Condemned is episode 5 of season 2 of Stargate Atlantis, first aired in 2005.
The jumper is shot down over a prison island: on this world, convicts are penned on a rock that the Wraith cull regularly, a living tribute that buys the mainland its peace. The team discovers the arrangement from the inside, between inmates who stopped being angels long ago and leaders who sleep very well at night.
Why it matters to the mythology
A standalone episode: the penitentiary variation on bargaining with the Wraith, or how a people outsources its terror.
The review
A Pegasus version of a prison-island story: the concept of a convict tribute is cynically brilliant, structural innocents sacrificed so the majority can breathe, and the episode is honest enough not to whitewash anyone, neither inmates nor notables. The execution, however, stays very classic: escape, betrayal, extraction under fire. A good series episode, without the extra soul of the great vintages. Watchable and quickly filed away.
Written by Sebastian
Founder and editor-in-chief of Stargate Initiative
Gallery · 12
Stills from the episode, via TMDb.
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