Michael

"Michael" is the eighteenth episode in the second season of Stargate Atlantis.

Plot
Michael wakes up in the Atlantis infirmary with no recollection of who or where he is. The senior staff of Atlantis tells him that he is Lieutenant Michael Kenmore and claim that he lost his memory and was injured while attempting to save his team from the Wraith. Dr. Beckett releases Michael back into the general population under the guide of Teyla to try to reclaim his lost memories. However, Michael begins dreaming of the Wraith and confides of this in Teyla, who assures him that she, too, has had similar dreams of the Wraith.

In a briefing of the senior staff, Teyla brings up the issue of telling Michael "the truth," arguing that it is becoming difficult to keep up this "lie". The rest of the staff, however, disagrees with this course of action. Dr. Beckett advises that Michael try therapy to eliminate the dreams of the Wraith, stating that they may purely be psychological in origin. At the same time, Ronon is having more difficulty than the rest and twice attacks Michael, once after he pins Teyla in a training exercise, and again in the hall.

During another night of no sleep, Michael asks to go to the infirmary for sleeping pills. Dr. Beckett, however, has fallen asleep at his desk, and so Michael looks into his logs, finding more suspicious evidence behind everyone's unease around him. So, he takes this evidence back to his room and discovers the truth: he is a Wraith. It turns out that Dr. Beckett has nearly perfected the retrovirus and has successfully eliminated the Wraith DNA, provided he administers daily doses of drugs. Because of this development, Lt. Col. Sheppard seeks to develop a biological weapon to launch on the Wraith, though Beckett states that he clearly has no means of causing a permanent effect. After this revelation, Michael argues against what the Atlantis team has done to him, stating that they did it for their benefit, rather than his. Michael has also begun to realize that he still has basic Wraith instincts, and while being escorted to the infirmary to receive his daily dose of the drug, he attacks his guard and shoots and kills Sergeant Cole, finding that he has a taste for the blood. Sheppard manages to disable Michael and the team places him in the Atlantis holding cell.

Because of this outbreak, Dr. Weir asks Dr. Beckett to increase the dosage after having Michael moved to the new Pegasus Galaxy Alpha Site. Beckett, however, begins blaming himself for what has happened since it was he who developed and administered the retro-virus in the first place, though Dr. Weir assures him any fault lies with her since she gave the order to carry out the experiment. Once being moved to the Alpha Site, Michael convinces Teyla to release him because she understands him as no one else does, due to her Wraith gene that allows a certain sense between the two of them. Michael then takes Teyla, as a hostage, into the forest, fleeing Sheppard and Ronon who are searching for them now. Michael and Teyla reach the Stargate where he dials an address and takes Teyla through, however not before Teyla manages to write the address on a stone. On the other side Teyla becomes aware that there are many Wraith on this planet because that is why Michael went there, to return to his own kind. In the absence of his injection, Michael's body begins to change, eventually re-developing the organ that allows a wraith to feed on a human. He approaches Teyla with his hand out stretched, intending to feed but seemingly apprehensive. Teyla is not afraid and challenges him to try. Sheppard and Ronon catch up and shoot Michael before he can feed, saving Teyla. They flee as wraith from the nearby hive ship arrive and attempt to surround them, leaving an unconscious Michael where he fell. The Wraith carry him away.