A Wraith hive ship is approaching Atlantis. While the Daedalus and the Orion wait in some distance from the city, Atlantis itself is cloaked. Suddenly the city is contacted and it turns out that it is Michael Kenmore, the Wraith that they attempted to turn into a human. Though initially wary of his intentions, interest is sparked when Michael claims that the Wraith are being divided by a civil war and says that they want to use Beckett’s Wraith retrovirus to turn their rivals into humans to feed upon. In return, Michael promises to turn over valuable technical information about their weapons and defenses. They start by sending a possible method to use their transport technology again to beam nuclear weapons inside the hive ships.

The leadership of Atlantis discuss what to do and finally agree to provide assistance, although Teyla is a bit reluctant. Afterwards Michael, the Wraith Queen and her chief scientist come to Atlantis. Once Beckett reveals that he has found a way to transform the retrovirus into an aerosol gas, the Wraith insist that he help devise a plan to disperse it inside their enemy’s ships. Later the gas is tested on a captured Wraith and it works. This results in the queen feeding on the victim. However when the Wraith try to use the gas on an enemy ship, they fail and when the Daedalus tries to help it is damaged. To find a way to better dispatch the virus, the Wraith give McKay a computer file, a treasure trove of information about Wraith technology that he needs to complete the job.

Yet, as is soon discovered, this unusual partnership is too good to be true. While Ronon still harbors deep suspicions about Michael, others on the Atlantis team hope that the alliance will buy time and help protect humans on other worlds from attack. Yet, once the assault on the enemy ship is underway, Weir and her team discover that they have played into a trap. Following the crash of Zelenka’s computer terminal and an attack on the Daedalus by both Wraith ships, it becomes clear that the alliance was just an elaborate ruse. Finally, with McKay and Ronon taken hostage aboard the hive ship, Zelenka uncovers a worm-like virus that was uploaded into the Atlantis computers, giving the Wraith access to information that will make possible a devastating attack against Earth.

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Atlantis is contacted by a planet that claims to have Ancient technology and is in need of their help to fix it. When Sheppard and his team arrive on the planet they find that there is actually an Ancient outpost which is protected by an Atlantis size shield, but that the inhabitants have apparently run into a problem operating it.

The problem, however, turns out to be much bigger than merely powering the shield. As it turns out, the outpost has long-range Ancient sensors just as Atlantis does, and after detecting the increased Wraith activity a year ago, the people in the outpost began running the shield continuously. The problem was, however, that the shield was powered by a massive geothermal core and never designed to be used permanently.

As McKay discovers, what the people thought to be a simple geothermal pocket was in fact a Supervolcano, and what they thought was a large valley, turned out to be the caldera of this volcano. Because of this revelation, Rodney determines that the extended use of the shield over the last year, and the resulting drain on the geothermal energy of this volcano, has critically accelerated the eruption which would normally not have occurred for up to 100,000 years.

McKay is now in a hurry: he not only has to fix the shield generator but also an Ancient warship that is docked in an underground bay, which is of the same class as the Aurora (see “Aurora”). After this discovery Weir offers to evacuate the populace to Atlantis, but the chancellor of the planet is skeptical. However, he agrees when the earthquakes become more frequent and the ground rips open.

While transferring the first wave of refugees, a lava pocket opens up directly under the Stargate, burying it under molten rock. Because of this, Atlantis contacts the Daedalus, which is just returning from Earth, and re-routes it to this planet. The Daedalus, however, cannot evacuate everyone at once, and must make four trips. Rodney feels this will take too long and while the Daedalus evacuates the most important people he decides to try to repair the engines of the Ancient ship and simply fly off of the planet. Unfortunately, some of the natives grow impatient, and take their chances seeking refuge in the wilderness because they don’t believe that the eruption of the volcano will destroy the entire continent. Teyla and Ronon try to evacuate the last of the natives, but the tunnel leading to the Ancient ship is blocked. Fortunately, they are beamed up to the Daedalus before the poisonous gas released by the volcanic activity can kill them.

Meanwhile in Atlantis the expedition team learns from Dr. Zelenka that a Wraith Hive-Ship is on its way towards the city, increasing the pressure on McKay to successfully repair the Ancient ship. However, they know that even with their resources they might not be able to defeat the enemy ship.

