The Kindred, Part 1

"The Kindred, Part 1" is the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of Stargate Atlantis.

Synopsis
While the Atlantis Expedition investigates a mysterious plague across completely random worlds, Teyla Emmagan receives visions on some clues about the whereabouts of the Athosians, and who took them.

Previously on Stargate Atlantis
A Wraith named "Todd" came to Atlantis to help the Atlantis Expedition to fight with the Asurans, when they start attacking Human worlds. They stopped the Asurans, and the Expedition and "Todd" go their own ways. Also, Teyla Emmagan went on a routine mission to check up on the Athosians. However she found the entire settlement abandoned and disappeared. She confided in Jennifer Keller that she was seeing a fellow Athosian named Kanaan, and later told everyone that she will find her people, and whoever took them will pay for their lives.

Plot
Teyla Emmagan is in a forested world with Colonels Samantha Carter and John Sheppard, Doctor Rodney McKay and Ronon Dex, with a group of other people. There is also a pyre, with her baby's father, Kanaan, who died of some unknown cause. Carter emphasizes that he would have made a good father. Teyla grabs a torch and starts to burn the pyre. However, as it is set on fire, Kanaan suddenly opens his eyes, and yells Teyla for help. Teyla attempts to save him, but is stopped by Carter, who tells her that it is too late to do anything. Teyla watches in horror as Kanaan is being burned alive. Fortunately, these events did not happen, as it was just a nightmare. Teyla wakes up in shock.

Jennifer Keller is investigating a mysterious plague that has spread through seven planets. Sheppard then arrives and tells her and Carter that they just visited a world also hit by the plague, making the grand total of eight planets. Keller says that the plague is mysterious, as the planets hit by it has no contact with any other planets that are affected, and the infected worlds made contact with other planets that has not been hit with the plague, meaning that it is so random, Keller can't determine the planet of origin. It also has a mortality rate of 30%, and after that, the sickness would have run its course. Despite the 30% mortality rate, around 200,000 people would still die from those planets.

Meanwhile, in the Atlantis mess hall, McKay joins Teyla, who wonders about Keller's progress in the plague. Teyla then notices McKay holding something behind his back. He reveals it to her as a pre-baby present; an MP3 player, which contains some of McKay's scientific theories, since he knows that on Earth, a company specializes on sound recordings for pregnant mothers listen to teach the fetus on certain areas, so if Teyla's unborn son learns McKay's theories, he could become a brilliant scientist. Teyla is grateful, but McKay couldn't help notice Teyla is also hiding something. She confides in him that she had a dream last night, and thought it was a vision. A skeptic McKay tells her that he believes her, citing her time in the Battle of the Void, the Laura Cadman incident, and seeing himself from a Parallel Universe. He then talks with Sheppard, and tells him that he doubts she had a vision, thinking that the thought that the Athosians are gone for six months is really starting to get with her.

That evening, Teyla has another dream. She wakes up in a forest, and sees Kanaan materialize in front of her eyes. After a happy reunion, Kanaan asks her for help in finding him and the other Athosians. Teyla does not know where to begin, until Kanaan shows her a pendant she gave him once in the village of Croya, which gives her a clue on finding them. Teyla then wakes up, sitting up on her bed, with her hand out and open, as if she was living the dream.

After telling her team, the team, except for Teyla has a meeting with Carter. They tell her of M2S-181, a peaceful trading settlement, which they will find surprising if they had anything to do with the Athosians. But since it's Teyla, and that they owe her one, they decide to send Teyla with them to the planet, since the rest of the teams are stretched thin with the plague. The team arrives in the village of Croya, where they warn Teyla that if anything happens, she will run for the gate, leaving the team to deal with the problem. However, as they enter the village to meet with the same artisan the Athosians bought the pendants and jewelry, they discover that he died during the "great sickness" (possibly the plague). After they search the village twice for any answers, the team has to leave and go back to Atlantis, putting Teyla in disappointment.

Meanwhile, Keller informs Carter that she found something for investigation; they have encountered something like this before. The protein markers are almost an exact match to the same drug created by the Hoffans, but a new and improved version, with a lesser mortality rate than 50%, like last time. When she reports the findings to the team, she tells them that the Hoffans must have distributed the drug without the Expedition's consent. However, the Hoffans are not responsible, McKay tells them that when the Wraith found out what they were doing, the Hoffans were wiped out. Whoever was responsible, laced the drug into the planets' food and water supply, and due to the random nature of it, the Wraith would have no idea which "meal" would become their last. Carter orders the team on a mission to Hoff to find what they can.

Teyla is in her quarters, meditating, where she has the dream again, only this time, she isn't asleep. She sees Kanaan again, and tells her that she was so close to finding a clue, and wondered why she left too soon. He urges her to go back to Croya. Teyla later confronts Carter, and wants her to send her back to M2S-181, and this time, she won't take no for an answer. She tells her that she and Kanaan both have the Gift, which they are able to communicate each other over a distance. Carter is convinced and has Major Evan Lorne and his team assist her, since she doesn't want Teyla going alone. In the end, Carter tells Teyla to call her Sam.

Meanwhile, Sheppard and McKay arrive in the city on Hoff, except this time, the city is heavily damaged from a Wraith bombardment. McKay searches through a room which used to hold the repository of Hoffan knowledge, except the room has been ransacked, and there is no information on the Hoffan research. McKay then finds a group of scared children, running away. McKay stops one of them and wants an answer on what happened. The kid tells him that they found the place empty when they got here, before running away again. With nothing more to report, they return to Atlantis.

