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I feel like I kinda missed the boat on LJ (what with infant distractions and all), but I'm starting up now. And what better time than just after Stargate SG-1 Ex Deus Machina!
Things I loved about this ep:
Baal! Agent Barrett returns (still hot for Sam and still getting slapped down). Angsty Teal'c. Team-iness! Everyone, heroes and villains and in-between (thinking Gerak in this category) not being stupid for a change. Some good out of the box thinking by Mitchell (the last few eps are demonstrating just how far inside the box Daniel is, don't they?). Mention of Cassie. Mention of the Tok'ra. The ending! Actually pretty much the whole thing, but especially the end. Baal mixing drinks! Baal in a mafia suit!
And did I happen to mention Baal? Yes, I can watch Baal smirk and listen to him deliver cold threats all day long. And now there's, what, four more of them? Double your pleasure, double your fun.... Squee!
Okay, fan girl moment's over now. Onto some slightly more thoughtful thoughts about the episode.
First, I am growing a bit more troubled by the writers apparent inability to figure out what to do with Mitchell. I understand that they wanted to distance him from O'Neill at first. Fine. But for an actor with top-billing and who can do so much more, I'm very puzzled by the little Browder gets. Vala is a far better developed character with a great deal more screen time than Mitchell, and she's not even around anymore. In this ep, though, it really struck me, because he was doing things that I didn't think were logical. Like tagging along after Teal'c? where's the sense of that? Daniel is Mr. Negotiator. He's one of two people who brought down Ra kicking off the whole rebellion, and, at a guess, one of the few Tau'ri that the Jaffa as a whole know. They don't know Mitchell, and have no reason to listen to him.
{snort!} Not that Gerak would listen to Daniel either, I'm sure, but it seems really pointless to send Mitchell. Mitchell certainly could have done what Daniel did to catch Baal. It seems more logical to me that a military officer be the one leading the invasion of the compound. Don't get me wrong, I like that he's a newbie to the whole gate thing, so, like Jonas did, he can come up with out-of-the-box solutions, like using the beam to take out the building (good idea, though not so much likely, and we'll see if that tactic ever occurs to anyone ever again). Anyway, we're seven eps in and I don't know anything more about Mitchell than I did from the first ten minutes of the first ep.
Second issue, Baal clones? Fan girl happiness aside, this is very intriguing for what it reveals about the Goa'uld, or at least Baal. He created four (at least) complete clones of himself in the space of less than a year. We're talking not just the Goa'uld (Baal himself), but curiously, also his host. Why does Baal care about his host? I've speculated in the past (and I've seen it in fanfic as well) that one of the things that makes the Goa'uld different from the Tok'ra, is that the Goa'uld are much more entwined with their hosts to the point where a very old Goa'uld might not even survive if removed from his host. The younger Goa'uld (say, Tanith, for example) or the Tok'ra, who don't use the sarcophagus, haven't been blended (ironically, a Tok'ra-ism) nearly as long. The very old system lords, such as Yu and Baal may have had the same host for as much as ten thousand years. While we know that Apophis' host still had some remnant of a personality (Serpent's Song, I think? one of those "serpent" episdoes anyway...) , he was also still at least four thousand years old from what he said. It makes sense that the Goa'uld must get attached, either physically or psychologically, to their host, otherwise they could just change when they find one they like better. But they don't. I can only think of two Goauld who changed hosts: Seth, who had to, since he had no sarcophagus access, and Cordesh, who was either a Tok'ra-gone-bad, a za'tarc, or perhaps a Goa'uld spy who replaced the original Cordesh (my personal theory), but in any case, had not likely had the host for very long.
But I am a bit disturbed that the Trust and/or Baal himself has the capability to clone entire humans (his host), plus a symbiote, in less than a year. I really hope this is a plot device that bears fruit later, because that sort of technology should be used for more mischief than just cloning Baal... Though if you've got to clone somebody, I'm okay with Baal. I've liked him as a villain since he was introduced.
