There is nothing fundamentally *wrong* with this episode. It's just... oppressive, despite the always welcome presence of some familiar guests. The basic plot, where Weir's mind has to fight off a nanite invasion trying to take her body over, is clever and will resurface at the most unexpected time, which is great. Torri Higginson gives a very good performance, showing a Elizabeth Weir who is at the same time extremely strong and unusually vulnerable, and Sheppard confirms how far he is ready to go for her. But why is it that EVERY single Sci-Fi or Fantastic show has to use this particular plot at one point? (character wakes up in a mental ward and is told that everything that happened (ie the show itself) is but a figment of his/her imagination and he/she has to let go of it --but actually the real hallucination is the mental ward itself, and accepting it as real will destroy our hero/heroin.)
Another problem here is that we (and Elizabeth) have absolutely no way of understanding what's happening. The plot only relies on classic devices of horror shows (shadows under the bed, the reflection in the mirror has no face, someone's face suddenly distorts but they don't notice) but they don't really tell us anything, besides the fact that there is something really wrong going on. (Actually, the "non-proliferation" treaty probably is a clue from Elizabeth's subconscious about the nanites taking over, but I think this is about it). So as viewers, we are left wandering about, following a rather passive Weir in her "rehabilitation", for about 2/3 of the episode, before we finally understand what is going on and get somebody to DO something about it. So the very last part of the episode is actually more interesting, but it doesn't make up for the dullness of the rest.
Another problem here is that we (and Elizabeth) have absolutely no way of understanding what's happening. The plot only relies on classic devices of horror shows (shadows under the bed, the reflection in the mirror has no face, someone's face suddenly distorts but they don't notice) but they don't really tell us anything, besides the fact that there is something really wrong going on. (Actually, the "non-proliferation" treaty probably is a clue from Elizabeth's subconscious about the nanites taking over, but I think this is about it). So as viewers, we are left wandering about, following a rather passive Weir in her "rehabilitation", for about 2/3 of the episode, before we finally understand what is going on and get somebody to DO something about it. So the very last part of the episode is actually more interesting, but it doesn't make up for the dullness of the rest.
