It’s Weir’s (Torri Higginson) birthday. Despite the fact that she wanted to keep it quiet, Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) knows, and after imparting a gift continues his exploration of the massive floating city.

He, Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) and Ford (Rainbow Sun Francks) discover a lab, with an old woman in stasis, for ten thousand years! When they open it up, everyone is stunned to reveal that the ancient (Ancient?) woman is Weir (Holly Elissa)!

Before I Sleep was written by Carl Binder, featuring clips written by Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright, and it debuted on 18 February, 2005.

So at some point, Weir goes back in time, and ends up waiting in a stasis chamber for ten thousand years! How? Well, there’s a temporal puddlejumper as already introduced in SG1. There are some (not so) subtle differences between Weir and her older self, suggesting that she may have come from a parallel universe. Something McKay (David Hewlett) believes.

Elder Weir keeps referring to what happened the first time. But with the temporal puddlejumper, Weir, Sheppard and Zelenka (David Nykl) travel back in time, and make sure that things would play out differently the second time through.

And the politics of the Ancients in the past, prevented Weir from returning with the puddlejumper, but in fact, had to take the long way around, waking, every now and then to rotate the ZPM power modules to keep the city active.

It’s a nice, poignant story that layers out the narrative to date, as well as the character of Weir, and the sacrifices she makes for the expedition. Before the elder Weir passes, she clarifies the information in a note she has in hand – the location of worlds with ZPMs.

I quite like this episode. Gentle, quiet, introspective. It’s a nice episode for Higginson.

The Brotherhood sees the treasure hunt for a collection of stones which could lead the expedition to another ZPM. But they are going to have problems, because the Genii are also seeking the stones, and they are led by Kolya (Robert Davi).

The Brotherhood was written by Martin Gero and it debuted on 25 February, 2005.

A long time ago, a brotherhood hid their ZPM, to keep it from the Wraith, but they left clues, the stones, so that they could be found by the right person – read not the Wraith.

But not everyone on the planet is on the Expedition’s side. As mentioned the Genii are around and some of the other archaeologists working on the site can’t be trusted.

McKay and Sheppard, Teyla and Ford get to get their Indiana Jones on with Kolya as Belloq. But even if they win, there may be another adversary… the new Brotherhood.

Back on Atlantis, Zelenka makes an important discovery, Atlantis has long range scanners, and I’m sure that will be important as we begin the race towards the end of the season. But for now, Carson (Paul McGillion) is going to have to take a puddlejumper up to deal with a solo Wraith dart coming towards them.

Oh, and in case you couldn’t guess the long range scanner picks up Wraith hive ships heading towards Atlantis and they should arrive in two weeks, just in time for the season finale.