All hope seems lost, until Colonel Everett arrives suddenly from Earth. He is determined to defend the city until the arrival of a ZPM, brought by a new ship.

Fallen into the Wraith trap, McKay initially resigns to fatal captivity in a cocoon, but Ronon keeps struggling to attempt escaping, or at least taking some Wraith down with them. Sheppard managed to hide his glider on the very hive ship, seeking a way out, surprised to get radio contact with Michael, who seeks revenge after the ingrate queen has him semi-restrained as 'too human' suspect. While they try to sabotage the hive and maybe escape, the Daedalus and Orion race just in time to fight the two hive ships before they may attack earth. Weir is summoned to SGC for a pointless grilling by the International Oversight Advisory, finding them bureaucrats unable to risk a decision beyond questioning what was already done. So she returns, never mind the career risk compared to a Wraith culling. Sheppard manages to reach the Daedalus and his party comes up with a daring plan to overpower the hive with the weaponized retrovirus, despite bombarded damage compromising even their life-support systems.

After a group of people capture and give Ronon to the Wraith, he becomes a runner again, but this time he's left in his home planet, Sateda, where the Stargate has been disabled.

Dr Weir finds herself on Earth where, to everyone else, the Atlantis Expedition was just her delusion.

A device that creates hallucinations affects the team off-world.

After returning to Earth for his father's funeral, John Sheppard discovers the existence of a human form Replicator loose on the population.

Combat engineers from Atlantis work against the clock to rescue four of their colleagues who are now trapped in the rubble of Michael's medical compound. With Michael en route, they quickly locate McKay and Major Lorne but Sheppard and Ronon are far deeper and their rescue is not assured. When Michael's ship arrives, they decide to try to rescue Teyla who is in labor and close to giving birth. When it's all over, Col. Carter is recalled to Earth for a performance review but Richard Woolsey has some bad news for her.

Dr. Daniel Jackson comes to Atlantis in search of a lost Atlantian room. The discovery reveals a new race. Daniel and McKay are kidnapped by the new race and are forced to finish a device which may kill the Wraith. Todd feels betrayed and takes the Daedalus.

The new race that stole the device, not to mention Rodney and Daniel, turns out to be an old one meaning very old and well known to the human race. With an ancient grudge to settle, they force Rodney to activate the device against the Wraith with a side effect that could kill millions throughout the galaxy. That makes the Wraith mad so they abscond with the Daedalus to retaliate. Once again we lowly humans have to take control of a messy situation to keep the master races from wreaking havoc in the galaxy.