Dial the Gate: Metamorphosis
redial_the_gate does Metamorphosis this week. Back to eps I haven't seen yet in S6! I go into this one knowing that Nirrti is creepier than usual (and dies), Jonas' DNA is somehow funky (I think), and Sam almost dies (and Daniel doesn't show). Also, I am relatively certain that dear Doctor Gillian and others like Chocolatekettle react to this ep the way poor Abbyssis and Ultranos reacted to Red Sky. :) No real discussion, just liveblogging the episode. Onwards!
Aha! The famous Lieutenant Rush! :) And Jonas looks awfully cute here. Dimples in fine form. Although Sam's incredulous eye roll at his lame line had me giggling! But seriously, this whole scene is adorable: the comfortable banter between Sam and Jonas, his trying to claim cultural assistance and Sam calling him on it... ::squishes both of them::
Ooookay, and typical Jack-Russian hostility. I don't buy that the Russian team gleefully flaunts protocol just to snark at Jack. I'm sort of hoping that this guy (yay Janet for asking him directly if he's in pain instead of sitting back and watching the posturing!) has somehow influenced "Sergei" (his real name? with Jack it's hard to tell) into bringing him back when he wouldn't normally do so. And heelllooo, George, this is NIRRTI. As in, planted a bomb in Cassie's chest? Forget routine protocol: you DO NOT ALLOW anyone who's been tampered with Nirrti onto Earth if you can help it.
Poor Sergei, stuck with the "as you know" exposition, telling Hammond and SG-1 what they probably told him in the first place. Also, the thickness of the Russian accent is a little over the top.
It took someone this long to mention Cassie? Good grief. Although yes, Sam explaining the story of Cassie to Sergei does make sense for exposition, just as when the team explained the Foothold aliens to Jonas.
...The guy just turned to water, and no one wonders if it's in any way contagious?
I have to say that Jack's hostility to the Russians is getting... kinda old? Maybe that's not fair. But he's been dealing with the Russians, one way or another, for two years now. He should be more professional about this, as George (who has just as many bad associations) is being. OTOH, it may just be tiresome cliche shorthand from the writers of the "insert conflict here" variety. ...Nah, we never see shoddy writing, do we? ;)
Out of curiosity: does someone who speaks Russian know if the dialogue is a spoof like the stuff from Small Victories, or the real thing?
Ah, Jack, you're such a showoff with that single shot. :)
I know the scarring and maiming is supposed to evoke pity, but all I can think of is lousy Star Trek alien prosthetics.
"Uh, might've been a different Ellabran." Oh, Jack, you are so bad at this.
Ancient doohickey!
So... mind reading, then? Y'know, SG-1 has been through enough by now to take that possibility seriously.
Hok'taur, yeah. So how come Ellabran didn't have any of it? Also, I'm kinda impressed that they scanned SG-1 well enough to recognize that they need to take not only their weapons, but also their radios.
Do Sam and Jack still get working radios for any reason other than the general dramatic tension of it all?
Rings! Yay Sam getting the jump on the Jaffa. But while yes, it's wise to take their weapons, standing right on the ring platform when someone else might ring in at any moment is not brilliant.
Heh. Wasn't expecting the invisibility bit. Interesting that Nirrti is so paranoid that she uses invisibility in what she expects to be the inviolate sanctuary of her own fortress.
I... don't remember Nirrti being more into skimpy black leather than the usual gold/jewels of the regular Goa'uld fetish. Or is black leather just the "in" look for Season Six, whether you're Tau'ri or Goa'uld?
Okay, see, this is why I like Nirrti as an enemy: she enjoys staging scenes like an unconscious Sam with a weapon aimed at her head. That's Goa'uldish, thank you.
The bullet tinkling to the floor was kinda neat.
Interesting that Jack denies wanting to kill Nirrti.
Oh, Jack, something tells me that they're not quite familiar with old Superman serials. And Jonas suggesting helpfully that it's just that they don't know what a locomotive is definitely made me grin. :)
Love Jack insisting that he should be next.
Why not suggest that they, y'know, read Nirrti's mind? Or is she savvy enough to build a failsafe to prevent that?
