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pizza-angel-come-to-me · 2 months ago

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Stargate rewatch: 2x02 - In the Line of Duty

Finally, we get a good Sam-centric episode!

Written by Robert C Cooper and directed by Martin Wood, absolute stalwarts of the show, setting up some pretty foundational lore.

We cold open on this funny little guy, in-media-res as the team is mid-rescue of an unknown populace of indeterminate origin, although based on the costuming and all the red-headed extras, I'm guessing they were going for a Celtic-inspired culture, even if this dude's beard and mustache are giving Edwardian.

Daniel rescues the man we will later find out was held as the host of the Askrak- badly burned, Daniel says to the medic "he's alive but I think he's going to wish he wasn't" - the irony being that after everything that happens, SG1 are going to be the ones who wish he wasn't.

Meanwhile, Sam is performing CPR on the man who was the unknowing host of Jolinar, who jumps into her.

It's a great opening, actually.

Briefing scenes get a lot of grief but this is a particularly good one - we get exposition on the background to the attack, but Daniel is absolutely correct there was a reason the Goa'uld attacked the Nasyans, and Jolinar knows that she was the reason but needs to deflect suspicion. We think the reason Sam is cold to Teal'c is because she's a Goa'uld, and even though we find out later that the Tok'ra are different, they still have a certain superiority and condescension/resentment towards Jaffa so it still makes sense. This tension will be mined effectively in later seasons.

We also see Jolinar doing a pretty good job of emulating Sam, and yet not quite getting it right. It's a great performance by Amanda Tapping playing Sam, Jolinar, and Jolinar pretending to be Sam.

A note on pronouns - in this episode Jolinar is referred to a "he" because they were originally inhabiting a male host and everyone (including Sam) just assumes the symbiote is also male. We find out later that symbiotes (presumably, other than queens) don't really have a gender, but can have a preference as to the gender of their host, and use the corresponding pronouns. It is revealed in a later episode that Jolinar prefers female hosts and is thereafter referred to as "she" so I will use she/her in this post and going forward.

None of this was controversial in the 90's, I don't recall it ever even being discussed in any way other than pertaining to continuity. If the show had come out today social media and youtube would probably be covered in "woke agenda" ragebait. Sometimes a show being a product of it's time can had positive implications as well as negative ones.

There's a nice touch in the scene between Dr Frasier and Sam, the post-mission protocols we never need to see but know must happen offscreen, with Janet checking the back of Sam's neck but of course finding no implantation scar because Jolinar entered through her mouth/back of the throat.

There's some really effective dramatic irony at play here where we know Sam isn't Sam but the characters don't, and yet we don't know that Sam had been taken host by a Tok'ra and not a Goa'uld. Lulling the audience into thinking they know what's going on only to reveal they actually don't can be very effective storytelling.

The Nasyans have been taken to the US Air Force Academy hospital - I suppose it was necessary as they needed medical care the base couldn't provide, but where are the quarantine protocols? What's the security clearance level of this facility?

Janet's assessment of burned man from the cold open hints that something is off as he's still alive after third degree burns to 80% of his body with no signs of infection. We see Sam clock him but it's unclear if she suspects he's host to the Ashrak.

Cassie returns and since she once had a naquadah bomb in her heart, can sense the symbiote in Sam. This is sadly the last time we'll see Katie Stuart as Cassandra, and the character won't reappear at all until season 5 - it's a shame since as Janet's adopted daughter and her closeness to both Jack and Sam she really could have been utilised more.

Jolinar threatens to kills her if she tells anyone, playing into our knowledge of how a Goa'uld would act, but with the benefit of hindsight an indication that while the Tok'ra aren't evil like the Goa'uld, they're not particularly nice either. Doubtless Jolinar never intended to follow through on her threat, but that's hardly the point.

Would she have let off the grenade in the gateroom however? The standoff is ended when the tranquilizer kicks in.

There's a nice Jack and Teal'c scene where Jack is clearly struggling with the situation - he's already lost his surrogate son and best friend to Goa'uld possession, now he's facing losing a member of his team, and we get glimpse of his and Teal'c's relationship as well, where in the same situation Sam might try to comfort him and Daniel might try to get him to talk it out, Teal'c instead gives advice and a harsh but necessary truth: "When you speak to her, do not see your friend."

Meanwhile, Daniel talks with Talia, the wife of Jolinar's previous host. She's played by Judy Norton, who was apparently Mary Ellen on The Waltons, a show I've heard of but never watched.

The facial decoration/tattoos the Nasyans have also kind of resemble a Celtic knot design. Or they could be an extrapolation of Nordic runes.

