Insiders (1004)

[Dromag67]

Do you actually expect episodes to get better and better every week? There's always going to be better episodes but they don't have to go in order, I'm not ranting btw lol just don't see why people say 'but last week was better'.

I never said every week would be better than the last nor did I expect or believe them too, every episode is different in its own right and that is the simple fact of life.

[MasySyma]

You don't need to lie (and unless it was the right thing to do, it was a lie) to make a Lt. Colonel and member of the premiere SG team not feel worse than they do. If he had to try and make her feel better, there wasn't something else he could have said that wasn't a flat out lie? Unless, again, it was the right thing to do, which I'm not seeing.

I agree. This seems to be a nasty pattern developing around Sam's character.

In Gemini, after she helped Replicarter, instead of being told that she screwed up, she was told that it wasn't her fault. So, her character didn't learn anything.

Now, after helping Ba'al, instead of being told that she screwed up, she was again told that it wasn't really her fault. Yes, it was, but she probably won't learn anything because she will need the ability to temporarily lose her mind as she does once a season next year.

[Uber]

I agree. This seems to be a nasty pattern developing around Sam's character.

In Gemini, after she helped Replicarter, instead of being told that she screwed up, she was told that it wasn't her fault. So, her character didn't learn anything.

Now, after helping Ba'al, instead of being told that she screwed up, she was again told that it wasn't really her fault. Yes, it was, but she probably won't learn anything because she will need the ability to temporarily lose her mind as she does once a season next year.

Uh I won't go into Gemini, but there's a great breakdown on the Gemini thread by golfbooy, showing how everyone acted completely in character...including Carter...and that the only way to have prevented what happened would have been for them to kill Replicarter on site. http://forum.gateworld.net/showpost....&postcount=411

As for what happened in Insiders, Sam expected her team and a ton of SFs to be arriving soon. With the jamming technology in place...ergo, the Ba'als aren't going anywhere...from her perspective she was stalling for time as best she could while ensuring that none of the hostages were killed.

And for that, her actions were right on.

[GateLadyM]

How in the world could Sam giving Ba'al the information be the right thing to do, like Landry said?

Sam had no idea the Ba'als could escape the way they did. She thought they were trapped on the base and knew Landry would be cooking up a plan to stop them. They were all fooled.

Really liked this episode. Wasn't up to par with last week, but Pegasus Project was just extra good stuff! The Ba'al jokes were funny, liked how Vala is trying to interact with everyone, like arm wrestling Teal'c, and how Mitchell doesn't quite trust her with a gun. The scene between Vala and Ba'al was good too. I thought Barrett was going to turn out to be a Gou'ald in the end, well, he may yet be.

We finally got to see the incredible, magnificent Siler!

Oh, BTW, Mitchell IS in charge.

[CYBEREAGLE19]

I enjoyed the episode, I wonder if the real baal is ever going to be found? I like how he gave vala a zat instead of a P90, allthough a zat would be worse, looks like we have us are very own alkesh allthough I think its going to the same place as the time jumpers to never be seen again, I wonder how this week will do in the rateings, I always enjoy clif simon,

[Lt. Gnatty-Bug]

Military Generals don't say stuff just to make someone happy - trust me, I've met a few. Hell, most officers in the military don't say stuff to make someone feel better. But that's not my point.
I am amongst the group that thought what Carter did was very out of character, and entirely wrong. I quote the code of conduct, article one, three, and five:
I am an American fighting in the forces that guard my country and our way of life, I am prepared to give my life in their defense.
If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.
Should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability.
My point being, she's an officer in the USAF, she's learned this - probably had it beaten into her head while she was at the academy, and even at the cost of the lives of people around her, she should not of given that information so freely. What can I say, I'm a military elitist...
Other than that, I really enjoyed the episode =3

[Galilahi]

i thought this ep was ok. i like the interatction between vala and sam. we always get the male bonding "i won't leave you behind" moments but the girl moments come few and far between.

vala and teal'c arm wrestling was totally cute.

sam giving in so easy bothered me too. i think it was written more as a plot device than any refelection on her character.

i really think there was a competition to come up with as many corny ball jokes as possible.

overall it was a good solid ep

[L.A. Doyle]

As for what happened in Insiders, Sam expected her team and a ton of SFs to be arriving soon. With the jamming technology in place...ergo, the Ba'als aren't going anywhere...from her perspective she was stalling for time as best she could while ensuring that none of the hostages were killed.

