“Past and Present” ( 3 x 11 )

I am all caught up with NaNoWriMo! (Up to 20,081 words, if anyone’s curious.) So what will this episode bring? More time travel? I’d certainly dig that. Then I could just keeping taking my laptop into the past so I’d never fall behind with NaNo!

SG-1 steps out of the ‘Gate and into some kind of warehouse which is all packed up. They encounter a young man and woman, and apparently there’s been some kind of pandemic, which they called the “vorlix”. It was because of this vorlix that no one can remember anything prior to the vorlix.

Hm… Goa’uld punishment or something? These two seem fine. As intriguing as this is, I wonder how they’ll form it into a workable plot…

The man in Orner and the woman is unknown as of right now. Orner tells SG-1 that there are no children here, nor are there any elders left. So, no old people and no kids. That’s weird…

Orner takes them to see a woman named Ke’ra, who is in charge of health, science, and that sort of thing here. It seems that everyone has retained some innate abilities, like speech and movement, but their personal memories are gone.

Ke’ra takes SG-1 into what looks like a library, where she and others have been trying to piece together their pasts. She says that the biggest concern with their memory losses is that they don’t remember how to farm, work, manufacture, and the like. Their civilization will collapse, given time. She quickly figures out that they are not from Vius, this planet, because they still have their memories. When they tell her they came through the Stargate, she says she knows about that, and that shortly before the vorlix, there had been a visitor.

Uh-oh. I know where this is going…

However, she believes that they are dead… and the woman was…

LINEA.

(Oh, crap, not her again!)

Okay, quick recap. We all remember Linea, right? Crazy lady who is really smart and helped SG-1 escape the prison in “Prisoners” (2x03)? Only then they found out that she was the “destroyer of worlds” and then she escaped the SGC base? Yeah, her. I guess she incurred her wrath on another helpless planet.

However, it sounds like she’s dead, so that can’t be all bad…

Anyways, Dr. Fraiser has come down to check out the situation, and SG-1 pours over books and talks about Linea. It doesn’t exactly seem like her kind of thing, but maybe she was experimenting with other ways to destroy worlds.

Carter finds Linea’s diary, so they hope that will help.

SG-1, Fraiser, Ke’ra, Orner, and the woman he was with all go back to Earth so they can study the amnesia. Fraiser figures out that there’s some kind of residue between the synapses in all the victims’ brains, perhaps blocking the memories.

Jackson takes Ke’ra to her temporary quarters, and they seem to be getting awfully close. They have an awkward “yeah, my wife just died” moment but she just kisses him anyways.

Well. That’s interesting.

She says that she had to do that in case she regains her memory and finds herself attached to someone else, and then they kiss again and… roll in the hay? Uh, too much thought there.. moving on..!

Turns out that Linea had been trying to create a sort of “fountain of youth”, when, presumably, it went wrong. However, the whole “pandemic” was simply making everyone young!

They are the elders!

And it’s presumed… that Ke’ra is Linea!

(DUN, DUN, DUUUNNNN…)

And Jackson has once again fallen for the wrong kind of girl. Poor guy.

Indeed, the DNA is a match. Ke’ra is now who Linea used to be. Or something like that.

Jackson of course is trying to stick up for her, and makes a jab at Teal’c (come on, man, lay off, I thought you guys made up last episode!), saying that just as he is no longer the same person he was as the First Prime of Apophis, Ke’ra is no longer who she was as Linea. (Okay, so it wasn’t that much of a jab.) Nonetheless, they’re going to keep her confined to quarters.

In the infirmary, Fraiser is having issues creating a cure for the dargol in the synapses without damaging the surrounding tissue. They agree to let Ke’ra help, and her knowledge is invaluable. Orner is the first one tested, and he has a sort of seizure, but he’s okay… but his memories aren’t there yet.

Ke’ra figures out that everyone believes she’s Linea, but Jackson doesn’t think she could ever hurt anyone. Ah, to be young and in love… She also figures out the antidote, and sneaks off with a sample of some sort… oh crap.

Orner seizes again when he takes it, but this time he recalls his memories, and his name is Nodol! He’s married to Layale, the woman who came with them. Ke’ra goes back to her quarters, and she and Jackson discuss what will be done with her. Her words to him are, “All debts have now been paid.” He realizes that she’s taken the antidote.

Jackson rushes back to her quarters and sees she’s about to more or less commit suicide. Jackson convinces her to take another way. They’ll give her the dargol again, and she’ll forget she was ever Linea.

They do, and she doesn’t recognize anyone, nor has she retained any of her memories as Linea. It’s like the vorlix all over again. Layale and Nodol take her back to Vius, and it’s another broken heart for Jackson. But, hey, at least there’s no more Linea.

Final thoughts… Well, I guess I was right, and Linea did indeed show up again! Granted, that was way back at the beginning of the second season, and considering that there are 10 seasons of this show I wasn’t sure when she would show up, but she did! ..As a completely different person.

This was certainly a very interesting plot, if not exciting and full of explosions and Bra’tac and things like that, but if every episode had explosions and Bra’tac, neither would be very exciting anymore. (Well, Bra’tac would always be exciting, but I digress…) I thought the whole memory-and-age-reversal was very interesting indeed, and a clever way to bring back Linea without actually bringing her as we know her back. In fact, it wasn’t until Ke’ra’s knowledge of biochemistry and the like became apparent that I would have ever guessed they were the same person. A very good bit of acting from Megan Leitch in that last scene between her and Jackson when she’s about to smash the vials together. I actually quite liked that.

My impression, however, is that something must have happened to Linea that made her who she was in “Prisoners” – nice on the outside but on the inside a mass murderer. Of course as the audience I want to know, “What, what was it?!” considering that Ke’ra was such a sweet girl and Linea merely manipulative and brilliant. Well, both were brilliant, but they used that brilliance in radically different ways – one for personal gain and the other to help her people.

It almost brings us back to the parallel universes/timelines concept. Change one little detail, take away one little memory, and it makes a completely different person. How would others, even Goa’uld, be if they didn’t have a certain attribute? Certainly the Tok’ra learned that if they didn’t use the sarcophagus, they didn’t (more or less) go nuts with power, yet they are biologically the same as the Goa’uld. It’s a very interesting idea I’d love to continue to see pop up throughout the series.

Overall, a very well-written episode. Seemed a little dry at first but it was another “hey, that’s a neat idea” episode. And you know, I like that. It’s nice that the writers mix it up!

PREDICTION/REFLECTION THINGY

(SG-1 feels neglected by their blogger.)

Jackson: So, did anyone notice that the Harry Potter movies are on this weekend?

O’Neill: Daniel, it’s only the year 1999. There are no Harry Potter movies yet.

Teal’c: Marie seems rather preoccupied with this fantasy franchise as of late.

Carter: Maybe it has something to do with the DVD for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II having just come out.

Teal’c: She has an unhealthy obsession with the very Goa’uld-like character. Perhaps she sees him as a false god!

Jackson: Teal’c, Voldemort isn’t a Goa’uld.

Carter: I don’t know, Daniel, he’s pretty twisted.

Marie: BUT HE’S FREAKING AWESOME!!! HE’S SO BRA’TAC!!

O’Neill: …Okay, can you just get back to us for one night?

Marie: Ugh, FINE. If you want me to that badly, then I will. But you’re no Ralph Fiennes.

O’Neill: Thank God.