“In the Line of Duty” ( 2 x 02 )

Let me preface this all by saying that I’m in a very sour mood. The Nebraska Huskers, AKA my school and my favourite American Football team since I was about the age of a fetus, just suffered a torturous loss at the hands of the Wisconsin Badgers.

The Badgers played hard and earned it, but it hasn’t made me a very happy writer.

So I’m watching some SG-1 in an attempt to alleviate my self-inflicted predicament.

Then, I’m going to write an angry letter to Coach Bo Pelini, feel bad because it’s not his fault, and throw it away.

Prediction… this is going to be about the four members of SG-1 doing something. That’s all I’ve got.

We open up on a very pretty lake… which is getting attacked by the Goa’uld. In fact, Death Gliders are flying all around, attacking a village and sending people flying everywhere. SG-1 is there, trying to save people and sending them through the open Stargate. In the midst of the chaos, Carter is performing CPR, and she tries mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a man. There’s a strange hissing noise, and…

…her eyes flash briefly. Like a Goa’uld.

(What’s she going to say? Marie is going to say… Oh, come on, you know it…)

I hate where this is going.

O’Neill and Carter escape back through the Stargate, and he asks her if she’s all right. She says she is, but of course we can all see that she is most certainly not fine. No one is ever “fine”. Rule number one of sci-fi: Everyone lies.

The people they had saved were Nasyans, a peaceful and relatively harmless civilization. SG-1 is confused because, in the past, there had always seemed a reason for the Goa’uld attacks. Teal’c says that he’s seen them attack people for no reason at all, but something tells me there’s more to this than meets the eye. I find it hard to believe they would attack a group for “the lulz”.

Carter speaks up and says that maybe the reasons simply “weren’t apparent” to Teal’c. She says, “After all, you are just a Jaffa.”

Strike number one against her!

Everyone looks at her strangely and she quickly covers her tracks. However, Jackson merely agrees that they should better understand the Goa’uld’s reasons for the attack, or at least try to.

In the infirmary, Doctor Fraiser discovers some kind of abrasion at the back of Carter’s throat.

Strike number two!

However, she lets it go because she didn’t see any of the tell-tale marks of a Goa’uld infestation… I mean, at the back of the neck. I still think that she’s acting weirdly.

Carter goes to see Cassandra, who’s in Fraiser’s office. They embrace, and as Carter speaks, Cassandra seems to pick up on her words before she says them and a look of horror crosses her face before she runs off.

Oh boy.

Strike number three?

I’d say so. Carter immediately pursues the little girl with a scowl and flashing eyes.

O’Neill goes in to speak with Cassandra, since she refuses to speak with anyone but him. She’s huddled up in the corner and she moves over to his embrace. (It’s very adorable, for the record.) He asks her what’s wrong, and she says, “Sam said she would kill me if I told you… She’s a Goa’uld.”

Strike four. And five, for that matter.

Carter storms into the room where Teal’c and Jackson are waiting to go on the next mission. She seems extremely agitated, and when O'Neill sticks her with a powerful tranquilizer and she doesn’t go down, she realizes that her cover is blown. She pulls a gun on him and switches to creepy-deep-Goa’uld-voice, ordering him to open the ‘Gate.

Strike six, seven… Yeah, that’s too many strikes, I’m not even gonna go on.

She then pulls out a grenade, saying that if they don’t open the Stargate, she’ll drop it. She seems so desperate to get out… or, it does, rather.

There’s definitely more to this than I’m getting. I don’t think Carter’s Goa’uld is exactly typical of its race.

Jackson echoes this idea as they’re all (minus Carter) at the Hangout, trying to figure out exactly what happened. They do figure out that she contracted it when she gave the one Nasyan mouth-to-mouth, but beyond that, they haven’t got much else but suspicions.

Over at the hospital, a man wrapped in bandages from Nasya is approached by a doctor. I think he was about to give him an ultrasound, and the man starts to strangle the doctor.

Another Goa’uld? This is just getting weirder and weirder.