AHA. Now, see, this is on my canon vs. fanon list, and here it is for the first time ever: a Goa'uld suggesting it wants a member of SG-1 as a new host. Of course, the hok'taur business is involved here too, so it's not the same as the regular fanon anyway, but still. One point in fanon's favor!
Okay, I'm guessing that Sergei is going to die, but what about the rest of his team? Ah, they made it back to Earth. But I see he's not sweating profusely like the poor guy who turned to water, so maybe he'll live after all?
Poor Sam is having a really bad day. And so is Jack, watching his people get hurt.
How did they not know what Jonas planned? Last-second impulse?
So Jonas has super!DNA, then? Less for the machine to do? As an explanation for why he can hold his breath so long and has an eidetic memory...? Y'know, I genuinely like the guy - I think that's pretty obvious by now - but that was something we could've done without, I think.
Now, see, Jack also wonders why the guy doesn't read Nirrti's mind. Smart!Jack, wheeee!
"Get some rest. That's an order." Aw, Jack. Although from the expression on his face, I don't think he quite expected her to use his shoulder for a pillow. ;)
How come Sergei (I know it's not fair to keep calling him that, but I can't remember his real name) didn't get all shiny and sweaty before, er, dissolving?
I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS CANON. :D A team member tossed into a Goa'uld's boudoir? And AGAIN with making poor Jonas into not!Daniel with a female Goa'uld chasing after him? Sigh.
I am totally waiting for Jonas to try and break her neck. And he is SO BAD at pretending to be tempted. :) And being threatening, for that matter. He's been with Jack O'Neill all this time and hasn't even mastered Taunting Goa'uld 101 yet? I'm disappointed in you, Jonas!
OTOH, I am always pleased when they remember that a Goa'uld is supposed to be powerful, so getting knocked to the floor by a backhand makes lots of sense. Not yay for Jonas getting hit, but yay for them remembering.
What in the world does Nirrti actually want Jonas for? I'm confused. If she can break his DNA code or use it to make others hoktaur, why does she need Jonas himself to be cooperative?
Goa'uld eyeflash! 'Bout time. :)
"She just killed a good man." Ah, thank you, Jack. Sergei deserves that. Does this mean we don't get any more anti-Russian vibes from Jack after this? I'm trying to remember if he was hostile in Lockdown to the idea of a Russian in general or just the idea of a Russian wanting a place on his old team. Certainly he works very very well with Chekov in Full Alert.
I wonder if the machine will read Jack's DNA as being Ancienty?
"If you could look into her mind for a split second, you'd want to do the same for what she's done to your people." I like this angle Jack is taking - making it personal not for themselves, but for their people. Like Jack's anger over what happened to Cassie rather than what she's done to him. Very very good tack from our master strategist.
OH MY. Is the mind-reading guy Alex Zahara?! When we get that profile look at him... I think it is! Hee! Who wins the Most Frequent Guest Star Award, him or Dion Johnstone? I'll bet aurora_novarum knows! :)
Okay, so they're killing Nirrti and it's all drama and choking and all that, and all I can do is giggle at her POINTY WICKED WITCH SHOES. :D
Sam's look at Jack when he says, "Hail Dorothy" is just... Gotta say I agree with her. It was a powerful line when he said back in Seth; here it's kinda silly.
So, the end of another Goa'uld. A bit anti-climatic, but nicely ironic in that she's hoist on her own petard and all that. And I am vaguely interested in looking back at her behavior in Singularity and wondering why she actually thought it was worth destroying a generations-long project for the sake of a single booby trap against the Tau'ri. It seems a tremendous waste of what she would most likely look upon as a resource (human beings) and unlike the Goa'uld who tend to think in long term rather than for immediate benefits. Any suggestions on explaining why Nirrti made that choice back in S1? Even villains ought to have a reasonable explanation for their behavior.
Also, I am now wondering why so many people choose this incident to wonder about - why Daniel didn't show. Um, when should he have done so? Sam wasn't alone, ever, and didn't need the kind of not-quite-nudging that Daniel could give.