And for that, her actions were right on.

Exactly.

[L.A. Doyle]

I loved this episode it's back down to earth, the Ori are ok, but I like that they bring back a Goa'uld; and the fact that it's Ba'al is nice, because I like Ba'al (for a bad dude ). I like how Vala was arm wrestling Tea'lc! And Siler was in it the fist time this season YES!

Siler! YES! I agree. I love ol Sly! I missed Daniel in this ep, but it was nice to see some Jaffa again! And the arm wrestling-priceless.

[suse]

I truly disliked - very akin to hated - this episode. After last week I thought the characters might be treated with some respect and got my hopes up. This ep sure dashed those.

Vala was amusing. Loved her trying to "armwrestle" Teal'c using both arms. She looked like a kid. SHe also had some good lines. The lack of sexual references was a relief. 3/4 S10eps with none. Great! Liked the team interaction. Was nice to see Vala starting to fit in.

Vala leading a small team of AF personnel. Er, what happened to probationary status? She gave orders and used military hand signals. Sure.

Baal jokes. Amusing. Been there, done that with Yu, but still funny.

BArrett. I really thought he was a goa'uld with no naquada. He sure acted out of character with Sam and their "relationship". I thought she put something together there. Apparently not.

Mitchell was suspicious of how easy one clone got caught. Why weren't they suspicious of how all of them got caught?

The Sam before S9 would have put all those Baals in one place and the strengthening of the tracking device together.


Sam knows better than to to give information to an enemy 'that cannot get away'. If she didn't know it before Gemini, she sure knew it after. ANd SG-1 has been tortured for information before. Usisng another to force information out is a common technique. Sam would never have given it up. Not even to save another life. More is as stake than a few people. . Like the galaxy if Baal gets to Merlin's weapon before SG-1 does. Why was the character sacrificed - twice! used to just hand over information to the enemy? I have theories, but this isn't the place.

Sam also woild have gotten out of that room. So it was a supply closet. It had supplies. And a network link. I'm sure sensative info like that isn't store on every hard driven on base. I'm sure she could MacGyver a way out.

Do AF personal not get trained on how to deal with a breakout/foothold situation? Patently ridiculous. Er, use the computer to make all the guards passes not work. Drop the bulkheads. Cut power. Even backup power to those sections. Bet Baal doen't know where the flashlights are.

Midway thru this eo it was maybe a 6 or 7 out of 10. By the end it had fropped to a 4. I've seen worse. But I've seen muchmuchmuchmuch better too.

Suse

ETA: As to this being sci-fi: Wright and Cooper used to say they were proud that they kept "one foot in the real world" when it came to miltiary protocol and daily life. Well, that's gone the way of the dodo. The AF used to have an advisor there to help keep them within most protocols. And Stargate did it so well the AF gave RDA and honorary rank. From the major "snafus" of the last two years I'd hazard a guess that the advisor is no longer there.

[Uber]

I truly disliked - very akin to hated - this episode. After last week I thought the characters might be treated with some respect and got my hopes up. This ep sure dashed those.

Vala was amusing. Loved her trying to "armwrestle" Teal'c using both arms. She looked like a kid. SHe also had some good lines. The lack of sexual references was a relief. 3/4 S10eps with none. Great! Liked the team interaction. Was nice to see Vala starting to fit in.

Vala leading a small team of AF personnel. Er, what happened to probationary status? She gave orders and used military hand signals. Sure.

Baal jokes. Amusing. Been there, done that with Yu, but still funny.

BArrett. I really thought he was a goa'uld with no naquada. He sure acted out of character with Sam and their "relationship". I thought she put something together there. Apparently not.

Mitchell was suspicious of how easy one clone got caught. Why weren't they suspicious of how all of them got caught?

The Sam before S9 would have put all those Baals in one place and the strengthening of the tracking device together.


Sam knows better than to to give information to an enemy 'that cannot get away'. If she didn't know it before Gemini, she sure knew it after. ANd SG-1 has been tortured for information before. Usisng another to force information out is a common technique. Sam would never have given it up. Not even to save another life. More is as stake than a few people. . Like the galaxy if Baal gets to Merlin's weapon before SG-1 does. Why was the character sacrificed - twice! used to just hand over information to the enemy? I have theories, but this isn't the place.

