Sam Carter/Jack O'Neill Ship Discussion Thread

[JenniferJF]

I'm convinced that Jack has come to accept Charlie's death. He showed us that in Window of Opportunity. Nor do I think he's beating himself up over his failed marriage. Jack is a loner and he's not easy to get along with. He knows this and he needs it that way. This doesn't make him incapable of being in a relationship but it takes a very special person to make it happen and Sara needed more from him than he could give.

Like I said, I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on our view of Jack and his personality. But you and I already knew that And of course, given that you don't see his humor as hiding pain, we're not going to agree on the beginning scene either. ;0

BTW.. I have nothing additional to say on Prodigy except that, at 5'1", I had no problems becoming and Army officer and I assume the USAF has no additional general height requirement. I do know, however, the Military Police did have a requirement which I would have been too small for.

[Nynaeve506]

by SeNedra

Summary:

The episode opens up in the rather drab Control room with some banter between our heroes as they send a MALP into the wild blue yonder. MALP flies, electricity comes through, Walter is thrown and Sam gets a burnt hand. Blah blah blah, fast forward, alien entity tries to preserve itself, yada yada yada, cute funny scenes with O'Neill and so forth. Alien makes a nest, Daniel wants to talk to it, and in a rare occasion Sam agrees. Sam gets a nasty jolt which downloads Electro-Man into her head. They all have a friendly little chat when Jack decides to threaten it because dang it, he "would rather die himself than lose Carter"... Entity jumps up, does jazz hands, so Jack zats the sucker... unfortunately it was in Sam's body and so he kills her. Queue depressing sad scene by Sam's bed. We find out Sam's in the computer (thank goodness for a more reliable DOS based system as opposed to Windows because who knows what would have happened if she'd encountered the blue screen of... death... oh...)... Hook Sam's brain up like a jump drive and download her back into her body... the end.

Analysis:

I usually do an incredibly detailed analysis but because of this particular episode being among the ship core, I'm instead going to simply point out a few things that notice and let the rest of you have at it.

In my mind this is the episode where Jack realizes he's too close to Sam. Contrary to maybe a lot of other people, I think the main reason he attempted to cool himself towards her was because he didn't want to risk feeling the pain of losing someone he loved so dearly. I, like Jenn, don't think he's over the loss of his son. I don't think you *can* be over that loss - you learn to live with it, but the gravity of Charlie's death - the fact that it was with his own handgun - and that Sam dies by Jack's own hand... I think Jack draws the parallels in his mind on some level. Yes, what happened to his son was an accident, but I don't think he remembers it like that. I believe he blames himself. Later - much later in the series, Sam will be a sort of redemption for him - by loving her, by accepting her into his life, he comes to a peace he doesn't have right now.

I feel like this is primarily a *Jack* episode - not in that he's the only player but that we get an insight into his character. How far he'd go to get Sam back - and how far he'd go to keep his own heart safe.


Look at the danger in his eyes - this is not a Jack O'Neill I would want to cross - this is black ops Jack.




Determined, hardened.


Reliving his worst nightmare (that being Charlie's death)


By Sam's side... thinking.


Does he dare hope? How close did it come this time? How close would it be next time? And that's why there can't be a next time.

I don't have a screen cap but if you watch - right before fade out - Jack's hand moves out like it wants to touch Sam's leg... but he pulls back.

[Diana Botsford]

Waves hello to everyone - don't let the new name ID fool you, I used to be in here as digitalred93. After spending time away (writing), Trupi and Petra nudged me back through the door to join in the rewatch... and just in time: Entity's an awesome episode with so many layers going on.

Watching Jack's actions (and silent moments) in this episode, I honestly never think about his past (i.e. Charlie - though there are definitely valid points made in the posts above). Instead, I'd say the entire event scared him far more than any encounter with a Goa'uld ever would. He had to watch Sam be basically possessed by an alien, and then that same alien forced him to make the ultimate decision between his duty and Sam. By the time she's on life support, he's near speechless, barely able to ask the Doc to wait a bit longer.

To be honest, in the end I think the idea that next time, Jack wouldn't be able to chose his duty over Sam scared him even more than the alien!

[UhSir]

I'm not impressed with this episode. I know, blasphemy!
Okay, it's shippy because we get the music three times.

My problem starts at the beginning when everybody is super duper serious except Jack. He doesn't have a single serious moment until Sam gets zonked by the Entity. Then he never leaves Sam's side. I'm sorry but Jack is of no use this way and I just don't see Hammond allowing it no matter how much he understands.

