Shattered

Dan's having a hell of a day, and it just doesn't want to get better. But on a recon mission, he'll get to vent on something he never thought he would before.

Starting with the end
Full episode can be found here.

The episode starts with AR-1 coming through the gate obviously in distress, they're dressed in airtight traveler space suits and Rafaela's been hurt. Dan orders Chuck to keep the gate open, waits until all his team is through, then activates a detonator. The gate begins to vibrate, and soon the wormhole shuts down violently.

Both Alicia and Sam are awed by what they've seen, and Alicia angrily asks Dan what he did. Dan doesn't answer.

Rafaela
A day before the mission, Dan is waiting for Rafaela to come to his quarters, they share a few funny moments, and Dan takes Rafaela to learn to fire a rifle given the kinds of threats they might be facing. Rafaela feels a little uncomfortable when Dan gets a little too close to teach her how to hold the rifle, but compared to the Travelers, she's much more comfortable with Dan. They share a few more moments, until Dan makes a suggetive comment about a gag-ball. Then it's just friendly teasing.

Moving on with his day, he has lunch with the rest of his team. Rafaala and Reyna both laugh at Alicia and Dan's antics as Dusty tells them about their last night in Pegasus including the video tape of a drunken Alicia and Dan going crazy with an M249. Reyna can't decide whether that means they actually went a little drunken crazy, or had sex. When Alicia reassures her it's not what she thinks it is, Dan makes a suggestive comment about still waking up together. Alicia replies by tossing a piece of pineapple at him.

Reyna
Taking the rest of the day with Reyna, Dan sees that she's actually not a bad shot with a rifle. She's also much more used to Dan's style of suggestive quotes and keeps up with him easily. When she leaves the rifle on the floor, Dan chides her over it. Reyna pouts, but Dan silences her by reciting hte "Marine's Rifle Code" which he learned in basic. Reyna is mesmerized and pays great attention until Dan gets to the end, and changes hte last few lines to reflect his new life in Hoag's Object.

Later he decides to watch some old DVD's with Reyna, they have no issue laying in the same bed as Chappelle Show plays on the TV. Reyna decides to ask Dan why he's never tried to hook up with her. Dan takes a few moments to explain his thoughts on relationships, and how he's not looking for anything committed. He then explains that he never tried anything with Reyna because she looks like the kind of person who would fall in love.

Reyna doesn't really know what to say, and after a bit she decides not to push the issue given that Dan doesn't talk about himself much, She accepts Dan's explanation especially since he's been nothing but honest so far. Reyna then questions how Tyrone Biggums on Chappelle's show can possibly be funny with his intense addiction to drugs. Dan chuckles and explains that on Earth, nothing is funnier than the truth.

Kraya
The next day, Dan is woken up early in the morning by Alicia over the radio. He's spent the night with Kraya, a nurse in the infirmary and as he gets ready to leave, Kraya pouts at him to just stay since it's not like they do anything important, she uses herself as an example. Dan simply scoffs and says that's the difference between them. It's quite clear they're just using each other for sex, and that's fine with them both.

Alicia
Arriving at the briefing Alicia has called him down to, it's obvious that Dan is bothered. He'd considered asking for the day off for some unknown reason, but decided not to.

Samantha, John, Marks and Larrin explain that the team is going to be going to the planet where the Shade Gremlin from Beta Telemite escaped to. They show the team a video a Traveler Probe sent back. it quickly shows that the planet is quite unhabitable, but the Shade are there in force. Dan tunes out at this point and only hears that the planet is inside the dark ring of the galaxy.

As they try out the Traveler Space Suits Larrin shows them, Alicia notes that Dan is still very bothered, she pushes a little and finds out that Dan is frustrated over the whole situation with the Olim and the Shade. He doesn't see why they should be getting involved when Atlantis can be self-sufficient. Alicia tries to reassure him like a good CO should, but Dan doesn't take it too well.

Before they leave Atlantis though, Rafaela has another foot in mouth moment that everyone has a fun time teasing her over it.

Shade Planet
Arriving at teh planet, the gravity shift is so much that Dusty immediately goes flying and Dan has to catch her. With such a low gravity, it's difficult to move around normally. Before they can get used to it though, a large Shade creature walks past, seemingly ignoring the team. It moves over to the warm stargate and uses one of its arms to drain the heat from the gate. Everyone is surprised, but since they didn't make any aggressive moves, the Shade ignored them.

Moving out, Rafaela and Reyna are having an interesting time finding out about the Shade and the planet. It's primarily made from Naqudah and other rare minerals. Reyna realizes that the Shade use this planet both as a Nursery for thier young, and as food since they injest it to grow and maintain their bodies.

As a team, they watch a Shade bury what turn out to be Eggs. Alicia uses her rifle scope to watch it closely, and to her mild surprise, Dan is bothered by her. It quickly passes, but Dan is obviously quite agitated being on this planet. It's proven when a large Shade creature appears overhead, and uses a beam of heat to warm the rock where the Eggs are. Reyna goes on a little rant about how the Shade biology works, but before they can do much more, the ground beneath them splits.

a huge crack in teh planet forms, and the team is split up. One by one they check in via radio and begin to regroup. Rafaela is facinated by something she sees in the wall and uses her scanner, turning on the electronics gear which seem to agitate Shade from a biological standpoint. She's attacked by a Shade in the ground, which quickly turns out to be even more buried Shade which are hatching.

Dan decides to take a risk and goes down after Rafaela who's fallen into the deeper ground. In the light gravity, he's able to get to her and get her up to leave. She shows him the scan she took, and Dan is shocked to see that he's landed in the middle of a rich vein of refined Naqudah. given the geological position, his heavy C4 vest would be able to crack the planet in half by igniting the Naqudah.

Atlantis
Using his rifle like a jetpack, he's able to get Rafaela up to ground level and the team has to fight their way back to the gate. No one knows about the C4 charge, and it moves into the opening scene of hte episode. Dan is getting chided by Sam and John, but defending himself, he's surprised when Sam just lets him off with a slap on the wrist. Sam then explains to John once Dan's gone that the one planet wasn't nearly the amount of material they know the Shade have mined. There could potentially be dozens if not hundreds of similar planets, so it doesn't make sense to chastise Dan over a useless gesture, as massive as it is.

Dan is quite pleased with himself, but Alicia is more concerned because Dan went above her head by simply blowing up the planet without consulting her. They get into a heated argument as Dan tries to go see Rafaela in the infirmary. By the end of it, they're no longer on speaking terms despite Alicia being glad Dan went back for Rafaela.

Rafaela is happy for the visit, and seeing everything that's hapening, she asks Dan what's wrong and Dan finally admits what's going on that's bothering him.

It's the anniversary of his parents death, who were killed in Sniper Alley in the Bosnian War when he was a kid. Rafaela finally understands where Dan and Alicia's tension comes from, but is unwilling to say anything at this point. She asks Dan to stay for a bit as Chuck has loaded some Cartoons into her tablet and she wanted to watch them with someone. Dan agrees, happy to get the subject off him.