Endgame

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Endgame)

The Stargate gets nicked. A pretty intriguing, high concept prospect and one that gave us a good mystery to keep us guessing, while keeping a couple of story-lines hopping along rather well. On one side of it we get a humorous little opening where Walter and a fellow 'gate technician are on the night shift when the 'gate gets stolen and wonder if they're going to be held responsible (Daniel remarkably jokey when he interviews them considering how vital the Stargate is!), which turns into a mission to track it down, while on the other side, Teal'c continues to meet with Jaffa groups and is trapped when Earth fails to respond to his messages. Teal'c's story is a tragic loss of Jaffa life when the mysterious thieves of the 'gate use it to send through anti-Goa'uld toxin originally developed by the Tok'ra, massacring millions, both loyal Goa'uld and symbiote-bearing Jaffa, and because of recent tensions with the Tok'ra, they immediately fall under suspicion. We get to meet a subordinate of Baal's, Zarin, who's actually a Tok'ra agent that has worked her way up the ranks, but her cover's put in jeopardy when Teal'c and fellow survivor M'kel, get 'captured' in order to make contact with the Tok'ra through her. It's a shame someone in such deep cover is killed after the latest planet chosen to attack with the chemical weapon is the one Teal'c's on. He's immune, no longer having a symbiote, but all around him, guards and M'kel alike are instantly affected, and his friend's sudden death is all the more poignant when the last words he utters are that he dies free.

Small solace, but it shows how awful the tyranny of the System Lords is that their servants would find some kind of peace in death. It's not like M'kel was a particularly important character, but he'd been in it once or twice before, and was a familiar face, and it's a harsh irony that only a short time ago, Teal'c would have succumbed to the poison along with the rest of them. It's fortunate that he was able to dial Earth in time to sway the hand to hand battle between Daniel and Carter on the one side, and members of the Trust on the other, killing the main guy, Hoskins, with a staff blast, though Brooks manages to steal away Osiris' abandoned al'kesh ship. At least the Prometheus was able to rescue the Stargate, Sam and Daniel, before that happened. For it was the shady Trust, ex-NID agents gone rogue, that were behind the light-fingered lifting and the diabolical full-scale chemical warfare. We get a sense of the devastating effects of such nerve gas early on when Daniel, Sam and a team of soldiers mount an attack on a Trust location, and the crossfire breaks the deadly vials. It's chilling when Sam says it's too late, there's nothing they can do, and they're resigned to sudden death - if it hadn't been exclusively fatal to symbiote's they would have been killed with nothing they could do about it.

There are a few brushes with the deadly in the episode: Sam is offered the chance by Hoskins to lower the risk of their collateral damage to innocent Jaffa when she's held captive on the ship by giving them the locations of Goa'uld-heavy planets, and for a moment you could almost see the gears turning in her head, whether or not it would be a better way than their systematic annihilation of all Goa'uld planets. But of course she wasn't going to participate in genocide, whatever the rationale, despite the fact that many of them were sworn enemies of Earth, with fealty to evil leaders. It's not necessarily a good thing to kill off all the Goa'uld anyway, since there would still remain Anubis' Kull Warriors to deal with, and they'd be sure to be immune from such poisons. O'Neill also has to carry the can with some tough decisions: Pendergast, commanding the Prometheus, wants authorisation to fire on the al'kesh, but he hesitates, knowing Sam's up there, as well as Daniel, and in this case the slow response proves vital, as the pair are able to overpower Hoskins and Jennings in time - you'd think they would have simply gone after Brooks and taken control of the ship as that would have been simpler than sending out a signal to the Prometheus, but in the heat of the moment, and not knowing if there might be other Trust members aboard…

There's some interesting interplay with dodgy English scientist, Dr. Bricksdale from Area 51, who cries crocodile tears when he's caught, apparently terrified the Trust will kill him if he talks, but it soon becomes clear it's the money in his secret account that matters to him, and he soon perks up and is most cooperative when he's offered a deal to keep it! It's a shame they didn't bring back the other characters from the recap, reminding us of Erica Durance's part in 'Affinity,' and Colson from 'Covenant,' as well as Osiris, though didn't she die? I can't remember. The Alpha site (headed by Colonel Pierce), is a good concept that is given greater importance in this story as it's an alternative address Teal'c can get to when Earth is inaccessible. It's kind of creepy to think that it's so separate from Earth, except for the Stargate, and that Earth may have been compromised from their point of view. But it inspires the imagination a little to think that there could be other human outposts connected to Earth out in the galaxy that would mean humans would live on, even if Earth was destroyed. There's also some pretty good action, such as Hoskins and his flight from the authorities, blasting doors open with a rather nifty automatic which was so powerful I wasn't sure if it was a real world weapon or something designed with alien technology - it certainly made mincemeat of the doors, and had a stinging barrage of sound to put off pursuers!

Things end on an ominous note, with the knowledge that the Trust are in control of an al'kesh and plenty more biological weapons, if not the means to easily send them to multiple planets. And Jack's decision to hold off from firing proves right, but it's fortunate it did, as they could have handed over the 'gate to the Trust permanently. It's a sobering final scene, without the usual jollity among the four of them, with only a slight smile of relief on O'Neill's face when he turns to leave. Though he wasn't much in evidence he had plenty of dramatic weight to his role, and you wonder if he wishes he could just get back in the field when life and death decisions were more personal. But once again it shows the team working well together and is a satisfying episode that deals with a number of issues and plot threads without getting too convoluted. And though it's light on humour, given the serious nature of what's going on, the technicians' discomfort (not to mention the preceding scene where Walter tries to make the night shift seem excitingly essential), and Jack's line about just because he doesn't have any ideas, doesn't mean he has to do something, then pausing as if he's said it wrong, retains lightness. And Carter looks pretty cool running round in a leather jacket packing a zat!

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