And after Jack ticks off Entity/Sam and she jumps out of the bed, the SFs move to stop her and Jack tells them to stand down. She takes off and everyone chases and Janet calls out an emergency over the intercom. So down the corridor Entity/Sam gets stopped by more SFs and then cornered by Jack and everyone else from the infirmary. Why did Jack order the stand down if they're just going to trap her around the corner?

The biggest issue I have though is the zatting part. Was the transfer complete? I'm thinking it was because of the slight wooshing noise right before Jack fires the zat. At this time they are all thinking that it was the Entity leaving Sam's body. Why did he wait for it to complete? And then Jack shooting a second time would mean that Jack was killing Sam, not the Entity which would now be wherever it went in the SGC. And if it didn't finish transferring and now that we know it was Sam being transferred then... ack! Part of Sam didn't make it.

I really don't like ripping up an episode but this one really confuses the bejeebers out of me.

Edited to add:
One more thought. Why didn't the Entity just say hey guys I'll transfer Sam to the mainframe and you can pick her up there. It had to know what the reaction was going to be with it just taking off and that nobody was going to know that it was Sam being transferred. Good thing Sam was able to communicate and good thing Daniel got there in time to see the message.

[Rachel500]

<snip>you don't see his humor as hiding pain, we're not going to agree on the beginning scene either. ;0

BTW.. I have nothing additional to say on Prodigy except that, at 5'1", I had no problems becoming and Army officer and I assume the USAF has no additional general height requirement. I do know, however, the Military Police did have a requirement which I would have been too small for.

Maybe it's a Brit thing because I'm fairly sure our military services, police and firefighters had height restrictions here for a while (although I'm not sure they do now).

I think it's not just that I can't believe someone with Hailey's height would make a height restriction if one had applied but also just the height disparity between her and Sam. It just looks...odd. And makes Hailey (especially given the chips on her shoulder) sometimes look like a malcontented teenager rather than a cadet who is passionate about her theories and *an adult* albeit a young adult.

[Rachel500]

Entity

Generally

It is one of my favourite episodes; not just because its shippy because I quite enjoy the whole entity invades the computer thing.

It does have plot holes; there's a lot of hand waving of how they download Sam's consciousness back into her brain; how she ends up int the computer and could survive that way. My main complaint when I saw it the first time was that Sam getting taken over by an entity had already really happened with Jolinar so it seemed a little repetitive.

Having said that, I do love the episode and forgive it any flaws because I like the central themes: namely, the military vs science aspect which has been in quite a few of the episodes this season where we get Jack's determination to protect set directly in opposition to Daniel's determination to understand; and, of course, the other central theme of Jack's feelings for Sam.

There are a couple of scenes I love - the scene where Janet orders them all to report to the infirmary - and Jack remarks who put her in charge and Hammond replies with the USAF. I just find it a fun, light scene to begin before it all gets very serious.

The other scene is where Jack, Daniel and Teal'c are talking about the entity and what happened to Sam in the MALP room. Where Jack and Teal'c are both determined that they should have killed it, that the entity had put down a very clever trap to get Sam, and Daniel is arguing that Sam wasn't wrong to try talking with it. There is just a huge chasm between Daniel's thinking and theirs; and in hindsight you can almost feel the ground cracking open between Daniel and the others that may well lead to his Ascension.

Sam and Jack

Entity brings into very sharp focus why the regs exist.

We've had a lot of debate over the last twenty-four/forty-eight hours about Jack's character, his state of mind in The Light. My own view is that people work on many different layers; conscious fears and rationalisations compete with subconscious fears and irrational behaviour.

To me, Jack has never accepted the loss of Charlie. When he went to Abydos, Daniel dragged him back from the precipice of suicide; he made Jack not want to die. Which is different from wanting to live. He said it best in COTG; that he could sometimes forget but he could never forgive himself and in Cold Lazarus, the crystal entity noted that Jack was deeply wounded in his soul because Charlie was gone, and tried to show him Charlie existed within him in his heart. (CL also gave Jack closure with Sara - an acceptance that they loved each other but that their relationship was over). I don't think Jack really gets that he needs to start valuing his life again until he ages in Brief Candle (and in fact I think that was the purpose of BC for Jack's character - that he should simply enjoy every day because life was short). And I do think S1 Jack on a conscious level ends up accepting those lessons which help him move forward and make the more familial bonds he does with his team-mates.

