Critical Mass (213)

[Agent_Dark]

Hey did I understand this right... electric shock disables Goa'uld for awhole? That's new. Or is it? lol.

No, O'Neill did the same thing to Skaara in The Serpant's Lair with a Zat gun. Shep probably read about it in a mission report

[Willow'sCat]

So I was supposed to take this episode seriously? Sorry it was pantomime from start to finish. *look behind you!* Cue over dramatic music!

The only saving grace was to see Weir finally be told the truth and I now love Kavanaugh. O.K I kind of don't hate him.

Not one of the better episodes IMO shame as I had been looking forward to it, but at least next weeks should (I hope) make up for it.

[rexpop]

A good episode. It would have been a great episode if they dropped the B plot and gave the A plot more room to breathe and ratchet up the tension a couple of notches. The B plot was great but would have worked better in a more introspective episode.

I hope they bring Cadman back as a recurring regular next season. She's a great foil for McKay and would be a great addition to the Atlantis team.

So far this season has been lots of good episodes but nothing that really stands out and grabs you like 'The Storm', 'The Eye' and 'The Defiant One' did this time last season, still plenty of time to improve on that.

[Cynicat]

Speaking of Firefly, the very start of Teyla's song reminded me of music from that...

Wordy McWord. Greg Edmondson featured acoustic guitar very heavily in all of Firefly's incidental music, and the opening strains of the ceremony song were reminiscent of that. It was definately the first thing that popped into my mind lol.

I quite enjoyed this episode, though it did suffer from the same pacing problems that have dogged recent episodes - it seems SGA is straining a little at the 42min format. The plot was simplistic, but I think that was one of it's strengths. It was a fun puzzle/whodunnit episode, which featured logical solutions to the problems faced - yay! I must say, I do get tired of seeing magical (usually conveniently-discovered-ancient-tech) solutions pulled out of the air around minute 37 of an episode - it really strips all the tension out when you know that's what's going to happen, and thankfully this episode was different.

On to the random stream-of-consciousness:

- LOTR reference - very nice It's those kinds of popculture references that are one of the things I love about SG.

- Hermiod's "Dude, shut the ***** up." - priceless

- Gotta agree with Starfox - ease up on the makeup for Cadman, people! What is she? Miss USMC 2006?

- Some more great character moments: Zalenka's sulking, Shep & McKay's co-snarking at him, Carson continuing to be his lovely caring self, Ronon following Shep around like a shadow, McKay's "They're heeeeere...", and this exchange:
Weir (re: Kavanagh): "I'm having some difficulty with him though - he's not exactly the most co-operative of people..."
McKay: (offscreen) "Ooh, well, there's a shocker."
LMAO *hugs McKay's snarky self* I just adore that they don't actually cut to him, or even interrupt the camera move - McKay's snarking is just a part of the SGA-verse

- Great use of secondary characters, and excellent continuity regarding them. I don't think McKay actually hates Caldwell, I think she just makes him distinctly uncomfortable - he's got control issues, and she took that control away from him in "Duet", forced him outside his comfort zone. He still hasn't dealt with that. She vertainly doesn't hate him, he frustrates her, but she doesn't really seem to harbour any ill will towards him - notice she always refers to him as "Rodney", not "Dr McKay". I think that level of familiarity from her bothers him, "gets under his skin", as he mentions early in the episode.

- The downlighting on Teyla and the stained glass in the background gave the ceremony a very cathedral-y feel, nicely done.

- The sudden switch to handheld during the "to torture, or not to torture?" scene was an interesting choice, and would have worked nicely as a way to emphasise the tension in the scene if it hadn't been so sudden and unprecedented (in SGA). As it was, it felt out of place, and a little try-hard - SGA is still very much stuck in the Dramatic Zoom school of cinematography when it comes to tension *stabs the cliche with a spork*
McKay: "ZPM overload in 24 minutes." <-- A nod to 24's similar (though far more effective) use of handheld camerawork? Heheh

- During the ceremony scene, Beckett has blank grey panels zipped over the coloured panels on his jacket. YAY! I always figured that's what those zippers did now the question is, why?

- Nice Persian rug the Athosians had there....

- Ronon pacing behind Caldwell during his final interrogation - very nice, very caged-animal like Very Ronon.

- Shep holding the gun on Caldwell as Ronon goes medieval on his arse - watch him very closely just before the cut... either Shep is enjoying what's happening to Caldwell, or Flanigan is just about to crack up. Personally, I think it's the latter - his "serious face" is a little too serious, and the smirk is out of character for Shep given the situation IMHO. See what you think:
Mr Serious.
Going...
Going...
Gone.

