Well. When "Stargate" wraps up storylines they bloody well wrap up storylines.
Anubis knows Baal betrayed him. However, rather than kill him, he decides to let Baal live and be destroyed along with all other life in the universe. Since Anubis' plan doesn't quite go through, perhaps we can assume Baal is still out there somewhere?
When Daniel died on the Replicarter's ship, Oma Desala yanked him out into a sort of pre-ascension waiting room. It takes the form of a diner where Daniel's grandfather took him after his parents' funeral. OD plays the waitress and finally gets a chance to speak plainly instead of in riddles. (The whole thing reminds me a lot of that time on "Voyager" when they visited the Q Continuum.)
Sam and Pete's wedding is approaching, and she brings him into the SGC (further evidence that Jack must run things in a much more laid-back manner than Hammond did) to meet Jacob.
The Jaffa are going to have their new capital city on Dakara (I was right! It was a 'd'. It said so on Daniel's The Ascended Times.) and they want Teal'c and Bra'tac to be on the ruling council. Teal'c will have to leave the SGC, but he seems to agree it's in the best interests of the new Free Jaffa Nation.
O'Neill got laid. He's been dating some redheaded CIA agent who's been working at the SGC, but he's been keeping it a secret.
Daniel is having trouble deciding what to do. His only choices are to leave the "diner" and be dead or to ascend. If he ascends and then tries to interfere with things again, OD isn't going to help him out. However, he knows Anubis is going to try to take the weapon on Dakara, and he doesn't think he could refrain from interfering. Decisions, decisions...
They think they've destroyed all the Replicators in the Milky Way, but they're leaving open the possibility that some could show up from elsewhere in the future.
The Tau'ri and the Tok'ra want to destroy the weapon on Dakara. The Jaffa are disinclined to agree, as they see the weapon as a symbol of their freedom.
The Jaffa Council has considered and denied the request to destroy the Dakara weapon. They don't want to dishearten the troops. However, they intend to go destroy Anubis, and then they'll be willing to destroy the weapon.
The only other Ascended in the "diner" who will talk to Daniel is a fat guy called "Jim". He says he met Daniel during Daniel's previous ascension, and that he and OD are both sort of rebels, but they disagree about just how the rules should and should not be broken. He also tells Daniel that the Dakara weapon was originally used by the Ancients to re-start life in the Milky Way "after the whole plague thing".
Pete surprises Sam with... a house! Sam seems... less than ecstatic. She ends up going nervously to Jack's house and encounters him burning some barbecue. She's just about to, it seems, end all the years of tension and make their mutual... desires... an open subject. And then, naturally, Miss CIA Redhead comes waltzing out of the house in full clich�. In the middle of the awkwardness, Sam gets a call from the SGC.
It turns out Jacob is there, dying. Selmac is at the end of his run, and normally would have let himself die in such a way as to preserve Jacob. However, Jacob made him stay alive long enough to get through the Dakara incident. Now Selmac is in a coma and doesn't have the energy left to die without killing Jacob.
OD wouldn't tell Daniel what her secret was, so Jim does. Anubis tricked her, and she's the one who helped him ascend.
Jack's girlfriend breaks up with him, since she seems to have divined the fact that she can't really compete with Sam for Jack's real affection. She tells him that, if Air Force rules are really the only thing keeping him and Sam apart, he's being foolish. He should retire. After all, a civilian has been put in charge of the SGC once before.
The Ancients have been keeping Anubis in his half-ascended state (rather than fully descending him) on the condition that he not use any powers that he couldn't have gained anyway as a normal Goa'uld. This is OD's punishment for helping him ascend. She has to watch while he goes around trying to wipe out the universe. This makes Daniel rather unhappy with the Ancients.
The Jaffa reach Anubis base to find it deserted. Anubis fed them false intelligence to lure most of them away from Dakara while he attacked.
As Jacob lay dying, Jack and Sam experience a tender moment. Then Jacob dies.
Back at the diner, Jim announces that Anubis has taken Dakara. Daniel doesn't like Jim's pleased tone of voice, and it's finally revealed that (am I the only one who realized this near the beginning?) Jim is Anubis.
Sam dumps Pete. Pete is understandably upset, but takes it in the I-understand;-I-just-want-you-to-be-happy stride.