Third -- none of the Jaffa Council seem very bothered that Gerak sends a huge warship to Earth (their supposed ally) and puts troops on the ground, without permission in secret. And this warship then threatens the "Prometheus" who is, in fact, guarding its homeworld. Gerak also threatened the "Prometheus" last week, but at least that was a Jaffa planet under attack. This time, Gerak's offending his allies for no better reason, really, than his own self-aggrandizement. Jeez, if this is what Earth's allies do, who needs enemies? I'd like to see a message from Earth that such behavior is not at all friendly nor acceptable. I have a hard time believing that Jack and/or the Hayes administration as we've seen in canon is okay with Gerak's actions.
I'll hope/presume Rak'nor was either also excluded or outvoted. But that reminds me -- where's Bra'tac? Did he die in Threads too and I missed it or something? 'Cuz somebody needs to give Gerak some pointers on how not to piss off all your friends. At least whats-her-name told him that the Tok'ra did their share of fighting the Goa'uld -- that was nice to hear a Jaffa say something actually complementary about the Tok'ra.
Fourth -- hm, Sam. Thank you for finally revealing at least one of the reasons for the changes between S. 8 and S. 9. Taking care of Cassie, very sweet. Although I'd like to hear more about Cassie's problem -- it was a year after Janet's death, more or less, so it's probably not related, except tangentially. What happened? Did she go off to college and get into some kind of trouble? But it was good to know she's still out there and that Sam was willing to move for her, to watch over her.
Lastly, the two burning questions of the episode:
What exactly does "not exactly" mean?
Since there are so many Baals now available, can I have one?
Tomorrow: my thoughts on Stargate: Atlantis: The One with Kaylee the Wraith!
If you come to the page, feel free to comment! I need to build my network! :)
Things I loved about this ep:
Baal! Agent Barrett returns (still hot for Sam and still getting slapped down). Angsty Teal'c. Team-iness! Everyone, heroes and villains and in-between (thinking Gerak in this category) not being stupid for a change. Some good out of the box thinking by Mitchell (the last few eps are demonstrating just how far inside the box Daniel is, don't they?). Mention of Cassie. Mention of the Tok'ra. The ending! Actually pretty much the whole thing, but especially the end. Baal mixing drinks! Baal in a mafia suit!
And did I happen to mention Baal? Yes, I can watch Baal smirk and listen to him deliver cold threats all day long. And now there's, what, four more of them? Double your pleasure, double your fun.... Squee!
Okay, fan girl moment's over now. Onto some slightly more thoughtful thoughts about the episode.
First, I am growing a bit more troubled by the writers apparent inability to figure out what to do with Mitchell. I understand that they wanted to distance him from O'Neill at first. Fine. But for an actor with top-billing and who can do so much more, I'm very puzzled by the little Browder gets. Vala is a far better developed character with a great deal more screen time than Mitchell, and she's not even around anymore. In this ep, though, it really struck me, because he was doing things that I didn't think were logical. Like tagging along after Teal'c? where's the sense of that? Daniel is Mr. Negotiator. He's one of two people who brought down Ra kicking off the whole rebellion, and, at a guess, one of the few Tau'ri that the Jaffa as a whole know. They don't know Mitchell, and have no reason to listen to him.
{snort!} Not that Gerak would listen to Daniel either, I'm sure, but it seems really pointless to send Mitchell. Mitchell certainly could have done what Daniel did to catch Baal. It seems more logical to me that a military officer be the one leading the invasion of the compound. Don't get me wrong, I like that he's a newbie to the whole gate thing, so, like Jonas did, he can come up with out-of-the-box solutions, like using the beam to take out the building (good idea, though not so much likely, and we'll see if that tactic ever occurs to anyone ever again). Anyway, we're seven eps in and I don't know anything more about Mitchell than I did from the first ten minutes of the first ep.
