Stargate Atlantis/Recap/S01/E05 Suspicion

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  • S01
    • E01 E02 Rising
    • E03 Hide and Seek
    • E04 Thirty-Eight Minutes
    • E05 Suspicion
    • E06 Childhoods End
    • E07 Poisoning the Well
    • E08 Underground
    • E09 Home
    • E10 The Storm
    • E11 The Eye
    • E12 The Defiant One
    • E13 Hot Zone
    • E14 Sanctuary
    • E15 Before I Sleep
    • E16 The Brotherhood
    • E17 Letters From Pegasus
    • E18 The Gift
    • E19 The Siege, Part 1
    • E20 The Siege, Part 2
  • S02
    • E01 The Siege, Part 3
    • E02 The Intruder
    • E03 Runner
    • E04 Duet
    • E05 Condemned
    • E06 Trinity
    • E07 Instinct
    • E08 Conversion
    • E09 Aurora
    • E10 The Lost Boys
    • E11 The Hive
    • E12 Epiphany
    • E13 Critical Mass
    • E14 Grace Under Pressure
    • E15 The Tower
    • E16 The Long Goodbye
    • E17 Coup d'Etat
    • E18 Michael
    • E19 Inferno
    • E20 Allies
  • S03
    • E01 No Man's Land
    • E02 Misbegotten
    • E03 Irresistible
    • E04 Sateda
    • E05 Progeny
    • E06 The Real World
    • E07 Common Ground
    • E08 McKay and Mrs. Miller
    • E09 Phantoms
    • E10 The Return, Part 1
    • E11 The Return, Part 2
    • E12 Echoes
    • E13 Irresponsible
    • E14 Tao of Rodney
    • E15 The Game
    • E16 The Ark
    • E17 Sunday
    • E18 Submersion
    • E19 Vengeance
    • E20 First Strike
  • S04
    • E01 Adrift
    • E02 Lifeline
    • E03 Reunion
    • E04 Doppelganger
    • E05 Travelers
    • E06 Tabula Rasa
    • E07 Missing
    • E08 The Seer
    • E09 Miller's Crossing
    • E10 This Mortal Coil
    • E11 Be All My Sins Remembered
    • E12 Spoils of War
    • E13 Quarantine
    • E14 Harmony
    • E15 Outcast
    • E16 Trio
    • E17 Midway
    • E18 The Kindred, Part 1
    • E19 The Kindred, Part 2
    • E20 The Last Man
  • S05
    • E01 Search and Rescue
    • E02 The Seed
    • E03 Broken Ties
    • E04 The Daedalus Variations
    • E05 Ghost in the Machine
    • E06 The Shrine
    • E07 Whispers
    • E08 The Queen
    • E09 Tracker
    • E10 First Contact
    • E11 The Lost Tribe
    • E12 Outsiders
    • E13 Inquisition
    • E14 The Prodigal
    • E15 Remnants
    • E16 Brain Storm
    • E17 Infection
    • E18 Identity
    • E19 Vegas
    • E20 Enemy at the Gate
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Okay. Perhaps you've noticed, but every time we step through the Stargate, bad guys try to kill us. And I'm getting a little tired of it. How about you? —Major Sheppard

The Atlantis Mission has a problem: the Wraith seem to know their every move, and have ambushed them on 5 out of their 9 off-world missions - even the ones to planets that are uninhabited. McKay proves the severity of the situation by getting shot in the face in the first five minutes of the episode. Obviously, there is a mole in the city. Weir suspends all gate travel until she's had a chance to interrogate interview each of the Athosians.

Tensions rise between Sheppard and Sgt. Bates, who is conducting the investigation, between Halling and Teyla, who is seen as a collaborator against her own people, and between the Earthlings and the Athosians generally. So when McKay and Zelenka figure out how to open an upper hatch above the Jumper bays, Sheppard and Ford head out for a stroll around the planet. They discover a large (about four times the size of the United States) and apparently habitable landmass only 25 minutes away by Puddle Jumper.

Bates wants to immediately deport all of the Athosians to the continent, thereby solving the security problem. Sheppard is horrified by the suggestion, but they are saved from a sticky moral debate by Halling independently volunteering to take the rest of the Athosians (who had been grumbling about leaving anyway) and explore the continent. Teyla stays behind, as a member of Sheppard's team and the one Athosian who has been above suspicion this whole time. With the Athosians gone, they resume normal gate travel.

On the first fascinating planet they visit, however, Teyla and Ford go off on their own to try to make contact with the local people. Teyla insists that she will do better completely alone, but the moment she is out of Ford's sight the Wraith attack the rest of the team. Sheppard goes down and they retreat through the gate. Teyla checks in, dragging an unconscious Ford, sometime later. Weir reluctantly lets them through, but when Ford reveals that he was hit from behind, and not by a Wraith weapon, Bates orders McKay to look through Teyla's stuff for hidden transmitters.

To his surprise, he actually finds one: the locket she always wears turns out to be a Wraith tracking device. Rather than confirming her as The Mole, though, this discovery has the opposite effect. The device is Ancient technology, which was dormant until Sheppard touched and activated it in the first episode. Teyla (and the Athosians) are exonerated, and Weir devises a way to use the locket as a trap for the Wraith. The trap works perfectly, and the base ends up with its very own captive Wraith prisoner, named Steve.

Tropes

• Chekhov's Gun: Teyla's locket, introduced in the first episode.
• Cyanide Pill: crossed with Self-Destruct Mechanism in the case of the Wraith, who can push a button on their armor to explode rather than be captured.
• Red Herring Mole: Teyla, to some extent.
• Stun Guns: It is revealed that Wraith weapons are intended to paralyze rather than kill, after McKay gets shot in the face with one.
  • The team also uses Tasers to capture a Wraith alive, with limited success.
• Tracking Device
• Witch Hunt