Critical Mass (213)

[IMForeman]

Excellent episode. Tension, morality, and a genuine mystery. Teyla's song was fantastic, and they way they worked it in was extraordinary. 10/10.

-IMF

[Scarym1]

Well I must say I really enjoyed this ep.

I liked the switching back and forth between Cheyenne Mountain and Atlantis. It was great to see Dr. Lee. I thought him mentioning that he had kids was cute. I found it suspenseful. I was hoping that Cavanaugh wasn't guilty. I thought that would have been too convenient. I thought Teyla's singing was awesome. I thought that the gouald being Caldwell was the best twist I had seen in ages. I never saw that coming. I was lying on the couch and as soon as that was revealed I just sat up and said "What?". I thought it was quite exciting.

I am glad I didn't have to wait until January for these eps.

[James_the_Wraith_Sympathiser]

Yes this was a very good episode. ...because of but not limited to the following reasons:

- Kind of a mini SG-1 / Atlantis crossover
- We get a few more lines from Dr. Novak (what can I say...geek girls are sexy...and her nervousness is cute!)
- Hermiod - "Dr Kavanagh. Stop talking. Thank you." Pwned!!
- Lt. Laura Cadman...is HOT. I bet the reason McKay gets so annoyed with her is because it was her in his body, not the other way around
- Good plot, didn't think that Caldwell would be the Goa'uld...
- Dr. Lee explaining the 'twilight bark'....but then resorting to the Lord of the Rings explanation! as an LOTR fan I was very pleased to see that
- Interesting that a Goa'uld can apparently be removed from a host by using the Asgard transport beam (albeit an Asgard needs to calculate the exact location in the body)

All in all I think this has probably been one of the best this season, along with Duet and Aurora.

[Jonzey]

I loved the episode. I loved all the secondary characters they brought back. I loved the twist. I loved the song.

I was thinking continuosuly throughout the episode ''It better not be Cadman who's the spy. That would be so predictable''. Then I thought ''If they really wanted a twist, they would make Skinner the spy''. And BOOM! They did. And they made him a goa'uld, which I did not expect.

Now we know why the Daedelus returned to Atlantis before getting the reply from the SGC...

[Gaterholic]

I loved this one.
was it rushed, and might have done better as a 2 parter? sure, but it was still great.
I was guessing the whole time, and super suprised at the end.

I actually liked the singing, although i will agree it was out of place. i was wondering what the point of the subplot was the whole time.
I guess they want to free up their style freedom early, so they don't get stuck like sg1. sg1 is great, but they got the show down pat, the would never sing.
Doing this open the show up for other types of things.... Think buffy.

Great show.

Notice how i didnt spoil anything in this post!

I think im getting back into this forum thing again.

[White Knight]

Great, great episode.
- McKay and Cadman were hilarious.
- Seeing Kavanaugh was a suprise. In the GateWorld description of this episode, it doesn't list him. I'm thinking that the Seagle part was divied up between Cadman and Kavanaugh (yay for returning characters!).
- Liked the subtle undertones that were brought forward at the end about infighting.
- I honestly didn't expect Caldwell to be the Goa'uld, and I'm glad that he didn't do the "Bow down before your God" bit 'cause that's pointless now. Just think of the ramifications of Caldwell as the Goa'uld; they were gonna put him in charge of Atlantis.
- Cadman/Beckett. This ship I can get behind, since it felt more natural and less forced than any of the others we've seen.
- Singing Teyla. Looks like Joe Flanigan was a little off in his guess.
- I look forward to the next episode by Carl Binder.
- I was suprised at how much SGC stuff there was. I thought it'd be more like the end of Letters From Pegasus, not several long scenes of Landry, Barrett and Lee.
- Lee's explanation of how they're gonna communicate with Atlantis. He mentions Lord of the Rings and suddenly everyone gets it.
- The plan to blow up the city was pretty good and pretty logical, unlike some other plans we've seen to blow things up.
- Kavanaugh's reaction to Ronon.
- But most of all, everyone had something to do that furthered the story.
- Some of Kavanaugh's lines ("I don't have any friends!")

The one thing I disliked; I was fully expecting Weir to slap Kavanaugh's ass down for what he was saying in the interrogation, and I was disappointed when she didn't. Oh well, maybe next time.

[Gaterholic]

Well, when do you all thing he was goa'ulded? and how!
I'm assuming sometime between the last episode and this, otherwise his other actions don't make sense....

Will he be back?
I know there is no reason NOT to put him back in command, but you know the military.. he's been compromised, so who knows.

I think it will come down to how popular the character is. It would be an interesting add on to the character, there are no former goa'ulds on the show, they seemed to lean away from that.

[ToasterOnFire]

My my, the second half is shaping up to be much better than the first! This was one of the better episodes I've seen in a while. Great plot, everything flowed nicely, and I loved seeing all the returning characters.


...but of course I have to nitpick things. It's what I do.

-While I really liked the tension throughout the show, I agree with others who have stated it seemed a bit rushed. Not as rushed as Hive at least, but still somewhat squashed. The whole discussion about the bomb and its tie-in to the ZPM went by way too fast for me.

-I liked the smart idea for the relay system to send a message to Atlantis and how Rodney and the others kept on unraveling the intricacies of the spy's plan. Nice to see that the spy is no dummy.

-I hate to admit this, but the secondary story didn't really tie into the A plot and actually may have been the reason why the main plot felt rushed. It's so frustrating because I really enjoy watching Teyla (especially when she's not with Ronan), seeing Beckett have some screentime, and getting to know the Athosians better. I've been wanting to see all three for quite some time now, but I think that their story would have been better suited to another episode. Epiphany, perhaps?

