Shades of Grey (318)

[Petroit]

R.D.Anderson is so great actor.He play´s in this episode really cogently...

[Perriman33]

I don't know if it's cos I'm not a big tollan fan but I didn't see anything wrong with jack stealing off them. At least I didn't think *Oh thats what this episode is about,stealing off other races!*.
It was only when they mentioned the asgard I thought *fair enough*.
I liked the way jack infiltrated the rogue team who had their own sam character. It seemed a bit short and rushed to me, especially after he joined the rogue team. The asgard whizz in zap everything up and jack goes back to SGC. I did like the ending though where daniel, sam and teal'c get they're own back on him.

[Ascendant]

Fantastic fake-out. Of course, all the character moments are completely useless now... (*sighs*) Oh well, it was still pretty cool.

Yeah, I actually felt a little cheated by the conclusion of the episode. We spend the entire show finally getting some (apparently) hardcore character development out of Jack...his attitude is shocking, fascinating. We know that Jack is a good guy, so we start wondering if maybe his point of view isn't so wrong after all. And then, in the last five minutes, it's all taken back - "Syke! I've been a good guy all along! None of your feelings about me in this episode have been valid!"

It only really works if you've completley stopped relating to him for the entire episode. If your emotions about Jack are in the grey area between black and white, you can almost relate to him. If you're looking at him entirely from the Light Side perspective, it seems like he's doing bad things. Then you would feel entirely relieved at the end.

I dunno. At least it firmly establishes him as one of the Good Guys. That could be called character development, I guess...

It does bring up an interesting point, though. I think if I were running the SGC, I would focus less on exploration and more on stealing vast amounts of enemy technology. Gate pirates.

I thought Makepeace was a premo choice for the mole. It's so easy to write him off as a brave but prototypical rule-following grunt. Then we find out he has this secret life. It gives him much more depth. It's cool that they used a recurring character, too, instead of just Some Guy.

Overall it was an awesome episode - the ending just felt a tad cheap, is all. "It was all a lie. Everything's back to normal..."

[Tezzador]

Yea, and in the end the tollan get destroyed, the asgard become weakened and earth still is in pretty good shape!

[Albion]

First things first: can anyone explain or guess at the meaning of the title for this episode?. I'm thinking along the lines of 'shades of grey' = shades of morality or something like that but I'd love to hear some other opinions.

Shades of grey is a common phrase to mean something ambiguous - something that you can't categorise as simply black or white, good or bad. Something that's not clear cut.

Quite often, yes, that means morally or politically ambiguous and it often refers to an action done by someone that could be almost as bad as it is good. Politicians, spies, soldiers and many others all live in a world that isn't as simple as black and white - good guys and bad guys without ambiguity - but painted in shades of grey. The middle ground in between good and evil, where sometimes you have to do bad things to have good consequences and where the concepts of morality are blurred.

So in the context of the episode, the shades of grey refers to the world that Maybourne and the rogue NID SG teams operate in. Where the moral ambiguity of stealing technology for our benefit, even if that means you ruin another society or kill a whole race of people is considered a worthy tradeoff.

Yes, we see that what the NID is doing is bad. But otoh, we can also sympathise with their pov and their reasoning. They aren't wholly black (totally evil) or wholly white (complete saints - otherwise they wouldn't be acting as they are) but in the morally ambiguious gray area in between where they honestly think they are working to be best they can for their country and have more lost their way, lost sight of the big picture, than are truly criminal.


Albion

[Stricken]

I don't know if it's cos I'm not a big Tollan fan but I didn't see anything wrong with Jack stealing off them. It was only when they mentioned the Asgard having their tech stolen I thought fair enough.
I liked the way jack infiltrated the rogue team who had their own version of Sam. It seemed a bit short and rushed to me, especially after he joined the rogue team. The Asgard whizz in zap everything up and Jack goes back to SGC.

[Ascendant]

Shades of grey is a common phrase to mean something ambiguous - something that you can't categorise as simply black or white, good or bad. Something that's not clear cut.

I always kind of thought it was referring more to Jack's actions (rather than the actions of the rogue NID team) and the fact that we aren't really sure whose side he's on until the end.

But now I'm starting to think it might be a pun on the Asgard. Shades of Roswell Grey.

[walter_MacChevron]

yeah, it was intersting to see jack kind of sway between the good side and the bad side

[coprohead]

I just watched this on the DVD and I have a question for anyone who has the DVD or has seen the back cover (US Version). Who is the picture of on the back cover of the DVD associated with Shades of Grey?

I didn't see anyone looking like that in this one. I also don't remember anyone else in any of the others that looked like the person in the picture.

Well, sorry if this has been covered already and I missed it.

-Dale

[Chaka's_Mum]

I always kind of thought it was referring more to Jack's actions (rather than the actions of the rogue NID team) and the fact that we aren't really sure whose side he's on until the end.

But now I'm starting to think it might be a pun on the Asgard. Shades of Roswell Grey.

In some ways, I think this could almost be one of those episode titles that covers all the angles to some degree. The uncertainty of whether or not Jack has really abandoned the principles of the SGC (and, despite his complaints, his own principles too) is one of them, and the actions of people like Maybourne, Makepeace and the Techno-nickers is another.

We might consider the theft of technology from allies to be reprehensible, but their view is that it's a necessary evil to ensure the future security of the earth (and probably the future financial security of whoever's backing them, of course - but they probably put that bit to the back of their minds). There's a point to both sides of the argument - do we protect ourselves through making use of off-world technology (albeit through knocking it off) or by forging alliances and hoping our more advanced neighbours will come to our aid if the worst should happen? One is more morally responsible than the other - depending upon to whom you feel your responsibility lies. Enough shades of grey there to populate a Dulux catalogue, methinks!

[Pharaoh Atem]

rick did a good job in this episode playing jack as if he was fed up remined me of the movie

[captain jake]

This was a great mission I was totaly weirded out the first time I saw it.

[Chaka's_Mum]

I know what you mean - that moment when Jack yanks that bit of technology off the wall is a bit of a 'sit up and say "what???!!!"' kind of thing!

[captain jake]

It wasnt exactly good for him to leave in the first place, what is to say if he came he would be able to go back?

[Sheppard]

i liked how they all were scared when the asgard were beaming things off the planet at the end i just though that was funny and at the end where jack went through the gate did he have a GDO just a question odd anywho