Stargate Atlantis/Recap/S03/E03 Irresistible

"How do you get your hair to go like that?"

- Lucius Lavin, the wise and kind

While scouting for unused space gates to become part of the McKay-Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge, the team stumbles across some happy villagers who claim to owe that happiness to an irritating man named Lucius. Despite Sheppard's mild cold, he invites them all to lunch, but despite being friendly, gregarious, enthusiastic and having six hot wives, the team quickly grow bored and have to take their leave. Lucius is disappointed, but hopes they will come back and trade with him.

McKay is anxious to investigate more space gates, but they do send Beckett back to the planet to investigate Lucius' claims of miracle cures. He returns the next day utterly besotted - and he has brought Lucius with him. Weir bawls him out for violating protocol, but Carson continues to be frighteningly enthusiastic. Weir reluctantly opens up negotiations while Sheppard and McKay head off after another gate.

By the time they get back, the entire base is under Lucius' spell. They discover that he's been taking some kind of drug. McKay stays behind to analyze what he can from the residue on the bottle, while Sheppard returns to the planet to get a larger sample. He finds that the happy villagers are distraught at Lucius' absence and starting to exhibit withdrawal symptoms. Hurrying back to Atlantis, he finds that McKay has also finally succumbed to the spell.

Sheppard steals McKay's notes, a jumper, and Dr. Beckett, and heads to the mainland. As Beckett bemoans his separation from Lucius in absolute misery, Sheppard explains what little he and McKay have been able to discover, and tries to enlist his help. Lucius wastes no time in sending a team out after them, however, and Beckett is freed while Sheppard is thrown into the holding cell. Lucius finds him there and settles in for a nice long chat.

It turns out, however, that Beckett injected him with a chemical that inhibits his addictive charm while pretending to give him the ATA gene therapy. Sheppard gets him away from Atlantis so that Beckett can inoculate the rest of the expedition, and then they return Lucius to his happy villagers. Who have also been innoculated against him, and are less than happy to learn the truth.

Tropes:

 * Cross Referenced Titles: With "Irresponsible" later in the season,
 * Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: the pheromones Lucius emits work directly on the part of the brain controlling positive emotions. Even McKay and Ronon are smiling!
 * Glamour
 * Kavorka Man: Lucius; justified by the herb he takes.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Lucius is Paul from Spin City - or perhaps more significantly Dr. Gary Meyers from the Stargate movie.
 * My Eyes Are Up Here: Let's just say that Lucius' gaze is rather...fixed
 * Not Himself: Starting with Carson, the entire cast ends up acting disconcertingly cheerful under Lucius' influence.
 * Perfect Health: Sheppard's mild cold protects him from Lucius' charm
 * Three Cameras: The director chose to film this episode in more of a sit-com style, with (by and large) looser shots and no tight close-ups.
 * What Could Have Been: An early title for this episode was "Delicious Fat Guy"