The team encounters first of many strange ways the Pegasus galaxy people protect themselves from the Wraith. They don't like it or understand it, and they half-inadvertently change it to better suit their view. It's great. Not.

Eww, McKay brags about his association with Sam Carter. One, second-hand embarrassment squicks me so much. And two, McKay's obsession with Sam is so creepy.

Turbulence? Didn't Sheppard just say in the last episode that the jumpers have inertial dampeners?

Maybe I could have deduced from the name that this is the 'planet of children' -episode, but I thought it referred to the expedition, I thought they were going to encounter the Genii. Plus I didn't remember that this episode was so early in the series.

FORD: Think whatever knocked us down knocked it down?
McKAY: It's possible. If that's the case, we need to find it.
FORD: Why?
McKAY: Because anything powerful enough to knock out a Wraith Dart -- it's a big deal.
SHEPPARD: Yeah, that would be nice to have.
Nice to have? So you go to another planet, find something you want and poof, it's yours, by taking or by trading, but you don't even entertain the idea that you might not get it. Also, in here? It's obviously the thing that has kept these people safe from the Wraith. What's going to happen to them if you take away their defence? Oh yeah, I forgot. 'Humans first and to hell with anybody else.'

Okay, so the way they keep their numbers low to avoid attracting the attention of the Wraith, is creepy from a Milky Way galaxy human perspective. But here's the thing. They are not disturbed by it. Wraith are technologically so advanced compared to them, that they have no way to fight them. So they take the other option. Make themselves an unappealing prey. Because that's what humans are to Wraith, prey. Like the elder explains the team.
But the writer and the director of this episode are framing it in a way that the audience is supposed to be appalled by this barbaric way of life so that what ever it is that brought the Wraith dart down from the sky, the team is justified to take it.

SHEPPARD: This is without a doubt the most screwed up way of life I can imagine.
Yeah, tell us how we are supposed to think, why don't you.

McKAY: What are we going to tell them, Teyla? "Listen, kiddies, everything you believe to be true is wrong, and trust us because we've been here for almost an hour."
For once, McKay is the voice of reason.

Well that didn't last long:
SHEPPARD: So you've disabled the shield?
McKAY: Just temporarily. I need to get the ZedP.M. back to Atlantis -- see if it's worth taking.
TEYLA: We cannot just take it. It is their only source of protection against the Wraith.
McKAY: There's no evidence that the Wraith have been here in years. Besides, if this is a fully functioning ZedP.M., we can bring them all back to Atlantis. How hard could that be?
Uproot them all why don't you. He is showing such an American way of thinking, that your way of life is superior to all others and of course everyone wants to live like that and be American, what are you talking about. The arrogance, it burns. I'm on episode six of ninety-nine and I'm already feeling like SGA is one of those things that has been gilded by time.

What are the odds, indeed. The reckless endangerment of others is just, I don't even.

WEIR: Rodney! We can't just visit planets, take away their defences, uproot their cultures and bring ‘em all back here to Atlantis.
McKAY: If they have a ZedP.M., yes we can.
What the hell. And we are only at the halfway mark of the episode. I don't know if I can finish this.

KERAS: I'll be honest with you, Sheppard, There's nothing I would like more than to spend more time talking with you. But it's not possible.
Well this has to have sparked at least a few Sheppard/Keras fics.

So, they went and destroyed those people's religion and way of life and now everybody is happy. Yay. At least they didn't steal the ZPM. There's nothing more to say about this episode, except:
Written by: Martin Gero
Directed by: David Winning