“I feel better just knowing there’s an archaeologist watching our backs.”
- Release Date: 23rd January 2002
- Season 5
- Episode 20
- Director:
- Peter DeLuise
- Writers: Ron Wilkerson
Hammond is dialling the Stargate to contact an overdue team. They’re trying to negotiate with the people there to have a look at a weapon that helps defend their planet, as well as being one of the planets that the rogue NID group that Jack foiled had previously visited. They manage to get through to Grogan (one of the trainees from Proving Ground, the one that got shot a lot) who says they’re under attack. The MALP gets hit and they lose contact with him.
Hammond shows a video of the NID agent Grieves talking to the head of the people there. The report says they were never granted access to this device, called The Sentinel, but as it’s clearly not working, they suspect Grieves still messed with the device. Teal’c thinks this first group of Jaffa is a test and that a mothership will likely be on its way. Before they go, Carter suggests talking to Grieves as knowing what they did to it will be helpful for fixing it.
Jack visits Grieves, who is still mad at Jack for blowing his operation (although Jack mentions that their allies would have stepped in and stopped them anyway). He thinks Jack’s ways are leaving Earth defenceless. As Jack is about to leave, Grieves admits that they found the Sentinel, got through the forcefield, dismantled it and put it back together. They must have done something wrong. Grieves demands a lesser sentence and that they want to go along with them on the mission.
Using a new UAV, SGC locate two Jaffa turrets guarding the stargate. They shoot two missiles through the Stargate as SG-1, SG-3 and the two NID operatives (Kershaw joining Grieves) head through the Stargate afterwards. Grieves is annoyed that they don’t have guns, and Jack tells them if they do anything except the mission, he’ll shoot them himself.
SG-3 head off in pursuit of some Jaffa while everyone else starts heading to the Sentinel. Daniel asks Jack about how much shorter their prison sentence will be, but Jack says it will actually be longer as they were on death row before agreeing to this. They manage to find Grogan, but the rest of his team are dead. Jack decides to head with Grogan to see the leader of the people here while everyone else checks on the Sentinel. Jack wants to suggest the possibility of evacuation.
As Teal’c, Carter, Daniel and the NID guys reach the Sentinel, Daniel assists them with the forcefield while Carter and Teal’c stand guard. We cut to the plant’s leader, Marul, who is talking to a Jaffa, saying that their people refuse to serve anyone, and they’re confident that the Sentinel will kick in and save them all. When he leaves, Jack and Grogan talk to him. He has no interest in evacuating, and still believes the Sentinel. Jack tells him that Grieves ignored his requests to not interfere and managed to get to it and mess with it.
As Grieves and Kershaw are trying to work out the forcefield again (it’s some kind of sound based code that constantly changes), Daniel is initially annoying. When Jaffa turn up, Daniel lets Grieves have his weapon while he helps with the code. Carter isn’t amused that he has a gun, but he does shoot some of them and the first patrol is wiped out. Carter decides to check in on Daniel.
A mothership arrives and starts bombarding the city, with Lord Svarog announcing that he is their ruler (only hear his voice, making a contrast from him not speaking during Summit/Last Stand). It starts opening fire on the city and Marul realises that the Sentinel really isn’t working. Jack reiterates that they can start evacuating now, but Marul is still hesitant. Jack says he needs to head back to his squad, so he needs to decide.
Hammond contacts SG-3, who let him know about the mothership. SG-1 are out of radio contact but SG-3 are still in control of the Stargate. They’re ordered to keep it that way, although Hammond is concerned about Grieves – he killed some natives of another planet when trying to escape with stolen technology.
Daniel manages to get the forcefield down, with Kershaw quietly telling Grieves that there should be nothing wrong, as well as getting it back up once Carter and Teal’c get inside – although Kershaw get hit as the forcefield goes up. Jack contacts them, saying that there’s supposedly a mythical figure called the caretaker who sorts out the device. However, both Jack and Grogan get stunned with Zats. The Jaffa comes in and orders Marul to tell him how to turn off the forcefield, willing to die to protect the information.
While discussing the device, Kershaw makes it clearer that he knows that there’s nothing wrong with the device. They then realise that this caretaker might be very important to getting it to work. They explain that when trying to mess with it, they were attacked by a man and defended themselves, killing him. They could have saved him by taking him to the city, but chose not to – he then begs them to let him put his hand on the Sentinel but they refuse.They also disabled the dead man switch so that the flame in the city would not go out when the caretaker died.
The Jaffa bring Jack and Grogan as hostages, telling Carter to lower the forcefield or they’ll kill them. Jack tells her not to do it, but Grieves says he knows how to lower it. Realising what he’s about to do, she ignores Jack’s order of not doing it and Grieves places his hand on the Sentinel. It activates and all the Jaffa, as well as the ship in orbit, vanish in a beam of light, along with Grieves. Luckily, Teal’c is fine, but perhaps the human involved can inform the device of who is friend and who is foe. Teal’c questions about getting permission to study it, but Jack knows what the answer is.
I do like when Stargate revisits past episodes, something which it has started doing a lot. This also gives someone a chance to redeem themselves, which is always nice to see.