-Rachel does have a lovely voice, but sadly I didn't really care much for the song (would have been better in another language) and thought that the voiceover didn't really fit with what was going on onscreen.

-I accidentally spoiled myself in advance so I knew Caldwell was the spy. Watching with that knowledge, I was surprised at how the camera angles, music, and script didn't even hint at him. If anything, there were more hints for Cadman. Well done.

-I was rather confused with how Elizabeth knew about the Trust infiltration. Was that briefed to her while she was on Earth? Was it in the message somehow? Did I miss something or was it a plot hole?

-I loved the plot continuity in this ep. Zelenka going to see the kids in Childhood's End (and the result, bwa! ). Novak and Hermiod. Cadman. Kav. Teyla's "grandmother". That sort of stuff is exactly what I want to see with Atlantis and I hope it keeps up.

-Cadman seemed toned down this ep, which is just fine with me. I did enjoy seeing Rodney squirm. However, like someone mentioned earlier, I'm still unsure as to why she was added in place of that new female scientist.

-What can I say, I like Kav. I like how he isn't portrayed as the cackling villian out to get everyone - he has some honest concerns with Atlantis and Weir. And he's a smart cookie too and thinks well on his feet. I hope we see him again.

-I was actually hoping that Ronan did torture Kav so Elizabeth, Caldwell, and Shep would have to truly deal with the consequences. Having him saved in just the nick of time brushed everything under the rug. Oh well, I have to remind myself that while Atlantis may claim to be darker than SG1, it has nothing on BSG.

-(Did anyone else notice that the two people who have questioned the authority of Shep and Weir the most - Kav and Caldwell - had rather unpleasant things happen to them in this episode? Hmmm...)

[macktheknife]

I think if they really went through with the torture, then you almost have to get rid of kavanagh. Because he would'nt stay there after being tortured would he?

[Giantevilhead]

I think that the Athosian stuff should have been cut and they should have focused more on the sabotage and Hermiod should have done more.

I wonder how much Goa'uld knowledge Caldwell will retain after the symbiote is removed.

[White Knight]

If the symbiote is removed without killing him.

I think if they really went through with the torture, then you almost have to get rid of kavanagh. Because he would'nt stay there after being tortured would he?

Kavanaugh wasn't staying anyway. He left straight after the Siege, returned a few weeks ago, and was returning to Earth again when the Daedalus was turned around to tranmit the SGC's message. He didn't plan to stay on Atlantis or return at some point.
However, one question remains unanswered; in Kavanaugh's interrogation, Weir said that he sent unauthorised data bursts from the Daedalus after the SGC's message was forwarded, but before the Daedalus returned. He himself admitted that he had no friends, so what was he transmitting, and who was he transmitting to?

[Nothlit]

I must be in the minority here because I was totally unimpressed by this episode. The only good thing was Teyla's song. The rest felt horribly contrived, terribly rushed, and just generally unbelievable.

Stargate Command has known about the Trust for how long now, and they just decided to get around to raiding their computers?

We've had no inkling that Caldwell was a Goa'uld. In fact, it seems the writers themselves just decided he would be infested for this episode so that once they get it out of him, he can continue his passive-agressive flirtations with Weir.

The hand quivering inches above the DHD as Rodney shouts "STOP!" Most horrible attempt at suspense ever.

And as someone else said earlier: anything Athosian = boring. As bad as it may sound, I couldn't have cared less about that old woman. What was the point? It felt like they were just trying to cram yet another plot point into this episode. Maybe if we had known her for several episodes as a sympathetic character, but no...they just dropped her in this episode and expected us to believe the emotions surrounding her death.

Speaking of cramming, is it just me, or did they get virtually every Atlantis character into this episode in one way or another? For some reason that was really grating to me as well. Like they were trying too hard. Maybe that's why the episode was called "Critical Mass". (I was halfway expecting to see a scene on board one of the Wraith cruisers with Ford duking it out. Heck, it wouldn't have made things much worse.)

And if Goa'uld!Caldwell was so hell-bent on destroying Atlantis, why in the world would he have built in an access code to disable the destruct mechanism? Seems like the writers couldn't come up with a good answer to that question either, so they just ignored it and hoped nobody would notice.

The dialog was forced (except McKay...David Hewlett is just a fantastic actor). The situations were contrived, and the threat was never very suspenseful. To me, it felt like Wright, Cooper, et al. must have let their high school children produce this episode for a class project...

C'mon guys, you can do better. This was more like a "Critical Mess". I do love Atlantis, so I really hope this episode was just a fluke.

[macktheknife]

If the symbiote is removed without killing him.


Kavanaugh wasn't staying anyway. He left straight after the Siege, returned a few weeks ago, and was returning to Earth again when the Daedalus was turned around to tranmit the SGC's message. He didn't plan to stay on Atlantis or return at some point.

I mean, his torture basically will remove him from the show completely, I don't see how they could keep him at all anywhere near atlantis if it happened. No coming back at all, except maybe in some "What naughty things Weir has done" (and no, I don't mean Sheppard in a storage closet).

Maybe the athosians will get wiped out sometime. So instead of having to waste screen time on evacuations each time something threatens atlantis, they can just stay with the story.

[GatetheWay]

They couldn't of possibly of done the torture thing. Weir would of probably lost her command. It could of only of worked if (1) Kavanagh really was the spy or (2) Atlantis was completely cut off from Earth again so there could not be any immeddiate repercusions from the SGC.

oh, and minor Long Goodbye

Spoiler:

Caldwell does return to Atlantis after being degouald. I was reading the spoilers for LG when they mentioned that about Caldwell therefore ruining Critical Mass for me.

[spirited Chihiro]

Is there a way to listen to Teyla's song? Except for waiting to see the episode?