Once again, I watched this episode prior to blogging about it, and for that I kind of hate myself. Why? Because there was a huge cliffhanger at the end. So I’ll hop to it – this was intense!
We’re once again at the SGC base and we see General Hammond shredding all evidence of the Stargate project. O’Neill is, once again, trying to convince him that, “Hey, the Goa’uld are a huge threat and maybe we should not shut down Earth’s only defense against them!”
SG-1 is once again at the control room for the Stargate, and Teal’c is still planning on leaving
(NO, NO, YOU CAN’T LEAVE, TEAL’C, I WON’T LET YOU)
but Jackson is, once again, convinced of his alternate timeline experience and that the Goa’uld are still out there, at the other end of the coordinates. He thinks that they can stop them from that place, and Teal’c agrees that they would have the element of surprise on their side. O’Neill at last says that he will go to the coordinates, and the rest of the team agrees, against all regulations and despite the fact that they’re likely to be court-martialed the second they return.
They activate the Stargate and get through, since SGC was unable to stop them.
They go in with night vision goggles (man, the last time they used those it was “The Broca Divide” and we all know what happened then…) and find some crates with cool weapons! which Teal’c says are zat’n’ktel guns. O’Neill of course takes the easy route and has deemed them “zat guns”. One shot injures a person, a second shot kills them. Since Teal’c’s going through this I have a feeling we’re going to see more zat guns in the future.
There’s some kind of shift in the ground and Jackson tries to dial home, but since when has that ever worked? Indeed, it doesn’t.
The doors open up and about eight Jaffa Serpent Guards enter in and release some kind of sphere (SPHERE BUILDERS—Oh wait, this isn’t Enterprise) which hovers over the ‘Gate. They exit, and never spot SG-1. A very funny O’Neill line follows:
“I always get a happy, tingly feeling whenever I see those guys.”
“I always get a happy, tingly feeling whenever I see those guys.”
Ah, Jack. Always the joker.
Teal’c says that the sphere is sort of like a television, and O’Neill cracks another joke:
“Think it gets Showtime?”
(For those of you unfamiliar, Stargate SG-1 was originally aired on Showtime.)
They sneak out, and discover that there are even more guards in this facility. They sneak around (seems like they’ve got this spy thing down, no costumes required! (see “Bloodlines”)) and discover that…
…they’re not on a planet…
…they’re on a Goa’uld transport vessel!
Okay, this is awesome. This is so awesome. This is what I’ve been waiting for! We finally get to see the nuts and bolts and guts of a starship – ‘Gate Style! Their warp/hyper launch looks pretty sweet too. Not quite sure how that works, but it looks epic. So many colours!
Teal’c admits that he didn’t know they were even on a ship, but their collective musing is interrupted by one of the Goa’uld’s henchmen. We get to see the first shots from a zat gun (it’s like a blue-white electricity; very cool) and… oh, by the way, a third shot disintegrates a body. That’s fun.
Ever more Serpent Guards are assembling. At this point in time, Jackson realizes that they’re on the attack ship headed straight to Earth. Teal’c says that the ships aren’t supposed to travel more than ten times the speed of light. Judging by this, Carter says that they’ve got at least a year before they reach Earth.
So plenty of time!
…Why do I have a sickening feeling they don’t have a lot of time?
The team sneaks off to follow everyone, and they’re once more at the Stargate, where the TV-sphere hovers. It’s Apophis again. (Bleeehh! I hate your voice!! And you’re creepy!) He tells his troops that Klorel, his son, is to be their commander.
But who is Klorel?!
IT’S SKAARA!
Per usual, I hate where this is going.
O’Neill’s very upset over Apophis calling Klorel/Skaara his “son”. Teal’c and O’Neill go off to try and see if they can get the “old Skaara” back from inside, as he is the host. Carter and Jackson go to set C-4 around the ship (Fiona from Burn Notice would be quite proud of them) in case all fails and they need to get rid of the threat by any means necessary.