- Nice fall by Pileggi's stuntie (hilarious baldcap/wig, if you care to freezeframe). He does hit the ground with his head facing Shep's feet, but starts a nice little spin to face the right way, heheh.

- Beckett & Cadman - awwwww! *hugs them*

- Zalenka's "makeover" - LMFAO

Oh, and Shep's "Ask them if they can give us a little more than 'There's a bomb in Atlantis'..." comment inspired this:


Wow...that was lengthy, wasn't it? I think it's the heat here, it's melting my brain. Hell, it's melted all the blue-tac on the posters on my walls, they've all fallen down

[xfkirsten]

Speaking of Firefly, the very start of Teyla's song reminded me of music from that...

Ah!! I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one that thought that! As soon as the first strains of music played, I immediately thought, "Waitaminit... this isn't Firefly!"

[berenikee]

Great episode
Together with Duet and Aurora one of the best of the second season.

[dosed150]

does anyone have any ideas about who kavenagh is sending messages to?

i think it could be another nation on earth we havent had enough of the reactions of the other nations

[prion]

Hey, Cadman can have whatever hair she likes as long as Shep is in charge. ^_^ Military rules on Atlantis are pretty easy-going and different!

Well, obviously Shep doesn't push for perfection. They're in an outpost so they're given some liberties, but whoa, ease up on the makeup! I barely recognized her!

Yeah, I didn't suspect Caldwell either! I honestly didn't know who to suspect. I STILL didn't get it until a few seconds after they beamed him in. Geez... I must be getting slow in my old age.

I loved his indignation, and Weir and Shep standing there, but mostly, Dex pacing behind him just waiting to beat the snot out of the guy. And he got too. You could see that Shep had done some research on Gou'ald as he brought along a taser so he woudn't have to shoot his superior officer full of holes. I hope Caldwell will recognize this in his report once he's been de-gou'alded.

I imagine Ronon was threatening Kavanagh or asking him a few more times before he started in on him. When Kav realized Ronon was gonna beat him up, he fainted. Or passed out. Whichever.

Ah, that was priceless. Shep runs in, thinking Dex has probably killed Kavanaugh (since everybody hates the guy) and he's mortified to see the scientist in the floor and poor Dex, looking deprived, says "he fainted". My god, Kavanagh will never be able to live that down. A beating, sure, maybe get some sympathy, but fainting Dex probably just stared and him and said "I need some information" and then the scientist just went splat.

Loved the song Teyla song; it was best overlaid on all the scenes that didn't contain Teyla. Soudns odd, but the lip synching was off, and it seemed too music video-y at that point.

Zelenka with his new 'do'. Priceless. The man will never have kids after this experience!

Nice to see Agent Barrett is alive and well.

Glad to see hte SG1 segments were kept to a bare minimum. Now, I think an SG1 episode should have the SGA characters visit, just briefly. Tit for tat and all that.

Sorry to see Charon go. I liked her character.

Loved McKay's leeriness around Cadman and how Sheppard kept ribbing him about it.

Liked the development we see in Weir, giving orders to stuff she would never have done before. She was very hesitant to let anybody torture Kavanagh, even though she disliked him, but as the time ticked down ("24 minutes till we blow up" or words to those effect by Rodney) she agreed. And because they were down to 10 minutes with Caldwell, and because she knew that Caldwell was military but more importantly, inhabited by a Gou'ald, she just gave the nod but left the room. So she crossed the line with her own personal ethics, which I would interesting but good for development.

One thing for sure, Kavanagh ain't NEVER coming back to Atlantis!

[Heaven]

great episode! very well done

I have to point out Ronon was exceptional on this one. he's the only new regular that didnt turn out to be complete disaster imo (and the one I least expected).

mckay-sheppard interaction.. always fun
hermiod telling kavanagh to stfu.. priceless
beckett!!
great music
did anyone else catch Weir's bomb SPEEDTALK?!@

only thing I didnt like was the earth scenes
and maybe they went a little cheap on the pc screens, usually they look much better

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

Good episode

Barrett and Lee in the episode. Cadwell as a Goa'uld, that was weird.

And Kavanagh's first appearance this season.

[Yeade]

Yay! I've watched! Not sure what I can say that hasn't already been said though. Hmm...

Re: The B-plot

As nice as it was to learn a bit more about Athosian culture, I have to admit the B-plot had me stumped. Not that SGA hasn't had two plotlines running side-by-side before--e.g. "Runner," "Duet," "Trinity"--but these were obviously related--Ronon and Ford on the run, socialization, and trust, respectively. What happened here?

