Season 2, Episode 13 - Critical Mass

Air Dates:
CA: Dec. 5, 8 PM (TMN)
US: Jan. 20, 9 PM (Sci Fi Channel)
UK: Jan. 25, 8 PM (Sky One)


When a beacon is set off alerting the Wraith to Atlantis' presence, suspicion is thrown on a newcomer from Earth.

Episode Guide | Spoilers | Teaser

(This topic is for people who have seen the episode to discuss it. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this topic.)

Cavanough.... me thinks he is an ass. I love when the Asgard look up and tells him to "stop talking please. Thank you."

I almost peed my pants when they were just about to push the engage button to earth and McKay yells. "STOP". I got chills all over. Oh my when the gate started to dial itself without the ZPM I was oh my goodness. The NID are nasty asses. Sneaky.

I loved seeing the SGC in the episodes. Not for a few seconds either but quite a bit there.

I thought that Cadmin was the one who planeted the bomb but when I saw Cavaungh I thought imediately that it was that slimy ass kissing moron of a man. What is with Cadmin suddenly being an explosive expert? It was suspicious that Cavanagh kept coming and going from Atlantis. Begging to come back to Atlanis after he begged to leave after "The Siege" only to stay for 3 weeks before begging to leave again. The guy is an ass. What was in those encryptic messages he did send. He may not have planeted the failsafe code in the end but something is pretty fishy with him. He is a wimp for passing out also. *Shivers* I cannot stand him.

Lots of good Big D shots. Love that they used them to relay the messages back and forth. Funny how the Big D left back for Atlantis without permission.

This was a very good Teyla episode. Why so many hate her I do not understand. The Ring ceramony, it was beautiful. Teyla singing. WOW. Galic in nature. It was awesome. Great to get a Telya story.

No bomb? Just screwing with the power flow regulators? The goa'uld rewrote the program surrrounding the ZPM securing it with a failsafe code. I was like what about the captain of the Big D. Caldwell. How come no one suspected him. As I said I got suspicious when the Big D turned to come back to Atlantis leaving the SGC in the lurch. When they beamed him out I knew it. When his eyes glowed I was like HOLEY sh*t! Smart move with the tazer gun as that has been well established in Stargate SG-1. I loved the interplay bewteen the ceramony and hightening tension of a impending wraith attack.

Zelinka How funny was he in all those little pigtails. How pissed at McKay was he! Nice that McKay did not save the day but rather a junior character.

This post has been edited by Auntie Em!: Dec 5th 2005, 10:05 PM

Didn't see that ending coming. Didnt think it was Cadmin, and Cavanagh was suspicious and still seems suspicious with coming and going like that and the encrypted messages. Overall I thought it was one of the better episodes so far this season.

Intresting episode Cadmin now that was out of left field i wouldn't have guessed it. honestly I don't see why the Goa'uld would even bother with Atlantis worrying about the wraith is small potatoes now that there empire is dead . Even with that those Goa'uld that are kissing some ori ass wouldn't fear the likes of thw wraith. I thought earlier this year when i heard a Goa'uld was coming to Atlantis, I had a kinda hope it would be on our side and stay as a recurring role. I would actually be intrested in seeing a single tokra around since we got an asguard around.

As for Cavanagh that guy is a, hoot during that entire time I was thinking back at how back when they were first sending messeging back to earth. Cavanagh sat there and bitched about the higher archy of atlantis and Ford said something like I'll leave you to whine in peace or something of that sort.

The entire Teyla part was intresting but I dont know it really fits with the stargate world .. a lil celtic music .. I felt like i was sitting in a coffee shop listening to Enya or something.

Zelinka lmao those kids did a number to him. I hope he brought alot of choclate cause you know those kids were prolly pissed when they ran out of the candy the sga-1 left them that one day.

This post has been edited by CrazySac: Dec 6th 2005, 8:48 AM

So let me get this correct, frist the 2 cruisers where attacking each other, then after a day or so they picked up the beacon, stopped attacking each other and went to check it out. Cruisers must have very strong shields cause they didnt show any damage what so ever. And how retarted are the wraith anyway? You pickup a distress call from the planet where you enemy is and you only "scan" it. Hell first thing I would try is dial the startgate (they surely got the adress). They would instantly know that the startgate was still there.

Anyway still nice episode would have though the guild would try to get there hands on a wraith has host, that would have been realy sweet.

I thought this would have been a great episode if it had not been for all tht Tayla stuff. I hated the singing. I cringed and had to mute the TV. It was so stupid It ruined the entire episode! I was almost at the point where I did not hate Tayla anymore but my hate has returned full force. I hate her. I so want her to be replacd by Cadman. That would be great because of the tension between McKay and her.

But I loved Zelenka. They should put him in more shows. I love him to bits.

I also loved that Wier was all hard core in this episode. It shows she can be tough when she needas to be. I used to hate her in the first season but now I think she is great

Damn that was a good episode!! Pity it was ruined by the singing bit..... It really just didn't fit into the show and when it started I was like "WTF?!"

What was with the taser thing? How did that give Caldwell the ability to speak even though the Goa'uld was inside him?

EDIT: Oh and forgot to add, I hope Cadman becomes a regular. She's a hottie!

This post has been edited by man named enis: Dec 6th 2005, 10:11 AM

I liked the singing...wonder if it was actually her singing...

Couldn't they have used the biometric sensor if there was a slight chance that it was a Goa'uld in their midst..

I mean I didnt' hate the music or anything, it was actually pretty good and fitted the situation well (and was well timed). It was just the fact that one of the characters was actually singing it that made me cringe.