However, subconciously, I tend to think there is still a whole lot of guilt and pain under the surface - because frankly how could there not be? His son shot himself with his gun. His marriage failed because he couldn't communicate with his wife when it happened; left her to grieve on her own when she needed him; that he felt she blamed him because he certainly blamed himself. It's an incredible amount of baggage to carry.

Jack's deepest pain, in my opinion is his belief that he failed to protect the people he loved. He failed to protect Charlie from harm as his father; failed to protect Sara from harm as a husband - and he lost them - and barely survived the pain of losing them. And for me that manifests in Jack's deepest fear: that he'll fail to protect the people he loves again and will have to face the pain of losing them.

And this subconscious fear becomes reality in Entity.

Jack is faced with two truths: one, that his open regard for Sam led to the entity placing an importance on Sam that led to her being the one it chose, and two, that he could be placed in the position of killing her to save Earth - his finger not only on the trigger metaphorically but literally.

Daniel was right in saying Jack (and Teal'c) are all about protection, and here I think Jack believes that he fails to protect Sam, both professionally and personally. His feelings for her led to her being in danger; led to him having to kill her. As he sits by her bedside, Jack is clearly devastated. I personally don't think he would have survived her death for very long.

Now there were two choices here in the aftermath: Jack could have held up his hand and said to Hammond, "I'm too close; I need another assignment" or he could do what he does which is to put protecting Sam (and the team) as his priority - and he takes a massive step back from her (and the rest of the team) to do that.

Because rationally and consciously, there are a number of solid reasons why he needs to stay on SG1: the war with the Goa'uld, his honour, his duty, because he would never harm Sam's career or ask her to give up her professional ambitions to pursue a relationship with him, because he can help protect her and the rest of SG1 if he stays on the team, because he believes Sam's preference is to maintain their professional relationship.

But mostly, I think he chooses to remain where he is but take a step back, because he's deep down scared that he'll fail with Sam as he failed with Charlie and Sara.

And while that step back is necessary for Jack if he's going to remain serving on SG1 with her, it is going to hurt them both.

[JenniferJF]

Because rationally and consciously, there are a number of solid reasons why he needs to stay on SG1: the war with the Goa'uld, his honour, his duty, because he would never harm Sam's career or ask her to give up her professional ambitions to pursue a relationship with him, because he can help protect her and the rest of SG1 if he stays on the team, because he believes Sam's preference is to maintain their professional relationship.

But mostly, I think he chooses to remain where he is but take a step back, because he's deep down scared that he'll fail with Sam as he failed with Charlie and Sara.

And while that step back is necessary for Jack if he's going to remain serving on SG1 with her, it is going to hurt them both.

Yes to all this, excellently put and summarized. Though I do think there's also the fear not only of failure but of the simple pain of that loss again.

I'm not going to go into this too far because Shannon and Rachel have pretty much said what I have to say. If it's allowed, and I don't usually do this, but I think the best way to really understand what Rachel is saying is through her Entity Aftershocks tag: Protective Measures and to understand mine through my Entity Being There tag: Euthanasia I can't possibly explain what I think Jack was going through in this episode here better than I show it there, and I think Rachel's illustrates her own points excellently, too.

The key points, though, I think are that Jack did believe (whether it was true or not) that he showed too much affection and preference for Sam early on in the episode so the Entity specifically targeted Sam to control him, and so not only did he fail to protect her, he was in fact responsible for what happened to her and, as Rachel said, a sense of responsibility for those under him and a need to protect them is one of his key personality traits. Thus, for Jack, this failure to protect was especially hard and, because he felt it was his fault, a reminder of his failure with Charlie. Additionally, because I don't think Jack could bear the idea that he might ultimately be responsible for her loss, or fail to protect her as he did Charlie (and indirectly Sara) and, on an even deeper level, simply the idea he loved Sam so much that he could was risking going through THAT kind of pain again (which is what I think his horror at the forcefield in Upgrades was really about), he backed away even further from the personal light and flirty relationship and became more distant after S4.

And I also agree with Rachel's final point, that Jack did all this because he believed Sam was unwilling to give up their professional relationship (and risk their friendship) for a personal one. If she had let him know she needed and wanted *him* - personally - I think even back in S4 he would have moved heaven and earth to make it possible. He was, of course, correct in this belief, and, to his credit, I think as soon as Sam made it clear she did, in fact, not only love him but NEED and want him in her personal life (in Threads), and they both realized nothing and nobody else could satisfy either of them, he did an about face and rearranged his entire life so he could be there for her personally instead of professionally.

