Critical Mass (213)

[GateWorld]

ATLANTIS SEASON TWO CRITICAL MASS EPISODE NUMBER - 213 When an operative of the Trust plants a bomb in Atlantis, the team must find a spy within their own ranks before the Wraith arrive and discover the city. VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >> SPOILERS! PHOTOS! AND MORE!

[Liverpool_chicK]

BEWARE SOMEWHAT OF SPOILERS AHEAD... (well in a weird way)















I really believe that this one of the better episodes this season. And for a crossover it was pretty good. Too bad that we didnt see anyone from SG-1 other then Landry and Walter. Rachel sings really good. Plus the music was better in this episode since Raising. I think that the music may get a Gemini nod next year. Oh and the Gou'ld have reached Atlantis, via the Trust, who would have thunk that. It was nice to see Tayla's people again. I did get a laugh out of Zelenka and his gang from when they return back from the planet in Childhood's End. Adults should know that children, paint and adults letting them; do not go together PERIOD.

[TOA]

BEWARE SOMEWHAT OF SPOILERS AHEAD... (well in a weird way)















I really believe that this one of the better episodes this season. And for a crossover it was pretty good. Too bad that we didnt see anyone from SG-1 other then Landry and Walter. Rachel sings really good. Plus the music was better in this episode since Raising. I think that the music may get a Gemini nod next year. Oh and the Gou'ld have reached Atlantis, via the Trust, who would have thunk that. It was nice to see Tayla's people again. I did get a laugh out of Zelenka and his gang from when they return back from the planet in Childhood's End. Adults should know that children, paint and adults letting them; do not go together PERIOD.

I have to agree. This was a good episode - much more so than the last two in fact.

This episode had 3 really big plus components in it:
1) Sensitive pony tail guy - aka Kavangh - and once again he *****ed out Weir And then he passed out at the mere sight of Ronon. hehehehe
2) Hermiod - Im really thinking we could / should have an asgard centric spin off. Stargate: Asgard. As an added bonus Hermiod dislikes Kavangh even more than the rest of us! And he told him to shut up!!!! I love Hermiod!!!
3) Zelenka in war paint - but no cursing in chec. He needs to do that more!

Other bonuses:
1) Cadman & Mckay and their infinite harmony issue. Really Im thinking they need to get trapped in the ocean together for a while.
2) Mckay was all Mckay like as usual
3) Some Athosian action
4) Some Earth action in the form of Walter and Landry

Negatives:
1) Caldwell isnt the best Goauld... He's really not Goauldy enough - he needs to threaten more. "Your people will all suffer your gods wrath" type stuff was definitely missing.
2) Like the last 2 episodes this one felt a tad rushed, but not nearly to the extent of Epiphany or The Hive.

All in all this was a good going on great episode. After the last two I really needed a decent episode.

[aAnubiSs]

Great episode. Would be much better as a 90-min instead of 60-min. TPTB should start to make all episodes 90min instead of 60.

[Franklyn Blaze]

Great episode. Would be much better as a 90-min instead of 60-min. TPTB should start to make all episodes 90min instead of 60.

I agree, it's kind of like The Lord of the Rings (you guys all saw that that right? ) it was more of a complete story when you got just a little more from the extended version. I'd REALLY want the dvd set if each episode had 10 or 15 extra mins of story.

Question: What's the brand of Weir's computer? I didn't know dell made a tablet like that one.

[Wraith_Hunter]

One of the better eps of this season.

Thought Epiphany was one of the worst so far & so good to see it raising it's bar back up again.

Hermiod was cool as usual & would really love to see him feature far more regularly. Chop a human cast member & use their salary to pay for his anamatronics & CGI.

The pony tail git, I really dested in Letters from Pegasus but have to admit I actually kinda liked him in this episode.

I'd have to agree with the others, there was too much going on in such a short period of time & would have been far better as a two-parter. Where they could have shown the Wraith perhaps enter the atmosphere & check things out first hand themselves for a change.

The only real negative point was the final outcome. They find out about Caldwell in the last few mins, give him a punch & a throw. Use a Taser & get the code. It would have been better to prolong it for a little longer & so again would have been my recommendation for a two-parter. They could have cut Epiphany & stuck in the other part of this.

Overall though, a pretty good episode & certainly a vast improvement ovewr Epiphany. So I'd give it 3 out of 5.

[Beal]

Best.SGA.Ever

[caty]

I just LOVED this episode, really.

