Admittedly, Whispers could be summed up with the same summary used for the Vengeance episode. Take out a few parts and here’s what you have…

…it appears the [blank] have…abandoned their village…. Searching the dark winding corridors of the abandoned tunnels the team comes upon…a lab that appears to have been used for Wraith experiments. …the team has little time to piece the puzzle together before they themselves are attacked by a…monster. (See the full Vengeance episode description)

Compare that to Whispers. Team goes through the gate, finds one of Michael’s abandoned labs, finds abandoned village, gets preyed upon by Michael’s failed Wraith experiments. There you have the plot in a nutshell.  Only—there’s more to the episode than that.

Despite the apparent similarities, Whispers goes off in a direction I didn’t expect, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Although Atlantis episodes are typically science oriented, this episode had only Doctors Beckett and Porter to speak tech-talk. Because of that, the episode relied heavily on the characters and their emotional reactions to the threat from Michael’s abandoned experiments.

I came away from the episode feeling like I’d just watched a horror film, and I admit I spent some time biting my nails during this one. Whispers definitely qualifies as one of my favorite Atlantis episodes this season. It was a refreshing change of pace and an invigorating episode for what’s turned out to be the final season of Atlantis.

I worried about Dr. Beckett in this one. I worried about the other team members I hadn’t met before including Major Anne Teldy and her away team, Sgt. Dusty Mehra, Capt. Alicia Vega and Dr. Alison Porter. I even worried about Sheppard. I worried a lot. That’s one reason I so enjoyed the show. There was tension there, and action, and it all kept me entertained in a way the last few episodes of Atlantis haven’t. So, cheers! I hope this is a sign of things to come. Stargate Atlantis, reinvigorated!

• Download Whispers
• Download Vengeance
  —from Amazon.com