EDIT: I should add, I don't think Jack was necessarily sitting around thinking and directly comparing what happened here to what happened with Charlie. I just think, as Rachel said, there are layers of conscious and subconscious behavior and his experiences in the past with Charlie were mostly a subconscious thing which magnified the psychological impact of the fear and pain he felt here.

[EvenstarSRV]

Right... but he says that *after* Threads which, IMHO, makes all the difference in the world. Because I do believe it's during Threads when he finally realizes he's got to let go of the baggage of his past - that, in fact, in attempting to avoid pain and loss he has, in fact, been causing it. So that 'lets not dwell' is, in fact, a Very Recent lesson learned and was, in fact, the lesson he had to learn before he and Sam could go fishing (by which I mean, have a personal relationship which fishing IMHO represented).

IMO he's been learning this lesson since the movie and gradually over the years. I don't really see Jack having a major revelation post Threads and suddenly deciding he shouldn't dwell on the past. He'll never forget or forgive himself for what happened, but IMHO he's not the kind of guy who continually beats himself up or angsts about it.

But, again, different interpretations and the beautiful thing about this show (and any good storytelling) is that, in showing us the characters and their relationships so subtly, so much is left up to the interpretation of the audience. Or, IOW, there is no right answer so at the end of the day, it's simply two different interpretations, like you said and we're going to have to agree to disagree

Works for me.

Oh, I just mean that even right there, in The Light, I don't think Sam is happy, and I thought you were implying that for her at the time of The Light she was doing the right thing given her circumstances, and I don't think that's true. Even then, I think she was in denial of her true feelings and her choices were - for want of a better term - dysfunctional. She might have been 'comfortable and content', but she wasn't happy nor was she being the complete and psychologically healthy person she could have been if she'd made other choices. I think - if Sam and Jack had both been emotionally and psychologically undamaged (though, how many of us are?) and really comfortable with their own feelings and the idea of having a healthy relationship instead of being scared and scarred from past failures, they would have, at the time of D&C, admitted their feelings, realized they *had* to do something about them, and switched teams so they could. Which, as I've said before, is more in line with the actual regulations anyway.

Isn't this a little extreme? Sam has so many wonderful things going for her in her life, great job, great team and friends, she's re-bonded with her Dad and brother, she's on the cutting edge of scientific advancement and has constant access to the greatest discovery in the history of mankind. But she's not 'complete' or 'psychologically healthy' because she doesn't have a boyfriend so she's unhappy and dysfunctional? I know this is a Ship thread, so I'm trying to moderate my words, but I kind feel like it's shortchanging the Sam character quite a bit to make it seem as if her happiness and psychological well-being is almost completely dependent on her relationship/feelings for Jack or any man for that matter. IMHO, the sum of her happiness and well-being is much more than just the status of her personal life.

There are a couple of scenes I love - the scene where Janet orders them all to report to the infirmary - and Jack remarks who put her in charge and Hammond replies with the USAF. I just find it a fun, light scene to begin before it all gets very serious.

The other scene is where Jack, Daniel and Teal'c are talking about the entity and what happened to Sam in the MALP room. Where Jack and Teal'c are both determined that they should have killed it, that the entity had put down a very clever trap to get Sam, and Daniel is arguing that Sam wasn't wrong to try talking with it. There is just a huge chasm between Daniel's thinking and theirs; and in hindsight you can almost feel the ground cracking open between Daniel and the others that may well lead to his Ascension.

Those are my two favorite scenes too. While I get Daniel's POV, I kinda thought he'd be a bit more sympathetic at the price Sam payed for talking with it, rather than doggedly defending with the theoretical principle.

Sam and Jack
Jack is faced with two truths: one, that his open regard for Sam led to the entity placing an importance on Sam that led to her being the one it chose, and two, that he could be placed in the position of killing her to save Earth - his finger not only on the trigger metaphorically but literally.

