On rewatching SG-1 episode 111, "Bloodlines"
ooooh, "Bloodlines". Finally we get a Teal'c episode.
-- Nasty dream about prim'ta implantation there.
-- Shit, I'd forgotten all about this. They tried to take the symbiote out, because they don't know anything about Goa'uld or Jaffa biology at this point. And of course it didn't work, so Teal'c still has Junior. Oy.
-- And then he lies to Daniel. Hell of a start. OTOH, you can kind of understand his reasoning: it's hard to trust a guy who turns coat for you, if he leaves his family on the other side, in the hands of those you're fighting against. How can you not think they'll be used against him? Or against you?
-- And he's still not talking about it, instead gives Hammond a story about how they can get Goa'uld larva on Chulak for experimentation. Which, if you think about it, is kind of EW. Because as evil and crazy as they are, Goa'uld symbiotes are sentient creatures. It's not like experimenting on fruitflies. Anyway, Hammond doesn't buy that story, either--says it's too dangerous, and Teal'c gets up and leaves the briefing.
-- Eeeee, Tony Amendola in the credits! I saw him onstage a few years ago in a production of The Pillowman, where he was a corrupt and brutal cop, and man he was excellent. Despite my cognitive dissonance in seeing Bra'tac be so awful.
-- First look at Teal'c's candle problem? It's not as bad as it gets later, he's only got a dozen lit on the floor in front of him. (One has to wonder about the effect the candles have on the base HVAC system.)
-- But at least Teal'c comes clean with Jack right off. Jack is, understandably, surprised.
-- I like that Teal'c lays it out so clearly what the hold is the Goa'uld have on the Jaffa. And that it's institutionalized like it is, part of the maturation ceremony (presumably there's something similar for girls), makes it all the more powerful and difficult to eradicate. I mean, really: I think there's got to be a lot of Jaffa who would be just as happy to keep on with the symbiotes, so long as it didn't mean continuing to serve the Goa'uld. Which makes me wonder about some savvy late-season Goa'uld queen who cuts a deal with her Jaffa, rather than orders them around. Wouldn't that have been interesting?
-- Oh, Hammond. He's so completely awesome, because he will not allow SG-1 to bullshit him at ALL. And now he's going to take Jack aside and yell at him for a while.
-- Which, you know, Teal'c, if you just let Jack work on Hammond for a bit, but you had to jump the gun. Bad form! Although, go you with figuring out how the dialing computer works. Which is exactly the problem, as Hammond points out--Teal'c knows too much about the Tau'ri to risk getting captured on Chulak.
-- Hammond's decision is sort of like caving, but isn't actually. Because seriously, what are his options? (a) let Teal'c go alone: he dies or is captured, Earth is compromised. (b) don't let Teal'c go: next time they're offworld Teal'c sneaks off and goes to Chulak on his own, same result. (c) Don't let Teal'c go and confine him to the SGC, thus negating much of his value to the SGC. If they want to continuing using Teal'c as an asset, they have to send him back to Chulak with sufficient backup to get him home again. Hammond is a smart man, and a humane one.
-- You know what's even better than Teal'c figuring out how to use the dialing computer? When he shuts down the program, he uses the escape button. Heee!
-- Oh, lordie, SG-1 undercover as Jaffa priests. There is NOTHING about this that is not funny. IJS.
-- Oh, look! For once there's actually a guard on the Stargate as a matter of course! How seldom we see this as the series progresses (mostly, I assume, because it plays merry hell with plotting an adventure if you can't get more than twelve feet from the gate); I suspect that's the reason SGA got cloaked jumpers and orbital gates (although I still think the orbital gates were a VERY NASTY TRICK of the Ancients: I mean, can you imagine?).
-- And the producers still haven't figured out the forehead-tattoos, because this guy's got what looks like a foreign car insignia in silver on his forehead. It's certainly not Apophis' snake.
-- Okay, so they're going to go scouting around Teal'c's old stomping grounds, so they take off their costumes? That makes no sense. Other than the sense which is that they all look ridiculous with those peaked hoods.
-- Oh, Teal'c! Your house is all burned down! Sadness! Actually, Judge really does a wonderful job here, he's just shocked and broken. Which, you know, he rebelled against Apophis to save his family, really--and now he thinks they're dead and he's thrown away everything and gained nothing by it but his own freedom.
-- YAY Bra'tac! Bra'tac totally gets the jump on Jack. Which, given Bra'tac is easily three times Jack's age, is kind of awesome.
-- "Warriors of great skill and cunning," Teal'c says, and Sam gets all modest. Cute! But a bit over-generous, Teal'c. Well, except for Jack, who is a warrior of great skill & cunning.