I didn't twig to a connection until Kavanagh accused Weir of not having the strength to command Atlantis and, in the very next scene, Charin reminded Teyla she had to be strong for her people.

Ah-ha! Elizabeth and Teyla! The two (somewhat ineffectual) female leaders!

Both struggle leading their people--Weir probably isn't sure what she's doing half the time, and the arrival of the Atlanteans and her casting her lot in with them has left Teyla in limbo with the Athosians--and both cross a line in "Critical Mass"--Weir in ordering Kavanagh's torture, and Teyla in losing her last, close tie to her people. And both these events are the culmination of everything that's happened thus far, leaving Weir and Teyla adrift and in doubt.

I feel so smart!

Re: Weir and Kavanagh

It's interesting that most people here seem to agree Weir made the hard but expedient decision in okaying Kavanagh's torture whereas many of the LJ reactions I've read seem to say she should never have gone that far.

Personally, I think there was little else she could've done--it was either torture Kavanagh (the only likely suspect at that point) and hopefully get the access code or do nothing else and let the city explode with whoever was unlucky enough to still be around. That said, she did cross a line. I know some are disappointed (yeah, I'm talking to you, Ouroboros ) that issues were somewhat dodged because Kavanagh fainted before any actual torture could be done, but the process has to be gradual and, in this case, it was the mental act of agreeing to such a course in the first place that was key.

And later Weir did implicitly tell Sheppard and Ronon to go ahead and use whatever means necessary to get the access code from Caldwell. Because Caldwell had a nasty snake parasite at the time, this decision was more akin to letting Beckett and the Hoffans experiment on Steve, but Caldwell is still at least mostly human, and she didn't hesitate.

So, like I said, a gradual process.

And, you know, as much as I sometimes dislike Weir's tendency to be led by her heart or high morals, perhaps somebody on the expedition has to take that stand. Sheppard certainly isn't going to, no matter how much he may wish otherwise. And McKay can be very single-minded in pursuit of scientific goals or, heh, not dying.

Atlantis set out as a predominately civilian mission, but the war with the Wraith necessitates an increased military presence. Weir is a large part of what keeps Atlantis under civilian control, and that control has got to be tenuous. That she's under pressure from the military and is quite a bit out of her depth in leading a city-state during a war probably accounts for a lot of her actions--from her ofttimes petty power struggles with Caldwell to her inflexibility in certain situations to how hard she argued on Sheppard's behalf in "The Intruder."

Looking forward to Weir sliding more down that "ends justify the means" slope and the ramifications of this.

(Is it too much to hope for continuity here? This episode bringing back so many recurring characters and the Lord of the Flies planet gives me hope.)

Re: Cadman

At first, I found her makeup and bearing a little off--long hair down, no uniform, and generally not looking or acting like a Marine--then I started thinking she was perhaps off-duty.

The first time Sheppard and McKay ran into her, I got the distinct impression it was during the Atlantis nightshift. Plus she was doing diagnostics or something, which doesn't seem like something a Marine would do. The same goes for the later dial-in to Earth. That also seemed to be during the evening, so maybe Cadman was called in off-duty for consultation? And then worked, along with the rest of the control room staffers, nonstop for about a day? As in, didn't bother to stop and change into uniform? Only took bathroom breaks and got food brought up?

Re: Zelenka

SQUEE!

Also cute is that Zelenka wasn't the only one to suffer the artistic efforts of the kids. The other three(?) scientists that walked by in that scene with him had stuff braided into their hair and stick-grass jewelry, too.

...

Oh! One more thing. Anyone know anything about the watch Weir was toying with in the tag scene?

[obsessed1]

Sheppards 'bomb in atlantis' line is an in joke from the cast me thnks.
ever seen the coverage of the behind the scenes of atlantis where joe flanigan is doing the 'theres a bomb on the bus' (Relating to his suposed failure to get the part in speed) He didtti exactly like that - the keanu voice and all.
Nice when you spot things like that!

[GatetheWay]

Really, Joe auditioned for Speed? You learn something new everyday.

Anyway, did anyone catch the lyrics to Teyla's song?

[gambit]

Really, Joe auditioned for Speed? You learn something new everyday.

I think I heard he was runner-up or something.

[Athenaktt]

Oh! One more thing. Anyone know anything about the watch Weir was toying with in the tag scene?

I don't think anything has been said abou the watch on Weir's desk. It's been there since the first season. And it still boggles my mind where or why she has it. I guess the only explanation we have for it are drawn from fanfic or our imaginations.