I've seen this mentioned a lot re Entity and I don't get it. One, I have a hard time seeing a computer entity knowing how to interpret human emotions/feelings and I rather doubt it would ever find in the SGC files a note saying that Sam and Jack were in love, and two, unless Sam and Jack were acting in a way that obviously showed their feelings, how would the entity have even seen Jack's open regard? IIRC, Sam interacted with either the whole team, or Daniel and Hammond the most before she was taken over the by entity. Yes, it says to Jack that he 'values this one,' and that she is 'important,' but IMHO Sam can be valuable and important to Jack for a ton reasons beyond his feelings for her. Given the threat of the Entity, Sam's skills had the best chance of getting rid of it and she almost did, so the Entity set a trap (looking at her file, medical records, Sam using a keyboard) to take out the biggest threat to it, Sam.

So while I'd agree that Jack feels guilty for not being able to protect Sam (something I think he'd feel for anyone on his team), I don't think it's because he believes his personal feelings for her are what put her in danger. Sam being an awesome scientist/problem-solver is what did that. His main angst is dealing with the fact that he had to kill her to stop the threat, and that's where his personal feelings for her really came into play, IMO.

[JenniferJF]

Isn't this a little extreme? Sam has so many wonderful things going for her in her life, great job, great team and friends, she's re-bonded with her Dad and brother, she's on the cutting edge of scientific advancement and has constant access to the greatest discovery in the history of mankind. But she's not 'complete' or 'psychologically healthy' because she doesn't have a boyfriend so she's unhappy and dysfunctional? I know this is a Ship thread, so I'm trying to moderate my words, but I kind feel like it's shortchanging the Sam character quite a bit to make it seem as if her happiness and psychological well-being is almost completely dependent on her relationship/feelings for Jack or any man for that matter. IMHO, the sum of her happiness and well-being is much more than just the status of her personal life.

Of course it is. *But*, it was her personal life and happiness Jacob was so intent on sorting out on his death bed, which rather indicates he felt it needed to be a priority. And I do think the entire point of 'Grace' was for Sam to realize, as much success and contentment as she had professionally, she needed... well... Someone to Love and to Love her in Return, to quote what 'Jacob' told her in her hallucination and, since I believe that was actually her subconscious, then I'd have to argue that, as anti-feminist as it *seems*, that's *exactly* how Sam felt. And I'd also argue that, since it was important enough for her to have this entire hallucination about it in Grace, and the realization in fact led her to date Pete, and later to show up in Jack's backyard to confront him with her feelings, and I really think she was increasingly miserable through S8 as she realized she was doing the wrong thing, then Yes, I'd go so far as to say, in hiding from her own feelings and pretending they weren't important, she was denying herself the full happiness she deserved. And I think denying oneself ones true desires out of fear and a desire to fill the roles set by others (that of a perfect officer in this case) and following all the rules and regulations simply because they exist (which Replicarter accused her of) at the cost of ones own happiness is, in fact, psychologically dysfunctional.

I'm not saying all women, or even any woman at all times, needs a man to be complete and happy. But I find it hard to argue against the idea that, by S7 and S8, Sam had come to the conclusion that, at that point in her life, with everything else in her life falling into place, that was, in fact, the element in her life missing which was needed to give *her* happiness. It's not about one or the other, or one being more important than the other, but about balance. And, in fact, since I believe her and Jack did, in fact, get together after Threads, then I think the increased confidence and happiness I believe I see in her after S8 is, in fact, a result of this. Not simply in 'having Jack', but in overcoming those fears and the need to fit herself into the roles she'd believed others (mainly Jacob) wanted her to fill and accepting herself for what she is -for all that she is, not simply as a scientist and officer but also the human part of her that needed intimate companionship (and I believe men need it as much as women - it's not one-sided), she really did become the best person she could possibly be.

So, while it may seem extreme, I really do think the entire point of Sam's emotional journey during S7 and S8 was that, as much success as she'd had professionally, while she continued to deny herself what she wanted in her personal life she could never find real happiness or be the full complete person she had the right to be. Like I said, the entire point of Grace I think was her coming to this realization.

EDIT: I should point out, for fair balance, that I feel Jack in so far as he is denying and hiding his own feelings out of fear is also being dysfunctional for the same reasons as Sam. And like her, he needs intimacy in order to be the full complete person he deserves to be (and which I also think we see after Threads). The need for love and intimacy isn't gender specific, but when a person needs it, denying themselves it will prevent their happiness. Regardless of gender.

[Zoser]

Yes to all this, excellently put and summarized. Though I do think there's also the fear not only of failure but of the simple pain of that loss again.

