“Absolute Power” ( 4 x 17 )

Oi, more corruption, yes? I thought we got enough of that from Kinsey. Oh well. Here goes!

We start out on Abydos (hey, haven’t been here in a while) and Kasuf is leading SG-1 through the desert. Apparently there have been some unusually strong sandstorms lately, and some believe it is “the gods” (AKA, the Goa’uld) returning. Suddenly, a sandstorm whips up into a tornado (why is this reminding me of The Mummy?) only to dissipate around the figure of a small boy.

It’s Shifu. The harcesis.

Oh snap.

They return to the Abydosian camp and Daniel tells them that the boy is, indeed, the harcesis… to the best of our knowledge, anyways. However, Shifu says that Oma (I’m assuming Oma Desala, from “Maternal Instinct”) taught him to forget.

Well. That’s tactically… unfavourable.

Anyways, they bring him back to the SGC, and just like Oma Desala, he speaks in these interesting riddle-metaphor things.

Dr. Fraiser takes a blood sample, and confirms that while the boy has been aged quickly due to the same kind of technology we saw in “Brief Candle” in season one, he has since stopped the rapid aging process. Hammond of course is most concerned with whatever knowledge Shifu holds, particularly the burden it must have on him.

(See? Total man of principle. But you know these guys. They’re all total suckers for small, adorable children. Cassie. Rya’c. Ally. Charlie. Hammond’s granddaughters.)

We’ve contacted the Tok’ra, however, and as we all know, they’re not quite as cautious, shall we say. They want to use the memory recall device on him, but Fraiser’s not too keen on that idea. After all, she’s been many times put in the position of having to sit back, frustrated, and watch her people get fiddled with by the Tok’ra. (I’m thinking “Upgrades”.) Jackson is of course the most opposed to it. In many ways, he still feels responsible for the child’s well-being.

At Hammond’s suggestion, Jackson goes and speaks with the boy, at first of the dream Sha’re/Amaunet gave him through the ribbon device. The kid’s smart, and even says this:

“Oma teaches, the true nature of man is decided in the battle between his conscious mind and the desires of his subconscious. Oma teaches, the evil in my subconscious is too strong to resist. The only way to win is to deny it battle.”

That makes sense. Basically, the only way to defeat that which was passed on to him as a harcesis is to ignore it. Daniel tries to get the boy to see his side, that this is how he honors Sha’re’s memory; by fighting the Goa’uld.

At last, the boy seems to concede, but then he lifts his hand, places it on Daniel’s forehead, and after a bright flash, Jackson falls over unconscious.

When he awakens, he’s in the infirmary.

…But he’s getting weird flashes of things like pyramid ships…!

Jackson thinks that he’s been given all these memories and images by Shifu, and quickly sets to the task of educating Carter in everything he knows: Goa’uld ship design, power systems, and the like. However, the visions are coming sporadically.

He ends up drawing out a satellite that could also function as a defense system. He’s arguing against having the Tok’ra help, but I’m a little worried it’s not our Daniel saying that. ‘Cause we all know who really doesn’t like the Tok’ra…

Teal’c comes in and is a little peeved – he wasn’t able to complete his kel’no’reem.

…And Jackson has a freaky vision of Teal’c as First Prime…

Turns out he just needed something translated, but he seems oddly distant. And not just from Teal’c. I mean from everyone.

Why do I hate where this is going?

Jackson has more or less started to lead this operation, but his sudden love of leadership strikes me as more than a little odd. That and his “personal requirements”? You know, the last guy with “personal requirements” stole your wife, man.

O’Neill’s the first one to confront Jackson on his weirdness. Daniel insists that it’s just that he has all this knowledge and he wants to put it to use right away. What’s worse, when Jack asks where Teal’c is, Daniel gives some very vague, “He’s on the mission I sent him on,” answers and brushes it off.

…And he has a vision of himself torturing Apophis with a ribbon device…

He wakes up in a big, fluffy bed, “One Year Later”. He has a huge mansion, personal security; the whole shebang. Carter wants to see him, but he won’t hear her out. It seems Shifu is now living with him. With Carter, who finally gets in to see him, she gets upset at him because apparently she’s become privy to some information no one was really supposed to know.

