“There seems to be an evil conspiracy among the Tollan Curia, whose apparent goal is to give us everything we ever wanted.”
- Release Date: 24th August 2001
- Season 5
- Episode 9
- Director: William Gereghty
- Writers: Ron Wilkerson
We start on Tollanna, where Narim is reading a speech about Omoc, the Tollan leader that SG-1 helped rescue back in season 1. He never seemed to like the people of Earth, so they’re a bit baffled as to why they’re even there, but Narim assures them that Omoc had respect for them. Chancellor Travell, someone that has flat out refused trading or sharing of technology, comes to see them and suggests that the Tollans are now willing to reconsider and to return tomorrow. As they head back through the Stargate, Narim slips something into Sam’s hand. She plays it when back on Earth, and it’s a recording of Narim saying that Omoc told him that Earth was in grave danger.
As they need more information, they head back. Carter and Teal’c head off to find Narim while Jack and Daniel speak with Travell. She says that the curia – their governing body – are now willing to share technology due to the loss of Omar’s vote. They want Trinium in return. Jask asks why they don’t just get some themselves. Travel pushes some switches and says she’s disabled the recording so she can speak off the record. She says that she can get it easily, but a trade like this would help sharing technology like this go down better. They resume recording and she says she can give earth an ion cannon. They meet up with Narim, who is utterly baffled by the news about the ion cannon as it goes against everything they believe – although apparently Omar was the swing vote. He reminds them that their technology led to the destruction of another world (which also took out their original homeworld).
They head back and report to Hammond. Carter says that it’s a terrible deal – one canon will only defend a small area of the planet and the Gou’ald can come elsewhere. On top of that, the relationship with Russia would be strained even more with them having a gigantic alien gun. Sam says we’d need 38 ion cannons and she also points out Narim’s warning. Hammond wants Jack to carry on with the negotiations (with caution) because a deal like this could make Earth safe from attack.
When they go back, Narim meets them, still worried about this deal. They assure him that Earth won’t blow themselves up, but he means something else – Omoc’s health monitor shows that he didn’t have a heart attack as stated. He was murdered and it was covered up. Daniel and Jack meet with Travell again with their request for 38 ion cannons. She gives a vague answer about what the Trinium is being used for, but she acts like the curia will accept handing over 38 ion cannons will be pretty simple.
Carter and Teal’c go with Narim to his house (his voice assistant uses her voice, which is creepy) and he says there hasn’t been a murder in an extremely long time. All meetings of the Curia are recorded and are public knowledge, so it’s time to look through them to find something. Jack and Daniel turn up, letting them know that the offer for 38 cannons was accepted, which is quite unbelievable. Teal’c finds something important: there was an unplanned ion cannon test two months ago and Omoc filed an official protest. Omoc visited Narim immediately after the meeting, but the recording stopped hours earlier. Hiding meetings like this is a worse crime than murder.
Hammond is baffled – there is a conspiracy, but the only goal so far is just handing Earth everything they wanted. It makes no sense, and everyone is in agreement, and more information needs to be found. They decide to put a marker in the Trinium so they can track it. Back on Tollana, they convince a reluctant Narim to help them, giving them weapons and a phase shifting device to walk through walls. Daniel, Sam and Narim will try to get information from Travell’s office (using Omac’s code) while Jack and Teal’c find out what they’re making with the trinium. Narim finds only a small, but very vital snippet of information: the weapons test was not a test, but rather it was shooting at a Gou’ald ship. And did absolutely nothing. Then the ship supposedly flew away, but every future discussion was done with the recording disabled.
Jack and Teal’c track down where the trinium has ended up, and find a load of strange objects. We cut back and Narim has found the devices on the computer. It’s an extremely powerful bomb and the trinium will make it compatible with their phase shifting technology. Sam finds it strange that the Gou’ald would fly away and let the Tollans come up with a way to bypass their shields, so there must be something else, but security stops them – followed by the Gou’ald Tanith.
Jack and Teal’c find security at Narim’s house and knock them out, but they realise the others are in danger. Back in the office, Tanith explained escaping from the sun exploding in an escape pod while Apophis died. Narim asks Travell how she could do any of this and she says the curia were just doing what they could to save Tollana, even if it means countless other worlds destroyed. With the information, they try to escape, but Carter and Daniel get knocked over as Narim jumps through a wall.
Jack and Teal’c manage to find Narim and get the information, realising that these bombs will just go straight through the iris (and Teal’c starting his bloodlust over Tanith). They want his help to destroy them, even if it means doom for the Tollans. Jacks tells Narim that he won’t be destroying his own world, just preventing them from destroying countless others. In the office, Travelle orders her guard to illegally use Narim’s health implant to track him down. She tells Tanith that his master will get the first shipment of weapons on time. Daniel questions who this is, but Tanith just says they’re not worthy to hear his name.Tanith wants a demonstration, first – sending a bomb to Earth. She is given thirty minutes to comply.
Jack and Teal’c get kidnapped trying to tamper with the bombs and get taken to the rest, who are pointing out that Travell knew what the weapons were for, she just never expected to have to pull the trigger herself. Daniel realises that doing it this way means they’re not technically breaking the Asgard treaty. The guards show that Jack had Narim’s health implant on him, so Travell rushes off to try and find him. Narim gets into an ion cannon and blows up the buildings with the weapons.
The Gou’ald ship starts firing down on the planet. SG-1 start heading to the stargate (apparently none of the Tollans are interested in fleeing). Narim decides to stay to try and fight for his people (despite zero effective weapons) as the blasts continue. I guess he felt he couldn’t deal with the survivor’s guilt, especially as he was the one that caused the bombardment to start. SG-1 get away.
In the debriefing, they discuss how only this one unnamed Gou’ald should have this advanced shield technology at the moment, as the Gou’ald don’t share technology with each other. They get a message from Narim, saying that the stargate was destroyed and all ships leaving are being shot down before it cuts out. The Tollan are gone.
This certainly shows that this new Gou’ald is extremely powerful, taking out one of the most peopleful people in this galaxy that Earth knows. They do seem to be afraid of the Asgard, though. I didn’t think it strange that they destroyed the Tollan instead of taking it over, but I guess they were just using them to attack Earth in a roundabout way to avoid the treaty – they can destroy things well enough themselves.