-- OMG I'd forgotten Bra'tac bites Daniel's hand. Haaaa! "I could snap you like kindling!" (Which, you know, kind of an overstatement: Shanks isn't as buff here as he is later, but he's not a little guy.) And then Jack throws him, and he throws Jack, and it's a whole bonding thing.
-- So there was much talk in Chulak of the warriors of Earth, was there? That's not necessarily a good thing. SG-1 can't afford to get a rep yet.
-- Jack trying to be in charge! Hee!
-- Oh, Sam. You were under orders, but you were chafing at them, and here's your chance to justify those nice words of Teal'c.
-- Find it interesting that the outcast community shrieks and runs when Jaffa in armor show up. I suppose it's like cops in a homeless encampment? Without the due process requirements.
-- And Teal'c stops the implantation by killing the priest and the symbiote. Plus, we meet Drey'auc, who is Totally Pissed Off. For good reason. And OMG! It's Allison from Eureka! If I ever knew that, I had totally forgotten. Hah!
-- Now, this is interesting. Drey'auc asks how long he's held such heretical beliefs, and he says, "Since the Earth people opened my eyes," which is ... well. Not upheld by later-established canon. I suspect this is Teal'c shading the truth so it won't be so obvious that he wasn't very forthright with Drey'auc during their marriage.
-- That scene with Drey'auc is just raw compared with so much else on this show. You have to feel for her, as a mother who is paying with her own life and her son's for her husband's choices, decisions he never gave her a chance to participate in or influence. And of course we then learn that Ry'ac is ill, which was the entire reason for the abortive implantation.
-- Interesting how reluctant Jack is to commit to Earth medicine being able to heal Ry'ac. Whereas Daniel or Sam would be all over that, promising everything, Jack is a lot more careful here. Respecting Teal'c and Drey'auc's authority as parents? Operating in the knowledge that sometimes nothing you can do can save your kid? Dunno.
-- It makes NO SENSE that the tank full of larva is just out there in the middle of everything. They're infant forms of the gods themselves, right? Why are they not protected? Plot-devicium at work. But hey, they do hang a lampshade on it. As Daniel says, "Who on Chulak needs to steal one?"
-- Sam's disgust on grabbing the larva is awesome, but again with the inconsistent size--these are supposed to be the infants which are implanted into Jaffa, right? So why so big? Should be half that size.
-- And now we come to Daniel's fabulous and horrifying act of infanticide. Which is, basically, what it is. And then Sam very carefully takes the gun away. I wonder, looking at this, if Sam would have reacted differently to the question of killing the larva five years later, or even two. Because at this point she hasn't really seen the impact the Goa'uld have on human and Jaffa society in the Milky Way galaxy, and hasn't been held prisoner or been tortured by one of the System Lords. That sort of thing tends to muddy the waters.
-- I love (and hate) that there's an accepted protocol in Jaffa society for a father to give his son his own symbiote. Except poor Teal'c, because (again) it was all for naught: he implants Ry'ac, as would have happened if Teal'c had never come back at all.
-- Sam and Daniel, on the run from Jaffa! Wow, she's a good hand with a grenade.
-- Daniel's all, "well, we got this extra symbiote, you want it?" Hah! And Bra'tac, who is supposed to be the free-thinker, is SHOCKED that they stole from the temple.
-- Oh, poor Teal'c: I think that although he didn't want to die, he really liked not having a symbiote, even if just for a few hours. He is so horrified when Bra'tac takes out the new one. (And Jack is just totally grossed out.)
-- And we have a nice bit of reconciliation between Teal'c and Drey'auc, which is nice, given that he's running off and leaving her in a bit of a tough spot.
-- OMG I love Bra'tac. He just rolls right over Jack. Which, you know, is the same thing that Jacob does later, although Jacob/Selmak at least makes a pretence of listening to Jack first. Bra'tac just ignores him. It's really pretty awesome.
-- "You were once the greatest Jaffa warrior of all." Oh, someone is going down for that "once". Hah. Bra'tac is, indeed, a BAMF.
-- I love that image, with Teal'c so upright in his armor and SG-1 beside him in front of the open wormhole. It's the final image in barkley's gorgeous Teal'c vid, Gortoz A Ran. Which y'all ought to download and watch, if you haven't.
-- That was a pretty solid episode. We got a lot of interesting character development for all the Jaffa, including Drey'auc (who deserved more attention of the show than she got), some solid information about Jaffa society and the biology of the Goa'uld/Jaffa relationship, fun character interactions -- esp. Jack and Bra'tac -- and Daniel showed, for the first time on the show, how dangerous he really can be.
