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DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Threads)

A surprise feature-length episode that could easily have finished out the season (or even the series in many ways - it almost feels like a short notice series finale would have given us), but which is really the third part of the 'Reckoning' two-parter, yet is more epic and momentous than either of those. It deals with big themes, important passings, as well as little personal details, that it's really a dramatic conclusion without being one. In the best tradition of the series, it's weird! At first I groaned inwardly at the word 'Excerpts' in the opening post-credits, as I couldn't believe this was going to be a dreaded clips show. But it wasn't, that was merely referring to the opening montage that brings us up to date on various themes that would be dealt with by the episode. What it becomes is a huge question mark over SG-1: is this to be the breaking up of the team after all these years? We have O'Neill getting involved with Ms. Johnson of the CIA, then there's the issue of Teal'c's involvement with the 'Free Jaffa Nation,' Bra'tac putting him under pressure to give up his place with the Earth people, after they've been awarded the highest honour of 'blood kin to all Jaffa,' Daniel's trapped in a kind of Purgatory between death and ascension (that reminded me very much of the way the Q portrayed their existence to small-minded humans on Trek), and Carter's trapped in a seemingly inevitable tumble into a marriage she doesn't really want. What is to be left of SG-1?

By the end, things are about as good for them as can be: Anubis has been dealt with (in a manner not dissimilar to the solution of Lazarus on 'Star Trek,' who chooses to hold his opposite self in eternal battle to save the Universe), things are somewhat resolved, and all the gang are back together again, sitting by O'Neill's pond, enjoying some fishing. It feels like we've gone through the wringer in the course of the episode, despite nothing much physically happening - it was all questions and ponderings, yet it was more interesting than ten big battles might have been. Political wranglings suggest this would have been just as well titled 'The Aftermath,' since there's so much to be done following the Jaffa's hard fought battle for Dakara and their freedom from oppression. Anubis hadn't been defeated, just momentarily held back: Baal himself says that the Jaffa cannot be trusted anymore. They can't even trust each other, which is why it's so important to Bra'tac that they unite in common quest to strike at Anubis' forces while he's on the back foot. The old regime has crumbled, the galaxy-destroying weapon is in the hands of the 'good guys,' but that's the Jaffa, not humans or Tok'ra, and neither are happy about it, causing friction.

While all these allegiances are working themselves out, more crucial character moments play, with Jacob admitting to Sam that Selmak, his symbiote, is about to die, taking him with it. I'd completely forgotten that he died, and maybe they could have wrung a little more emotional juice out of it, considering how long the character had been in the series, but despite the sixty-three minute running time, it was difficult enough to cram in all there was. Mainly due to Daniel's trials in an ethereal diner, the white-glowing haze and choral music denoting an out of body experience. It flips back and forth to this spot perhaps a little overmuch, but at the same time that long period spent there was necessary to drive home the shocking truth: big 'Jim,' the only one of 'The Others' in this waiting area (a couple of which are actually Ancients), who is willing to talk to Daniel, along with the real Oma, is revealed to be Oma's personal mess, the whole galactic struggle a result of her mistake in helping a devious Anubis to ascend, and for which she has been paying penance ever since, forced to keep from interfering while the nasty villain does his worst on our galaxy, and it's Jim, the man himself! What a great twist, and the first time Anubis has been a character more than a concept. We learn so much about the reasoning behind Oma and why Daniel chose not to ascend last time. The big weapon at Dakara is apparently responsible for creating life in the galaxy (or recreating it after 'the plague thing,' whatever that was), and so it will be possible for Anubis to use it in an ultimate, destructive way.

Oma chooses to permanently fight Anubis, which, while not killing him will, will keep him firmly occupied. Of course, with Anubis out of the picture, Baal (having had to face his dark master's knowledge of his betrayal and sentenced to see his galaxy annihilated, in quite a calm way for a System Lord), can now take command of the Kull army, so it's not going to get any easier, just less simple in that the galaxy isn't due for a wiping out! We don't get any explanation of how Daniel turns up back at the SGC at the end, but I suppose that's not really important, what is, is that the team are back together, for now. The political ill will is resolved by the realisation by the Jaffa that the weapon must be destroyed before anyone else gets their claws on it, Bra'tac lives to fight another day (I thought they might be wiping the slate clean and killing off the major recurring characters, what with Jacob buying it), and the Tok'ra (or some of them), pay their last respects to the dying Jacob. But most integral to the series, certainly as a running theme of recent seasons is the situation regarding Jack and Sam.

Her Dad knows the real layout of how things stand, and so does Ms. Johnson (a one-off character, just here to show that O'Neill has moved on from Carter, knowing things will never work out since she was just about to marry Pete). I just knew that Johnson was going to come out of the house right at the moment Sam was about to spill her guts to Jack, and it was so. Pete gets let down as lightly as he could, which is to say she doesn't make a lot of sense, but I suppose such things are never pleasant. At least she did what Dad said, and didn't give up on what she really wanted. For a while there it looked like it might be the worst day of her life: cancelling a planned marriage to a devoted husband who doted on her, then her Father dying out of the blue. But O'Neill and her other friends are there for her to lean on, and it's such a peaceful, charming and serene final shot of the episode, and perfectly played with the line about "There are no fish in this pond, are there?" from Carter! O'Neill had been trying to get her to go there for years, and now they're there, all of them, the big challenges and major galactic events forgotten for a moment where our team can rest, relax and recoup. It's a great ending. Just a shame we haven't reached the end of the season yet, as who knows what is still to come?

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