Sam also woild have gotten out of that room. So it was a supply closet. It had supplies. And a network link. I'm sure sensative info like that isn't store on every hard driven on base. I'm sure she could MacGyver a way out.

Do AF personal not get trained on how to deal with a breakout/foothold situation? Patently ridiculous. Er, use the computer to make all the guards passes not work. Drop the bulkheads. Cut power. Even backup power to those sections. Bet Baal doen't know where the flashlights are.

Midway thru this eo it was maybe a 6 or 7 out of 10. By the end it had fropped to a 4. I've seen worse. But I've seen muchmuchmuchmuch better too.

Suse

I agree with most of what you said except the part about Sam not giving the info to Ba'al. As I pointed out earlier, she was stalling for time and preserving the lives of the other hostages waiting for the others.

I also agree that Sam would have figured a way out of the closet somehow. She's gotten out of worse scrapes than that.

[Uber]

I originally posted this in the Carter thread...thus the focus of this will be about her:

My sense was that Ba'al already dug up the information and all he (they) needed was the password, so to speak. Sam wasn't willing to give it up to save her own life but did do it for the sake of others.

I didn't have a problem with that. One of the Ba'als was leaving to go kill one of the hostages right then and there.

I think from her perspective, she was stalling for time so the others could get to her and contain all the clones. They then could retrieve the disk...so no harm no foul.

The writers like putting them in this situation, don't they? Where they're forced to cooperate with an untrustworthy being or beings and then get suckerpunched in the end. I think, when cleverly done, it's thoroughly entertaining. SGA's Coup d' Etat was a great example. Insiders...sadly...was not. There were just way too many plot holes in this one.

And don't get me started on Vala taking point for a team of well-trained SFs...especially when they don't even trust her with a P-90.

The leadership thing...well, that certainly didn't look like Landry's cabin unless he's done a heck of a renovation job. As for the beat itself...again. It's just way to freakin' little way too freakin' late. It was Sam's command and the show would have done JUST FINE adding a Major Mitchell to the mix. If this is how they deal with what is clearly a volatile fandom issue, I shudder to think of how they will massacre any ship resolution.

Most of Sam's character beats worked great. The ones with Vala were particularly good. Same with Barrett. Great energy running there. The ones with Mitchell? Not so much. They felt forced...but then they always do with him.

I would have liked it if Barrett had turned out to be the Alpha Ba'al, not another brainwashing story...but that kind of requires depth and creativity...so...not holding my breath there.

And I understand those who said they thought it was odd that Sam didn't say anything regarding Malcolm's eruption. My perception was that she probably saw it as extremely out of character and chalked it up to him being under a lot of pressure. Later on when she puts the pieces together about what happened though, I think she factored that in as part of the side affects of his programming.

And please...make Mitchell stop trying to be funny. It makes me want to shoot him. More.

[yowo]

I agree. This seems to be a nasty pattern developing around Sam's character.

In Gemini, after she helped Replicarter, instead of being told that she screwed up, she was told that it wasn't her fault. So, her character didn't learn anything.

Now, after helping Ba'al, instead of being told that she screwed up, she was again told that it wasn't really her fault. Yes, it was, but she probably won't learn anything because she will need the ability to temporarily lose her mind as she does once a season next year.

Cater did the right thing the only thing she could do. She couldn’t let Baal kill Barrette especially when she thought Baal couldn’t get off the Base.

[Vesian]

Did anyone else sit there in confusion at the beginning of the episode when Baal and SG-1 were having the discussion about Baal's plan to hijack the ancient weapon on Dakara? I mean, it may be my horrible imagination, but I distinctly remember during a certain favorite episode of mine titled "Threads" that the Jaffa pledged to DESTROY the ancient weapon after Anubis attempted to gain control of it.

...and yet, months after this, Baal decides to attempt to gain access to the Jaffa High Council with the expressed intent on gaining access to the said (destroyed) weapon? Um, PLOT HOLE, PEOPLE.

Was it destroyed or wasn't it?

[Amakusa]

Like others have mentioned before, it would've been better of Barrett turned out to be Baal. But then they'd have to sideline Cliff Simon for that, so noo....

Seems to me more like their preferred method to get rid of Sam's last lingering boyfriend.