The Gift

"The Gift" is the eighteenth episode of the first season of Stargate: Atlantis.

Synopsis
Teyla Emmagan is plagued with several nightmares about the Wraith. Soon, her team discovers that her ancestors were experimented on by a Wraith scientist, and she has Wraith DNA. This gives Teyla the capability to contact the Wraith from a certain distance, including those from the oncoming ships.

Plot
It is night in Atlantis. While most of the people sleep, a Wraith walks through the corridors, enters Teyla Emmagan's room and attacks her. She then wakes up as it was only a dream. On the next day she trains with Major John Sheppard but because she isn't concentrating she is defeated. Later a meeting is held where the leading members of the expedition take part and it is discussed what they can do however there seems to be little hope. During the meeting Teyla also aggressively speaks to Dr. Elizabeth Weir much to Sheppard's surprise.

Later Teyla meets Dr. Kate Heightmeyer and when the doctor wants to talk with her, Teyla isn't interested and becomes angry when she concludes that Sheppard talked with Heightmeyer first about her. She confronts the Major but he only wanted to help her and even forbids her to come with him to the Alpha Site. She then wants to take a nap but because she can't sleep she visits Heightmeyer. They talk about Teyla's ability to feel the Wraith and she tells her more about it and even reveals that there are other people like her who can feel the Wraith but her sense is one of the strongest. After another nightmare Teyla again talks with Heightmeyer and afterwards she visits Dr. Carson Beckett to find out if it’s perhaps a biological problem. They then decide to go to the mainland to find out more about her.

On Lantea's mainland, Teyla visits an old woman named Charin with whom she talks about her past and her abilities to feel the Wraith. After some hesitation Charin tells her a story about some people from another planet who returned after the Wraith captured them. However they were forever changed and began to hear voices. Because of this, many of them either left though the Stargate or were killed. It turns out that Teyla is a descendant from these people and with approval from Weir, Sheppard's team flies to the planet. On the they find a Wraith laboratory which only Teyla can enter at first. Inside the laboratory, the team finds a Wraith data storage device which holds a lot of information. Weir is partially able to translate the information since the Wraith language seems to be derived from the language of the Ancients, meaning that the Wraith evolved in Pegasus after the Ancients arrived. As it turns out the Wraith are related to the Iratus bug that attached itself to Sheppard. Over several centuries, the Iratus bug had absorbed enough human DNA to evolve its own genetic makeup and create the Wraith species the team, and the Ancients before them, were now fighting. She then does some researches with Beckett.

On the next day, Teyla is informed by Weir and Beckett that a lonely Wraith experimented with some people to make the food more compatible to the feeding process against the wishes of the others and it turns out that Teyla has a small bit of Wraith DNA inside her. While Teyla again talks with Heightmeyer the leading team discusses about her and Weir later finds out that the Wraith scientist stopped because his experiments gave the people the mental abilities of the Wraith who then could hear what the Wraith said. With no way around this, he released them back to their home thinking that interbreeding could dilute the effect. When the others found out what he did, they wiped out the people on the planet. They then conclude that Teyla may be able to get some information from the Wraith.

After some discussion with Weir and Heightmeyer she agrees to try it. During the first run she is able to see what a Wraith sees but when the Wraith feeds on a man she stops. She later again tries to find out more but this time a Wraith takes control over her telling them they are fools and they stop. Suddenly the Stargate activates and Sgt. Bates returns since the Wraith attacked the Alpha site as if they knew they were there.

Later Lt. Aiden Ford talks with Teyla and she again wants to try it. She does so but again a Wraith takes control of and she wounds Beckett until she is shot down by Bates (who doesn't trust Teyla after the incident with the Alpha site) with a Wraith stunner rifle. After she wakes up she apologizes and also reveals that the Wraith come here to get access to a new rich feeding ground – Earth. They realize that the female Wraith wasn't only feasting on Colonel Marshall Sumner, she was interrogating him.

Notable Quotes
Sheppard: Granted you guys are scientists. No one is considering putting you guys on the frontline, but science can turn the tide of war. Look at the...uh, A-bomb.

Zelenka: Not exactly our proudest moment.

Beckett: I ran every test I could on all of you from the get-go. Physiologically, you and your people are the same as we are. I have no explanation for any of your special super-powers.

Teyla: I only have one power.

Beckett: I've seen you fight, my dear.

Sheppard: You're saying Teyla is part Wraith?

Beckett: A very small part.

Weir: Which makes her about as different from us as you, because of the Ancient gene you possess.

McKay: Well, and some other things.

McKay: So you think this Wraith scientist was trying to make humans what, more tasty?

Weir: The log seems to indicate that he was looking for a way to make the feeding process more efficient.

McKay: But I thought you said they already had a number of genetic characteristics similar to humans.

Beckett: They do. But they're still much closer to the bug creature that attacked Major Sheppard than to us.

Sheppard: Hey! I thought we weren't going to mention that anymore.

Weir: You were right.

Beckett: Lovely! About what?

Weir: Your theory of the Wraith evolving after the Ancients arrived in Pegasus galaxy -

McKay: (in disbelief) Oh, you're kidding me!

Zelenka: Pay up.

Beckett: How d'you know?

Weir: The Wraith language... It's a derivative of Ancient.

Beckett: My theory is that the Ancients unwittingly allowed humans to evolve on a planet with, uh, insect species on it. At some point the insects fed on humans and somehow incorporated our DNA into theirs. The Wraith are an evolution of that combination.

Ford: So what you're saying is the Ancients actually created the Wraith?

Beckett: By accident.

McKay: Or negligence

McKay: I got a little... (referring to energy spike)

Ford: (jokingly) A little what? McKay! You got a little what? (Sheppard looks at Ford disapprovingly) What? Oh, it's okay when you guys make fun of me then, huh?

Beckett: It was very easy to miss. In fact, I couldn't even make the kind of comparison necessary to isolate the specific strand. We needed Wraith cells, which we eventually got, but then we need a full mapping of the genetic code contained within those cells, which wasn't even fifty percent complete...

Teyla: Please! Tell me.

Beckett: You have some Wraith DNA in your genetic make-up.

(Weir is explaining to Teyla is told that she can read Wraith minds)

Weir: You didn't know you COULD read Wraith minds.........and frankly, who would want to?

(The Atlantis team is discussing staying and fighting the Wraith)

Kavanaugh: We can't possibly consider staying and fighting!

Sheppard: I disagree! I think it's entirely within the realm of possibility.

Kavanaugh: (as if speaking to a very young child) There are tens of thousands of life-sucking aliens in highly advanced spaceships on their way here to destroy us!

Teyla: That is why they are coming here. They know that Atlantis is the only way to get to a new, rich, feeding ground.

Sheppard: Earth.

Goofs

 * In the briefing room scene just after the title sequence, we see Sgt. Bates and Lt. Aiden Ford standing next to each other. Major John Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan are in front of them. In different shots we see a man appear between Ford and Bates when there wasn't anyone between them in the previous shots.

Characters

 * Dr. Kate Heightmeyer
 * Charin