“We’ll send dozens of them. One after another. I don’t care what it does.”
- Release Date: 31st January 2001
- Season 4
- Episode 20
- Director: Allan Lee
- Writers: Peter DeLuise
A MALP is sent through the stargate to what turns out to be a very technologically advanced planet, with lots of buildings across the surface. Something picks the MALP up and carries it to some kind of strange energy source, with the video footage garbled. A strong signal is sent back which may be a communication of some kind, but Carter suggests disengaging the Stargate then analysing the data. The computer stops responding and Jack does a manual shutdown of the stargate by throwing a switch in the gate room. I did find it odd that Teal’c was concerned about dialling a planet from Jack’s knowledge of the ancients, you would have thought they’d done plenty by now.
Carter is tasked with looking into the computer systems (main characters always know better than the people in their actual fields). They can’t analyse the signal while the computers are down and can’t send it to someone else as the base is on lockdown until they figure out what is going on. Carter and Daniel figure out that whatever has happened, they’ve accessed information on the computers.
They have a briefing about the situation, with Daniel speculating that the program in their computers might be a probe, trying to gain knowledge similar to the MALP. The lights flicker and a screen starts showing a view from a camera in the briefing room. It zooms in on Jack and shows him his personnel file. It seems to understand that they’re people and it wants to communicate. Hammond is unnerved by it having access to its systems, so he orders it to be removed.
In the Control Room, Carter suggests wiping out every single computer system (and losing everything after the latest backups) and mentions that the virus is as complex as DNA. It’s also still fascinated by Jack, which he finds amusing. The wipe seems to be successful, but the camera cuts to the MALP storage room where one activates and starts messing with wires.
The higher energy usage is detected after the reboot, so Hammond wants it connected before resuming contact with the outside world. Carter checks it out (with her buddy Siler having to cut the door open). Inside the MALP storage room is a large cluster ball of various technology that the virus seemingly spliced together with the MALP’s arms, including a screen and a keyboard. Jack wants to blow it up but Daniel and Carter want to communicate now that it’s isolated. She types on the keyboard but it turns out to be a trap – she gets zapped and passes out.
Dr Fraiser checks out Sam and it seems the entity is within her now, with its “brainwave” having control – they don’t know if Sam’s mind is being suppressed or erased. It seems to be gaining some control over her body. Siler reports back with his investigation of the MALP room and how it got into the mainframe – which wasn’t enough to sustain it. If they’d gone with Jack’s plan, everyone would be safe. But Daniel points out that you can’t just kill unknown life forms.
With the entity getting some knowledge (but not speech), Fraiser sets up a speech synthesiser. Jack speaks to it and it says it did it out of self-preservation – it doesn’t believe that they’ll kill Carter. They have a meeting to work out if it’s telling the truth about Sam’s mind being intact and possible actions. Daniel asks to talk to it. Hammonds tells Jack that they may have to make difficult decisions, and heavily implies he knows about Jack and Sam’s feelings for each other.
Daniel tries to negotiate with the entity, which offers knowledge for use of the body. The entity says that Earth attacked his planet with a device that emits radio waves – the MALP. Daniels explains it was just a probe but the entity says it’s too late, the damage was done. He was sent through the signal to destroy whoever was on the other side, but the transmission was cut off before it could be done. Daniel explains that it succeeded as we won’t go back to that planet, but gets interrupted by Jack.
Seeing an opportunity, Jack threatens to send multiple MALPs though to the planet to cause a massive amount of damage, unless the Entity frees Sam. The entity says he won’t do it, but Jack says to check his file and then Hammond, realising what Jack is doing, completely backs Jack’s bluff. The entity makes a run for it in Sam’s body, and starts to send energy out into the base. A first Zat shot doesn’t work, so Jack has to fire again, with Sam’s body collapsing.
We cut to later on, with Jack sitting by Carter’s infirmary bed. She’s on life support and there’s no sign of brain activity, but Jack isn’t ready to say goodbye. Daniel pops in and says that Hammond is going to destroy the creature’s eclectic nest in case it got back in there. It’s not long until something happens in the MALP room and SG-1 are called in. It looks like the entity is back there and Jack is ready to blow it up. However, the screen keeps saying “I am here” and Daniel thinks that it’s Sam.
Dr Fraiser is called and she works out that the signal matches Sam’s EEG. She creates a conduit between the device in the body so that Sam can return. Carter wakes up, saying she was screaming out for help – to which Jack says that they heard.
It’s definitely an interesting episode with a very unique lifeform. Carter also managed to survive two Zat hits, but as a Zat can undo brainwashing, it makes sense that it kills by messing with the brian signals, and Carter’s mind wasn’t in her body.