In the end, however, Rodney is unable to make the repairs in time and has found that a river of lava has overrun the bay doors, making it impossible to fly out anyway. Instead, he manages to power the ship’s shields for four seconds, and re-routes power to the hyperdrive engines. These four seconds will give Rodney enough time so that the explosion of the volcano will thrust the ship, which Sheppard named the Orion, high enough to engage the hyperdrive for a microsecond, propelling them into orbit, and saving everyone on board. Upon returning to Atlantis, Rodney and a team of scientists begin working on the Orion in hopes of fully repairing it.

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Michael wakes up in the Atlantis infirmary with no recollection of who or where he is The senior staff of Atlantis tells him that he is Lieutenant Michael Kenmore and claim that he lost his
Michael seeing him self as a Wraith in the mirror
memory and was injured while attempting to save his team from the Wraith.
Michael seeing him self as a Wraith in the mirrorDr. Beckett releases Michael back into the general population under the guide of Teyla to try to reclaim his lost
memories. However, Michael begins dreaming of the Wraith and confides of this in Teyla, who assures him that she, too, has had similar dreams of the Wraith.

In a briefing of the senior staff, Teyla brings up the issue of telling Michael “the truth,” arguing that it is becoming difficult to keep up this “lie”. The rest of the staff, however, disagrees with this course of action. Dr. Beckett advises that Michael try therapy to eliminate the dreams of the Wraith, stating that they may purely be psychological in origin. At the same time, Ronon is having more difficulty than the rest and twice attacks Michael, once after he pins Teyla in a training exercise, and again in the hall.

During another night of no sleep, Michael asks to go to the infirmary for sleeping pills. Dr. Beckett, however, has fallen asleep at his desk, and so Michael looks into his logs, finding more suspicious evidence behind everyone’s unease around him. So, he takes this evidence back to his room and discovers the truth: he is a Wraith. It turns out that Dr. Beckett has nearly perfected the retrovirus and has successfully eliminated the Wraith DNA, provided he administers daily doses of drugs. Because of this development, Lt. Col. Sheppard seeks to develop a biological weapon to launch on the Wraith, though Beckett states that he clearly has no means of causing a permanent effect.

Ronon attacks Michael.

After this revelation, Michael argues against what the Atlantis team has done to him, stating that they did it for their benefit, rather than his. Michael has also begun to realize that he still has basic Wraith instincts, and while being escorted to the infirmary to receive his daily dose of the drug, he attacks his guard and shoots and kills Sergeant Cole, finding that he has a taste for the blood. Sheppard manages to disable Michael and the team places him in the Atlantis holding cell.

Because of this outbreak, Dr. Weir asks Dr. Beckett to increase the dosage after having Michael moved to the new Pegasus Galaxy Alpha Site. Beckett, however, begins blaming himself for what has happened since it was he who developed and administered the retro-virus in the first place, though Dr. Weir assures him any fault lies with her since she gave the order to carry out the experiment.

Michael takes Teyla hostage.

Once being moved to the Alpha Site, Michael convinces Teyla to release him because she understands him as no one else does, due to her Wraith gene that allows a certain sense between the two of them. Michael then takes Teyla, as a hostage, into the forest, fleeing Sheppard and Ronon who are searching for them now. Michael and Teyla reach the Stargate where he dials an address and takes Teyla through, however not before Teyla manages to write the address on a stone. On the other side Teyla becomes aware that there are many Wraith on this planet because that is why Michael went there, to return to his own kind. In the absence of his injection, Michael’s body begins to change, eventually re-developing the organ that allows a wraith to feed on a human. He approaches Teyla with his hand out stretched, intending to feed but seemingly apprehensive. Teyla is not afraid and challenges him to try. Sheppard and Ronon catch up and shoot Michael before he can feed, saving Teyla. They flee as wraith from the nearby hive ship arrive and attempt to surround them, leaving an unconscious Michael where he fell. The Wraith carry him away.

