“Shades of Grey” ( 3 x 18 )

Hm… Shades of Grey… Shady figures…

I SMELL MAYBOURNE. I also smell the Cigarette Smoking Man, but he’s even shadier than Maybourne so I suppose he won’t be making an appearance.

Or at least we might see some kind of ethical debate.

SG-1 is… not in typical uniform, Carter and O’Neill are in dress uniform and Teal’c and Jackson are wearing… suits? (Hey, they look good; no complaints here.) Oh, and they’re also on Tollana. That might be useful to know. Jackson, ever the orator, is trying to arrange for a trade of technology with the Tollans, but of course they’re not budging.

 High Chancellor Travell is the one officiating this meeting, and she argues that even if they were to give the SGC technology, there would be no telling how it would be used. It could be used by the U.S. against other nations for all she knew. (Yeah, she’s lookin’ at you, Maybourne, ya slimeball…)

O’Neill more or less throws his hands up and storms out, frustrated… and grabs a weapons disabler on his way out.

Whoa, Jack dropping to the level of theft?

Something’s really not right here.

At the Hangout, Hammond at first congratulates them for getting their hands on this technology.. and then goes completely the opposite direction when O’Neill confesses he stole it. We then get an interesting line:

“This command has already been accused of stealing from several other alien cultures, Colonel. Until now, we’ve denied it. Perhaps that was a bit premature.”

Hold on a second. So this isn’t anything new? (I still see you smirking in the background, Maybourne.) I know there was the Touchstone, but that was returned. Of course there are the Goa’uld devices, but they’re the enemy. There’s also the device that could mask you to look like someone else.

…Anyways, O’Neill protests and insists that the rest of his team isn’t responsible – he’s the one who stole it, after all. They had all protested.

“Well, Teal’c really didn’t say anything, but I could tell he was opposed to my actions by the way he cocked his head and sort of raised his eyebrow-”

All right, Jack, I’m mad at you for what you did but you still made me laugh there.

Hammond orders the other three in SG-1 to return the device, but once again, O’Neill goes off and is just extremely frustrated for reasons I’m not quite understanding. He mentions a “backup plan” which had never been approved, and just overall seems very out-of-character. I know he gets frustrated with diplomacy but this is just absurd. This certainly isn’t the O’Neill I’m familiar with. What in the heck has happened to him? Frankly, his team is acting the same way. They’re shocked.

Hammond relieves O’Neill of duty and orders him to the infirmary, clearly thinking what I am – something must be wrong.

The Stargate whirls to life, and in walk… two Tollans. One of them is Travell. They’re here to get the device back… and terminate all relations with the Tau’ri.

Well, great.

Fraiser gives O’Neill a clean bill of health, but I swear something’s off. He orders Teal’c to get out of his way (uh, can’t do that, you’re no longer his C.O.) and I swear I saw a little bit of hurt in Teal’c’s eyes when O’Neill hollers at him to move aside.

(Awww, Teal’c! We know you’re just worried about Jaaaaack.)

O’Neill passes Carter on the way to Hammond’s office (he’s just been called down) and when she asks if he’s all right, he snaps back at her. All right, now this is just downright bizarre. His whole team seems to realize something is wrong. BUT WHAT?!

In Hammond’s office, the general offers O’Neill one final option, one last alternative to court-martial… early retirement. O’Neill agrees to it a little more quickly than I would think, and I just find it kind of odd.

In his house, Jack answers the door and it’s Jackson who’s visiting him. O’Neill seems unusually cold towards him, despite the fact that it’s been my strong impression they’re at least relatively close friends. Sure, O’Neill pokes fun at him, but that’s just Jack being Jack.

Jackson does get him to open up about the “backup” mentioned, and he explains that they’d been planning to build a base off-site in case the Goa’uld ever took over. He again tries to justify his theft against the Tollans, but something’s very off. O’Neill never exactly acted out on his feelings.

And then he just rubs salt in the wound by denying they ever really had a friendship.

Ouch, Jack, ouch. What the heck is your problem today? What is this, that time of the month for you?

Later that day, he gets a visit from…

Maybourne.

(GO AWAY YOU SLIMEBALL SCUMBAG.)

Turns out that Maybourne is running a sort of rogue operation that would allow O’Neill to pretty much do what he did yesterday… all the time. With good graces from your friendly U.S. Military. O’Neill tells him to get out, but Maybourne leaves a business card on the table… just in case.

I swear to God, Jack, if you so much as touch that card I’ll take Teal’c’s staff weapon and shoot you MYSELF.

Back on base, SG-1 is gathered, and their replacement for O’Neill is Colonel Makepeace. (Hey! Makepeace! I remember you! You’re a pretty cool guy. Welcome aboard.) Jackson thinks that Carter should be the leader now that O’Neill is gone, but Hammond won’t hear it. Chain of command, and all that.

Makepeace steps forward and Carter and Jackson more or less openly welcome him, but Teal’c just kind of… walks away. With a resigned look in his eyes.

Why do I get the feeling he doesn’t much like Makepeace?

The scene changes and it’s been one week since Maybourne’s initial visit.

And O’Neill picks up the business card.

(DANGIT JACK I TOLD YOU NOT TO! Where’s that Jaffa? I need his staff weapon.)

Later, Maybourne approaches O’Neill, once again at his house. He confesses he’s interested in Maybourne’s offer (wait, what?) and boards a plane with him. On the plane, he shows O’Neill… a Goa’uld communication device. Stolen, obviously.

He explains to O’Neill that he runs an “off-shoot” of the NID (never quite understood them either) and he wants Jack to lead one of the units. He agrees to the offer, and he’s in.

Where is this going!? It’s so wrong! What are you doing, Jack?!?