I'm not going to go into this too far because Shannon and Rachel have pretty much said what I have to say. If it's allowed, and I don't usually do this, but I think the best way to really understand what Rachel is saying is through her Entity Aftershocks tag: Protective Measures and to understand mine through my Entity Being There tag: Euthanasia I can't possibly explain what I think Jack was going through in this episode here better than I show it there, and I think Rachel's illustrates her own points excellently, too.

The key points, though, I think are that Jack did believe (whether it was true or not) that he showed too much affection and preference for Sam early on in the episode so the Entity specifically targeted Sam to control him, and so not only did he fail to protect her, he was in fact responsible for what happened to her and, as Rachel said, a sense of responsibility for those under him and a need to protect them is one of his key personality traits. Thus, for Jack, this failure to protect was especially hard and, because he felt it was his fault, a reminder of his failure with Charlie. Additionally, because I don't think Jack could bear the idea that he might ultimately be responsible for her loss, or fail to protect her as he did Charlie (and indirectly Sara) and, on an even deeper level, simply the idea he loved Sam so much that he could was risking going through THAT kind of pain again (which is what I think his horror at the forcefield in Upgrades was really about), he backed away even further from the personal light and flirty relationship and became more distant after S4.

First I agree with all the subconscious baggage Jack is toting around.

This is after D&C and the Entity was in the computer system so it knew what was said during the Zay'tarc investigation. I am of the belief that there were monitors in that room just like every other room in the SGC and that Janet must have written a report for Hammond. The Entity knew - it didn't need Jack to confirm his vulnerability.
Jack, as a military man, knows too that his affection for Sam as well as the rest of SG-1 makes them all vulnerably to any enemy to get Jack to dance to their tune by threatening or torturing them. It is his responsibility to be a leader, fulfill his duty first and keep his people safe second. If he can't do that he should be transferred and he knows it, knows it only too well. And as a man of honor he cannot walk away from the fight that he helped start (well it's really all Apophis' fault but you know).
I also think that he believes that Sam, also a military person, will full well understand. You can understand and agree but it still can hurt - on both sides.


This always struck me as one angry man. I think he is killing the thing that killed Sam - not killing Sam. I think he thinks she is already gone and now all he has left is to protect the SGC and Earth, And revenge.

[josiane]

Ah, Entity. I love this episode, it's one of the ones where every time I watch it I am reminded again of how powerful it is. I'll start by saying that basically I agree with Rachel and Jenn's points, but there's a few things from the discussion so far I'd like to pick up on.

I'm not impressed with this episode. I know, blasphemy!
Okay, it's shippy because we get the music three times.

My problem starts at the beginning when everybody is super duper serious except Jack. He doesn't have a single serious moment until Sam gets zonked by the Entity. Then he never leaves Sam's side. I'm sorry but Jack is of no use this way and I just don't see Hammond allowing it no matter how much he understands.

As Rachel said, there are plot holes in this episode, but I'm also inclined to forgive them because the episode as a whole is so absorbing that I don't tend to notice them when watching. Jack's behaviour is kind of the same thing - the OTT joking in the first part of the episode is entirely to show the huge contrast with his behaviour in the second part, after Sam is taken over, IMO. Yes that's narratively driven rather than necessarily character driven - we rarely see such a sustained exhibition of goofy Jack (at least not before S9!), but I think it works because of the contrast.

I've seen this mentioned a lot re Entity and I don't get it. One, I have a hard time seeing a computer entity knowing how to interpret human emotions/feelings and I rather doubt it would ever find in the SGC files a note saying that Sam and Jack were in love, and two, unless Sam and Jack were acting in a way that obviously showed their feelings, how would the entity have even seen Jack's open regard? IIRC, Sam interacted with either the whole team, or Daniel and Hammond the most before she was taken over the by entity. Yes, it says to Jack that he 'values this one,' and that she is 'important,' but IMHO Sam can be valuable and important to Jack for a ton reasons beyond his feelings for her. Given the threat of the Entity, Sam's skills had the best chance of getting rid of it and she almost did, so the Entity set a trap (looking at her file, medical records, Sam using a keyboard) to take out the biggest threat to it, Sam.

I think this is really where the difference between shippers and non-shippers comes in and is a good example of the way the writers managed to balance the two interpretations. You can interpret the reason that the Entity chose Sam either as you say, or in the more shippy way that Sam was chosen because of Jack's feelings for her. I go with the latter, as do many people here I expect, because as Shannon said in her opening post, it's such a Jack-centric episode - he really is the focus throughout, and so from a narrative point of view Sam being taken over is a device to affect him. Which in one sense makes it moot whether the Entity chose Sam because it knew of Jack's feelings, or whether it was coincidental if it still has the same effect on Jack, but we are signalled to the former interpretation by the use of the S/J theme playing at the moment that the Entity tells Jack she was picked because 'you value the life of one'. It's that subtle cue that acts as a nod and a wink to the shippy interpretation, while not closing out the alternative.