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Atlantis receives an emergency call from an off-world team on M1K-177 only to find them dead, having been burned in a fire. Shortly after this, Atlantis is contacted by Ladon Radim, a member of the Genii strike force, with the prospects of a new ZPM in exchange for weapons to orchestrate a rebellion and overthrow Cowen, the current leader of the Genii. After informing Cowen of this plan, Atlantis decides to raid Ladon’s base. Ladon sends a few Genii civilians, including his sister Dahlia, all of whom are later discovered to be afflicted by terminal radiation poisoning. Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard then leads a raid on Ladon’s compound. However, though they stun all of Ladon’s guards, they find that the ZPM has long run out of power, and they are gassed.

In the meantime, Dr. Beckett determines that the remains of the men found in the fire are not those of Major Lorne and his team while at the same time Teyla and Ronon discover a hit list for members of the Atlantis expedition.

Sheppard wakes to be confronted by Cowen, who planned Ladon’s trap. He is soon thrown into prison, where he finds the rest of the raiding team, as well as the captured off-world team led by Major Lorne.

In Atlantis, the team receives Cowen’s demands. They inform him that Dahlia and the others can be saved, with their technology, from death. Ladon, who was still planning a coup the whole time, frees Shepard and company, escapes through the Stargate, and detonates a nuclear bomb, killing Cowen and his elite guard.

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While scouting an isolated moon by Jumper, Sheppard and his team discover two battered escape pods in decaying orbit. They bring them to Atlantis, where Dr. McKay opens the first pod. An aged, unconscious woman lies within, near death. When Dr. Weir approaches for a closer look, an energy beam lances out of a black box-like device in the pod and strikes her, which causes her to collapse.

She awakens moments later, claiming to be a woman named Phoebus. Because her body is dying, the pod has automatically stored her personality and imprinted it on the first living person to approach. Before Sheppard, Caldwell and the other observers can grow too alarmed by this strange story, Weir seems to resurface. She confirms what Phoebus said and adds that the imprinting will last only a few hours. Before Phoebus’s personality vanishes forever, however, she has a request. Her husband, Thalan, is in the second pod. If Sheppard will volunteer to host him, the two can briefly be reunited before they die.

Sheppard reluctantly agrees and receives the imprinting. Phoebus greets Thalan with a kiss — but then the two grab whatever weapons are handy and start firing at each other. In fact, they’re actually the last surviving opponents in an ancient, devastating war, and each is fanatically determined to defeat the other.

As the team scrambles to capture them, Phoebus and Thalan carry their vendetta into the corridors of Atlantis. They have total control over Weir and Sheppard’s bodies, can impersonate them perfectly, and also have access to their knowledge of the city. Thalan soon sabotages the power systems, plunging Atlantis into darkness. During the struggle, Phoebus shoots Ronon. The hunt goes on as Dr. Beckett struggles to remove the bullet by flashlight.

The moment McKay gets the power back on, Phoebus completely locks down the city, trapping everyone in rooms and corridors and blocking all computer usage. Teyla, locked into the same section as Thalan, manages to stun him. Then Phoebus contacts Caldwell — who has assumed command — and threatens to turn the city’s fire-suppression gas against its population unless Caldwell helps her defeat Thalan.

Knowing that the hazardous gas could kill up to three quarters of Atlantis’s residents, Caldwell reluctantly orders Teyla to drag Thalan to a security camera so Phoebus can see her ancient enemy. Pleased, Phoebus then orders Teyla to execute Thalan. But if Teyla fires the last shot in this war, she’ll be killing Sheppard, as well. Caldwell orders her to decide for herself and while Teyla waits as long as possible, McKay takes over control from Phoebus. To finish the job herself Phoebus moves to Teyla’s position while Sheppard seems to regain control and the imprinting seems to end in the way Phoebus described it would but it is unclear if Thalan is faking it as he heard Phoebus’ description of what would happen as well. Pheobus arrives but before she can kill Thalan or Sheppard, Teyla gives him a stunner while he pretends to be knocked out and he stuns Phoebus before she can realize the truth. Reinforcements arrive moments later and Sheppard (or Thalan its still unclear) asks Teyla why she gave him the stunner as she could not be sure who was in control of Sheppard. She replied either way he would have shot Phoebus, because it was just a stunner and if it was Sheppard, he knew it wouldn’t have killed her so he wouldn’t have hesitated if he was in control and not Thalan. On the other hand, if Thalan had still been in control, he still would have shot Phoebus to end the feud.