Would have been great as the mid season two-parter, as in this episode, there was far more tension and excitement as in Lost Boys/Hive combined!
I found myself sitting there not being able to take my eyes off the screen and I haven't done that awhile (Conversion was the last )

They also wrapped it up pretty good at the end, with Teyla singing in the background while the others thought Atlantis would be destoryed.

Since I am a huge LOTR fan, I was thrilled it got a mention and that scene on earth was very funny, too. The whole singing scene also reminded me of LOTR, Rachels voice is very similar to that of Annie Lennox who sang the LOTR theme song. (Respect, Rachel!!)

The whole "give me 10 minutes with him" speech reminded me too much of one 'Lost' episode though... Hilarious that Kavanaugh fainted, ILMAO!!!

A big positive was the Athosian action, although this episode was already so full, it might have fit in better with another eppy.
I'm glad we finally got to peek a little into Teyla's character and Rachel really convinced me, too (great acting).

The conversation between Weir and Kavanaugh was very intense!

Rodney and Sheppard interaction as usual hilarious..

Sheppard and Weir are really starting to get pretty close and I thought the ending was well done. They were no more words necessary!

Only a few things I didn't like about this ep:

Ronon - don't get me wrong, I like him, but he just seemed out of place most of the time, only standing in the background.

It was sad that none of Teyla's closest friends on Atlantis (namely Elizabeth, Ronon or Sheppard) were there for her when the most important person in her life dies. I mean, I understand that there was hardly any time before the city was safe, but they could have added a scene were they were all watching DVD or just spending time together at the end´, showing her that they were there for her! The way they wrote this, no wonder she feels alone!

Overall... I give it 4.8 out of 5

[macktheknife]

I really really hate characters singing. I just hate it. Especially when they seem to be backed by a full orchestra

The ending was rushed, the whole cadman\mckay thing was jarring compared to Duet, do they really hate each other now? Does'nt make that much sense to me, and neither does Caldwell as a goauld. Almost anything athosian = boring. And cadman in essentially a "grodin (but with more screen time)" role just seems pointless. She's suddenly a super expert on atlantean computer systems?

The last "awesome" ep was Aurora, and the last one before that was "Duet", and most of ep's in between have been pretty bleh, when compared to SG1 which has been going strength to strength, Atlantis is definately not as good this year. When will Atlantis have their "prototype", their exceptional stand alone episode?

They also "pulled" the punches regarding Kavangah. She orders the torture, but does'nt have to face the reality of what she ordered, because it never happened, I really doubt ronon would just sit there and go "oh well, he fainted, no access code, bye bye atlantis\life".

Another dissapointing episode.

[GateMan2000]

I just watch the episode this morning. I have to say that is wasn't bad. One of the better SGA eps I have seen this season. I liked the crossover part to. I agree that crossover shouldn't happen that often but on some occasions, it’s ok

[Blue Banrigh]

I really liked the majority of the episode.

Bonus points for Agent Barrett, Hermoid, Lt Cadman and Dr Lee. I loved the conference room scene with Dr Lee and his examples. And Dr Zelenka with the kids.

The bits with Kavanaugh's questioning was good. Especially liked how Elizabeth acknowledged that she crossed the line when she gave Ronon permission to torture him.

I thought they were joking with the Stargate: Musical. I liked the instrumental, provided nice background music. The singing I'm less sure about, feels odd.

The Athosian bits felt a bit superfluous, I kinda wanted them to get back to the ticking time bomb.

[Agent_Dark]

Very, very good episode One of the best this season so far Ok, summary coming up (beware, there is a very big spoiler for this episode at the end. But this is the spoiler thread )

We open the episdode with Zelenka packing some gear in the gateroom, not looking very happy. He's of to M7G-whatever it is (planet from Childhood's End, with the kids) to take a look over their EM field generator. Apparently McKay has decided that Zelenka is the best man for the job, knowing full well what the children are like on that planet. And Zelenka is kinda pissed at McKay
Anyway, up in the control room McKay shows Weir some data from the long range sensors. Two Wraith Cruisers are going past the neighbourhood, and McKay has detected high energy bursts going back and forth between them. McKay thinks that the cruisers are actually trading shots with each other, and that the Wraith are actually doing some serious infighting.

Here we cut to Cheyenne Mountain, where Landry rushes into the breifing room. Agent Barrett from the NID is there and informs Landry that they have recieved intel that a Trust agent has planted a bomb on Atlantis that is set to detonate from a trigger on Earth when Atlantis dials on their next scheduled contact. End of the teaser.

