Before starting S3, a brief recap of the cliff-hanger ending:
Daniel, Jack and Sam are captured by Hathor who has incarcerated them in a mock up for the SGC. Teal'c meanwhile, wakes in the real SGC and, frustrated at the lack of action in attempting a rescue, takes his leave of the SGC.
Synopsis
Daniel, Jack and Sam are captured by Hathor who selects Jack to be turned into a host. After the implantation, the Tok'ra operative puts Jack into stasis again effectively killing the symbiote before it can take hold.
Meanwhile, Sam and Daniel are rescued by the SG teams sent to retrieve them. They are stalled by an energy barrier keeping them from the Stargate. Daniel is injured and Sam offers to return to the complex to destroy the energy source maintaining the barrier. She takes this opportunity to attempt to rescue Jack. Finding him in stasis, with a badly injured Tok'ra operative nearby who instructs her how to revive him. Sam does so and finds the symbiote gone but Hathor finds them and uses the hand device on Sam. Jack comes to and kills Hathor, then pulls Sam into a hug when he finds she's OK.
Elsewhere Teal'c is trying to secure forces among the Jaffa to mount his own rescue. Frustrated that his own people cannot provide more support, General Hammond follows Teal'c to Chulak to help him recruit people. Eventually the pair of them, with Bra'tac’s help, find an aircraft hidden in the undergrowth.
Sam and Jack find the energy source and plant C4, planning to blow it when reinforcements come through, but then they come topside they discover that the forces of the SGC have been captured. Jack tries to buy time by posing as a goa'uld and succeeds long enough for the plan to come together. The gate lights up, Sam blows the C4 and Hammond and Teal'c fly through in their puddle jumping fighter destroying the enemy towers. The forces of the SGC are victorious once again.
Review
I don't think I have ever watched this as a stand alone from the first half (Out Of Mind) before so it was interesting to see how well it stands up as an episode in it's own right.
This is probably one of my favourite episodes, and one of the best season openers of them all. Everything about it - the lighting, the score, the directing, the whole package - just screams classic SG-1. This is what they are good at.
It’s fast paced and even the less action packed scenes on Chulak are wonderfully done and don’t slow the episode down, so much as allow the viewer time to take a breath. I really can’t find a thing about this episode that irked me or annoyed me. A couple of unanswered questions though:
What happened to Jack's symbiote. Did it leave his body or was it absorbed within? How come we never see that cool gate hopping craft Teal'c and Hammond fly after this? It looks like a rather handy thing to keep around.
Favourite quote: Do I have to pick just one? Aw. Ok then:
"What the grey doesn't bother you?" Oh No, they grey most certainly doesn't bother me.
(umm, sorry; I will save the shallowness for later.)Favourite scene:
That aircraft coming through the gate and taking out the tower, along with Hammond’s "yeeehaw".
I’ll also pay a little nod to the very end scene where it pans out and you see them walking back towards the gate. Jack ruffles Daniel’s hair and Hammond puts his arm round Sam. It’s really sweet and beautifully shot.
Blatantly shallow observations:
Jack looks exceptionally hot with the slightly floppier hair and the white suit. Sam has lovely honey coloured hair in this episode, which is much nicer than the uber-blonde of later on.
Shippy moments:
Sam rushing to him concerned after being zatted for trying to hurt the goa'uld. She places a hand on his chest in a far too intimate gesture for a CO and second in command.
Sam's look when Jack gets Goa'ulded. Just prior to the symbiote taking Jack, the camera goes to Sam first, then a long shot of both her and Daniel, followed by another panning across Daniel to Sam where it lingers. We then get a brief close up on Daniel before the final two shot after the symbiote enters Jack. Daniel looks angry but impassive while Sam's distress is written all over her face throughout this scene. The focus is very much on Sam's reactions here. Just beautifully directed and edited.
Sam argues with Makepeace when he lists Jack as a casualty. Well OK it wasn’t much of an argument but you can see she’s all for attempting rescue and hasn’t written Jack off yet but is bound by her orders.
When Sam is given the opportunity to go back (ostensibly to destroy the energy barrier) it's virtually a suicide mission and they all know it. Makepeace says "I'll try to keep the door open" but realistically you know there is little chance he will be able to. Sam meanwhile, rather than go immediately to seek out the source of the energy, goes in search of Jack, finding him in stasis.
When Sam revives Jack she places an hand on his chest. Again, this seems rather intimate given their working relationship.
Jack, who must be weakened by being goa'ulded and then put in stasis regains consciousness only to find Sam being tortured to death by Hathor. So enraged by this he finds the strength to not only save Sam but kill a goa'uld bare handed. That’s no mean feat.
The hug. Ah the hug! How long does it go on for? Far longer than needed just to warm Jack up or reassure each other they are OK. Jack seems so relieved to find Sam is fine after being subject to Hathor's hand device, and there’s a look of relief on Sam's face when she's hugging him back. Neither of them seem to want to let go of each other, even as they pull apart and from that moment they hold onto each other until after they have spoken to the Tok’ra and are on their feet. In fact, after that, apart from when Jack goes to buy them some time, they are never more than a few feet apart.
When out in the open and Jack and Sam seem to have some kind of psychic link. She blows the C4 exactly as he's thinking it.
When the towers are shooting at Jack, Sam shouts out a warning, then runs to his side.
After they defeat the enemy, just before the camera pans out to a wide shot, Sam and Jack share a smile.
Implications for Sam and Jack.
Where Out Of Mind served a the purpose of highlighting a physical attraction between Sam and Jack, Into The Fire cements those physical feelings with an emotional connection. Sam clearly struggles with Jack being goa'ulded, even going so far as to essentially put her life on the line to go back for him. This is actually an interesting foreshadowing of the season 8 opening (New Order) where Sam does something similar - taking one of Earth's major assets to find a cure for Jack, except by the time we get to New Order Sam has enough confidence to stand up for what she wants. In any event, her rescue of Jack here is unauthorised and she really only has the tok'ra's word that he really is symbiote free; if he isn’t then she’s blown her whole mission and risked the lives of everyone depending on her. But yet, she is willing to do that. That's not just friendship and loyalty driving her.
Meanwhile Jack finds hidden strength to destroy Hathor thus saving Sam’s life and has no hesitation in showing his relief she’s OK. I can only wonder what terror was going through his head when he saw what Hathor was doing to Sam and how that must have driven his adrenaline.
The unconsciously intimate hug seems to go on forever. The fact we, the viewer, can see the developing feelings clearly in this hug, neither of them are aware enough of anything more than a physical reaction to each other to be concerned that this kind of behaviour might be inappropriate. I certainly see this as being the point they started to feel something deeper developing but the episodes throughout season three show Sam and Jack at their most flirty and I am sure neither of them would encourage or engage in that so freely had they truly understood the emotional implications of what was happening between them.
Don Davis just absolutely shined!
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