If I promise to go look at that part of the ep later, can I talk about how I remember it now? *g* I remember it being that John goes up the stairs and turns right; Rodney is already up there, and the lights come on when he goes there.

But before then, there were people going left. And the lights came on for them, too. And I'm say lights, and air. 'cuz that's the thing I was really worried about, what with Atlantis being underwater and all, in that in 10K years, and doors not opening and heat not on and air circulation not occurring, would they be able to survive that long in just the gate room? Or would they all die because they couldn't breathe or developed hypothermia or something? I don't think they could last 10 months there like that; the system has to have come alive for someone for them to survive.

Which mean that while John does have the strongest gene, he's not really all that important to the expedition -- which is something I think works with what we know about him. it's fannon that he's the only person that Atlantis interacts with; other people, not just beckett, can do it too.

Sidebar, for the characterization thing - if he played football, he was probably 2nd string. John's always been a replacable guy.