Later Caldwell meets Weir and Sheppard, who have been freed of the other consciousnesses, in the infirmary and taunts them about what has happened, especially the kiss, which causes Weir to look embarrassed.

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The episode starts of with Sheppard’s team being on a planet, where Rodney complains about the primitive society on it. Suddenly a man named Eldred appears and tells them about the tower, which protects them from the Wraith. Afterwards he shows it to them. When the team sees it they are surprised since it looks like the central spire of Atlantis. Back in the village Eldred tells them that the tower destroys the Wraith ships by using thousands of lights which the team recognizes as Drone Weapons. So the team hopes to come into contact with the people in the tower since they also might have a ZPM. Afterwards they contact Atlantis where Weir orders them to find out more.

While Rodney checks the tower the rest of Sheppard’s team stops some soldiers from the tower who want to whip Eldred since he showed no respect to them. Another man named Otho appears and scans Sheppard’s team with an Ancient device, then orders Sheppard to be arrested. Sheppard is then brought into the tower from where he contacts the others since the interior of the tower looks like Atlantis except that it is styled like a early modern (mixing baroque and other elements) throne room (the throne being an Ancient Control chair). Rodney has discovered the tower is merely the main tower of a Lantean City ship identical to Atlantis. In the throne room the Lord Protector talks with Sheppard and invites him to dine with them. Afterwards Sheppard contacts his team and orders them to keep silent.

In the evening Ronon, Teyla and Rodney eat with Eldred who tells them that they give the tower half of their harvest. Meanwhile in the tower Sheppard eats with the court, the Lord Protector reacts badly and is taken away. Later the Protector’s daughter Mara comes to Sheppard’s quarter and tries to seduce him revealing her father wants them to marry.

In the morning Sheppard talks to Otho, who tells them that one of his duties is to find the best match for the royal bloodline so that the royalty can still use the Ancient technology. When he had scanned Sheppard he had found out that he has the ATA gene and thus hopes that it will strengthen the royal bloodline. He hopes so because if Mara doesn’t become the next leader, it will be her brother Tavius. Sheppard then calls Dr. Beckett to examines the Lord Protector. Otho shows Sheppard a Puddle Jumper bay. There Sheppard offers him gene therapy to strengthen the ATA gene in the population. Later Carson informs him that the Protector was poisoned and he can’t help him.

Meanwhile outside, Rodney enters the underground of the city with a young man named Baldric. They find a room filled with racks of Drone weapons but when he activates the light the earth starts shaking and they are trapped inside. They can’t call for help so Rodney backtracks to the cities backup/secondary operations center and begins to access the Ancient mainframe running the city. In order to provide air and regain radio contact, Rodney decides to blow a hole in the ceiling with a Drone.

Back in the village Ronon rescues a woman from the royal guard and in this process kills one of them. This causes a revolt in the village, much to Eldred’s shock. Teyla then contacts Sheppard who informs Otho. Suddenly they hear a bell which means that the Lord Protector died so Otho tells Carson and Sheppard to leave. Sheppard wants Mara to come with him but Otho appears and arrests them because he is now the new Lord Protector. He brings them to Tavius and it turns out that Otho was the one who poisoned the Lord Protector.

Meanwhile Rodney contacts Teyla who tells him that he has to find the ZPM or the village will be destroyed by the drones. In the cell Mara brings Sheppard his radio who contacts Rodney and orders him to remove the ZPM because Otho’s first act as Lord Protector will be the destruction of the village. While Otho activates some drones, Sheppard orders Rodney to activate the star drive of the city since this will deplete the already weak ZPM. Rodney does so, and the ZPM is depleted, rendering the drones inert and harmlessly fall to the ground. Sheppard then confronts Otho who attacks him with a knife but Sheppard cuts him with it. Otho reveals that he indeed has a vast knowledge about poisons and falls dead to the ground.