Back on base, O’Neill enters Hammond’s office and requests that he be permitted to go back to Edora. (Wait, what? You just accepted Maybourne’s offer. What on Earth are you doing? Oh, wait, right, wait ten seconds and you get the answer…)

Hammond agrees, and Jack goes through…

…only to hurry down and punch in a different combination and walk through to the NID unit’s world.

I see what you did there.

He enters into the base and is shown around by Newman. He’s also introduced to a Lieutenant Tobias and sees one of the spoils of their hunts: an anti-grav device. Hammond later contacts him and gives them their first mission with O’Neill.

They travel to a planet to collect a device which allows the native population to vanish from predators so they are not harmed. (Stealing candy from children, much?) It gets better:

The device is Asgard.

Yeah, I don’t think Thor and his buddies are going to be super thrilled about the man they elected as Earth’s ambassador leading a rogue team that goes out and steals their technology.

They return to the NID base and it turns out that there’s a mole on the inside of the SGC. What this group does is drop the item off where the mole will be next, and then the mole takes it back to Earth through the ‘Gate. Sneaky, sneaky.

O’Neill offers to do the drop, and look at that, we’re back on Edora. He puts the device right by the DHD and… it’s SG-1 who comes through. Teal’c stops by the DHD, as if suspicious of something, (LOOK DOWN, LOOK DOWN!!) but walks right past the Asgard device. But in the end, it’s Makepeace who grabs it.

He’s the mole.

Gaah!!! Makepeace!! Just as I was starting to like you!!

O’Neill goes back to the NID, and who should see him dial out… but Thor. (I think it’s him, anyways. Jack’s in trouble now!)

On the base, all hell is breaking loose. An Asgard ship has come (they got there awfully fast) and starts beaming away all the stuff. O’Neill yells for everyone to jump through the ‘Gate or face the wrath of the Asgard.

Jack has opened the ‘Gate up to… the Colorado base?

What?

WHAT?!

I don’t understand!

All the NID rogue operators are put in handcuffs… and then O’Neill handcuffs Makepeace.

Oh my gosh! An inside operation! Dude! Freaking genius!

Turns out that the Tollans were in on it too. We get this very interesting bit between Makepeace and O’Neill:

“You have no idea how high up this goes. You’ve pissed off the wrong people.”

“Like the Tollan, Tok’ra, Asgard, Nox – those folks?”

“They refuse to give us the things we need to defend ourselves against the Goa’uld.”

“We don’t need their stuff, Makepeace. We do need them.”

And here is where we see O’Neill’s true nature come to light. I guess it turns out he’s just a really good actor.

Hammond explains that the Asgard and Tollan had both come to him recently with evidence that they were being stolen from. They and the Nox were all about to sever ties with the SGC. Since they were able to find out who the rogue group was, though, they let the SGC off the hook.

SG-1 seems more than a little peeved that O’Neill hadn’t let them in on operation, but I think they’ll get over it… Just like he’ll get over that they apparently drew straws to see who would have to go talk to him. Jackson had lost. But hey, we’re all back together, and that’s what matters!

 

Final thoughts… Whew! Longest review I’ve done in a while. But there was so much going on and so much utter confusion and just in general crazy things that were going. Needless to say, I’m shocked it all turned out to be an inside job. I suppose I’m even more surprised that none of his SG-1 teammates figured it out – or at least partially figured it out. However, given O’Neill’s background in covert ops, I’m sure he was trained to do this sort of thing.

And yet… everything had happened a little too perfectly. Jack was able to play that part just a little too well. I have no doubt that some deeper side of O’Neill believed a lot of what he was saying, even when he was essentially “faking it”. At the same time, however, I do think his true nature was revealed in the end. Perhaps it was only after seeing the NID operation for himself that he came to realize what was truly important: Their allies.

Now, I hate to linger on just that one little quote, but it was so significant, I can’t exactly ignore it. What’s done is done. The rogue operatives are in jail (or will be… or won’t be, since Maybourne is a slimeball) and faith is restored in the SGC. But you all know how I like to look into the future and into characters…

I suppose the change in character only makes sense. Their allies have done so much for them: The Tok’ra have helped them over and over. They helped SG-1 with the Retu, with Sokar, they saved Carter’s dad (Jacob!!! Oh wait he’s not here), and I’m sure that’s just the beginning. The Asgard have saved their butts on a few occasions in TWO UNIVERSES, not to mention put together that nice little treaty that keeps Earth safe from the System Lords. The Nox showed them the importance and capacity of non-violence. The Tollan freed Skaara of Klorel and I can definitely see that relationship growing. These races in particular have brought a lot more to the table than I’m sure the SGC really expected.

However… all that said… I don’t think these rogue operations will ever truly go away. Not as long as guys like Colonel Maybourne and the Cigarette Smoking Man are in charge. (Wink, wink.)

Hey Teal’c? Remember how you said you would be well within your rights to dismember Maybourne?

That’s starting to sound more and more appealing with his every appearance.

PREDICTION/REFLECTION THINGY

(The slimeball gang reconnects!)

Maybourne: Well, that… that didn’t go quite as planned.

Charles Logan (that 24 guy): No, no it didn’t. I can’t believe we ever got you in on this.

Cigarette Smoking Man: I must agree with that assessment… Colonel, I confess myself disappointed.

Maybourne: I don’t understand how O’Neill slipped out from right under me.

Logan: Perhaps because you’re, oh, I don’t know, an idiot?

CSM: I have a shapeshifting alien ready and willing to hack off an arm.

(Maybourne pales at the idea.)

CSM: Oh, but I forgot, you already have one alien who isn’t very fond of you.

Maybourne: Don’t remind me.