Come back to the Briefing Room at the SGC and Landry and Barrett are informing Dr. Lee of the situation. They need a way to contact Atlantis and tell them there is bomb on the city, and not to dial Earth. Of course, Earth can't dial Atlantis anyway but the Deadalus is conviently returning to Earth on its regular schedule however it is still too far out to contact.

On Atlantis, McKay is telling Sheppard what's going on todays contact report with Earth when they run into Lt. Cadman (the chick from Duet). Seems McKay still has a few issues with her (got UST? )
The infirmary now, and Teyla approaches Beckett with a request to go to the Mainland. Turns Charlin (the old lady that Teyla spoke to in The Gift) has fallen ill, and Teyla wants to know if Beckett will take a look at her, and he quickly agrees.

At the SGC, Dr. Lee has come up with a plan to contact Earth. Send a science team to a planet on the outer edges of the Milky Way and send a message from there to the Deadalus, who can relay it to Atlantis. There's an amusing joke about 101 Dalmations and Lord of the Rings in there (dogs relaying barks and the big bonfires that are lit to inform Rohan of Gondor's plight).
So aboard the Deddy, Caldwell gets the message. But Kavanaugh (he's back! :O) points out that they are too far away from Atlantis to send a message back and they wont be able to get back in range quick enough to inform 'Lantis before they dial Earth. Luckily Hermoid can modify the engines and gets some more speed out of them (and apparently Asgard get annoyed at Kavanaugh too )
So Atlantis is about to dial Earth (litterally about to press the button) when McKay gets the message and stops everything.
In Weir's office McKay proposes to disconnect the ZPM to stop anyone dialing Earth and Weir shuts down all gate activity (Zelenka's team is the only one offworld anyway). Weir and Sheppard hypothesise that the Trust want to blow up Atlantis to ensure that the Wraith never get to Earth or that the Trust operative may be working for the Goa'uld. Ronan of course has no idea what the Goa'uld are and Sheppard explains (apparently he's been doing some reading of SG mission reports, and is up to speed on at least the basics that have happened at the SGC).

Over at the mainland Teyla is speaking with Charlin who knows her time is near and wants Teyla to prepare the other Athosians for the Ring Ceremony. Dieing of natural causes is quite rare among the Athosians (because of the Wraith), and as such they have a ceremony for anyone who has the 'privelige'. Teyla is hesitant to start preparing for the death of the last person she considers family.

Another scene at the SGC with Landy and Barrett with Barrett explaining they raided a Trust warehouse and found out that the trigger is actually on the Atlantis side. And Carter got mentioned - yay Deadalus relays that message to Atlantis. Caldwell also sends a message back to Earth informing them that Weir wants the Deddy back at Atlantis to assist in the investigation.

At Atlantis, McKay and Cadman are working on some computers in the control room (and he finds out she's an explosive expert and that she can tapdance...) while Weir checks in with Sheppard and Ronan who are sweeping the city for bombs or other suspicous devices. Then the gate starts dialing by itself. It can't actually establish a connection to Earth (ZPM has been pulled) and McKay thinks the Trust agent had it automated as a backup if Atlantis didn't contact Earth on schedule. However he then notices that distress beacon had been actived (gate dialing automatically was a diversion) and that the 2 Wraith cruisers that were flying by earlier have turned around and are heading straight for Atlantis. However they can't figure out why the agent would want to draw the Wraith to Atlantis.

A little scene between Beckett and Teyla where Carson tells her that with the aid of a pacemaker, he could give Charlin a few more years. Teyla is quite relieved to hear that.

Landry's office, and Cheif Harriman aka CHEVRON GUY (WHOOHOOO!!!) walks in and informs Landry that the Deddy has gone back to Atlantis and that they are out of contact.

Now to Weir's office and she's looking through passenger manifests for the Deddy as Shep walks in. She's doesn't like the fact that they have to suspect one of their own. Shep raises the point that it could be someone on Atlantis as well, not just the Deddy. McKay comes in and names Lt. Cadman as a suspect (she's an explosive expert, just happened to be stay behind on Atlantis this time and she's always around when things happen). Shep disagrees saying she's one of his most trusted officers in his command. Cadman rocks up at that point to inform Weir that the Deddy has landed.
Walking through the Deddy, Caldwell tells Weir he wants to start the interrogations immedaitely. Weir shuts him down, saying that this falls under Atlantis jurisdictions.
Cut to a scene of Weir questioning Kavanaugh. He's fairly indignant that Weir would suspect him, commenting on how she has a personal grudge against him. Weir details some suspicous activities of his (requests to leave the city after the Seige, then a request to come back before he suddenly wanted to leave again - just before the whole bomb incident). Kavanaugh denies everything. He also has a little dig at Weir's command ('no need for the Trust to blow up Atlantis when Dr. Weir is command' (ie, she'll end up destroying it through poor command))

Over on the Mainland, Teyla is telling Charlin about how Dr. Beckett can give her a few more years. Charlin will have none of it, saying she is prepared to go. Teyla is saddened that when Charlin dies, she will be alone but Charlin tells Teyla that her people (the Athosians) are her family as well, and they will need Teyla's strength.