Teal’c approaches O’Neill as the latter sits alone in a room. He gives O’Neill a bit of advice in interrogating the Goa’uld, advising him to “assault its ego”, because perhaps then they will gain the information they both need and desire. He also states that, “[Arrogance]… is the Goa’uld’s greatest weakness.” He seems a little bit worried about how this is going to go. Maybe for good reason.

O’Neill goes to Carter/the Goa’uld and speaks to her/it. However, so far, not so good. He tries to insult her, but she simply says that he “doesn’t understand what’s really going on”.

Jackson speaks to one of the victims, Talia. She says that she’d never noticed any change in the man who, presumably, is the one that had the Goa’uld transferred from him to Carter.

Like I said, this can’t be your garden-variety Goa’uld.

But what about the one who just strangled his own doctor and then pulled off all his bandages, only to spit out a really weird ring-looking-object-thing which glows?

Carter/the Goa’uld simply sits in her cell, asking for O’Neill to simply let her go. She says she can find another host and send Carter back to him. She tries to convince him (oh, wait, I just realized that the Goa’uld is a “he”… okay, referring to him as such now), and even lets Carter come out. She begs with O’Neill that he’s telling the truth, but of course, to no avail.

Okay, I am now convinced that there is something very, very different about this Goa’uld. He definitely has a different agenda. I fully believe he did let Carter come out and speak.

Gaaahh, I want answers! I want them now!

Teal’c comes in and speaks to the Goa’uld. He tells him that an even more powerful attack is being planned on Earth, and he is willing to help them thwart it. He goes on to see, in light of Teal’c’s protests, that “not all Goa’uld are the same.”

Knew it.

He calls himself a Tok'ra, and that his name is Jolinar. Something like shock crosses over Teal’c’s face, and he leaves the room.

Oh snap. This is serious business now.

The man who had been in the bandages who broke out and had the weird ring-thing leaves Talia just after waving his glowing ring over her. He passes Jackson, but says nothing more of the woman’s condition other than, “She’s good.” Hm… another Tok'ra?

Fraiser sees the man’s bloodwork… and realizes something about it. Oh man.

Teal’c re-enters with O’Neill after telling him of the Jaffa legend about the Tok'ra, the Goa’uld who allegedly oppose the system lords (i.e. Ra, Apophis, etc.). O’Neill tries to build a little trust with Jolinar and asks him about the man who got out of his hospital bed and knocked out the doctor. Jolinar looks very scared and says it “must be the Ashrak”, an assassin.

And he’s after him.

My prediction? They’re going to try to be tricky about this. Maybe they’ll try to get Jolinar to switch into a different host to confuse the Ashrak, take him/it down, and then we’ll all go home happy.

Jackson and Teal’c now go to Jolinar. Jackson still refuses, like the others, to let the Goa’uld go, but I think that could change, considering Jolinar’s just told him he knows where Sha’re is.

Teal’c and Jackson are largely convinced that this Tok'ra is as honest as he claims to be, but O’Neill isn’t budging. This is going to be his downfall; I just know it is!

The assassin has now impersonated an Air Force officer on the base and has hypnotic skills in his ring as well. He uses them to get into the base. This just keeps getting better and better.

The Ashrak breaks into Jolinar’s cell and uses his ring to start to knock her out – perhaps kill her. The Ashrak escapes completely unnoticed and undetected with two other guards. It takes Jackson hostage, more or less, at the ‘Gate. Teal’c eventually comes on the scene and takes one shot at the Ashrak to force it to let Jackson go, and then another to kill it. Presumably.

Meanwhile, the infirmary team works desperately to try to save Carter and Jolinar, since one obviously cannot live without the other. Jolinar is reported dead, but Carter once more has a pulse. Perhaps the Goa’uld used its last energy to save Carter as a final act of goodwill and compassion. She seems to recognize this: Even as O’Neill tells her, “You beat it. You won,” she says this:

“It wasn’t me. The Goa’uld gave its life for me. It saved me.”

Later that night, Jackson brings Carter a large bouquet of flowers and sits at her bedside, but she’s unresponsive. We learn then that her body is absorbing the Goa’uld symbiote. It’s what saved her. He goes out to talk to Cassandra, and tells her to go see Carter.

