“The Gift” is the Eighteenth episode of the first season of Stargate Atlantis.

It is night in Atlantis. While most of the people sleep, a Wraith walks through the corridors, enters Teyla’s room and attacks her. She then wakes up as it was only a dream. On the next day she trains with Major 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. Weir much to Sheppard’s surprise.

Later Teyla meets 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 Dr. 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 Dr. Heightmeyer and afterwards she visits Dr. 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 the 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 Dr. 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 data storage device which holds a lot of information. Weir is partially able to translate the information since the 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 Dr. 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 Dr. 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. Ford talks with Teyla and she again wants to try it. She does so but again a Wraith takes control of and she wounds Dr. Beckett until she is shot down by Bates (who doesn’t trust Teyla after the incident with the Alpha site) with a Wraith stunner. 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 realised that the female Wraith wasn’t only feasting on Sumner, she was interrogating him.

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