Stargate SG-1: In the Line of Duty

• Release Date: 3rd July 1998
• Season 2
• Episode 2
• Director: Martin Wood
• Writers: Robert C. Cooper

SG-1 are evacuating people from a planet that is under Gou’ald attack, Daniel takes back someone with severe burns while Sam tries to give CPR to someone who grabs her before a Gou’ald enters Carter through her mouth. Upon returning to the Stargate, she acts a bit strangely, including being rude to Teal’c for being “Just a Jaffa”. Jack reminds her that she hasn’t had her post mission checkup. Dr Fraiser checks her over, she has no notable signs, just a small cut in her throat. 

The refugees from the planet have been moved to a local Air Force hospital, and Janet tells Carter that Cassandra (the girl Sam cared deeply for in Singularity) will be there. She decides to head over but Cassandra can sense the Gou’ald in her. Elsewhere in the hospital, the badly burned patient heals and kills one of the doctors. Cassandra locks herself in Dr Fraiser’s office and demands to see Jack, telling him she has a Gou’ald in her and she threatens to kill her.

As they prepare for a mission, Jack quickly injects Sam with an extremely strong sedative, with Sam confused about what just happened instead of passing out. The Gou’ald revealed themselves and demanded to be let go. She threatens to blow them all up, but she gets knocked out and Jack puts the pin back in the grenade. The Gou’ald gets locked in a cell.

While discussing what to do, Hammond says that the three new SG teams will handle relocating the refugees. I guess that on top of not being closed down, they were also granted more funding since saving the world. Jack and Teal’c interrogate the Gou’ald while Daniel speaks to the wife of the body the Gou’ald came from – he had no behaviour changes, and potentially had a mark on his neck a few months earlier. Not the usual Gou’ald behaviour. 

The Gou’ald, called Jolinar, finally comes clean, claiming to be part of a good sect of Gou’ald. They call themselves the Tok’ra. They’re enemies of the Gou’ald System Lord and ask dying or injured people to share bodies with, taking over Carter was a last resort and really doesn’t help his story. Daniel mentions that another Gou’ald is on Earth, which Jolinar says is an assassin. He also says he knows where Sha’re is.

The assassin – the Ashrak – has a mind control device and eventually manages to get to Sam. He attacks her and flees, with Jack rushing a dying Sam to the infirmary. The assassin heads to the gateroom and takes Daniel as a human shield, but Teal’c makes short of it using a Zat gun to make him drop Daniel before killing him. Janet tries to save Sam, but she seems to be getting better herself – she says the Tok’ra sacrificed itself to save her.

The episode ends with Cassanda visiting a still distraught Sam and tells her that she’s going to be okay (likely by the next episode). It’s a good episode and a sad first encounter between SG-1 and some potentially powerful allies, all thrown away due to a lack of trust from both sides. I also have to commend Amanda Tapping’s acting in this episode – her whole persona was different.