Back in Atlantis Sheppard informs Weir that they got new drones and Jumpers in exchange for medical supplies and an IDC. They also offered to help them run things. Weir asked if they offered to make him king; he declined.

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Rodney McKay and Captain Griffin are flying from the mainland back to Atlantis. Rodney is worried about the ship, considering it’s the first flight its had since it was shot down in “Condemned”. All seems to be going well until they experience a malfunction and the ship crashes into the ocean.

About an hour later, Griffin and McKay wake up to Radek Zelenka’s relentless radio calls. McKay had suffered a blow to his forehead and was bleeding. They realize that the ship had sunk about 1200 feet and was sinking at the rate of 20 feet a minute. Suddenly the windshield started to give way to the pressure of the ocean. Rodney immediately heads for the rear compartment and tries to seal the bulkheads, except the switch was damaged. Leaving Rodney in the rear compartment, Griffin stumbled into the front compartment and pushed the switch right before the windshield shattered, sacrificing himself. Griffin is (most likely) crushed by the intense water pressure. Up on the surface, Radek tries to pinpoint McKay’s location while John Sheppard tries to find a way to lift the sinking Puddle Jumper from the ocean.

Back in the Jumper, Rodney tries to stave off his claustrophobia and save himself. Turning on the emergency transmitter, he discovers that he only has 3 hours of power left in the Jumper because the inertial dampeners were using up most of the power. Rodney immediately commits to the idea of doom.

Suddenly, Samantha Carter appears to McKay in his hallucinations. After taking a moment to take in the fact that he’s hallucinating, Carter explains to him that she’s there as a hallucination to help him and due to the rather bad concussion on his head.

Back in Atlantis, John suddenly has a bright idea. If they can turn the Jumper’s cloak into a shield like the Atlantis shield was turned into a cloak, they could dive even deeper. Zelenka informs him that it would take up a lot of power and shutting down anything they don’t need would take hours to reconfigure. John suggests that they make the changes as they get down there.

Rodney’s Jumper hits the bottom. Sadly, Sam points to the bottom of the Jumper. The Jumper is taking in water.

Finally onto something, Zelenka manages to get the shield up and running. Under the pressure of the ocean, the shield is continually draining power. They have about 30 minutes if the shield continues to drain power.

Shepherd notices that the monster seems to be circling the same area over and over again, which means it probably found something interesting. They find the Jumper. Zadek realizes that they can extend the shield between the two Jumpers, though, that way Rodney can just walk between them. As they walk, the gigantic whale being majesticly swims overhead. Setting him down in the rescue ship, Rodney looks to Sam, who is smiling and waving him off.

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The episode starts of with Sheppard meeting Radek Zelenka in the gate-room, who is sent to M7G-677 (the planet with all the kids, see “Childhood’s End”) to repair their EM-field generator. Zelenka however is not happy since he does not like children. Meanwhile Dr. McKay calls Sheppard to show him, Weir and Ronon two Wraith cruisers which he discovered that are near Atlantis, but not on their way to them. They are actually shooting at each other.

Bill Lee figures out how to contact and warn Atlantis

Meanwhile at Stargate Command, General Landry is visited by Agent Malcolm Barrett, who informs him that the Trust is now controlled by the Goa’uld and that they have planted a bomb in Atlantis, which will explode when Atlantis dials Earth the next time – which is today. So Landry orders Dr. Lee to find a way to warn them.

Back in Atlantis Rodney meets Lt. Cadman again but feels uneasy around her (see “Duet”). Meanwhile Teyla asks Dr. Beckett to accompany her to the mainland to examine her old friend Charin who is very ill. They do so and Charin asks Teyla to prepare the Ring Ceremony which is used to celebrate the natural death of a person.

On Earth Dr. Lee concludes a way to warn Atlantis by using a small planet at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy and the Daedalus as relay points. They are able to contact the Daedalus which then sends the message in time to Atlantis before the dialling process is completed. Afterwards McKay disconnects the ZPM while teams search the city for explosives but find nothing. Also the Daedalus is called back to help find the saboteur but before this they relay another message to Atlantis. Later the DHD of Atlantis dials Earth by itself but can not establish contact due to insufficient power. Meanwhile the transmitter sends a beacon, thus calling the Wraith cruisers to Atlantis. Now they have to cloak the city again.

