TV episode review
US airdate 25 July 2008 (Sci Fi Channel)

Ronon’s former colleague Tyre (who when last seen betrayed the Atlanteans to the Wraith and was revealed as a Wraith worshipper) kidnaps him while he’s on a mission with Teyla. Tyre has been rejected by the Wraith after the failure of his mission and is suffering withdrawal from the effects of Wraith feeding. He believes he can regain favour by delivering Ronon to his old master…

As many have perhaps feared, Woolsey is treated as the comic buffoon and Teyla the torn working mother in this episode. Although this is a disappointing and not very imaginative turn for the characters, it doesn’t entirely ruin the overall effect.

Though the storyline has been done before on Stargate and other long running series, it’s handled well enough here to make for a potentially interesting riff on the theme. The editing and camerawork draw attention to the parallel situations of Ronon and Tyre, the aesthetics foregrounding the psychological dimensions of the storyline.

Where this all falls down, is that it lacks a payoff – resolving everything rather too predictably and too tritely by the end of the episode. It could have done with a little more bitterness or a harder edge. It is then something of a missed opportunity for a truly great episode, but it is by no means a bad one. Brigid Cherry

VERDICT: 7/10

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