-- So what's up next? Oh, "Fire and Water". Daniel gets to die while the team watches! That's always fun.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.
-- Nasty dream about prim'ta implantation there.
-- Shit, I'd forgotten all about this. They tried to take the symbiote out, because they don't know anything about Goa'uld or Jaffa biology at this point. And of course it didn't work, so Teal'c still has Junior. Oy.
-- And then he lies to Daniel. Hell of a start. OTOH, you can kind of understand his reasoning: it's hard to trust a guy who turns coat for you, if he leaves his family on the other side, in the hands of those you're fighting against. How can you not think they'll be used against him? Or against you?
-- And he's still not talking about it, instead gives Hammond a story about how they can get Goa'uld larva on Chulak for experimentation. Which, if you think about it, is kind of EW. Because as evil and crazy as they are, Goa'uld symbiotes are sentient creatures. It's not like experimenting on fruitflies. Anyway, Hammond doesn't buy that story, either--says it's too dangerous, and Teal'c gets up and leaves the briefing.
-- Eeeee, Tony Amendola in the credits! I saw him onstage a few years ago in a production of The Pillowman, where he was a corrupt and brutal cop, and man he was excellent. Despite my cognitive dissonance in seeing Bra'tac be so awful.
-- First look at Teal'c's candle problem? It's not as bad as it gets later, he's only got a dozen lit on the floor in front of him. (One has to wonder about the effect the candles have on the base HVAC system.)
-- But at least Teal'c comes clean with Jack right off. Jack is, understandably, surprised.
-- I like that Teal'c lays it out so clearly what the hold is the Goa'uld have on the Jaffa. And that it's institutionalized like it is, part of the maturation ceremony (presumably there's something similar for girls), makes it all the more powerful and difficult to eradicate. I mean, really: I think there's got to be a lot of Jaffa who would be just as happy to keep on with the symbiotes, so long as it didn't mean continuing to serve the Goa'uld. Which makes me wonder about some savvy late-season Goa'uld queen who cuts a deal with her Jaffa, rather than orders them around. Wouldn't that have been interesting?
-- Oh, Hammond. He's so completely awesome, because he will not allow SG-1 to bullshit him at ALL. And now he's going to take Jack aside and yell at him for a while.
-- Which, you know, Teal'c, if you just let Jack work on Hammond for a bit, but you had to jump the gun. Bad form! Although, go you with figuring out how the dialing computer works. Which is exactly the problem, as Hammond points out--Teal'c knows too much about the Tau'ri to risk getting captured on Chulak.
-- Hammond's decision is sort of like caving, but isn't actually. Because seriously, what are his options? (a) let Teal'c go alone: he dies or is captured, Earth is compromised. (b) don't let Teal'c go: next time they're offworld Teal'c sneaks off and goes to Chulak on his own, same result. (c) Don't let Teal'c go and confine him to the SGC, thus negating much of his value to the SGC. If they want to continuing using Teal'c as an asset, they have to send him back to Chulak with sufficient backup to get him home again. Hammond is a smart man, and a humane one.
-- You know what's even better than Teal'c figuring out how to use the dialing computer? When he shuts down the program, he uses the escape button. Heee!
-- Oh, lordie, SG-1 undercover as Jaffa priests. There is NOTHING about this that is not funny. IJS.
-- Oh, look! For once there's actually a guard on the Stargate as a matter of course! How seldom we see this as the series progresses (mostly, I assume, because it plays merry hell with plotting an adventure if you can't get more than twelve feet from the gate); I suspect that's the reason SGA got cloaked jumpers and orbital gates (although I still think the orbital gates were a VERY NASTY TRICK of the Ancients: I mean, can you imagine?).
-- And the producers still haven't figured out the forehead-tattoos, because this guy's got what looks like a foreign car insignia in silver on his forehead. It's certainly not Apophis' snake.
-- Okay, so they're going to go scouting around Teal'c's old stomping grounds, so they take off their costumes? That makes no sense. Other than the sense which is that they all look ridiculous with those peaked hoods.
-- Oh, Teal'c! Your house is all burned down! Sadness! Actually, Judge really does a wonderful job here, he's just shocked and broken. Which, you know, he rebelled against Apophis to save his family, really--and now he thinks they're dead and he's thrown away everything and gained nothing by it but his own freedom.
-- YAY Bra'tac! Bra'tac totally gets the jump on Jack. Which, given Bra'tac is easily three times Jack's age, is kind of awesome.
-- "Warriors of great skill and cunning," Teal'c says, and Sam gets all modest. Cute! But a bit over-generous, Teal'c. Well, except for Jack, who is a warrior of great skill & cunning.
