Stargate SG-1: Cold Lazarus

• Release Date: 29th August 1997
• Season 1
• Episode 7
• Director: Kenneth J. Girotti
• Writers: Jeffrey F. King

Wow, now this was a deeply moving episode, and one that I’m surprised isn’t more well regarded as one of the great episodes of the show. It begins on the first alien feeling world of the show: a yellow desert filled with broken blue crystals. SG-1 takes some samples while Jack wanders off.

Carter and Daniel remark on how every crystal seems to be broken,not a single one intact and try to theorise the cultural significance – although there seems to be no civilization. Jack, however, does find an intact one and gets blasted and knocked unconscious. When SG-1 call for him, a copy appears from the crystal and accompanied them home.

This new Jack is clearly a bit dazzled, acting strangely. SGC clearly haven’t learnt many lessons as strange behaviour really should be investigated with the team quarantined. Carter finds him in the locker room looking at pictures of his wife and kid, before he takes a letter (with an address) and leaves the base. Carter mentions to Daniel that she had no idea he had a family, to which Daniel reveals that his son is dead and his wife divorced. They dismiss it as odd.

Jack ends up at the home of his ex wife, Sara, asking where Charlie is, which freaks her out immensely. Jack is confused and Sara’s dad lets him in and shows him Charlie’s room, which is still set up how it was when he died. Jack’s memories flash up in the copy’s mind, playing outside, with Charlie going in the house. Jack and Sara cuddle on the porch when they hear a gunshot from their bedroom – Charlie shooting himself with Jack’s personal son. 

Back at SGC, Carter investigates the crystals. She works out that Jaffa staff weapons caused the damage, then the least damaged crystal forms Sam’s head and asks for help. The Stargate then activates  and the real Jack comes though, with everyone being suspicious of him.

The fake Jack and Sara talk about Charlie, their feelings and more. He’s trying to understand why they split up afterwards, with the clone Jack understanding that Charlie is gone. It seems that this Jack thinks they should get back together, but then he collapses with energy forming around him.

After a multitude of tests, everyone at SGC believes that the second Jack is, in fact, the real Jack. Only then (and not as soon as the second Jack arrived) do they decide to locate the earlier Jack, but he’s no longer in the base. Carter mentioned the fake Jacks interest I busi family, and Jack rushes off to help Sara.

Sara had managed to get fake Jack to a hospital, where his energy began to destabilise more. The hospital is evacuated as SG-1 gets there. Jack talks to his clone about Charlie. It turned out that when Jack was knocked out, the crystal wanted to heal him. He thought bringing Charlie to him would help, but now understands what the feeling was – the loss and guilt.

The entity shows Jack that Charlie is still around, inside Jack, by turning into Charlie. When they say they can help him return home, he says he can keep himself together for long enough. The entirety says goodbye to Sara, as Charlie (with Jack explaining that it isn’t Charlie) before they head back.

I found this to be a deeply emotional episode, I think partly because of my own fears when my son needed multiple open heart surgeries. It actually shows us what Jack went though, instead of us just being told, and provides a lot of depth to the character. It’s just a shame that Sara was never seen again.