Daniel is particularly sympathetic because of Sha're, but his personal investment also tends to make him push a bit too far, as we've seen before. It is revealed however that Jolinar was lying dormant for months which is the first clue all is not as it seems.

You might wonder why Jolinar buries the lede on the whole Tok'ra thing, but I think it makes sense - the Tok'ra a secretive by nature and necessity, and Jolinar most of all given her work as an infiltrator and spy, she did not want to reveal her true nature unless she'd tried everything else first.

And try she does - it's unclear whether the glimpse of "Sam" we see is actually Jolinar allowing her to come though or a feint - I lean towards the latter because "Sam's" pleading doesn't seem like how she would act and she calls him "Jack" which she wouldn't do.

Next up is Teal'c - with Jack she tried to barter with Sam's life and the promise she would leave her as a host, with Teal'c she reminds him of the threat the Goa'uld pose and the help she could give them. It's only when that doesn't work she reveals her name and that she is a Tok'ra.

"It seems this Jo-linar is wanted in Gould town." The way RDA delivers dialogue is just chefs kiss.

There's a nice little transition of Daniel's reflection in the briefing room glass, as he points out they don't know what the Ashrak looks like, to the reflection of the Ashrak disguised as a doctor in the Air Force hospital. I see you, Martin Wood, and I appreciate you.

Daniel is deep in his feelings as he goes to see Jolinar but acting very deliberately, not looking at Sam-as-Jolinar and trying to be businesslike by claiming he only came to get a description of the Ashrak - Shanks always brings the subtext to his performance which I appreciate. It's also interesting that Daniel brought Teal'c for support - or maybe Teal'c took it upon himself to be that support for him.

"I will know his face only in the moments before he tortures me to death" is a great line, Tapping does a fantastic job of distinguishing Jolinar's dictation and cadence as different from Sam's.

Daniel tries so hard not to be affected by her (admittedly reasonable) arguments, keeping himself a step removed, until he can't anymore, stepping closer and finally making eye contact to address Sam and say he's sorry. And that's when Jolinar knows to bring out her big guns - she knows where Sha're is.

I think we're meant to believe Jolinar here, and based on what's to come, can assume that she knows Sha're is on Abydos which is what fits the timeline (I know there's a tie-in book that implies otherwise but I haven't read it). It does make me wonder how Jolinar knew where she was - perhaps she was a spy in Apophis and Amaunet's court?

It is interesting the different ways she tries to manipulate the team - with Jack she is borderline disdainful, refusing to answer questions but making promises, to Teal'c she gives orders but does reveal her identity knowing her it would mean more to him, and with Daniel she plays to the personal, dangling what she knows he wants most. Jolinar accurately pinpoints these three men, their relationships to Sam, and the information they'd be most receptive to. It's really well done.

However it's clear that Jolinar does not completely understand human nature or how to best get what she wants from them - if instead of promises and the insistence on blind trust, she had given them some information in good faith, for example told Daniel where Sha're was rather than hold the knowledge hostage, they may have been more willing to treat with her. You give the chocolate bar to get invited to dinner, you know?

But it's worked on Daniel at least, even though he agrees with Jack that Jolinar is playing on his greatest weakness, he points out that they have no other way of saving Sam. Teal'c supports him, although how much this is rational and how much is due to his own compromised emotions when it comes to Sha're is debatable.

LOL, Daniel removing his glasses to make an impassioned point is such as tv production the-glasses-are-reflecting-in-camera thing you just have to go with, since as a glasses wearer myself it’s not a thing that happens irl.

"I will never, never trust a Goa'uld." Heh, this line has some irony going forward.

Security at the SGC is terrible - a failure at the checkpoint doesn't set off a an alarm, really? This very high value prisoner being guarded by two men, and anyone with a keycard can access the cell? Especially when they know the Ashrak is on the loose.

The Askrak kills Jolinar, Teal’c kills the Ashrak, but now Sam has to live with the trauma of the symbiote dying inside her.

This is a great episode, and at least we do see at the end that Sam doesn’t just snap back to normal but struggles deeply with what she went though. Even though Jolinar was a Tok’ra, she still took Sam as a host without consent, trapped and suppressed her mind within itself, and bargained with her friends for her life. It’s Goa’uld coded behaviour! For Jolinar the ends justified the means and perhaps Sam understands that, but it’s still a massive violation, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Sam is forever changed by this experience down to a cellular level.

But you know my favourite thing about this episode? It doesn't revolve around Sam's love life - sadly this will not be the case for most Sam-centric episodes going forward.

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