Two men hear a noise in the woods and see a man wearing a mask in the shadows. One Year later a team from Atlantis find the mask. Beckett (Paul McGillion) is leaving to help others. Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) tells him they've found one of Michael's labs which he has to check out before he can go. Sheppard didn't tell Beckett there'd be so much walking involved, he complains like Rodney (David Hewlett). Sheppard is shocked to see four women heading up the Atlantis team headed by Major Teldy (Christina Cox), with Mehra, (Janina Gavankar) Alison Porter (Nicole de Boer) and Vega (Leela Savasta). He wasn't going to say his team were "a bunch of girls!" She picked the best and the brightest. Sheppard: "Funny how that worked out."
They picked up a lock in the signal to the catacombs and discovered statis pods. Beckett isn't familiar with this facility. Sheppard tells them to stop touching thins since he doesn't want more rubble on his head as in the season 4 finale and the season 5 opener. Alison can disable the security protocols cos of what Rodney found. Mehra is left with the two docs. She'll make sure they "don't geek out too much." Sheppard claims he'll have undergone a cardio funk with a few more clicks of this walking around. Mehra can't stop talking cos she's a substitute for Rodney on this mission.
Alison is new to the galaxy. Michael's early version of human iratus hybrid is probably in the pods. The village is empty and Sheppard wonders why. Early test subjects were a combination of other life forms. Beckett can't help them cos they're no longer people. One man, Mirellus (Darren Dolynsky) returns to the village. Sheppard tells him they came through the big round thing. People have disappeared and thinks the village is cursed, he came to warn them.
They want to check out the next village. The statis pod opens. Beckett thinks Alison is young , Mehra laughs at their smalltalk and goes to check out the perimeter, "unless there's a sock on the door knob." The torches fail and Sheppard spots something in the shadows. Throws a stone in the well and finds a wooden doll. "Creepy." One of Sheppard's words. Smoke rises from the well. Sheppard: "crap." Another of his words. They fire at the zombie like creatures. Mehra checks out the noise from Michael's lab. Mirellus let them out, his wife was amongst the missing.
There are twelve pods. Beckett leaves and he's chased by old sutured face. The creatures can't see but use smell. That clicking sound they make just like the Manticore mutants in Dark Angel. Alison goes missing. Sheppard says 'trust the prom queen and the kid in the wheelchair to wander off.' Fog is used as a predatory feature by the creatures. Michael left his research behind cos he couldn't control the creatures. A creature climbs though the well and Sheppard finds Alison.
Vega is grabbed and the fog enters through the door and the creature has Teldy's flashlight. Beckett finds the catacombs run to the well. Alison suggests they ambush using the tablet as bait. They should blow up the well and the signal will be the explosion whereby they open fire. They take up positions to fire. Sheppard is attacked and loses the C4 and is found by Beckett. Beckett and Sheppard moved into the catacombs obviously to save themselves from the explosion.
Alison and Mehra stay behind cos there are more pods and they need to take a moment, well, Alison does. Beckett collects data on the creatures. Alison hears a noise and Sheppard finds more pods, there had to be more than 12 . They shoot them all. Beckett leaves and Rodney doesn't know who Alison is.
One of those atmospheric, creepy episodes showing the extent of Michael's research correctly called "mad science" by Alison. Stargate Atlantis's first foray into a horror episode was not received favourable by all. It was more of a 40 minute movie with limited budget and similar goings on. Even Sheppard has a crack at the genre with his 'prom queen and kid in a wheelchair' line. Why Sheppard's surprise at an all-girl team, he's the military commander of Atlantis is he not and should know of all the teams there. More like he was hoping he'd have gotten one too, or some fun. But hey he picked his own team - kind of. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was all bad. It had it's moments and lots of Sheppard scenes. He wasn't really being sexist in his comments about the girls. Hey, we know Shep is a ladies man at heart!
Vega got a recurring role and was killed off, so that's what happens to recurring characters. Joseph Mallozzi's blog stated: "...a fun little episode. More edge-of-your-seat popcorn fare than The Shrine." Also Janina commented to fan's Q&A on his blog about 'Dusty' Mehra: "the quiet one that will save your ass in time of peril." Quiet - I think not. A bit of a romance developing betwixt Beckett and Alison which didn't really get anywhere. Also Leela Savasta was also in season 3 episode, Tao of Rodney as a different character, Dr Esposito.
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