Dr. Weir interrogates Kavangh for the ZPM failsafe code

Later Weir tries to find out who planted the bomb and when the Daedalus comes back she questions Kavanagh who was on the ship. Kavanagh however accuses her of being driven by emotions and thus has him as the main suspect. Afterwards she questions Dr. Novak but during the talk Rodney informs her that there is no bomb. In truth the fail-safe of the ZPM was deactivated and blocked with a code, thus causing a massive overload in the device if enough energy is needed. But they need the ZPM to cloak the city. Afterwards Weir again questions Kavanagh since she thinks he did it but he does not say anything. Weir then discusses the matters with the senior staff and Ronon says that he will get the code out of Kavanagh if he has 10 minutes with him. Kavanagh faints under threat from Ronon.

Meanwhile Teyla evacuates her people back to Atlantis and also tries to persuade Charin to let herself be treated by Beckett but she wants to accept her death. She is later brought in the infirmary of Atlantis and although Dr. Beckett wants to treat her, Teyla persuades him to let her die.

Two Cruisers approach Lantea

Later the Wraith appear and thus Atlantis has to be cloaked. Suddenly however the inertial dampeners of the city activate which causes the ZPM to overload. Thus Atlantis will be destroyed in about 30 minutes. The senior staff then plans to evacuate the people of Atlantis to the planet in the same solar system where they found the crash-landed Wraith ship. Ronon however persuades them to let him question Kavanagh. While all the preparations are done Teyla and Beckett celebrate the Ring Ceremony for the dead Charin, at which Teyla sings for her.

10 minutes before the ZPM overloads Lt. Cadman informs Weir and McKay that she found out that it was Colonel Caldwell who did all this. When they question him it turns out that he is a Goa’uld but after Ronon hit him down, Sheppard uses a Taser on him, thus allowing Caldwell to take back control and give them the code. Rodney enters it in time and the overload is stopped.

Later Rodney informs Beckett and Cadman that Hermiod plans to use the Asgard beam to remove the Goa’uld symbiote from Caldwell. Zelenka has also returned, face painted, hair beaded, and in a foul mood. In the end Weir talks with Sheppard where she questions what she wanted to do with Kavanagh, but Sheppard tells her that she only did what she had to do.

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While scouting a planet by Jumper, the team notices what appears to be a massive crater on the surface. McKay asks to check out the rim of the crater as he has detected energy readings, but once they get there, all they find is a doorway and some Ancient writing. However, the energy readings are coming from the doorway. Just to be safe, McKay ties a camera to the end of a stick and puts it through the door, discovering an energy barrier that it must pass through. He then pulls it out and deduces that the other side appears safe, allowing Sheppard to pass through. A problem arises, however, when Sheppard is unable to pass back through the doorway, and suffers injuries from the stresses of the barrier. What is more troubling, though, is that time within the barrier seems to be passing much faster than time outside the barrier, which Rodney failed to realize until further review of the tape after Sheppard passed through. Sheppard could already be starving to death. McKay, Ronon, and Teyla quickly toss all their supplies through the portal. Then McKay departs for Atlantis to get help — before Sheppard dies of old age.

Indeed, inside the portal, days have passed. Trapped in a cave without food, water, or word from his team, Sheppard is discouraged. The arrival of the supplies helps, but when more days pass with no further contact, he’s forced to seek food elsewhere. He discovers that, on the other side of the immense mountain range above him, the cave opens into a verdant valley. Unexpectedly, a man races up to him, shouting frantically about a beast. Then the beast — a semi-invisible monster — attacks them both, knocking Sheppard unconscious.

He awakens in a tranquil village. The man, Avrid, and his sister, Teer, explain that the Ancients created this valley as a place for people to meditate on spiritual truths and, eventually, Ascend to a higher plane of existence. To Sheppard’s horror, they add that, except by Ascending, no one can leave the valley. Ever.

Weeks turn into months as, with Teer’s help, Sheppard struggles to adapt to his new life. Then, one day, the mysterious beast attacks the village. To Sheppard’s disgust, the villagers hide, leaving him to face the creature alone. He barely survives. Feeling abandoned by his teammates and now by the passive villagers, the deeply frustrated Sheppard tries to make his new friends understand that Ascension won’t mean much if they’re mauled to death before they can achieve it.