Lorne's team and Teyla arrive on M2S-181 and starts searching for clues. This time, however, Teyla spots a merchant holding a necklace that looks familiar to her, Kanaan's pendant. She confronts the merchant, and demands to know what else he received from the trader who gave her the pendant. She sees a box, containing a necklace from Balera, and a ring from Halling. The merchant tells her that the trader is more than likely going to pay him a visit today. Meanwhile, back in Atlantis, the team returns, where they find an activated Wraith tracker, and that it is from their "friend", "Todd", who wants to meet them, or just draws them to an ambush, so they Gate to the planet, much to McKay's chargin, since he hasn't had lunch yet.

On M2S-181, after waiting for some time, the merchant signals Lorne from a distance that the trader has arrived. The trader shows the merchant some more valuable merchandise. Lorne confronts the trader on the whereabouts of the merchandise. The trader attempts to flee, only to have Teyla hit him in the head with a log. They send him to a room and wakes him up. They press him for an answer on the whereabouts of his merchandise. He doesn't co-operate, but decides to help after Teyla threatens him that she will tell the village that he is a Wraith worshipper, which they won't take kindly to. The trader admits that he got the merchandise from a planet with a mass burial ground. He tells them that he didn't take them from dead bodies, since he found a box instead with all the merchandise. He agrees to send the team to the planet.

McKay, Ronon and Sheppard finds "Todd" in a Wraith lab, where he tells them of the drug that makes the Wraith die if they feed on Humans. At first, "Todd" accuses them of unleashing the drug, until they tell him that they think he did it himself. If neither are responsible, "Todd" explains that there could only be "one other" who would be responsible, but wants a price on the information, the research into the Hoffan drug. Meanwhile, Lorne plans to Gate Atlantis first to inform them of the situation. However, a Wraith Dart approaches. The trader grabs hold of Teyla, and is beamed away.

Back in Atlantis, Carter decides whether to give "Todd" the information, but McKay says they can offer him something that in the long term, would lead to their downfall. The Gate activates, with Lorne's team. They tell Carter that Teyla has been taken. Meanwhile, Teyla is imprisoned onboard a cruiser, and meets again with a familiar face; "Michael". He admits to have been behind the plague the whole time, and that he rewrote his DNA to eliminate his feeding need, meaning he has turned into a Hybrid. He also admits to being responsible for the kidnapping of the Athosians, and turned Kanaan into a Hybrid. He also has plans for Teyla's child. Before he leaves her, he explains that he had "help" in perfecting the Hoffan drug. While Teyla tries to get through to Kanaan, he merely says that their child would serve the cause.

Sheppard's team approaches "Todd" that they already know who's responsible, and gives him the research, in exchange for information to a relay outpost. After they returned, McKay finally eats some food, where the team learns that there is rumor from Wraith worshippers of a valuable prisoner coming towards a certain planet. They dispatch the Daedalus to the planet. Once they arrive, Sheppard and Lorne's team are beamed down to a compound, and search for Teyla, only to be under fire from the worshippers. The teams fire back and takes down both of them.

Meanwhile, Michael's cruiser arrives over the planet, detects the Daedalus and starts firing. The ship fires back and is planning to destroy it. Sheppard questions the surviving worshipper, and tells him where Teyla is. He tells him that he is too early. Sheppard radios Steven Caldwell and tells him that Teyla is on board. Caldwell then tries to only disable the cruiser. But before they could act on it, the cruiser jumps into hyperspace.

Meanwhile, Lorne and Sheppard are contemplating what the guards on the base were trying to keep them from. They encounter a locked door, and blows it open. When they enter, they aim their weapons, but quickly puts them down, much to their surprise on who is inside it; Carson Beckett, who just appears in front of them, where he wonders what took the teams so long.

To be continued...

Notable quotes
Teyla: I knew you would doubt me. I should not have said anything. McKay: Hey, I've been cocooned inside an alien spacecraft, I've had another person living inside me, I've encountered not one, but two different versions of myself, so who am I to judge? If you say it was a vision, then I believe it was a vision. McKay later sees Sheppard and walks down the corridor together McKay: I seriously doubt it was a vision.

Ronon and Sheppard sees McKay shoveling down food after a mission Ronon: How can you eat right now? McKay: You kidding? It's the first decent meal I've had all day. Besides, we're not gonna help Teyla at all starving ourselves. I'm just trying to keep my strength up. I suggest you two do the same.

Background notes

 * Teyla Emmagan announces the "Previously on Stargate Atlantis" in the beginning of the episode.
 * This episode takes place approximately six months since the events of "Missing".
 * In a deleted scene, Steven Caldwell talks with John Sheppard about how over the two years of travelling in between galaxies has made him merely a "glorified bus driver", especially since the destruction of the Midway space station.

Production

 * Carson Beckett makes a return appearance. However, Paul McGillion wasn't credited for the appearance until the end credits, similar to Elizabeth Weir in "Be All My Sins Remember'd".
 * Patrick Sabongui, who played Kanaan, previously played a Taliban guard in season three episode "Phantoms".
 * The working titles of the episode, as with the second part was "Rise of the Googlions", which really meant nothing in particular, as it was just a title invented by Carl Binder.