Daniel: Best Character Growth / Development Episode

[Tucker Case]

When a situation comes along that he feels strongly angry or upset about, those otherwise nicely-contained, bottled-up emotions come rushing out in stomps, pouts, unfinished sentences, etc....As far as I'm concerned, the stomping and pouting is a minor affectation compared to the deeper workings going on inside him.

That sounds about right, to me.

There was nothing about Daniel's behaviour in 'Threads' that rubbed me the wrong way. Bring the galaxy to the brink of destruction, have the only beings in the galaxy who could do something to stop it just sit there staring into their coffee, and I fully expect to see Daniel get a bit huffy. And his utter helplessness, in this situation, is only going to compound the problem. He can't shoot through the glass and dismantle the bomb himself this time; he doesn't have (or doesn't think he has) the option of at least trying to wipe the threat from existence, as he did in 'Full Circle.' It's not a question of not being "allowed" to interfere and having to break the rules and accept the consequences, he cannot do anything, and that's only going to make him all the more frustrated and "huffier" than usual.

My problem with 'Threads' was that I didn't learn anything - not about Daniel, anyway - that I hadn't figured out already.

He might have realised that the Ancients weren't all they were cracked up to be, but he'd already figured that out in 'Full Circle,' had already chosen his friends over their rules, no matter what it might mean for him. He might have forgotten all of that, but I didn't

And, even without his memories, he still came to the realisation, in 'Orpheus,' that his place was here, remembered enough of what it was like to have to stand and watch to know that he'd made the right choice for himself, even if he couldn't remember having made that choice.

In that regard, 'Threads' turned out to be more of a confirmation than a revelation. I think the little trick Daniel pulled in 'Reckoning' was more of a revelation - because the fact that the Ancient knowledge was still there, in his subconscious, was something I did not know before - and had far greater implications for Daniel's future than anything that happened in 'Threads.' I was looking for 'Threads' to build on that, to go further in revealing what all this meant, for Daniel, and was disappointed to find the focus more on Oma and her past with Anubis.

I don't even know how Daniel got home in the end, 'Threads' did such a fine job of raising more questions than it answered. All in all, I was just as frustrated with the whole thing as Daniel was. The stomping and pouting was exactly what I needed him to do for me.

I'm hoping, though, that 'Threads' will be one of those episodes that gets better with age, that I'll be able to look back and see it as a jumping off point for things to come in Season 9.

Tucker

[PYEWACKETT]

Forever In A Day

[Nolamom]

Forever in a Day - since this is about character growth, after all. Daniel does some major growing and coming to terms with life in this one. Second choice - Maternal Instinct - especially the moment when he realizes that he did none of it, that it was all Oma.

[Caro]

I voted for Forever in a Day. I really liked the way danny forgives Teal'c. He really grew in this episode.

[fair_nymph]

Well, my vote goes to an episode that isn't listed in the poll, Reckoning 2.

Spoiler:

For me, seeing Daniel turn the tide (if only momentarily) with the replicators by gaining control of Replicarter was amazing. His line about 'But I'm learning [to control the replicators]' was so powerful. In fact all the scenes in R2 with Replicarter and Daniel were very moving and showed the determination and mental control that Daniel is capable of. True intellectual Daniel at his finest.