“Next time Daniel gets the urge to help someone, shoot him.”
- Release Date: 13th August 1999
- Season 3
- Episode 8
- Director: Peter DeLuise
- Writers: Carl Binder
SG-1 are investigating a village spotted by a UAV – they notice that the design is medieval and see a church. This is the first case of Christianity they’ve seen on another planet, and Daniel suggests that perhaps they were taken away via the second stargate in Antarctica. Which is a pretty major thing if that happened, but the show never dives into it. They suspect the Gou’ald may have been posing as the Christian God.
They reach the village and everyone runs away screaming – they came through the Circle of Darkness . There is a sick girl chained up and SG-1 help them, with a friendly villager, Simon, asking them to bring her into his house (Jack says it’s probably Chicken Pox). A bell tolls and their “demon” enters the village – an Unas as seen in Thor’s hammer. As the sacrifice for his Lord Satan is not there, he demands five to be presented at sunrise, or else he will choose for himself. Teal’c suggests that this Unas is under the command of Sokar.
The village leader, the Canon, appears and accuses SG-1 of being demons. He is the one that gets to decide who is sacrificed. SG-1 try to defend themselves, but he won’t listen to them. He activates a device on his finger and lightning comes from the sky and zaps them, knocking them out. Jack, Sam and Daniel wake up in a cell, with Simon coming up to them and informing them that Teal’c (due to having the mark of the devil – a serpent – on his forehead) has to go through trials.
These take the form of witch trials. The first is placing a red hot poker on his mark, which causes him no pain (because it’s a gold seal, not part of his skin). The second involves the water test – attach stones to them, throw them into water. If they die, they’re clean, if they float, they’re possessed by the devil and need to be burned alive. A pretty horrible test. Teal’c is thrown in and he drowns.
The Canon tells SG-1 that Teal’c was pure and that they can leave, but have to remain in chains until they’re back through the gate. Simon apologises for the actions of his people and says that his girlfriend is still ill, and that they plan on performing a trepanning surgery – drilling into her brain to release the demon from her. While Jack is ready to abandon the people for what they did to Teal’c, Daniel still wants to help. They check her over, and her fever has started to drop – she’s going to be fine.
Outside, everyone starts screaming again. Teal’c has awoken – he entered a deep state of Kelno’reem (Jaffa meditation that helps the Symbiont repair the body) before going into the water. Even though he passed the test and that there’s a somewhat important Christian figure that rose from the dead after being executed by humans, the Canon says that this proves they are demonic and selects SG-1 and the girl are chosen to be the sacrifice and get chained up.
In the morning, the Unas appears and recognises that they’re not from this planet. He takes them anyway, marching them back to the gate. Jack sees an opportunity and they all roll down a hill, the Unas losing his grip. The five are still chained together, so they don’t get far before the Unas catches up, pinning them to a tree. Simon appears with their weapons, and shoots the Unas multiple times with a staff weapon. The Unas takes the weapon off him and Simon flees, with the Unas chasing.
SG-1 manage to get the staff weapon and free themselves, trying to get Simon in time. The Canon appears, watching the Unas bat Simon around. When SG-1 get there, the Unas is on the ground, dead. The Canon is suddenly acting friendly, saying that the Unas passed out and that he’s a miracle. Jack gets the ring off him and they head back to the Stargate. Sam starts to dial when she realised something – the Gou’ald from the Unas moved into the Canon.
They all shoot him and in his last breaths, asks for forgiveness (not that he deserves it). They tell the couple to bury the gate to stop Sokar from terrorising their village again (they’re far enough from Gou’ald space to be with bothering with ships). This episode is mostly enjoyable, you just have to ignore a lot of the errors they made about mediaeval times and the “Dark ages”.
