Stargate SG-1: Paradise Lost

“You know Harry, It’s not that I can’t believe you lied to me again. It’s that YOU LIED TO ME AGAIN!”

• Release Date: 8th January 2003
• Season 6
• Episode 15
• Director: William Gereghty
• Writers: Robert C. Cooper

We open with Jack having a BBQ at home. He’s supposed to be alone, but notices a hot dog missing. Maybourne has helped himself to one. He’s still wanted for treason, which Jack points out, but Maybourne keeps calm. He says he has an offer to make: the president, who is coming to the end of his term, might pardon him. Maybourne has the address of the cache of advanced alien weaponry that Simmons was trying to take the Prometheus to. Maybourne also wants to go with them. As he leaves, Maybourne gives Jack a note with the gate address, but mentions that there’s a key that only he has access to.

SG-1 check the address and find some ruing, Jonas recognises the writing as one of the four great races – the Furlings this time. Jack talks about how giant teddy bears probably wouldn’t make big weapons, basing what he imagines they look like purely on the name. They find a slot for a key and deduce that it’s some kind of transporter, but they don’t know much about the technology.

Back at Stargate command, they bring Maybourne in, with the president willing to grant him a pardon in exchange for the information. Mayborne shows them the key and Jack talks about leaving and letting Maybourne know how it goes – Maybourne mentions that there’s a combination to go with the key, and it’s not written down anywhere, existing only in his mind. The only way is to grant his request.

In the gate room, Hammond mentions to Jack that Maybourne is hiding something, which Jack agrees with. Maybourne seems a bit apprehensive – despite running the offworld NID operations, he’s never been through it himself. They head to the planet and Maybourne inserts the key and combinations, but it doesn’t work. Carter takes a look and Maybourne takes a zat and stuns her, jumping into the now active portal, with Jack following.

Jack and Maybourne appear in the middle of nowhere, although it’s a lovely looking place. The transporter seems to have left the Zat behind, but Jack still has his guns. Maybourne seems really annoyed that Jack followed him, and it seems more concern for Jack than anything else. Maybourne explains that this place is an alien utopia, a place with no stargate where they could live in peace, with the key being an invitation. All of this was a plot for Mayborne to stop running and have some peace – and there’s no way back.

Carter contacts SGC and gets help in trying to figure out what happened, and if they can locate Jack, but Dr Lee says they’re not familiar with this technology at all. Jack and Maybourne reach a village, with Maybourne starting to get concerned by a lack of a welcoming party. Instead, there are just skeletons lying about the place. They rest for the night and Jack checks out the surrounding area. There’s nothing nearby. Jack says that they need to survive until they get rescued, but Maybourne doesn’t think anyone can find this secret location.

A week later, Dr Lee is packing up as they’ve made no progress. Carter orders him to carry on, but he says that it’s up to Hammond, and he’s happy to come back if Hammond is willing to commit the resources, but he doubts it. At the village, Jack is trying to do some fishing when Maybourne throws a grenade into a lake, killing some of the fish – he’s very eager to not eat the plant that has been growing. Maybourne mentions hearing things at night, and that he’s concerned that something is still here. He wants Jack’s pistol, which Jack refuses. He later hides his P90 so Maybourne can’t get it.

At Stargate Command, Carter proposes a plan: take a satellite, launch it, then have the Tok’ra pick it up when they’re available to help minimise the costs – although Hammond points out that the delivery system will still be costly. Teal’c checks in on her later, hugging her when she cries as she has no way to find Jack. There’s an incoming wormhole and it’s the Tok’ra, who have scanned the planet and found nothing. Back in paradise, Jack discovered the P90 and ammo missing, along with Maybourne. He decides to do some investigating, taking note of the skeletons and where they are. He follows a noise and finds a few more skeletons, one which has a gou’ald skeleton in its neck.

Jack wanders through the forest and triggers a trap. He jumps away from a grenade, but gets a shard in his leg. While on the ground, he sees a boar running towards him and shoots, only to hear Maybourne scream out. Maybourne thinks Jack wanted to kill him from the start, but Jack says that’s not true and that the plant he’s eating is messing with his head. At SGC, Carter gets a look at the key while footage of the mission is played when she gets an epiphany. The planet has a moon, and the markings on the key look like a patch between the planet and the moon: that’s where Jack is.

Jack is resting on the planet and hears a noise. He tries yelling out to Maybourne that the Gou’ald must have brought this hallucinogenic plant with them, causing everyone to become paranoid and kill each other. Maybourne shoots at Jack, and they end up at a stand-off. Jack wounds Maybourne, telling him he won;t kill him. Maybourne wakes up after Jack has tended to the bullet wounds, and he feels a lot clearer. He admits he screwed up and that Jack was right. Jack says they’re about to be rescued when Maybourne said he’d rather die than go back to jail. Jack says that Maybourne has suffered enough, so the Tok’ra will drop him off somewhere along the way.

It’s a great episode, and shows just how smart Jack really is when he needs to be – he’d rather have other people do the thinking, but he’s capable on his own, as shown by his investigation into the plant and how everyone died. And the banter between Jack and Maybourne is always great.