Critical Mass is episode 13 of season 2 of Stargate Atlantis, first aired in 2005.
The Trust has planted a bomb in Atlantis: an intercepted signal says so, without saying where or who. The city is combed from top to bottom while the Daedalus searches its own crew's files: the sleeper agent has to be a familiar face. Between a deliciously suspected Kavanagh and a Goa'uld where no one is looking, paranoia does the housecleaning.
Why it matters to the mythology
The Goa'uld-infested Trust reaches Pegasus: Caldwell was hosting the snake, and the expedition's security will never be taken for granted again.
The review
The season's most effective inside whodunit: every suspect is plausible, the preventive lynching of Kavanagh questions our own reflexes, and the Caldwell reveal hits precisely because the character was unlikable for the wrong reasons. The final defusing to the microsecond does the job. As a bonus, Teyla gives the series its first Athosian funeral song, an unexpected moment of grace in the middle of the thriller. A very good vintage.
Written by Sebastian
Founder and editor-in-chief of Stargate Initiative
Gallery · 3
Stills from the episode, via TMDb.
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