She ends up being thrown in jail, and O’Neill goes to see her. Jack more or less thinks that Daniel’s just got an odd way of going about things, but Carter believes he could be putting everyone at risk.

Gets worse. Apparently something happened to Teal’c.

Something bad.

Something that probably ended in something else that I don’t like to talk about.

THIS CAN’T BE REAL.

O’Neill goes to talk to Daniel, and Jackson wants him to see the launch. And, hey, Jackson has rings transporter technology in his house. Makes Bill Gates look so fail.

They’re taken down into an elaborate computer room. Mr. X, er, General Vidrine, rather, comes onto a screen and announces the countdown to launch. The satellites lift off, and it’s successful.

They crack open some bubbly and Jackson says that now the president is going to make the Stargate known to the world… but not quite yet. The Russians and Chinese have come across knowledge of these satellites and are about to attack them. But Jackson’s not backing down. He orders one of the Russian satellites destroyed as a demonstration of their power.

Okay, PAUSE.

This is why the Tollans never wanted to share technology with us. This is what they had feared when they had refused us all those times. They’d done it because they knew someone would try to just use it on-planet (which is bad). The United States just fired on another superpower with alien technology. So it begs the question if we’re fighting them or fighting ourselves?

Jackson, thinking that the president is being weak, cuts off Vidrine and takes total control of the system. (Yup, saw that coming.) He targets Moscow next, and Jack, realizing that he has no choice, pulls out a gun and fires –

- and the bullets ping off of a Goa’uld force shield.Well. That’s fun.

…And he fires on Moscow and wipes it off the map.

And he wakes up in the infirmary. In a coma!

Oh! That makes sense! Shifu must have basically done to Jackson what Sha’re had done to him in “Forever in a Day” in order to get him to see why they can’t have the Goa’uld technology secrets. They’re too dangerous; too corrupting.

“Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

In the Hangout, a Tok’ra has joined them (minus Daniel, since he’s in a coma right now), and indeed, the boy said he was “teaching Daniel”.

The Tok’ra hook him up to the za’tarc detecting equipment, and he answers the Tok’ra’s questions as cryptically as ever. Jackson suddenly shows up (hey, he’s okay) and understands what Shifu had meant about the evil being too strong to resist. He also understands why they can’t extract information from him.

The boy thanks Daniel for telling him about Sha’re, when he suddenly turns into a whispy light a la Oma Desala and flies out to the embarkation room. The Stargate engages, and Shifu bids them a silent farewell before vanishing through the ‘Gate.

Final thoughts… I’m not really sure what to say about this one. It’s another one with the theme of power, just like “Chain Reaction”, but on a larger, more deadly scale. I got most of my “why this is BAD” thoughts out in that paragraph further up about the Tollans, but it’s a scary thought nonetheless. I mean, Daniel is one of the nicest people on the series. He’s so understanding and open-minded, it just seems really out-of-character for him to do anything bad.

I suppose this also says something about the Goa’uld’s influence on people. In fact, if you think about it, this is the second time Daniel’s been influenced in one way or another by the Goa’uld… or their technology, rather. In “Need”, he displayed a similar arrogance and dismissal of authority when under the influence of the sarcophagus. This drive that the Goa’uld feel, then, must be quite intoxicating. Indeed, it seems like a personality change more than anything. His corruption was gradual but inevitable. I suppose the only good thing is that it never happened – not really, anyways.

I’d like to say something about our dear young friend Shifu, but I don’t quite understand it myself. Did Oma Desala grant him this ability to change form as she does, or did? She’s still such a mystery, as is Shifu himself. I guess I can only hope we’ll find out eventually.

REFLECTION/PREDICTION THINGY

(Jackson tells the rest of SG-1 about his dream.)

Jackson: …So, that’s pretty much it. I managed to build technology to fight the Goa’uld, and ended up firing it on a city full of millions of innocent people. (He sighs.)

Carter: …And also threw me in jail for trying to stop you.

Jackson: I don’t know, I just felt so paranoid all the time.

O’Neill: Hey, what about Teal’c? You didn’t mention him this whole time?

Jackson: Ah, yes, well…

Teal’c: I do not believe I wish to hear anymore than Daniel Jackson would wish to say.