“If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago.”
- Release Date: 25th February 2000
- Season 3
- Episode 20
- Director: Peter Woeste
- Writers: Robert C. Cooper
There’s an incoming wormhole and it’s friendly – it turns out to be Bra’tac and a badly wounded soldier. He has grave news – Apophis is still alive (again) and has ransacked Chulak. After discussing why he chose to do it – most Jaffa still worshiped him – they realise he was searching for something – his child (the one Daniel promised his wife to find). Bra’tac’s student dies and they start looking into where this mythical land of Kheb is. I immediately recognised the Jaffa student as Aaron Douglas (best known for Battlestar Galactica), and it’s always interesting to see someone like that in such a minor role.
Combining Earth and Jaffa legends, they manage to narrow it down to a group of planets, where Osiris hid from Setesh (I think this is the first mention of Osiris, we know Setesh is dead). Bringing them up on the Dialling computer, there’s one extra planet in that group, which was not in the Gou’ald cartouche, but was a planet Jack entered from the Ancient database. This is almost certainly Kebb – a place where one can journey into the afterlife.
SG-1 and Bra’tac head to Kebb, with another team staying by the gate as backup, as they search. Bra’tac does a phenomenal job tracking footprints they found and working out what happened: there’s a dead priestess, shot by Jaffa, but all the Jaffa are burnt to a crisp with no damage around them. They find a building off in the distance, which must be where they need to go. They head off and, once there, Daniel thinks they should enter without weapons, and Bra’tac agrees. Jack decides to keep his weapon.
Inside, there’s a lot of writing on the wall and a monk. He speaks in very cryptic ways, which Daniel and Bra’tac listen to carefully, but Jack has no patience for. Daniel wants to go along with this process, which has something to do with becoming energy – ascending to a higher plane of existence. The monk tells Bra’tac that he needs to shed his evil before he can continue, but he declines – he’s not ready to die as he still needs to win his people’s freedom and he’s not ready to give up fighting. Daniel carries on with the Monk.
Daniel learns how to control the elements, first by lighting a candle and then by telepathically lifting Jack’s weapon from him. A being called Oma Desala helps guide them though this journey, with her ideas told through the Monk. Jack is very impressed by what Daniel is doing, but Carter is skeptical, she doesn’t want to rule out that some kind of technology is behind it all.
A Gou’ald ship is spotted and it seems that a large invasion force is on the way. Luckily, only a small detachment of troops is sent at first, with Apophis himself nowhere to be seen. SG-1 prepares for an attack while Daniel walks though a wall and finds the child, with a glowing figure – Oma. Daniel picks up the child but realises something – he didn’t do anything himself, but Oma was doing it all for him. His lesson is realising that the child is much safer with Oma than on Earth.
SG-1 and the Jaffa are having a stand-off when the Monk gets shot and killed. Daniel comes out and tells SG-1 to lay down their weapons. Jack is hesitant but decides to trust Daniel. A cloud forms and lightning strikes the Jaffa, killing them all. A creature of light comes out of the monk’s body and floats off. Then Oma herself, as a form of light, leaves the temple and heads to the Stargate (Jack tells the backup squad to drop their weapons), taking the child with her.
This was our first look at ascension, and it leaves a lot of it in mystery. We don’t know what race Oma came from (although we do know later on), so there’s a lot left over. I am surprised that Daniel’s mission from Sha’re is over so quickly. The episode doesn’t have time to dwell on his purpose now, but it’s about time that Daniel was stepping through the stargate to help people rather than for his own personal mission.
