“The Torment of Tantalus” (1x10)

…I got nothin’. “Torment” and “Tantalus” doesn’t give me very much more than a verb and a proper noun. So I’ll just hit “play” and see where this takes me…

We’re on Earth again, and there are some scientist looking at the Stargate. It turns out to be an old film from 1945 and Jackson’s pretty tantalized by it. Then, though, they see something: They managed to turn the Stargate on. In the film, a man goes in… and never comes back out.

Maybe he’s Tantalus!

Jackson goes to visit an elderly woman, Mrs. Catherine Langford, who apparently knows about the whole Stargate deal or at least that he lived on Abydos. And then her story is finally revealed:

He father worked on the Stargate during the war, thus her connection to it. She knows even how it works, which is pretty stunning, considering we never see anyone out of uniform who’s even heard of it.

We’re brought to a flashback of a very bright girl who’s in love with a man named Ernest, who worked for her father.  She, in fact, gave them the idea to use a direct current. However, she never knew it had worked and that they’d been able to turn it on. Could Ernest have been the one to disappear through the ‘Gate that first time?

…Yup.

(Why do I even ask? My questions are always answered in the very next scene.)

Catherine obviously feels betrayed, and that Ernest, her lover, chose his work over her. But Jackson believes there’s still hope to find the man, if they just punch in that combination again.

He brings Catherine to the base, and Hammond is obviously upset over having a citizen brought into a classified project. She knows O’Neill, too, as well as Carter. Jackson explains his plan to go and try to retrieve Ernest Littlefield. What’s more, perhaps the Goa’uld haven’t been to this planet. Thus, they might even find technology to overpower them.

(Ah, always back to the military side of things, aren’t you, O’Neill?)

So with that, they head off into the Stargate, taking an old veteran with them for the first time in her life.

The other side reveals what looks like a lab, surrounded by stone. A small, elderly man wanders out of a corridor before breaking down into tears and hugging each of the crew in joy. But when he sees Catherine, he storms away.

Awkward.

Jackson goes down to confront Littlefield, and finds out that he’s been living alone on this planet his whole life. He’d kept track of the days for the past fifty years.

Littlefield tells him that this place was called Heliopolis, the same as the Egyptian city. He talks then with Catherine, and believes that they had some kind of life together on this planet. Perhaps it was all an illusion.

But bad goes to way, way worse when they look at the ‘Gate control panel and it’s… broken. Looks like they’ve either got to fix it or they’re going to be here a long time.

While they’re working on that, Littlefield takes the rest of them to a room with four distinct types of writing – probably from four different races. This room may have been a sort of United Nations… except for planets.

Now hold the phone. This changes everything. We’ve already seen that the Norse gods/aliens (Thor among them) can defeat the Goa’uld in a flash. What other forces are out there that could really give them a run for their collective money? What if this collaboration is still out there? AHH I WANT ANSWERS AND I WANT THEM NOW!

(Oh, right, just wait one more scene.)

This whole room’s meaning is revealed in floating atom and particle representations, which Jackson explains as “reducing language to its basic elements” – literally.

Teal’c and Carter have been working around the clock trying to get the ‘Gate fixed. Meanwhile, a storm rages on and threatens to collapse the building.

And then the control panel falls through the floor.

As if this day could get ANY worse!

They figure out that maybe the device Littlefield showed them might be able to be used as a power source to them manually unlock and turn the gate. However, then they get the idea to perhaps use lightning to rig it to life. Jackson’s become obsessed with the device and doesn’t want to leave it. Jack ends up having to drag him away, and at last he follows O’Neill back to the Gate.

They all manage to make it back through the ‘Gate, but the other Stargate is gone forever. Still, if Jackson can find the aliens who wrote it, he can have all the answers he wants. The episode ends with Catherine and Ernest embracing, reunited after fifty years.

Final thoughts… the episode was quite good in that we learn more about the Stargate, which in a way is a character all in itself. Just like the Enterprise or the Deep Space Nine station was central to those plots, the Stargate is vital to this. Like the crew, it has to be well-developed in order to allow the series to grow.

Beyond that, though, is a fantastic lesson on the prizes and perils of ambition. Jackson has this sort of obsessive personality. It’s just the way he is. However, the way I saw it was that he was blinded by his thirst for knowledge and was willing to have the information die with him just so he could gather more. It took a man who’d already made that mistake, Littlefield, to convince him he wasn’t thinking straight.

My feeling is that this won’t be the last time Jackson gets into this kind of an ordeal. It’ll probably end up being a recurring problem for him unless he can learn to keep it under control. Still, a flawed character is an interesting character. If he were any less perfect, he’d be a Gary Stu!

PREDICTION FOR NEXT EPISODE: “Bloodlines”

…I’m not even going to speculate.

TIME FOR LULZ!

Jackson: Hey, guys?

O’Neill: What?

Jackson: D-

Carter: Shut up, Jackson.

Jackson: I didn’t even say anything! God, Carter, why are you always telling me to shut up?!

Carter: Because you’re a maniac and almost got yourself killed trying to figure out the secrets of the universe.

Teal’c: What were you going to say, Daniel Jackson?

Jackson: Thank you, Teal’c. I was going to say, do you guys ever get the feeling we’re being… watched? Like all our secrets are out there and we don’t even know?

O’Neill: Come on, Dan, that’s crazy talk.

Carter: (Laughs) Yeah, tell me about it. We’d be getting phone calls ringing out of our ears. Letterman and everyone.

Teal’c: What is a Letterman?