-- OMG I'd forgotten Bra'tac bites Daniel's hand. Haaaa! "I could snap you like kindling!" (Which, you know, kind of an overstatement: Shanks isn't as buff here as he is later, but he's not a little guy.) And then Jack throws him, and he throws Jack, and it's a whole bonding thing.
-- So there was much talk in Chulak of the warriors of Earth, was there? That's not necessarily a good thing. SG-1 can't afford to get a rep yet.
-- Jack trying to be in charge! Hee!
-- Oh, Sam. You were under orders, but you were chafing at them, and here's your chance to justify those nice words of Teal'c.
-- Find it interesting that the outcast community shrieks and runs when Jaffa in armor show up. I suppose it's like cops in a homeless encampment? Without the due process requirements.
-- And Teal'c stops the implantation by killing the priest and the symbiote. Plus, we meet Drey'auc, who is Totally Pissed Off. For good reason. And OMG! It's Allison from Eureka! If I ever knew that, I had totally forgotten. Hah!
-- Now, this is interesting. Drey'auc asks how long he's held such heretical beliefs, and he says, "Since the Earth people opened my eyes," which is ... well. Not upheld by later-established canon. I suspect this is Teal'c shading the truth so it won't be so obvious that he wasn't very forthright with Drey'auc during their marriage.
-- That scene with Drey'auc is just raw compared with so much else on this show. You have to feel for her, as a mother who is paying with her own life and her son's for her husband's choices, decisions he never gave her a chance to participate in or influence. And of course we then learn that Ry'ac is ill, which was the entire reason for the abortive implantation.
-- Interesting how reluctant Jack is to commit to Earth medicine being able to heal Ry'ac. Whereas Daniel or Sam would be all over that, promising everything, Jack is a lot more careful here. Respecting Teal'c and Drey'auc's authority as parents? Operating in the knowledge that sometimes nothing you can do can save your kid? Dunno.
-- It makes NO SENSE that the tank full of larva is just out there in the middle of everything. They're infant forms of the gods themselves, right? Why are they not protected? Plot-devicium at work. But hey, they do hang a lampshade on it. As Daniel says, "Who on Chulak needs to steal one?"
-- Sam's disgust on grabbing the larva is awesome, but again with the inconsistent size--these are supposed to be the infants which are implanted into Jaffa, right? So why so big? Should be half that size.
-- And now we come to Daniel's fabulous and horrifying act of infanticide. Which is, basically, what it is. And then Sam very carefully takes the gun away. I wonder, looking at this, if Sam would have reacted differently to the question of killing the larva five years later, or even two. Because at this point she hasn't really seen the impact the Goa'uld have on human and Jaffa society in the Milky Way galaxy, and hasn't been held prisoner or been tortured by one of the System Lords. That sort of thing tends to muddy the waters.
-- I love (and hate) that there's an accepted protocol in Jaffa society for a father to give his son his own symbiote. Except poor Teal'c, because (again) it was all for naught: he implants Ry'ac, as would have happened if Teal'c had never come back at all.
-- Sam and Daniel, on the run from Jaffa! Wow, she's a good hand with a grenade.
-- Daniel's all, "well, we got this extra symbiote, you want it?" Hah! And Bra'tac, who is supposed to be the free-thinker, is SHOCKED that they stole from the temple.
-- Oh, poor Teal'c: I think that although he didn't want to die, he really liked not having a symbiote, even if just for a few hours. He is so horrified when Bra'tac takes out the new one. (And Jack is just totally grossed out.)
-- And we have a nice bit of reconciliation between Teal'c and Drey'auc, which is nice, given that he's running off and leaving her in a bit of a tough spot.
-- OMG I love Bra'tac. He just rolls right over Jack. Which, you know, is the same thing that Jacob does later, although Jacob/Selmak at least makes a pretence of listening to Jack first. Bra'tac just ignores him. It's really pretty awesome.
-- "You were once the greatest Jaffa warrior of all." Oh, someone is going down for that "once". Hah. Bra'tac is, indeed, a BAMF.
-- I love that image, with Teal'c so upright in his armor and SG-1 beside him in front of the open wormhole. It's the final image in barkley's gorgeous Teal'c vid, Gortoz A Ran. Which y'all ought to download and watch, if you haven't.
-- That was a pretty solid episode. We got a lot of interesting character development for all the Jaffa, including Drey'auc (who deserved more attention of the show than she got), some solid information about Jaffa society and the biology of the Goa'uld/Jaffa relationship, fun character interactions -- esp. Jack and Bra'tac -- and Daniel showed, for the first time on the show, how dangerous he really can be.
-- So what's up next? Oh, "Fire and Water". Daniel gets to die while the team watches! That's always fun.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.