Second issue, Baal clones? Fan girl happiness aside, this is very intriguing for what it reveals about the Goa'uld, or at least Baal. He created four (at least) complete clones of himself in the space of less than a year. We're talking not just the Goa'uld (Baal himself), but curiously, also his host. Why does Baal care about his host? I've speculated in the past (and I've seen it in fanfic as well) that one of the things that makes the Goa'uld different from the Tok'ra, is that the Goa'uld are much more entwined with their hosts to the point where a very old Goa'uld might not even survive if removed from his host. The younger Goa'uld (say, Tanith, for example) or the Tok'ra, who don't use the sarcophagus, haven't been blended (ironically, a Tok'ra-ism) nearly as long. The very old system lords, such as Yu and Baal may have had the same host for as much as ten thousand years. While we know that Apophis' host still had some remnant of a personality (Serpent's Song, I think? one of those "serpent" episdoes anyway...) , he was also still at least four thousand years old from what he said. It makes sense that the Goa'uld must get attached, either physically or psychologically, to their host, otherwise they could just change when they find one they like better. But they don't. I can only think of two Goauld who changed hosts: Seth, who had to, since he had no sarcophagus access, and Cordesh, who was either a Tok'ra-gone-bad, a za'tarc, or perhaps a Goa'uld spy who replaced the original Cordesh (my personal theory), but in any case, had not likely had the host for very long.
But I am a bit disturbed that the Trust and/or Baal himself has the capability to clone entire humans (his host), plus a symbiote, in less than a year. I really hope this is a plot device that bears fruit later, because that sort of technology should be used for more mischief than just cloning Baal... Though if you've got to clone somebody, I'm okay with Baal. I've liked him as a villain since he was introduced.
Third -- none of the Jaffa Council seem very bothered that Gerak sends a huge warship to Earth (their supposed ally) and puts troops on the ground, without permission in secret. And this warship then threatens the "Prometheus" who is, in fact, guarding its homeworld. Gerak also threatened the "Prometheus" last week, but at least that was a Jaffa planet under attack. This time, Gerak's offending his allies for no better reason, really, than his own self-aggrandizement. Jeez, if this is what Earth's allies do, who needs enemies? I'd like to see a message from Earth that such behavior is not at all friendly nor acceptable. I have a hard time believing that Jack and/or the Hayes administration as we've seen in canon is okay with Gerak's actions.
I'll hope/presume Rak'nor was either also excluded or outvoted. But that reminds me -- where's Bra'tac? Did he die in Threads too and I missed it or something? 'Cuz somebody needs to give Gerak some pointers on how not to piss off all your friends. At least whats-her-name told him that the Tok'ra did their share of fighting the Goa'uld -- that was nice to hear a Jaffa say something actually complementary about the Tok'ra.
Fourth -- hm, Sam. Thank you for finally revealing at least one of the reasons for the changes between S. 8 and S. 9. Taking care of Cassie, very sweet. Although I'd like to hear more about Cassie's problem -- it was a year after Janet's death, more or less, so it's probably not related, except tangentially. What happened? Did she go off to college and get into some kind of trouble? But it was good to know she's still out there and that Sam was willing to move for her, to watch over her.
Lastly, the two burning questions of the episode:
What exactly does "not exactly" mean?
Since there are so many Baals now available, can I have one?
Tomorrow: my thoughts on Stargate: Atlantis: The One with Kaylee the Wraith!
If you come to the page, feel free to comment! I need to build my network! :)
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From:
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Your theory that the Goa’uld forms some kind of deeper physical bond with the host in order to more fully control the host is probably correct. Otherwise, why can’t a host take control temporarily while the goa’uld is asleep? All creatures need to sleep sometime, and the symbiote would be no exception. Does that make it more difficult to change hosts? Maybe.
Still, I tend to think that the main reason they stay in the same hosts whenever possible is to continue the illusion of being a god. You may have an exception with Bynar. Though he was Sokar’s servant, and his disfigurement was a punishment from Sokar for letting Jolinar escape. How would Sokar have reacted if he had punished Bynar and then the next day Bynar shows up in a new, perfectly healthy host? The result would probably be worse than living with only one eye.
Do Tok’ra truly blend? As Jacob said, “It’s complicated, symbiote and host.” He also says that a true blending never occurred with Jack and Kanan. Kanan just took over, and that’s not blending.
Some neurological blending at the very least would have to take place to give the Tok’ra symbiote the ability to control the body. They do remain two separate entities, with different personalities. Yet they ‘love as one and mourn as one’. I’m not sure the answer to that one, other than it is…complicated. It’s a fun one to explore though.