Sam’s back! Sam’s back! VALA’S LEAVING! Sam’s back! Sam’s back! YAY! Really, what more does an episode need?
Oh, okay, fine…
Let me start out by saying that the Ori have the best badguy music ever: gregorian chant. It’s momentous, large, stirring. And it just highlights how religious they are; I’d really love to know how the music goes over in non-Christian-influenced countries. Does it still sound high holy to them? …but that’s really not much to do with the show either, eh? Fine…
Not your fight? You engineered the downfall of the goauld… this is a galaxy of your own making, and you have responsibilities.
Nerus says this to guilt Stargate Command to action against the Ori; it’s interesting logic, similar to the you break it you buy it philosophy. Does it actually hold up, though? Are we actually responsible for the aftermath of your actions indefinitely, or does there become a point at which we throw up our hands and say “no longer our responsibility”? It’ll be interesting to see how Stargate reacts to this policy; will humans become the new, docile overlords, by virtue of their power and technology?
Sam! Sam! Hey, wait – that’s a clever way to keep Jack in the show. SAM!
Oh, the “let’s do this” march with them all walking in tandem was very nice and moving. Yay. (Seriously, it was, but they’d better not pull too many of those “let’s all be teammates!” moments, or it’ll get cloying soon.)
Mmm. Interesting use of the goa’uld, and in a twisted way, very sensible. Goa’uld society developed around a hierarchical pack mentality, so it makes sense that many, if not all, would bow to the power of the Ori, and even join with them. After all the Ori promise their Prior’s ascention upon death, and ascention was largely a goal of the goa’uld. (Should that be Goa’uld, since it’s Ori? Interesting…)
This was not an episode riff with startling new things. Using an enemies weapons against them, splitting allies, establishing badguy alliances – all common themes. One of the joys of Stargate (both SG-1 and Atlantis) is that they take these common plots and turn them on their side, do something new an interesting. It was clever to use the break it/buy it philosophy to guilt Stargate Command into action, but not so clever to be novel. Sadly, this episode lacked the creativity that has become expected.
…of course, typing that 12 minutes before the end of the show just shows me. That was completely unexpected and damned clever, even if Vala turned into a hero. (My dislike of the character aside, it was a fitting completion of the transformation started in the prior episode.) Well, that just shows me.
And, I’ve just to say, Daniel’s response to where Vala just might be… *snerk* Fitting.
To just complete the theme of this post, SAM!