Stargate: Atlantis 2.18: "Michael"

Written by Carl Binder
Directed by Martin Wood

In which a man named Michael awakens with no memory of his identity or history, and is told that he was a survivor of a Wraith attack, but troubling dreams and desires tell a different story…


Plot elements from the first half of the season finally come back into play in this episode, and it’s a welcome change of pace. The writers were struggling since the less-than-stellar Lt. Ford subplot last reared its ugly head, and part of that was a lack of focus. If this episode is any indication, the intention is to shake things up a little just in time for the season finale.

If I were going to emphasize the negative a bit more, I would note that the writers chose a convenient time to remember, all of a sudden, that they had been messing with the “cure” to the Wraith for quite some time. After all, it hadn’t been mentioned for several episodes. More to the point, after flirting with several possible leaks regarding the survival of Atlantis, now one appears just in time to force a battle (presumably) in the finale. It’s a bit predictable (and now “The Tower” seems even more contrived as a means to an end).

That said, I enjoy the idea of self-inflicted wounds, because Weir took a morally questionable choice, and now it’s blown up in her face. It takes the story back into the kind of desperate territory that the series was supposed to address, and something that the links to Earth this season may have stripped away. Weir didn’t play it safe this time around, and if anything, the entire team let their defenses down, with the exception of Ronon.

What I like about this is the dangerous quality of the choice. Weir and the team conducted a biological experiment against the will of the subject. It’s morally ambiguous at best and a war crime at worst, especially since the ultimate goal would be to generate a biological weapon to eliminate the enemy. As it is, one cannot predict how Michael’s reintroduction will affect the Wraith. Michael has a lot of reason to hate the humans, but he also seemed unable to treat them as prey anymore.

In a lot of ways, Ronon was the weak link of the plan, and Weir should have done something to keep him away from Michael. If it wasn’t for his hostility, would Michael have tried to uncover the truth so quickly? For that matter, this is where the self-inflicted wounds come into play: it was far too easy for Michael to find the record of his conversion. It’s as if the experiment came along before anyone was properly prepared to conduct it.

A larger question emerges: is the goal of wiping out the Wraith and making them into something more human really a good idea? Especially if the long-term effect would be unpredictable at best? What if the process ended with Wraith characteristics returning, but with the human appearance intact? Then the problem becomes much worse. Of course, it’s already worse, because the Wraith now have evidence that Atlantis is intact and the humans living there are close to finding a way to wipe out the Wraith, possibly for good. The Wraith have every reason to attack Atlantis regardless of internecine warfare, and while that’s a predictable direction going into the finale, I really like how they finally decided to get there.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10