“For cryin’ out loud… there’s always one like you in a crowd.”
- Release Date: 2nd February 2000
- Season 3
- Episode 17
- Director: David Warry-Smith
- Writers: V.C. James, Brad Wright
SG-1 are visiting the planet of Endorra and are watching the night sky with a local called Liara to watch a yearly event called a “fire rain” – which is a meteor shower. Carter finds it odd that the event is yearly, and when the meteors come, one skims the atmosphere – a near miss. Both Carter and Jack (who was excited to witness the event) are very concerned.
Taking her readings back to SGC for analysis, Carter returns with her findings: the planet passes into an asteroid belt every year. Daniel does some geology of his own in a cave (with the help of a young couple) and finds a Naquadah layer every 150 years, indicating that the planet goes into a deeper part of the asteroid belt, and now is the time for the next one. Jack speaks to Laira about trade – they want the Naquadah from the soil, and can trade all sorts of medicines and technology for it.
Once their findings are reported, SG-1 gathers the town for a meeting. The “fire rain” is going to be extremely dangerous and they’ve arranged for the refugees to stay on Earth during the event. As you’d expect, there’s a naysayer called Paynan claiming that it’s all lies and Earth wants to steal their land. A meteor strikes a nearby mountain so the evacuation starts. Liara looks for her son, but he’s missing. Daniel realises that he’s probably hiding in the caves.
Jack goes with Laira with Sam and Teal’c waiting at the Stargate. All the villagers that want to flee go, but a third of the village have chosen to stay. Carter spots a meteor heading straight for them, so they have no choice but to jump through the gate, barely making it. When they dial back, the MALP doesn’t survive the journey, so there can’t be a rescue mission.
Back on Endorra, Jack and Laira discover that only a few villagers remain. Paynan still hates Jack, but Jack agrees to help them set up for harvest so they can carry on with their lives, while spending some time digging in the evenings in hopes of finding the Stargate. As time passes, Jack and Laira grow closer.
Carter refuses to give up and comes up with a theory: the Naquadah solidified above the event horizon, creating a kind of Iris to prevent matter from forming, which is why they can still dial the gate. She comes up with a plan: use a particle accelerator to make a big enough hole for a kawoosh to start to form, which will make a large hole, then someone can go through and dig from this side. The idea came from Sokar’s attack on SGC. There’s only one problem: she has to invent and build one from scratch.
Three months pass with Carter working on the device (and Dr Fraiser quizzing her on if her feelings for Jack are affecting her work), and Jack seems to finally accept that he’s part of the village – even Paynan likes him after Jack helped repair his house. In a party, it seems like the villagers (through a blindfold ritual) think that Jack and Liara should be together. Afterwards, Liara says she wants Jack to give her a child.
The next morning, Carter’s plan is ready to go. The MALP makes it through the Stargate, but gets destroyed – the gate on Endorra is facing upwards. Teal’c uses a harpoon through the Stargate so he can secure himself above the gate on the other side. This goes against “only full objects materialise on the other side rule”, but I think that’s just a generalisation. The gate is probably stricter regarding living things and objects surrounding them, while it understands that rope-like objects need to go through instantly.
After Teal’c makes a start, Liara is ready to throw out Jack’s Earth gear. As she gets rid of it, she messes with his radio, hearing Sam talk to Teal’c before the Stargate disengages. She struggles with deciding if she should tell Jack, but lets him know after dinner, He rushes out and digs from above, reaching Teal’c before he runs out of oxygen.
The Endorrians return home and SG-1 come with them to pick up Jack. It was never touched upon where exactly they stayed for so long. Jack gives Liara a heartfelt goodbye (with a devastated Sam watching, realising what had been going on) and they depart. We see Liara holding her stomach which people seem to interpret as a sign of pregnancy. However, Earth kept in contact with these people (Jack even mentions returning for trade negotiations) and there’s no way he would abandon a child, so to me it’s very clear that she’s thinking of what could have been.
After a few fast-paced episodes, it’s nice to have a slow, emotional episode.