[JenniferJF]

Which in one sense makes it moot whether the Entity chose Sam because it knew of Jack's feelings, or whether it was coincidental if it still has the same effect on Jack

Well said here. That's sort of how I see it. The *reality* of why the Entity chose Sam is less important than whether Jack felt it chose her because of him, and Jack's expression when 'the Entity' is looking at him and says, "This one is important" makes me think Jack, at least, feels it's because of him. As you say, whether he's correct or not doesn't matter. It's his perception and the effect on him that's significant.

[josiane]

Well said here. That's sort of how I see it. The *reality* of why the Entity chose Sam is less important than whether Jack felt it chose her because of him, and Jack's expression when 'the Entity' is looking at him and says, "This one is important" makes me think Jack, at least, feels it's because of him. As you say, whether he's correct or not doesn't matter. It's his perception and the effect on him that's significant.

*nods* Yes, that's exactly what I meant I wasn't sure if I'd managed to get that across properly when I was typing it!

[UhSir]

*tiptoes in cuz I know this is going to set tomatoes flying*

Entity

I feel that this gift to the shippers was done at the expense of good story-telling.

Re: Jack protecting Sam
This reminds me of the interviews that Amanda Tapping gave, I think, back around season 7 maybe 6. She was upset that so many fans felt that Sam was weak because she needed Jack to protect her and make her a complete woman. I think more fans did not feel that way but I think enough did to make Amanda feel like it was more. Even interviews before that, back during season 4 when the subject of Sam and Jack came up she protested the idea of being labeled "Jack's girl." Unfortunately these ended up being the commonly perceived views of Sam and Jack getting together which affected the direction and intensity of the ship written.

I do not think that Jack feels he is responsible for protecting Sam. Why would he feel this way? Sam is one of the best military-trained officers. That, and her brains, is why she's on SG-1. He needs to have enough confidence that this teammate can survive without him because odds are he'll be the first to die. If he feels like she needs his protection then one of them better get the heck off of the team. So no, I do not think that Jack struggles over failing to protect Sam every time something bad happens to her. Daniel is the only one who needs protection, at least in the beginning.

But we're talking about Entity.

I don't think Jack feels responsible for Sam being taken over by the Entity. General Hammond gave the order. If anyone is responsible it's Hammond. Jack voiced his objections. Hammond overruled. That's how the military works, right?

Regardless if I believe or not that the Entity figured Sam was the best one to take over because of how much she means to Jack, how is that going to ensure anything to the Entity? I'm sure in the database it's clearly indicated that Hammond is the head of SGC.

It bugs me that everyone, including the Entity, acted like Jack was in charge. Before Sam got taken over, Hammond was in charge but afterwards Jack is? Does not compute, and I'm a shipper!

From the time the Entity got to the SGC up to the time it captured Sam, there was no behavior between Sam and Jack to indicate that she was more important to him than anyone else. And because this is scifi I know I have to reeeeeeeeally stretch my brain sometimes but I just can't stretch it enough to accept that it's because this EM wave/computer program thingy is more advanced than we can understand that it was able to decipher our language, read all of the reports, watch everybody for a few hours, interpret all of this data and figure out that Sam and Jack are the most important things at the SGC. I can believe Sam being the target because she's the only one there that can kill it. But that's not why it chose her:

Entity: This one is important.
Jack: She is.
Entity: For this reason, this one was chosen. You will not terminate this one in order to destroy me.

Excuse me, you're talking about destroying the entire planet so, yes, they will sacrifice the one. But the Entity didn't know this from the database records, even though it's the whole point of the SGC being there, yet it knew about Sam and Jack. Oy!

If it hadn't been for the shippy music I would never consider what's happened in this episode to be any more shippy than any other time that Sam or Jack have been near death. But the music is there so it's got to mean something.

[Tachyon]

I know I'm in minority when I say that Entity isn't super shippy episode for me (perhaps I should watch it again). I can easily imagine Jack being equally concerned about Teal'C, for instance,l as he was concerned about Sam. Overall this episode is alright for me.