Weir is now questioning Dr. Novak (hiccup lady on the Deddy) who points the finger at Kavanaugh.

Over to the control room, McKay has figured out that there is no actual bomb. What the Trust agent has done is to override some failsafe mechanisms that govern power flow out of the ZPM, so that the ZPM will explode when a heavy use of it occurs. Like dialing another galaxy. Or like activating the cloak, which they will now need to hide from the Wraith cruisers that are en-route. Which is why the distress beacon got activated. The agent also put in some command codes to stop anyone from re-activating the failsafes. McKay thinks he can shut down some secondary systems so he can active the cloak, but stop the ZPM from overloading.

Weir tries to get some more info out of Kavanaugh, but hits a blank wall. In her office, Ronan offers his assistance in getting Kavanaugh to spill the beans (read torture). Weir and McKay are reluctant to resort to it, while Sheppard and Caldwell think its a good idea.

In the infirmary, Beckett and Teyla are by Charlin's bedside as she says her last goodbye to Teyla. Teyla is saddened by her passing, shedding some tears.

So the Wraith are on the way and they have no choice but to plug the ZPM in, activate the cloak and try and maintain power levels to stop the ZPM from overloading. So things are going well, until the City's inertial dampeners (part of its Star-Drive) turn on which causes power levels to spike rapidly. The ZPM is going to overload unless they can reactivate the failsafe mechanism. They start planning an evacuation of the City via the Deddy and puddle-jumpers. McKay points out that if they had the command codes, they could stop the overload in a couple of minutes. Weir relents, and gives Ronan the ok to use torture on Kavanaugh. This starts of the final (and best) scene.

Teyla and some Athosians are preparing Charlin for the Ring Ceremony. Beckett points out that they are about to evacuate, but Teyla knows this and will complete the ceremony then board the last puddle-jumpers. She's dressed in a formal dress that looks quite splendid on her
Some traditional Athosian music begins to play (think native, stringed and wind instruments) and Teyla begins to sing for the ceremony. Cut to a montage (with Teyla's song still going) of McKay working to prevent the overload, Weir looking concerned in her office, the Wraith Cruisers approaching the planet. McKay looks glum as he announces 10 minutes to the overload and Cadman comes up to him and Weir saying she has found something. More shots of Teyla singing (Rachel Lutrell has a lovely voice), then one of Sheppard running to stop Ronan's interogation. Kavanaugh is unconcious on the ground as he fainted before Ronan could touch him

On the bridge of the Deddy, Caldwell informs Weir that he is ready to depart when he gets beamed down to Atlantis. He's confused and angry to find Sheppard and Weir who confront him and demand the access codes The something that Cadman found was Caldwell's authorisation code to access the City's operation system (to auto-dial the gate, activate inertial dampeners etc). Weir accuses him of working for the Trust at which point Caldwell's eyes flash. He's been Goa'ulded. Ronan gets into a little scuffle with Goa'uld and Sheppard pulls out a taser which he zaps the Goa'uld with. After a little while, he manages to repress the Goa'uld symbiote enough to bring Caldwell out (much like O'Neill did with a Zat to Skaara) who is able to give Sheppard the command codes. Sheppard rushes them to McKay, who is able reactive the failsafe mechnisms and stop the overload. The city stays cloaked and the Wraith Ships move off, none the wiser. And Teyla finishes her song

Some housekeeping at the end - Hermoid is making the final calculations to use the Asgard beam to beam the symbiote out of Caldwell (I remember someone a while ago wondering if that was possible - looks like that is ). Zelenka comes back extremely peeved off at McKay, as the children have braided his hair, coloured it and painted his face. McKay is smug
Then Weir at the end is torn over her descision to allow the torture (though it didn't actually happen) of Kavanaugh go ahead. Shep attempts to justify it, and then Weir closes the episode by remarking 'Here we are gloating over the in-fighting among the Wraith - how are we any different?'

And thats it, the end Now I'm going to bed 'cos I'm tired

[AmaterazuSan]

CAn anyone translate Zelenka in the beginning of the ep?? I can send an avi clip if you want.

