Rite of Passage

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (Rite of Passage)

This suffers from an over-long mystery and another sci-fi trope, one that doesn't even reach its conclusion: I'm not saying I wanted Cassandra to turn into some terrible psychokinetic creature that could chuck people around with her mind (although…), but it was a relief that the episode didn't turn into a base under siege tale with her as the 'monster' they have to hunt down. The saving grace of the episode was the ending, but getting there was often a chore. I like old characters returning so of course it was good to have Cassandra back if nothing else than for Dr. Fraiser to get a storyline. Her care (and Sam's), of the refugee from another planet is played so real and strongly. I gather this was a different actress playing Cassandra this time, and the character's certainly aged since her first appearance in Season 1. It was nice to hear mention of that episode, one in which Sam risked her life to help this little girl even when it seemed she was going to destroy everything. That's probably an episode I'd reevaluate if I saw it again as I didn't particularly rate it, yet I still think fondly of it as something where Carter showed her colours.

Maybe I didn't rate the episode much for the same reason I don't rate this one highly: it took a long time to say what it wanted to say or do what it wanted to do. The series can be quite slow sometimes, and gets bogged down in its labyrinthine continuity - actually it's not so much labyrinthine as wide, with little or no recapping of past events that happened episodes or even seasons ago. I'm sure that's one thing people love about it, but unless you want to sit through the episodes several times you do forget exact details and I'd appreciate a bit of explanation occasionally. Case in point: Nierte. I remembered her, but didn't remember at what point she had last appeared; what season; what the story was; what her character means in this context.

I felt the character scenes worked in terms of showing the bond Janet and Sam have for Cassandra, and was at first intrigued by the mystery of the glowing handprint in the forest and the secret Goa'uld lab it 'Ringed' to. Later it was creepy to think that Nierte had been there all the time (when the weird POV came in I thought it was one of those invisible insectile creatures they faced a while back - see, I do keep continuity in my mind!), but after the initial interest it soon died down. I also found it hard to believe Nierte had been there ever since she'd been a captive of Cronus, that she'd returned there and waited until… what? Cassandra showed up? Did she know it was going to happen? How long did she have to wait? The story really didn't go anywhere until it became a question of a girl's life versus the valuable and potentially life-saving knowledge a Goa'uld captive could provide. If only this point had been reached earlier and there had been less build-up to Cassandra's changing which ultimately never happened, the episode would have been considerably improved.

I wasn't sure if she was going to die or leave, as I thought she was in more episodes, but I never really thought things would go back to normal. I was impressed to see Fraiser holding a gun against her enemy, though I thought she was going to help her escape in exchange for healing her daughter, which, in retrospect, was even less likely. It seemed like the coercion of the moment was lost once all those soldiers were aiming at Fraiser, and O'Neill or Hammond could have disarmed her at any time. It didn't seem Nierte would back down so easily, but maybe she saw it was the best course of action. On the other hand it could have been staged, though Fraiser would have had to be a good actor if she wasn't really Cassie's Mum. There was a good visual of Nierte flipping through the glass window, but the episode was mostly devoid of such excitement. It was a character piece which left things hanging too often, though with the occasional moment of warmth.

I wondered at their bargaining with someone who had seemingly killed one of the soldiers on the base. The guy's neck gets checked and the guy checking it shakes his head, which I took to mean he was dead, yet that's never mentioned. Is the life of a soldier not worth talking about, do we only care about girls? Another funny observation I couldn't help make was that the birthday cake candles which had been lit when Cassandra left the kitchen, had been blown out when Carter and Fraiser heard the boyfriend's shouts for help. Which one of them couldn't wait for her to come back? Not a bad episode, but a late-starter. I'm all for episodes about Fraiser and Cassandra, but let's have something more interesting than the poor girl lying in bed all the time while Janet looks on concerned.

**