Later, at the SGC, Teal'c explains that Anubis has the weapon. They try to dial the alpha site to hopefully keep the weapon from dialing it and Earth, but they're too late: there's an incoming wormhole. Jack orders the self destruct, on the off-chance that it will end up disengaging the wormhole.
Daniel attacks Jim/Anubis, but goes right through him, since Daniel isn't ascended. OD tells Anubis she can fight him, and he won't be able to do anything but fight back. She attacks, and they turn glowy and fly through the ceiling, presumably to be locked in eternal battle.
At the SGC, the wormhole and the auto-destruct magically disengage with 1.26 second to spare.
Teal'c and Bra'tac report that, for some reason, Anubis suddenly just went away, and his leadershipless warriors easily fell to the Jaffa. Also, the weapon will now be destroyed. Sam wonders why the wormhole and auto-destruct stopped, and Jack is convinced it was Daniel. A newly ascended-then-redescended, nude Daniel appears to confirm this.
Ending scene: Jack has finally gotten the whole team to go fishing with him.
Posted by deadcujo (Member # 13) on :
And, of course, Daniel was naked. Great episode.
Posted by deadcujo (Member # 13) on :
Oh, you did mention the nakedness. Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Headlines of the Ascended Times (Current Edition - Tomorrow's News Today), complete with typos:
"Jackson Still Undecided" "Astral Diner to be given Infinite status" "Edge of the Universe Discovered" "Yoga NOT the Path to Enlightenment" "Ethereal Awarness Seminar to be Held in Talnak Quadrant" "Anubis plans to retake Dakara - Exclusive Information on His Quest to Destroy all Life in the Milky Way Galaxy - He's back again and he's badder than ever"
And Round 2:
"Secret Plan Revealed - Anubis' dastardly plot to regain Ancient Weapon of Destruction" "Consciouness Superhighway to go through - Cognitive Work slated to begin upon completion of Precognitive [text..]" - by Mero Gartin (Martin Gero is a staff writer for SG-1 and Atlantis) "Family of Four Drowns in Transcendental Waterfall"
-Director Peter Deluise was the airman in the briefing room when Carter was called about the flowers. Peter has a cameo in EVERY episode he's directed: over the years he's been this airman at the SGC, a sub pilot (named Darwin - catch THAT reference), a Russian SG-team member, the bald street punk who gets decked by Teal'c outside his apartment, and innumerable extras on Earth and elsewhere. David Deluise, who plays Pete, is his brother.
-Hey, a scene at Jack's place where someone ISN'T breaking in..
-Given the events in this episode, what happened to everyone on Abydos?
-The shot of the Jaffa fleet approaching Anubis' stronghold on Tartarus is re-rendered from the previous episode of the Replicator Ha'taks busting out of hyperspace, except without the shooting.
-TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!
-So Baal is still around, and maybe he'll get a final sendoff unlike Anubis. Come to think of it, Anubis letting him live to witness him destroying all life seems to parallel the Ancients' letting Oma continue her work and witness Anubis being bad.
-Anyone else get the idea that this coulda been a great series finale had it come to it?
Mark
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
There was also a headline about the Wraith fleet approaching Atlantis.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Ah? Where was that - the first or the second paper? Either way, it's a cute tie-in that suggests the Ancients have at least a peripheral interest in what's going on in Pegasus. Given the sheer vastness of the universe that they're capable of visualizing, a minor blurb in a metaphorical newspaper would mean lots to them.
I only just finished the download this morning, and didn't read TSN's original post until afterwards - not much to add to it. The diner was screaming "Q continuum" to me too, but this was far more interesting. The Ancients, though ascended, did not demonstrate the omnipotent placidity of the Q. Plus, obviously Oma was doing her thing for a purpose, and not because she was bored, as many a Q used for motivation.
One wonders how they're going to handle Teal'c's place in the Free Jaffa Nation (FJN, sic). He's been both instigator and the leader of the resistance movement, but now they want him to form a government and council to create a nation. I'm guessing Teal'c isn't that sort of guy, and that he'll want to stick with SG-1 for the foreseeable future for one reason or another. Speaking of which, I wonder where Rya'c was during all this? I'd think his son would be somewhere important as the final liberation was happening.