[d3u5]

CAn anyone translate Zelenka in the beginning of the ep?? I can send an avi clip if you want.

"Ty vole, "Say hi to the kids for me", já ti dám. Ty seš takovou vůl."

"Idiot, "Pozdravuj ode mne děti", you'll catch it from me. You are such an idiot."

[shockwave]

This episode was great, best ep of the season. The first Atlantis ep that completely satisfied me this year (there were a lot more previous year).

Well done Carl Binder

the B-plot with Teyla's grandma was boring, but I really liked the song.

[dosed150]

i really enjoyed this episode like a mystery thriller i didnt suspect caldwell at all it was a nice twist did this remind anyone else of the ds9 episode in the pale moonlight how the leader has to cross a line for the greater good

[Avreana]

I’m adding myself to the list of people that didn’t care for this episode (a small list so far it seems – I’m glad people enjoyed it)

Lets get the bad stuff out of the way first:

- The episode seemed really rushed and cobbled together. I didn’t really feel any sense of urgency and the scenes with SG Command and Teyla seemed tacked on. I think it could have been better if they did away with all that stuff and spent more time on the Trust/Gou’ld situation. I agree with the others that this probably would have been better as a 90 minute episode (but then wouldn’t they all )

- Rachel certainly has a beautiful voice, but I didn’t really enjoy the musical interlude. It came off as a bit cheezy to me.

- Cadman. I’m not sure why the producers went to the trouble to rewrite the part for her if they weren’t really going to use her for anything. It seemed like a wasted opportunity.

There were some bits that I did enjoy:

- Caldwell is the Gou’ld! Wow, that really surprised me. And I wonder how far back he was implanted? Considering the Deadalus was leaving Atlantis in the episode it must have been for a few months at least. Hopefully we get lots of follow-up on this.

- The bits with Zelenka at the beginning and end, hilarious!

- Kavanaugh. I love his character, I hope they bring him back more often.

So I overall I wasn’t too impressed with this episode. I must state, however, that I got up at 6am to watch it before I left for work. So I’m going to re-watch it when I get home and am a little more awake.

[AmaterazuSan]

"Ty vole, "Say hi to the kids for me", já ti dám. Ty seš takovou vůl."

"Idiot, "Pozdravuj ode mne děti", you'll catch it from me. You are such an idiot."

Muchos gracias, Sir ;p

[helio9]

I have to agree, this was a great episode. They were going for the style that the early seasons of the West Wing had mastered, the emotional appeal in the midst of chaos. They're not quite at that level, but nonetheless a great episode.

And again, Rachel Lutrell is a very talented singer. I was skeptical when I read that she's be singing, but wow, she's good.

[AutumnDream]

Wow. Now that one had me captivated the whole time. I've been a strict proponent of "no earth interference", but I didn't mind this time. And since it looks like they fried the Daedalus hyperdrive, I wonder if we're going to be getting any more Earth - Atlantis trips for a while. Will Caldwell remain in control of the Daedalus once he's freed from the Goa'uld? Dr.Lee is hilarious. If there's a third spinoff, I hope he's the team's scientist.

So now the wraith know we're just sitting around hidden. Crap.

Very happy to see Zelenka. When Kavanaugh mention that Zelenka was offworld and it could be him, I was thinking, "If it's Zelenka and he has to be written off the show because of it, I'll stop watching! Okay, so I won't... but I'll be really mad!"

I actually liked Kavanaugh though. Well... liked as a character rather than personally. He was going toe-to-toe with Weir for a while there and it was great! I wonder if she's going to start having serious doubts about her leadership. I can see bad things in the future. >.>

Teyla was so great in this episode, acting wise. I'm a big fan of Sweet!Teyla. The singing part did seem pretty out of place to me. It would have been much more tasteful and subtle if the song hadn't been overdubbed. There should have been a few Athosians in the room just playing their instruments and Teyla singing in Ancient... and recorded right there in the room for a smaller, more ethnic feel. It would not have been as "grand" as they were trying to make it, but it would have been more beautiful and probably better fitting. It did have a slightly negative effect on the episode for me, good though Rachel was. It didn't sound like Teyla though, because of the voice differences.

I was hoping Caldwell's eyes weren't going to do the silly glowing thing but they did. Aww. No more Goa'uld in my city please. We have much cooler badguys to deal with. I felt so sorry for him after Shep tazered him up.

Ronon was cool, Weir was cool, McKay was cool... everyone was cool. ^_^

Great episode!