US Air Date: 01/02/2008

Writer: Alan McCullough

Director: Andy Mikita

When Sheppard’s father dies, Sheppard and Ronon visit Earth for the funeral. Sheppard’s reunion with family members does not go smoothly.

A mysterious woman named Ava Dixon tells Sheppard and Ronon that she knows all about a recent top-secret incident in which Sheppard’s team shut down Devlin Medical Technologies, a corporation doing dangerous research with nanites derived from Replicators. She claims that her boss, Dr. Richard Poole, has secretly built an illegal, human-form Replicator – but three weeks ago, the Replicator escaped and she needs help to track it down.

Sheppard and Ronon find Poole and track the Replicator to a waterfront industrial park. Poole confronts the Replicator but it kills him and escapes. As Sheppard tries to track down the Replicator, he discovers that Ava actually died a year ago – the Ava they’ve met is a Replicator programmed with the necessary social skills, ethics and emotions to be her replacement. Sheppard and Ronon hurry to confront her, but she has run away. Now two Replicators are on the loose.

Sheppard and Ronon plan a risky trap at a neutronium warehouse. The Replicator soons arrives at the warehouse, looking to use the neutronium to heal its injuries sustained in the escape. Ava shows up and joins Sheppard and Ronon in the fight against the Replicator. Sheppard manages to attach a tracking beacon to its body and the Apollo beams it into low Earth orbit, where the Replicator is quickly destroyed. Ava’s consciousness is transferred into a virtual world without her knowledge and her body is destroyed, while Sheppard delays his return to Atlantis to visit his estranged brother.