Meanwhile, outside the barrier, only a few hours have passed and the team has returned. Although a probe sent through the field is destroyed, it locates the power source of the field and McKay also concludes that time in the field passes about 250 times faster than in real time, which would mean that a single hour in real time would equate to at least 10 days within the field.

Inside the field Teer confidently responds that her lifetime of spiritual practice has given her clairvoyance. This power warns her that the beast will attack Sheppard’s team. But this time he gets help from the villagers who have realized that the beast is only a manifestation of their fears. Now that they have realized this they all ascend – and although they extend an offer to join them, Sheppard declines. Instead, he leaves the barrier which will remain to help other people to ascend.

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Before the Wraith queen can interrogate Sheppard, she senses that a second Hive ship arrives (which is also sensed by Teyla) and he is brought back into the cell. Meanwhile Dr. McKay, still in Ford’s hideout planet, tries to convince his guards to let him go since the mission seems to be gone awry but they refuse. After much hesitation he decides to inject himself with a massive amount of the Wraith enzyme. Thanks to this he easily disables the guards, then takes the control crystals Ford has removed from the DHD. He replaces them, and escapes to Atlantis where he babbles excitedly and then collapses due to enzyme overdose.

Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla, Ford and Kanayo are able to escape from the cell by throwing knives into the device that controls the cell door. They then try to escape with the Wraith darts. Soon, however, they are captured once again after stopping to rescue some cocooned live humans. They are separated into two cells, with Teyla, Ronon, and Kanayo in one cell, while Ford, Sheppard, and the woman they rescued earlier are in another.

At Atlantis the Daedalus arrives to help while McKay is facing withdrawal from the enzymes. Because they have none, McKay faces a hard withdrawal which causes him to become very hyperactive and speak excitedly. Dr. Beckett tries to help him by talking with him but in the end Rodney has to make it alone. Meanwhile, the people on board the Hive ship who have taken the enzyme experience the same withdrawal. While Teyla and Ronon are able to withstand it without damage, Kanayo dies shortly thereafter because he was addicted too long. Ford also is near death but Sheppard convinces him to fight. The former Lieutenant is later taken away by the Wraith to be cocooned while they also take Kanayo’s corpse away.

Later the woman (named Neera), imprisoned with Sheppard, flirts and snuggles and tells him about herself, her world and what has happened to them. She then tries to acquire information from him, particularly the name of his world. He refuses to tell her anything, and is taken away to be interrogated by the queen again. During the interrogation, the woman in the cell is revealed to be a “Wraith worshipper” like thousands of others in the galaxy. Sheppard then tells her that he is the same and has made “deals” with the other queen that arrived earlier in the episode. Suddenly Ford appears and rescues Sheppard. After giving Sheppard Ronon’s weapon, Ford stays behind to cover him while the Lt. Col. escapes and also rescues Teyla and Ronon. Sheppard then boards a Wraith dart with Ronon and Teyla dematerialized in the “cargo hold”. He then leaves the ship while hundreds of other darts leave both Hive ships.

McKay in the meantime finally became free of the enzyme and informs Weir about what has happened and that the Wraith plan to cull a planet. The Daedalus then travels to the system where the culling is to take place and arrives just when it begins. When they try to contact Sheppard they get no answer and prepare to destroy the ships. The attempt to transport nukes onto the ships fails due to the transport inhibitor the Wraith have developed, and immediately after, the ships attack Daedalus. Sheppard saves the day by using his dart to attack the other Hive ships, causing them to fire on each other, while he escapes through the local orbital Stargate prior to the explosion, which destroys everything in a 15,000 meter radius. He later returns to Atlantis with Teyla and Ronon after dialing in from another planet. He did not go directly because he doubted the dart would fit in the gateroom.

In the end the command crew discuss the current situation of the Wraith and that their battles among each other can be used for their advantage. Sheppard pointedly reminds the others that Ford, presumed killed when the hive ships exploded, “was last seen aboard one”, but may have escaped once more.

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