Teal’c and O’Neill manage to get into Klorel’s quarters and take out the guards with their zat guns. (Those are awfully handy little phaser-things!) O’Neill tries to get through to Skaara, but Klorel (the Goa’uld within) says that the host was weak and succumbed easily. Jack, of course, hates to hear this, and continues to try to get Klorel to let him talk to Skaara. He’s forced to shoot Klorel, and the pain is enough to get Skaara out. It’s so adorable, poor Skaara being so scared and O’Neill trying desperately to make him feel better, but it’s extremely short-lived. Just as Skaara is asking Jack to forgive him “for what we are about to do”, Klorel re-emerges and the Jaffa get in.
Teal’c still has a handle on Klorel, and says that if they kill O’Neill, he will kill Klorel. However, he thinks of Skaara, and lets the boy go. Klorel has them dragged back to the ‘Gate room to be presented to Apophis, where Jackson and Carter are still setting up C-4. They hide. They are presented, and O’Neill’s response is, “Hey Pops.”
Ah, goodness, I can never get enough of his snarky dialogue.
Apophis orders them both killed: Teal’c will have his symbiote removed (no..!) and Klorel get to choose how O’Neill dies.
However, perhaps something of the host does indeed survive… Just as a priest takes out a really, really nasty-looking, sharp object, Klorel orders them taken elsewhere. They’re once more in his chambers, and Klorel shows them a viewscreen, and they see…
…Saturn. Yup, our Saturn.
Skaara is going to make O’Neill suffer a far worse tragedy than death: He’s going to have to watch as his home planet is destroyed by the Goa’uld.
Back on Earth, a Sergeant speaks with Hammond, and states that they just caught “two large blips passing Saturn”. It’s only at this point that Hammond really realizes that Jackson was right. The battalion is coming. In fact, it’s here.
Jackson and Carter follow some Jaffa into an airwing, where they see them boarding the Death Glider planes. The troops are mobilizing and ready. They rush into the same room as Teal’c and O’Neill, and manage to gun down all of the guards. Klorel starts to basically drain the life out of Jackson, and while O’Neill is continuously screaming, “Skaara! Don’t!” it is to no avail. Not enough of the host survives to prevail despite his friend’s cries. He is forced to put two bullets in Klorel… and ultimately, in his friend Skaara.
Now, I don’t get why it had to end this way. Surely someone else on SG-1 could’ve pulled out their zat gun and just taken a single shot at Klorel? I presume that only O’Neill and Teal’c had their weapons taken away, if they did at all. (In fact I do think that Teal’c had his staff and zat gun taken away…)
Skaara emerges one last time to say O’Neill’s name, and takes his final breath. Teal’c paces to the window, and sees what they were all dreading:
Earth and its moon coming fast into view.
The camera zooms out to show not one, but two huge ships with weird pyramids on top and probably an arsenal of guns and the like.
This is serious business, guys. Earth’s in it deep this time, and for real.
Final thoughts…. Holy cow, what can I say? Skaara’s dead, and so is Apophis’ son… and thus the commander of the one ship. However, the troops are already prepped and ready to go down and start obliterating Planet Earth. SG-1 is stuck up top, and I seriously have no idea what they’re going to do now. The C-4 won’t do anything. The Death Gliders will be gone by then.
I truly have no predictions. I can’t think of any. Literally anything could happen in the Season Two opener.
Other than that… yay, warp-like technology and STARSHIPS!! I still find it crazy that the Goa’uld vessels could go faster than ten times the speed of light (isn’t that like, Warp 10, which is the speed they use on Star Trek to slingshot around the sun and time travel? Or is that referring to light speed to the tenth power..?) so maybe they were going, like I just said, light speed to the tenth power. Which would be crazy-fast. I thought the ships were weird (where’s the propulsion? Engineering? Et cetera?) but we really haven’t seen enough to discern.
I have my reflection to write on this season… and then it’s on to another adventure! Whooo!
REFLECTION/PREDICTION THINGY
The crew is screwed.
Jackson: Well, we’re screwed.
Carter: Totally screwed.
O’Neill: More screwed than a screw.
Teal’c: I must concur that these are unfortunate circumstances, indeed.
O’Neill: So you agree that we’re screwed.
Teal’c: ..Yup.
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