Hm… why am I getting visions of SG-1 committing some grievous crime on a planet they do not fully understand and getting imprisoned for it? Or perhaps finding themselves trapped on a planet because the Stargate is malfunctioning for some odd reason?
Just a hunch. Let’s see how far off I am.
The episode opens with O’Neill once again ready to head back to Earth right away, and Jackson insisting they should study every molecule on the planet.
Then, though, a man appears out of nowhere (I should mention that they did not believe there to be civilization or anything interesting here) and he stumbles towards them, begging for help to protect him from “Taldor”. A white light envelops them and they find themselves in a blue-lit room.
A female voice announces from above that they are now prisoners (ha! hence the episode title!) and at this point Jackson realizes the meaning of “Taldor”: “Justice”.
A male voice joins her and says that they trespassed and committed murder in helping the man, and that they will be sent through the Stargate… to a prison.
What’s that early-season Star Trek: TNG episode with Wesley getting in legal trouble for not understanding a planet? Yeah… this reminds me of it.
They are, indeed, thrown through the Stargate into a prison, Hadante. They are at first harassed by some of the others incarcerated, but an older woman, Linea, stopped them. She seems to be the leader and she takes Carter under her wing, more or less.
The crew goes off to try and see if they can find a superconductor to spark some life into the Stargate. Carter and O’Neill go off to find Linea, and Daniel and Teal’c continue to look for an energy source.
Carter and O’Neill talk to Linea. It is revealed that she gives them a sort of hope in that they can escape by trapping themselves into the Stargate’s vortex – which of course just kills them. However, she still thinks she can help the two SG crew members.
She shows them a sort of plant that reacts on a subatomic level. O’Neill says that if she can help them activate the Stargate, he’ll take her with them back to Earth to learn about their physics.
Back on Earth’s base, SG-3 has gone to find SG-1, and so obviously they return empty-handed. The Taldor merely handed SG-3 the other crew’s weapons and sent them back through the ‘Gate. Another Nox-like anti-violence race? Maybe.
Elsewhere, Jackson and Teal’c (the latter, rather violently) are confronting one of the other prisoners. Teal’c wasn’t happy with the guy’s attitude about something, but he lets him go. O’Neill and Carter meet back up with them.
Out of the Stargate comes a gray sort of slop (food, I presume) and all the prisoners (save for SG-1) rush to eat.
On Earth, a major approaches Hammond and tells him that the Taldor of P3X-775 are open to relations with them. In fact, Hammond says he himself will go down there to meet with them.
He steps through the ‘Gate for his first time, muttering, “The things I do for these people…”
Hammond tries to talk to the Taldor, but they’re not listening. They dismiss him.
Linea has warned Carter that the others may rise up against them, and indeed, they do. Vishnoor, one of the prisoners, and a couple of his men try to fight the SG crew. Jackson is badly injured, but after a while he decides they should escape to P2A-509, where SG-3 is scheduled to go.
Furthermore, though, the balance of power has shifted. The prisoners think that Jackson killed Vishnoor, so they let him make the decisions. While the rest of the prisoners are eating, they rig up the Stargate with the plant Linea had. They manage to get it running, and they all go through… but then some of the other prisoners jump through.
Why do I not like where this is going?
Some SG guards bring in a man who had escaped from the prison, and he reveals that Linea’s crime, destroying a whole world due to her failed attempt to cure a plague, was actually a ruse of sorts – she is the one who started it.
They bring back Linea through the ‘Gate and they are all back home safely. Carter shows her a computer and they start going through some computations. She lifts the device on her palm – the same one she’d used to knock out (or kill, rather) Vishnoor during his grapple with Jackson. She scrolls frantically through the computer and then attempts to go through the ‘Gate. She’s set the self-destruct… but nothing happens…. Except that the system crashes.
Linea has hacked into their computer and leaves them a message thanking them for their kindness… and only then do they realize that they just let a dangerous criminal – a destroyer of worlds – go free.
Final thoughts… I see this being a two-parter. But there was no “to be continued” at the end. However, whether this turns out to be a short arc (or heck, maybe a long arc) it says something about justice systems. The whole issue with the Taldor was that the SG crews did not think that it was a fair and just system, and that their form of “justice” and zero-tolerance policy was not “progressive enough” or something along those lines. They trusted their own instincts and perceptions over a system that had kept this very dangerous woman behind bars.
To me, this kind of mirrors how some “more advanced” nations see the justice systems of other countries. There is always this sense of, “We’re right, and they’re wrong, and our way is the best way and no other way can ever work as well as ours.” Certainly the Taldor’s system was not perfect. It was about to put four largely innocent people away for life simply for stepping in the wrong area and getting mixed in with the wrong guy. It goes to show you that you can’t always trust who you think you can trust.
REFLECTION/PREDICTION THINGY
(SG-1 laments their failure.)
O’Neill: Well, I feel like an idiot.
Jackson: So do I, Jack. God, what were we thinking?
Carter: She seemed so nice!
Teal’c: People are not always as they seem to be. Perhaps Linea was simply very good at deception.
O’Neill: Or maybe we were just too blind to see her true nature…
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