as an idiot.  Instead, writer Damian Kindler does a great job at trying to make the audience to understand where Rodney is coming from, even if he is eventually proven wrong.  For example, he tells the story of a man who died of radiation poisoning while on the Manhattan Project, but that did not stop his pursuit to the very end.  In a way, it could be said that Rodney’s ego is the antagonist of his very own episode; he believes in a noble cause, but his arrogance and narrow-mindedness get in the way of seeing the bigger picture.

MAJOR SPOILER

On a side note, the idea of Rodney accidentally blowing up almost the planet’s entire solar system with the superweapon at the end is actually really funny.  Earlier in the episode, Dr. Weir had expressed caution to Rodney about the weapon, especially after Zelenka discovers why the weapon keeps overloading.  This makes Weir berating Rodney for his actions so cathartically hilarious.  Good thing Rodney was in a largely uninhabited universe, though.  Had the universe been inhabited with any lifeforms (albeit any humans) I think Weir would have banned Rodney from continuing his experiment the moment the weapon overloaded the first time.