Metamorphosis

"Metamorphosis" is the sixteenth episode of the sixth season of Stargate SG-1.

Plot
The episode starts with Jonas and Carter talking, when suddenly the Russian SG team led by Lt. Col. Sergei Evanov returns ahead of schedule. They bring back from "367" a sickly man named Alebran, who informs them that Nirrti is experimenting on his people. Apparently, she's not using eugenics (selective breeding) anymore, but a machine that could alter DNA in real-time. After being brought to the infirmary, he reveals what Nirrti has so far killed many of his people. SG-1 then plans to help because Nirrti has only a small group of Jaffa to defend her. Alebran suddenly starts to panic, sweat, and have convulsions. Finally, his body breaks down and liquefies, much to everyone’s shock.

SG-1 and the Russian SG team return to the planet and Evanov brings SG-1 to Nirrti's fortress, protected by Jaffa. To defeat them, Carter and Jonas use diversions and the Jaffa are quickly defeated. They sneak into the fortress, where they meet grotesquely deformed people. One of them, Wodan, tells them that Nirrti is helping them because they are “sick.” He also shows them Nirrti's machine, an Ancient DNA resequencer. SG-1 tells them what Nirrti is really doing about Alebran, who was Wodan's brother. They plan to help the people but another mutant, Eggar, who is able to read minds, knows that they plan to assassinate Nirrti.

While Col. O'Neill meets Evanov to plan the ambush, Jonas and Teal'c are taken to the basement, where Wodan and his people are living. There they are stripped of their weapons and radios, and are imprisoned, by use of Wodan's telekinetic powers. Whilst Carter inspects Nirrti's machine, two Jaffa use transportation rings to arrive at the palace, but Carter stuns them both with her Zat. However, Carter herself is stunned by a cloaked Nirrti. O'Neill enters, and sees Nirrti holding Carter as a hostage. A Jaffa awakens and O'Neill quickly attempts to shoot him but not before Wodan uses his telekinetic powers to stop the bullet. O'Neill surrenders and removes his P-90, and is stunned by Nirrti's Zat. Together with Carter, he is imprisoned in the basement, where he attempts to bargain with Wodan's people for SG-1's freedom, but to no avail.

Shortly thereafter, Wodan and Eggar bring in Evanov, who was apparently held in Nirrti's machine, and they ask for Carter. Jack attempts to take her place, unsuccessfully. She is brought to Nirrti, who scans her with the machine and starts to manipulate her DNA. Back in the basement, Evanov reveals what has happened to him and that something is different after he was taken from the machine. Nirrti finishes with Carter and sends her back to the prison. As they try to take Jonas, he attacks them but is quickly defeated by Wodan and brought to Nirrti. She also scans his genetic coding and to her surprise, he seems to be different from the other humans. Jonas confirms her suspicion that he doesn't originate from Earth, telling her a Goa'uld had transplanted his species from Earth thousands of years ago. She replies that “those few thousand years on another planet have changed you more than you know.” In the meantime, the rest of SG-1 talks about the enhanced humans, while Carter’s and Evanov’s conditions worsen. Evanov finally dies in the same fashion as Alebran.

Jonas awakens, not in prison, but in Nirrti’s quarters where she tries to seduce him so that he will help her. However, he slyly refuses, much to her anger. He is then taken back to the prison, where SG-1 tries to reason with Wodan’s people yet again, and to convince them that Nirrti is no god, even trying to encourage Eggar to use his telepathic abilities and look into Nirrti’s mind. However, they again don't believe and bring O'Neill to Nirrti. He demands that she heal Carter and let his team go, but she refuses. When she wants to scan him with her machine, Eggar tells her to stop because he has finally read her mind. Wodan then kills her Jaffa and starts to strangle her with his powers, while she begs for her life. After a moment, he also breaks her neck, much to O'Neill's anger, who wanted her alive to help Carter. However, Eggar assures O’Neill that he took all the knowledge he needed before she was killed. Carter enters the Resequencer and Eggar reverses the manipulation that Nirrti had done; however, her plans of studying the machine will not happen, because the natives intend to destroy it after restoring everybody - and O'Neill agrees that would be for the best. Afterwards, SG-1 is freed and Eggar begins to heal his people, starting with Wodan.