That was the actor singing herself. No dubbing. I thought it was great. It let you know more about the people. SGA needs variety and it was nice to get that. I am glad the wraith know about Atlantis again. It has been a first dry season up to 210. Second half has been much better.

Also the Tazer, Zat has been shown to knock down a goa'uld enough for the host to come through for a short period of time. So that was not out of left field.

The wraith are territorial and have fought each other but like two brothers fighting when someone outside the family tries to attack either of them the other will come to their brothers assistance. So they quit their squabbling and went after a common enemy.

I think it adds a bit of humanity to the show, which again adds credibility to the whole thing...that is the small details that we take for granted in everyday life which are seldom displayed in shows like this...



We don't really know that the wraith know of Atlantis...yet (unless that was a spoiler) as they showed no sign of detecting anything...nor do we know if they actually followed op Mckays plan to hide a beacon amongst debris on themainland shore.

However we didn't really see the Wraith cruisers leave either...they might still be there in the next ep. which would explain why ?

edit: unquote bugged


This post has been edited by Yamarin: Dec 6th 2005, 10:27 PM

that was a good EP

never in my wildest dreams saw Caldwell comming It was like a smack in the face. It was great

I loved Lee trying to expalin the comunication thing and the scientists

Lee: they send a message all across the country side....... Lord of the Rings, [all scientis nodd in approval] Lord of the Rings you know when they light all those signals on the top of the mountain tops, you saw that right

landry: People, People People

Also the sceen when they're about dial Earth the hand just above the button reminded me of the movie Mission Impossible

It seems like im the only one In America who sees these

This post has been edited by ha'tak: Dec 7th 2005, 12:19 AM

That was the best part of the episode. That and Caldwell with the eye flash, though I wish Sheppard had pulled out a zat instead of a taser. I miss zats.

good ep, it thought it was the person inside mkay at the start, as most shows show the person who is the enemy right at the start. nice way to be out of a cliche and good variety

***

not bad :)

Dang, that song was really nice. I'm dying to find it on the net. Does anyone know where I might be able to get it?

I thought this episode seemed a little too strewn together at the last minute. They had some good ideas, but IMO didn't do a very good job tying them together even with themselves. It just seemed .... broken. I will give the writers credit for coming up with something more complicated than just "there's a bomb!".

The Teyla part at the end just didn't seem to fit. The writers need to give/find her a place in this show. It seems like Ronan has taken over her role from Season 1, and now she's left with nothing left to do. Just strewn into random plot lines with no importance.

Still, it did have its moments. Zelenka at the end, the "twilight bark" bit, and Ronan kicking some ass out of Codwell.

Overall, I give this episode a 5/10.

Well if you read the spoiler thread for this ep, you'd see that the original plot is way different to the one that we saw..

Hobo doesn't read any spoilers. He is the spoiler police!

Though, I have to disagree with you Hobo. I did not feel it was disjoined. I cannot think of how it felt that way. What scenes made you think that?

This post has been edited by Auntie Em!: Dec 7th 2005, 10:28 PM

and there's a problem there? Someone has to stand up for those of us who prefer to not be spoiled and IMO ruin the episode in advance! I like being suprised!


It was mainly just how the major plot lines were revealed to us. Oh, there's a bomb eh? and we can't dial Atlantis? [enter joke about 101 dalmations] ok, so no bomb anymore?

it just seemed so .... random to me. and so sudden as to how they arrived at their next conclusion. I fon't really know how else to explain it .....

It's funny you should say that, I thought the same. Usually they say "there is an intruder!" and with the next scene cut, you see him. So I also suspected Cadmin. Glad it wasn't her.

I loved the Lord Of the Rings signal fire thingie.

This post has been edited by ted_simple: Dec 8th 2005, 1:58 AM

You see I did not get the Lord of the Ring thingy I have not seen it. Only peices of it. I got the Dalmation thing though! Ruff.

Hobo I was not making fun of you. I was defending you you silly.

I think maybe what you were feeling was that it was suppose to be a 2 hour show squished into an hour. That kinda feeling?

Good episode, however I must ask

"When did the Trust / Gou'ald learn how to reprogram Ancient Technology?" It would seem almost impossible, unless they had some of the Ancient's computers and all. I just felt it was a rather, "Lets put a twist in but not really think it through."


Also, the singing, at first I was like o dear.... but then I felt it really added to the atmosphere of the episode.

How did they think an evacuation would help? Surely the Wraith would see the ships leaving????

They also couldn't use the Stargate because it would cause an overload.


As an overview, I thought this was a good episode, but it suffers from too many inconsistencies.

This post has been edited by Hazaa3000: Dec 8th 2005, 4:56 AM

Another point:

It also seemed odd that the scanners on the Daedalus didn't detect the Goa'uld earlier. They have an Asgard onboard, and we know from SG-1's 5x22 "Revelations" that they can scan for symbiotes. First off there should have been a routine scan when the ship was boarded (on earth), and of course when they KNEW there was a intruder why didn't the Asgard scan for a Goa'uld. Maybe Caldwell sabotaged the scanners also. But then they should have scanned him on Atlantis. Perhaps they had their hands so full that they didn't think of scanning for symbiotes; although they would have been kind of neglegent if they didn't scan the interviewed people such as Cananaugh.


Another point:

You would also expect the Wraith are a bit more thorough. The transmitter on the shore should have aroused suspicion. Why not blow the planet to pieces. Or leave a cruiser there to patrol so that Atlantis must remain cloaked all the time. Or just an observation satellite. Besides when they first did the cloak trick in The Siege I couldn't believe the Wraith wouldn't even fire at the position where Atlantis was previously - just to make sure it was gone.

Teyla singing.
Cadmin and Rodney.

This post has been edited by ted_simple: Dec 8th 2005, 6:58 AM