“They’re the same…every damn one of them is the same!”
- Release Date: 7th July 2000
- Season 4
- Episode 2
- Director: Peter DeLuise
- Writers: Brad Wright
Someone is trying to contact Sargate Command, even sending three people through the gate and into the Iris. Finally, Walter manages to adjust their equipment: it’s a plea for help. When the Stargate next activates, Hammond is able to talk back. Alar, the leader of a group called the Eurondans (and played by the wonderful Rene Auberjonois – known for Odo on Deep Space Nine), explains that they’re under attack and need help. Hammond approves of this, telling Jack to negotiate for technology. Daniel is happy to help, while Teal’c seems unsure. I suspect he had issues with helping without knowing their enemy, but he doesn’t speak up.
Arriving on the planet with medical supplies and food, they introduce himself to Alar, who seems to take a dislike to Teal’c immediately. They explain that he is a Jaffa, but Alar is still uncomfortable and it doesn’t seem like it’s because he’s a Jaffa. They ask Jack to try out their remote drone technology to destroy an unmanned reconnaissance craft. Jack does so and is impressed by the technology, however the pilot next to him is pretty much braindead as a result of the technology. Alar reassures that it takes years of use to reach that state.
In a meeting, they discuss the exchange of technology for supplies. The Eurondans offer Earth the specs for all their technology – the drone technology, their medicine and their controlled fusion reactor technology. All they need is hard water to power their reactors. Daniel interrupts, trying to understand the whole purpose of the war. The Eurondans now have access to the Stargate and can end the war right now by finding a new home (especially as the planet’s surface has been poisoned), but Alar stresses that they need to win for the previous generation – who are all being stored in stasis. Jack shuts him off, and sends him back with Carter to ask Hammond for the hard water.
Hammond agrees to sending a small quantity of hard water, but notes that Daniel is clearly not happy. Daniel mentions that if we’re going to turn the tide of this war, pretty much supplying these people with the means to annihilate their enemy, then shouldn’t we know about what this war is about and who we are fighting? Hammond agrees, and sends them back.
On the planet, another attack commences, so Jack and Teal’c hop into the drone piloting cockpits and shoot them down, but Jack crashes into one and sees that there’s people in there – they’re not unmanned. He’s very miffed about this information not being told to him. When Daniel and Carter return, Alar is frustrated with how little hard water has been sent, but Carter says that this is all they have on short notice and that a lot more can be gathered if the deal is fully approved.
Daniel asks how the war started and Alar expertly dodges the question by instead talking about the bombs dropping when he was a kid and the destruction around them. Daniel presses but Jack stops him, saying they’ll go ahead. Jack and Teal’c will get more hard water and Carter will learn about the technology. As they head off, Alar asks Jack to leave Teal’c on Earth, due to his… differences. Jack realises that it has nothing to do with him being an alien.
As Alar heads off with Carter, Jack stops Daniel from dialling out. He orders Daniel to ask lots of questions while he and Teal’c snoop around. Jack heads to the stasis chamber and scans through the images of them all there and they all look similar. One of the people Jack crashed into was black, so he knows that there’s diversity on the planet, but there’s none in the bunker. Things are starting to add up. Daniel speaks to the second in command, saying that now they’re allies, he deserves to know who their new enemy is. She proudly states that the enemy are inferior “breeders” – people who don’t conform to the purity of their genetics. Lesser people that come in different shapes, sizes and colours. We see the final piece of the puzzle when Carter is analysing the reactor and realises that this base had to have been built long before the bombs dropped, and there’s some suspicious pipes leading to the poisoned surface.
Heading back to the war room (bumping into Daniel, who says that he’s certain that the Eurondans started the war), Jack says that the water supply has been delayed but they’ll help with the fighters. However, instead of shooting down the enemy, he shoots down the Eurondan craft and helps the bombers get to the base – essentially making up for Earth providing the Eurondans with extra power and for shooting down the earlier craft. Alar tries to shoot Jack, but Teal’c easily stops him, and you can tell Alar is appalled that someone like Teal’c has the strength to overpower him.
SG-1 head back to the Stargate, with Jack telling Alar not to follow them (he knows about the Iris). They jump through and Jack orders the Iris closed, and we hear a thud. Carter is obviously startled about what just happened, but doesn’t speak up when Jack says to not be disappointed that we didn’t get their technology, which fits in with his point about needing allies, not just technology, in Shades of Grey.
I thought the Nazi parallels were extremely obvious, yet lots of people online seem to miss this. I think the story is extremely well written by giving you all the pieces without spoon feeding it to the viewer. The Eurondans are a group of selective breeders focused on purity, who are appalled that different people can exist. They came up with a plan: build a bunker to hide in then poison the surface to exterminate everyone else. The bombs Alar mentioned were an attempt to stop this happening. It turns out the Eurondan underestimated the “breeders” and they weren’t wiped out, so they continued bombing to stop the planet being poisoned further. The Eurondans don’t want to leave as exterminating others is more important than their own survival.
Jack was definitely wrong earlier on in the episode, agreeing to help these people in a military manner before knowing much about the entire situation, but luckily he realised the error of his ways (even saying a heartfelt apology to Daniel) and pretty much restored things to how they would have been if SG-1 hadn’t have helped them.
Next: SG-1: Upgrades
