“We can’t let the bugs get a foothold in our galaxy. These things are relentless.”
- Release Date: 29th June 2001
- Season 5
- Episode 1
- Director: Martin Wood
- Writers: Brad Wright, Robert C. Cooper, Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
Starting immediately after the end of the previous episode, SG-1 and Jacob are on a Gou’ald ship, stranded in an unknown galaxy with Apophis’ much larger mothership bearing down on them. Jacob attempts to reason with Apophis – saying that they’re both standard and might find a way home if they work together – but he’s having none of it. Daniel still attempts to surrender, but Apophis says he just wants to kill them (they did just destroy his entire fleet). Yet, there’s no weapons fire.
When Apophis’ ship finally does fire, it goes above SG-1’s ship and towards another ship that has appeared. With Apophis and this new ship exchanging blows, Jacob uses the opportunity to slip away to work out their next move. They hide in the radiation of the nearby star, giving them time to repair various systems, but also having no idea what’s happening outside the safety of the sun. While they wait, Jack and Daniel have a chat about what happened with Teal’c.
At Stargate Command, the Tok’ra visit to inform Hammond that the plan was a success, except that SG-1 seem to have also died in the explosion and the only person escaping was in a single-person pod. The Tok’ra consider Selmak and Jacob to be war heroes, but Hammond isn’t ready to give up on SG-1 just yet – they always find a way to beat the odds.
The hyperdrive is shot, but weapons and shields are up and running. They head out and the sun’s radiation and find Apophis’ ship damaged and the unknown ship is nowhere to be found. With Apophis not responding, the plan is to head over, try to take control and, if not, grab some crystals to fix the hyperdrive. Daniel stays behind to keep an eye on the ship while Jacob heads to the bridge and Jack and Sam go to find the crystals – all whilst an announcer is counting down a self-destruct.
As Jack and Sam are heading to the engine room, they hear a mechanical noise. An eerily familiar mechanical noise – replicators (I guess they’re possibly in the Asgard galaxy). They warn Jacob (who has also encountered replicators) and that they need to leave. As they can’t shut off the self-destruct, Carter rushes to get the crystals and they make it back just in time. Jack and Jacob have another petty argument about who was right, but are interrupted when another ship is detected.
It’s a Gou’ald cargo ship, and Teal’c is on board, saying that a few sympathetic Jaffa helped him out after Apophis resurrected him, although I have no idea how such a small ship survived the explosion. They let him land onlt to have Teal’c disarm Jack. It turns out he’s been brainwashed and is working for Apophis once more, who also steps out from the cargo ship. Teal’c claims he was undercover for Apophis the entire time, and ignores Jack when he mentions that it makes no sense. SG-1 are thrown in a cargo hold while supplies are unloaded. The tops of one of the crates melts.
Apophis claims the bridge, sets a course for his base (still a hundred or so years away) and sends Teal’c to capture Jacob, which he does so right after Jacob opens the door to the cargo hold with SG-1 inside. They’re all forced in while Teal’c shoots the control panel that Carter was trying to tamper with. They all get locked away while Teal’c heads off. Apophis encounters energy issues and the ship comes out of hyperspace. Teal’c is sent to check it out and replicators are found. Teal’c is ordered to attack and when Teal’c points out that it’s useless, the order is kept, with Apophis sneaking back off to the bridge.
In the cargo hold, the door opens and a replicator heads in, looking around. SG-1 and Jacob use this as an opportunity to escape, they realise that they’ve had a lot of time to build up. To escape, they figure they can use the cargo ship that Teal’c brought, but they also want to capture him and try and fix the brainwashing. Teal’c is trying to fight through the replicators to save Apophis, and gets some human weapons as he knows they work. Jack manages to shoot him and they take him back to heal, but also tie him up.
As they’re about to leave, the ship goes back into hyperspeed, which prevents them from leaving. They check out what’s going on and discover that the ship is going hundreds of times faster than it should, heading to the previous coordinates of Apophis’ base. Jacob is pleased as they can jump ship when they leave, but Carter points out that letting the replicators form a foothold in the galaxy would be disastrous.
As the self-destruct no wonder works, they want to try a plan similar to what helped them wth Thor’s ship – making them crash into a planet. If they can take out the sunlight engines, the ship won’t be able to slow down enough. While this is happening, Apophis gets cornered on the bridge. They head to the engine room and wait for the ship to leave hyperspeed before shooting the crystals and fighting their way back to the cargo ship, heading off as soon as they’re back.
We see Apophis with his shield on with replicators crawling all over him. He looks out the window, realising that it’s finally his time – there’s no avoiding this death, as the ship crashes into the planet. Jack goes to check on Teal’c, but Jacob warns that getting his mind back won’t be easy. Jack tells Teal’c that Apophis is dead (for real this time) but Teal’c just says that Gods can’t die.
A great start to the season, and an interesting final death for Apophis – just mostly forgotten about while SG-1 are dealing with a bigger threat.