The ending has shades of what's his face from TOS who was stuck fighting his antimatter counterpart for all eternity. While the motivation is completely different (and neither Oma nor Anubis fell over several cliffs during the episode), the concept of sacrificing oneself for all eternity was probably the penance that the other Ancients were waiting for Oma to realize. I guess she's gone forever now.
Mark
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Lazarus. And I suppose that means Daniel can't ascend again, unless one of Oma's followers takes up her mantle. Skaara, perhaps?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, he has done it twice, now. Perhaps he's gotten the hang of it.
Posted by machf (Member # 1233) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: The ending has shades of what's his face from TOS who was stuck fighting his antimatter counterpart for all eternity. While the motivation is completely different (and neither Oma nor Anubis fell over several cliffs during the episode), the concept of sacrificing oneself for all eternity was probably the penance that the other Ancients were waiting for Oma to realize. I guess she's gone forever now.
Mark
That was Lazarus, as someone already said. But the description made me think of DS9's finale, rather, with the Emissary (Sisko) pushing the Anti-Emissary (the posessed Dukat) into the flames, and he was only taken out of there by intervention of the Prophets/Wormhole Aliens.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Sorta reminded me of Kosh v Kosh II. Except Kosh II ends up toast!
I don't think Daniel ASCENDED and then REASCENDED... I think they just sent him back. They being the Ancients.
Jim mentioned that Oma had ascended others - I'd say that'd be a reference to the Abydosians.
Here's as much as the article I could decipher from the first paper:
ASCENDED TIMES ANUBIS PLANS TO RETAKE DAKARA
EXLUSIVE INFORMATION ON HIS QUEST TO DESTROY ALL LIFE IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY
HE'S BACK AND HE'S BADDER THAN EVER
This _____ plan is to destroy all life (no exceptions) in the galaxy and start over, _____ it with a multitude of kull warriors and other sub-?ordinate? dronelike beings whose only purpose is to serve and amuse him. When questioned Anubis claimed, "I'm not such a bad guy. I just know what I like and I'm going to kill everyone and everything to get it." His plans will come as a huge suprise to the rebel jaffa and Tauri alike. "They keep thinking that they've bested me, but it can't be done. Being partially ascended really has its benefits". This corporeal creep had some words to say reguarding his constant foes from the SGC. "That O'Neill is such a pain in the -- I'm particularly looking forward to pulling his arms off over and over and over. What of his plans for the rest of the SG1 team? "I thought I might have the shulva Teal'c skinned and made into a wall hanging for my peltac. Carter? Oh I've got something special in mind for her. ____________________ give me time to muster my forces and set my plans for retaking Dakara ____________________________ love the irony of dealing with such situations." Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Oh and if he DID ascend and then deascend - he wouldn't remember anything.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
The erasure of his memories was his choice the first time.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
And he didn't bring anything back this time that would alter the universe in any great measure...
Quick note on Carey Johnson, the only apparent action Jack's had since "Brief Candle" - she doesn't ENTIRELY appear out of nowhere. Right at the beginning of "Citizen Joe" three episodes earlier, Jack tells Carter that he's going to meet "Johnson-somebody" from the CIA, about the Kinsey incident the previous week. Assuming that he's not lying to Carter about his relationship (which he may well have done), he meets her around this time. Quick work, Jack
Mark
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I don't think Daniel ASCENDED and then REASCENDED... I think they just sent him back. They being the Ancients.
Well, if he didn't ascend, then someone had to send him directly back to earth instead of letting him die. It's somewhat more consistant if he ascended then voluntarily came back.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I missed that - the erasure of his memories the FIRST time was his choice!?!
I think I remember - was that when he asked who's decision it was to send him back naked - and Oma said it was her own. I still think The Ancients sent him back.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
I agree. The whole point of Oma's work was a farce - she was pretty well cursed to continue what she was doing until she realized that Anubis, her opposite number, could only be stopped if she sacrificed herself to eternal combat. Once the other Ancients were satisfied that she accepted her fate, Daniel was sent back. He was little more than a pwn in the grand scheme.
And speaking of the grand scheme, check this out - someone's gotten their hands on the "Ascended times" newspaper prop (the first one) and transcribed it:
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)