Four months after the cliffhanger given in The Storm, The Eye was broadcast on 21 January, 2025. It was written by Martin Gero.

Kolya (Robert Davi) spares Weir (Torri Higginson), and she and McKay (David Hewlett) have to repair the damaged grounding station.

Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) continues with his John McClane plan of action.

And Ford (Rainbow Sun Francks), Carson (Paul McGillion) and Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) on the mainland? They are about to use the puddlejumper to ride through the eye of the storm and head back to Atlantis.

Once back on Atlantis, the trio try to lend aid, and McKay and Weir try to take as long as they can repairing the station. Sheppard activates the gate shield as reinforcements arrive, which causes the death of a number of Kolya’s men.

Through it all Sora (Erin Chambers) – still so lovely – is beginning to lose her faith in the mission, as the cost of the mission is growing too high, and she starts to understand the expedition’s motivation. But she also wants revenge on Teyla for the death of her father who was killed by the Wraith.

After a four month wait back in the day, I was super-ready to see how things played out for the Atlantis expedition, and I was not disappointed. It’s fast-paced, action-packed, and continues to allow the characters to develop.

I love the clashing between Carson and Ford as they try to anticipate Sheppard’s plan, and help him, but that means Ford takes charge, and expects Carson to follow his orders, and maybe keep quiet. Once the group reunites, they will be unstoppable.

It’s a fun and enjoyable episode, and launches the second half of the season in a big way.

The Defiant One aired on 28 January, 2005. It was written and directed by Peter DeLuise.

Sheppard, McKay, alongside Gall (Richard Ian Cox) and Abrams (Paul Magel) are taking a puddlejumper to an Ancient (referred to Lanteans for the first time) satellite at a lagrange point near Atlantis. While there, they receive a distress signal from a nearby planet.

It’s Wraith distress call from a long crashed ship.

The team elects to investigate, and discover signs of cannibalism and storage units for culled humans. It’s a supply ship. And maybe, just maybe, all the Wraith aren’t dead yet. And there’s a strange alien life form, like a lightning bug – I bet they’ll be important before the end of the episode.

Soon it’s McKay and Sheppard against a lone, hungry Wraith, but Weir has sent backup their way, if it gets there in time.

The Wraith (James Lafazanos) is determined to get off-planet and is trying to get the puddlejumper to work, something that won’t happen without the Lantean gene.

It’s a tightly-paced episode, DeLuise delivers a taut script, punched up with a little character humour, and directs the action beats ably.

And yes, we’ve seen characters develop over the season. Sure McKay is still a whiny nerd genius, but he wants to get out there and help Sheppard, something he wouldn’t have done ten episodes back. And when Gall makes a decision, it’s something the character will have to carry.

There’s a nice nod to Star Trek IV about parking. In fact, there’s a couple of nice Trek references.