The end is so near! Just three episodes until the fifth season arrives! And perhaps the Tau’ri will become the fifth race! And we’ll find our fifth Waldo! And O’Neill will eat five pieces of cake in one sitting! And Daniel will die/nearly die for the fifth time! (Actually, I don’t there have been five times yet, but it went with the theme.) …Or I could just watch this episode, write my silly little blog, and get it over with!
The episode starts off with the MALP being sent through the ‘Gate to a very technologically advanced world. It’s supposed to be related to the Ancients, but nothing’s familiar to any of them. Suddenly, the MALP seems to lose control and starts to fly around the planet. It suddenly cuts out visual… and suddenly all the computers go nuts.
Everything in the control room goes haywire, so Teal’c and O’Neill do an emergency shut-off of the system and… well, let’s hope this works.
(Stargate, it’s a great big world… with a great big swirl…
I’m no longer fast-forwarding through the opening now.)
Carter has a bad burn on her hand, but Fraiser wants to check the rest of SG-1 out. They begrudgingly go there, but frankly, the computers are worse off than the people…
…And they’re starting to do some funky things… As are the security cameras… And the MALP…
(Why is this reminding me of Replicators? And the Borg, for that matter?)
Jackson and Carter have figured out that something did indeed come back through the MALP’s radio signal and has accessed information on their computers..
They all talk about it at the Hangout, at we’re assuming this is some kind of probe. Fraiser looks at the readings and they remind her of an EEG. Suddenly, the lights shut off, and the camera focuses in on Jack. It seems to be learning about them. That’s never bad, right?
(No, WRONG, remember Nomad, from Star Trek? They all thought that was just fine. And what do the Borg do? They LEARN. And what do the Replicators do? They LEARN. And then they all TAKE OVER.)
They do a systematic shut down of everything but the emergency lights… but that lovely little MALP has just plugged into one of the lights. Got a bad feeling about this…
They go to the room where the MALP is stored… and it’s fused.
From the inside.
They used a torch to get it open, and SG-1 goes inside. They find the MALP hooked itself into some kind of supercomputer. O’Neill wants to blow it up, but Jackson argues that it’s an intelligent lifeform, so they’re not ethically allowed to just put down some C-4.
Carter decides to try and communicate first. If it doesn’t work, O’Neill can just cut the cable that’s keeping it alive. It suddenly starts to spark on her hands, and when Jack finally clips the cable, she’s been knocked out. They rush her to the infirmary, but something’s not quite right…
The computer virus is, in fact, inside of her.
She opens her eyes, and while she can’t speak, the entity in control could maybe use a speech synthesizer.
Jackson, O’Neill, and Teal’c discuss what’s just happened, and the latter two agree that it probably would have been better to just blow the thing. Daniel, however, still argues that Carter wasn’t necessarily wrong to try and communicate with it. He clearly values the life of another just as much as one of his own. It’s a noble mindset, but it definitely puts the needs of the many over the one.
The entity has learned to use a speech synthesizer, and “talks”, as it were, with Jack. The entity is convinced it is one and the same with Carter, but O’Neill tries to argue against that notion. It’s an invader, nothing more, to him. The entity insists that it had nowhere else to go…
…And then we get into tricky business.
The entity had recognized that Carter was important to Jack. That’s why it chose her body. By using her, it took advantage of his feelings.
(…Well, crap. Nice going, choosing the one woman he’s in love with.)
Okay, well, while this is certainly interesting, especially considering the whole Jack/Sam thing that’s often beneath the surface, I think it could’ve worked for any of the characters. I mean, geez, the SGC is like one big giant dysfunctional family, and SG-1 is closer than any of them. I feel like this is just a way to give Jack some extra emotional turmoil. Besides, Carter has that cute haircut and those big, soulful blue eyes. You can’t really resist the eyes, even when she’s taken over by a freakin’ computer.
Fraiser thinks that Carter’s mind is all but lost, though the entity insists otherwise.
Jackson goes to talk to it, but before O’Neill can follow him out, Hammond stops him and tells him this:
Hammond: “Jack, we may have to make some difficult choices. I know that Major Carter means a great deal to you.”
O’Neill: “She is a very valuable member of my team, sir.”
Hammond: (with a knowing look in his eyes) “Yes, she is.”
And they have this moment where it seems like Hammond knows everything about how they feel about each other. Well, I guess not everything’s a secret here at the SGC…
Jackson talks to the entity, and it offers information in exchange for its host. When he insists they just want it to leave, the entity says that it can no longer be stored in the MALP system it had created. It turns out that when they sent the MALP, it damaged some of its world.
And now it’s here to destroy that which damaged it.
While Daniel’s trying to reason with it, Jack’s trying to scare it into leaving. The entity pleads for survival, and eventually seems to cave under his threats. It escapes from the infirmary, SG-1 in hot pursuit.
It somehow connects Carter’s body into the computer systems, and Jack takes one shot with the zat at her… and with a pained look in his eyes…
…takes another.
Oh crap crap crap GET A CRASH CART DON’T JUST STAND THERE STARING AT HER BODY.
