“The people of this town are behaving strangely … even for humans.”
- Release Date: 12th July 2002
- Season 6
- Episode 5
- Director: Peter DeLuise
- Writers: Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
We open with a man called Richard Fleming making a call to Carter in the middle of the night. He claims he knows what happened with her and Adrian Conrad (where they tried to study her so they could use a Gou’ald to heal him and then remove it) and that the project wasn’t shut down when he was taken into custody. He said he needs protection when the call ends.
In a briefing, Carter tells them about him, with Joanas giving some details he read in a magazine, although you can see him regret talking about it almost immediately. When Carter mentions Adrian, Jonas pretends to not know who he is. Fleming has gone missing after his car was in a crash, and Hammond thinks it’s worth investigating and has arranged transport for the three of them – Jack has chosen to stay with the Tok’ra until a new host is found for Kanan, who Jack was implanted with in the previous episode. After the briefing, Carter tells Jonas that he lied about not knowing about Adrian and he explains he doesn’t want to be seen as strange (or a know-it-all, I guess).
The three of them are sent to the town of Steveston and I think it’s quite hilarious. It’s a mission on Earth and two out of three members are from other planets. While it’s not really believable, it’s great to see this trio working off each other. Jonas starts taking photos while Carter speaks to the sheriff. He makes it sound like he doesn’t want to go against Adrian’s company (this one called Immunitech) and that Fleming’s lab was destroyed in a fire, which is highly suspicious. She decides to check his house.
The house has been completely cleaned of any papers, and the computer has been wiped. Luckily, a courier turns up with a package and it seemed Fleming posted it to himself to escape the house search. In it is a syringe, perhaps the super drug Adrian was trying to create. They send a sample back to Stargate Command for Fraiser to analyse. At night, the townspeople gather in a barn and the leader says they’ll have to deal with the newcomers if they discover anything.
In the morning, any attempt at getting information from the company, workers or townsfolk have completely failed. While sat at the diner, Jonas observes that everyone is acting strange, as though they’re all half asleep and are barely functioning. They get a message that the sheriff wants to talk to them.
He tells her that the fire at the lab was definitely arson, and that another researcher vanished before Fleming. He hands Carter some documents that might be helpful. She takes them to Joana and Teal’c and discovers they ordered a lot of stem cells, which could potentially be used to make clones.
That evening, Jonas and Teal’c head to a bar, where they discuss living on Earth and not being given time off base to get used to the culture. Teal’c mentions he plans on going home once everything is over, and Jonas mentions he’ll probably never be allowed to go home. Some very unfriendly bar patrons tell them they’re in their seats. A fight nearly breaks out when the Sheriff interrupts. After Jonas and Teal’c leave, the sheriff wants the patrons to not jeopardise their mission.
In the morning, back at the diner, they spot the angry man from the bar. Jonas apologies, but he seems to have no memory of the incident. As they head outside to discuss it, they notice someone watching and following them. They comfort him and find out he’s a security guard, who says he thinks Fleming was murdered. He explains that Fleming asked for a gun for protection and said that the people after him only come out at night.
The trio discuss what this means, along with the strange bar activity. Jonas says that perhaps the people they met were clone doubles, but Carter says that clones would be newborns. Carter mentions that the town itself has been through a lot. Their shipyard closing was a major blow, now the lab being destroyed is putting their future in jeopardy – this makes Jonas think of something.
Jonas had previously noticed tyre tracks leading to the shipyard, so they investigate. It seems a lot has been going on, with strange schematics. They find that the villagers are building a ship – but it’s a space ship. They take the disks back with them to their motel room.
Carter stays to try and break the encryption in the disks while Jonas and Teal’c spy on the shipyard. We see the sheriff fall asleep and wake up again, then the villagers descend on the shipyard. Carter breaks the encryption and finds hieroglyphs, letting the others know that these people are Gou’ald, which were cloned from Adrian’s symbiote. Before they head back, they get arrested by the deputy, and villagers start approaching the motel, with Carter injecting herself with the syringe that they found earlier.
The people arresting Jonas and Teal’c reveal themselves to be NID (led by Agent Cross), and Teal’c realises they’re waiting for the ship to be complete. The agent explains that while they didn’t cause this to happen, they’re taking advantage of the situation. These Gou’ald are immature, which is why they can only take over when the host is asleep.
Carter is taken to the sheriff’s office where she is implanted by one of the Gou’ald. When the NID reach the motel, they realise that Carter has been taken. Jonas tells them to bring a team in as the operation is compromised. The call is made, but they all get captured.
They wake up to find Sam looking over them. The NID agent is implanted with a Gou’ald and they discuss their plan – the townspeople will get detailed while Cross infiltrates the NID and implants more Gou’ald. They ask if Teal’c and Jonas should be used but Carter shows that Teal’c is Jaffa and says that Jonas is an alien that nobody trusts. Killing them is a better option.
As Cross meets up with the NID team, Carter approaches, explaining to him that she can infiltratiate Stargate Command – not part of the plan, but a good idea. As they let their guard down, Carter zats them.
Back at Stargate Command, Carter explains that the cloned Gou’ald had a biological kill switch, and that the syringe was essentially a vaccine against it (it wouldn’t help with regular Gou’ald), so the Gou’ald died and she was able to play along. The civilians are all cured and are none the wiser.
While some aspects don’t make much sense, Carter, Jonas and Teal’c make for an amusing trio and it’s an interesting X-Files style episode.