The little girl does, and Carter cheers up a bit, but she’s still emotionally moved. It’s a really touching moment and a simple yet moving conclusion.

Final thoughts… Wow, this was a really powerful episode in many, many aspects. We’ve got another mover-and-shaker in the plot again: Goa’uld who aren’t obsessed with conquest.

To be honest, I kind of saw this coming. It was a very natural progression of the plot. No race is entirely evil nor entirely good – it only makes sense that the same would be true for the Goa’uld. In this sense, the Goa’uld seem to be more like the Trill symbiote than anything. It is a mutually beneficial relationship between a creature needing a host and a host needing to survive. And it’s not a completely unreal twist, either. We all know that the Goa’uld have amazing healing capabilities for their hosts. Just look at Teal’c and how many times he’s been okay because of his symbiote.

I know I’m a weenie when it comes to these sorts of things, but I was very sad to see Jolinar die. I was sorely hoping that he would’ve been able to find another host and perhaps returned to SG-1 to assist them at some time.

Furthermore, this is going to impact each of the crew members in a very big way:

First of all, O’Neill. Even as the Goa’uld died within Carter, he still believed that they were the enemy. It seems to be his natural tendency, given all the grief they’ve caused him over the past few years. This encounter with such a different Goa’uld surely changed his perspective, not only on that species, but on the universe and its extremely complex societies as a whole.

Secondly, Jackson. Jolinar told him that he knew where Sha’re was. I think some of the other Tok'ra might know this as well. He was given a ray of hope that his wife could be saved, since Jolinar confirmed that a symbiote can leave its host unharmed – it is difficult, but possible, if the Goa’uld is willing. This knowledge also plays into the medical and scientific side of things.

Thirdly, Teal’c. He says at one point in the episode that Bra'tac (YEEAAA- Oh wait he wasn’t even in this episode. Sad. They really should replace the word “cool” with his name. As in, “That is so Bra'tac!”) was the one who told him of the Tok'ra. Now that he knows that they exist, they might be able to find them, and they could be a powerful ally to Chulak, Earth, and all other worlds that might try to resist against the System Lord Goa’ulds. I can see this ending well in his favour.

And finally, Carter. I’ve saved her for last since she is obviously going to be the one most impacted by this. After all, she had the Goa’uld inside of her. She knew and understood its thoughts, emotions, integrity… I highly doubt Jolinar would have tried to trick her. Furthermore, it saved her. She now understands better than anyone in SG-1 the potential for good a Goa’uld has. I have a feeling it was a kind of “fate” that it saved her, given that she is often among the most compassionate and eager to save of her crew. She had tried desperately to save Jolinar’s original host. I think she can turn tides – within and without her crew. It’ll be interesting to see how this encounter changes her as a character.

All in all, excellent episode. It’s a perfect true “opening” to another season of this great show, and probably another great arc in the plot.

Now I want to see more Tok'ra!

PREDICTION/REFLECTION THINGY:

(Marie once again invades the lives of SG-1.)

(The ever-annoying, Mary Sue-like girl appears in a flash in the infirmary next to Carter’s bed.)

Marie: Carter, hon, I know how you feel.

Carter: (Jumps, startled, and stares wide-eyed at the glasses-wearing blonde) Who are you? How did you get in here?

Marie: That’s not important. What is important is that I am here for you. My favourite football team just suffered a major loss and it was devastating! I swear, my heart was crying for our guys!

Carter: (She balks, and is suddenly upset and defensive) Did you honestly just compare my situation involving a sentient being who just died for me to a damned football game!?

Marie: Well, if you really think about it—

Carter: NO, NOW GET OUT – OUT OF HERE BEFORE I GO BERSERK ON YOU AND STRANGLE YOU MYSELF!

(Marie grimaces and dashes out of the room past a stunned Teal’c, Jackson, and O’Neill.)

O’Neill: …Yeah, I’m not quite sure Carter’s got all of that Goa’uld feeling out of her.

Jackson: Nope, that was simply her womanly fury rivaling that of Hell.

Teal’c: That was so Bra'tac!