Upon finding Merlin's testing grounds, Dr. Jackson, Teal'c, Col. Mitchell, and Vala uncover the hidden treasure including a book that tells the story of the Ancients coming to Earth from another galaxy and a strange alien device.

SG-1 is tasked to accompany members of the International Oversight Advisory, including Richard Woolsey, on a tour of the Gamma site. The visitors are suitably impressed but everyone is put in danger when a carnivorous insect escapes from the lab. The base is locked down and no one is allowed to travel through the gate. The bug is linked to the Ori - it's appeared on several planets that they've visited - and Daniel thinks it may be their follow-up to the virus. SG-1 and the IOA visitors take refuge in a cave, but Gen. Landrey is left with little choice but to flood the planet with a deadly neurotoxin to destroy the bugs. SG-1 looks for away out before that happens.

Stargate Command gets a video message from Vala's extremely unreliable father, Jacek, on the planet Robak; he claims to know about the late Arkad's plans to attack and blow up Earth, even about the several cloaked, Naquadah-laden cargo ships in orbit, and offers details in exchange for sanctuary. General Landry asks Dr. Lam to help him resume contact with her mother, Kim, his ex-wife. Even after the cargoes are found and blown up, Vala abhors her dad's entry. The general asks her to go easy on him, realizing that he, too, neglected his daughter because of his career, even if Jacek's neglect was just criminal. When Cam and Daniel go tell Jacek he shouldn't scam people, he tricks them into talking to Vala for him. Vala goes over just for catharsis, telling him she's through picking up the pieces of his tricks, and he certainly keeps scamming - as Daniel also finds - even with Terak, a Jaffa from an escaped cargo ship, who hopes to sell the Naquadah. When they are apprehended, Jacek promises to help track it and override the rigging of the cargo ship. The Jaffa wait for Jacek and Vala, intending to eliminate them now that Terak is gone, but SG-1 saves them. Since there never was an override, Jacek cheerfully flies away alone in the cargo ship, ignoring that his treachery was anticipated: it's a decoy.