We’re back in the infirmary, and she seems to be alive, but she’s on a ventilator. (Whew! Guess that the second shot doesn’t automatically kill.) Fraiser tells Jack that there’s no brain activity.
“I think it’s time to let her go, sir.”
O’Neill insists they wait a little longer, not quite ready to do so.
Suddenly, the computers start to go a little nuts… There’s a repeating message on the MALP room computers:
“I AM HERE.”
Jackson figures out that it’s Carter – the entity died, but it had transferred her consciousness to the computer mainframe first. They hook her up to the computer, flip the switch…
…and the computers go dark.
And Sam’s back!
Final thoughts… Okay, is it just me, or did that seem a little too easy? All they basically did was hook her head back up to the computer, flip the switch, and she seemed fine once she got her mind back. But I suppose it’s no less out-there than the Beliskner being able to travel really long distances in no time at all and a series of stable wormholes connected like telephones.
I’m most curious as to how the entity knew that Carter would be the one to try to communicate with it. I mean, it could’ve just as easily have been Daniel, or maybe some other technician. Now, as I stated earlier, I don’t think if it had been anyone else they would’ve tried any less to get it out… but from a writer’s standpoint I can see why they would choose her. The whole Sam/Jack thing hasn’t really been touched upon much since early in the season, except maybe in “Beneath the Surface”.
What kind of disturbed me, that said, was Jack firing the second zat shot. I’m just sure he did it knowing that they may have not been able to get her back. I suppose it begs a lot of questions… was she already more or less braindead when the entity entered her? Did O’Neill feel that, had she died by his weapon, it would have only been her body, since they thought her mind to have already been gone?
However, it’s a solidification of what I’ve always kind of suspected about the colonel: The mission comes first. He wasn’t going to compromise the entirety of the SGC for one person; even one he cares very, very deeply for. In that sense he’s a very logical person. You could see the pain in his eyes (nice work there from RDA) but also the sense of duty. That’s one of the things I actually like about this show. Especially in the case of O’Neill, he’s not afraid to be a headstrong soldier when he needs to, for better… or for worse.
REFLECTION/PREDICTION THINGY
(“You Were Right”)
Daniel Jackson hesitated on the threshold of the locker room, once again concerned about the wisdom of this course of action. But he couldn’t just let him stay in here and beat himself up for the next several hours. It wasn’t doing anyone any good, especially not the colonel himself.
Sure enough, he found Colonel Jack O’Neill sitting on a bench, staring at a locker, short, silver hair dripping. Judging by the towel lying next to him on the bench, he’d started to dry off, got pants on, and then simply become lost in his thoughts. His expression was elusive at best; despondent at worst.
Daniel cleared his throat, but received no response from his friend. He eventually walked over and sat down next to him. “Jack-”
“You were right.”
He blinked at the interruption. He cast a confused glance at the older man. “S-sorry, what? Right about… what?”
“Carter. The computer thingy. Trying to talk to it.” He waved a hand vaguely through the air, as if encompassing everything that had happened. Jack’s head lifted, but he still didn’t meet the archaeologist’s gaze. “Besides, if it hadn’t been her, it could’ve been… anyone else.”
Daniel fell silent. He wasn’t so sure he agreed with Jack’s assessment of his actions. In some ways he thought maybe he’d been a little bit too curious. More than once the fact that he had indirectly encouraged Sam to try and communicate back with the entity had crossed his mind. His blue eyes went to the floor until Jack spoke up again.
“How is she?”
“Sam? She’s, uh…” He sighed, mind going back to the infirmary he’d just left. “She’s okay. Weak, but her vitals are good. Teal’c’s with her now.”
“That’s good. He’s a good guy.”
“She wants to see you, Jack.”
The colonel at last met his eyes, but there was a dull chill to them Daniel didn’t much like. “Daniel, I shot her with a zat gun. Twice. I screwed up today.”
“And… and you think she cares? Jack, everyone screws up. But you’re more than just her commanding officer; you’re her friend, her…” His voice trailed off as the uncomfortable topic was narrowly avoided. “…It doesn’t matter. But if you think sitting in the locker room, mentally beating yourself up about a decision you made for the good of the SGC when there was no other option readily available is going to help her, then… I’m sorry, but you’re wrong there.”
Jack gave him a strange look. “You know something, Daniel? You’re a pain in the ass sometimes.”
His eyebrows lifted at the statement, feeling a ‘but’ in there.
“…But you’re a really smart pain in the ass.”
Daniel felt his spirits lift at the wry smile Jack managed to give him, and gripped his shoulder briefly. The colonel grabbed his shirt and pulled it on, rubbing his hair with the towel once more before stuffing everything in.
“Do you think the commissary’s still open? I’ll bet all Carter really needs is some cake…”
Air Force rules said Major Fraiser had to report the confession she heard in Divide and Conquer. Therefore, Hammond has always known what was said, and the only people who left it in the room were Jack and Sam. A number of die-hard shippers insist Fraiser wouldn't tell, but given that all three characters are portrayed as good officers, I don't think she would violate the rules.
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