Divide and Conquer (405)

[mparsons1981]

Rewatching now as part of the big stargate rewatch. Gotta love Freyas outfit!

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Rewatching now as part of the big stargate rewatch. Gotta love Freyas outfit!

You mean the "look, I have boobs and I'm wearing a leather thong" outfit? Hate, hate, hate.

I think Freya/Anise could've been an interesting character, if the ptb hadn't restricted her role to eye candy.

Parts I love: Jack's feet falling off his desk and his not knowing what to do with his hands when Freya kisses him. Daniel talking about the Jack O'Neill moments he'll miss the most. Teal'c with the zat when Jack's about to go through "the procedure."

And that actress who played Lt. Aster--she was really something.

ETA: Hey, Jack, why didn't you take the head shot? You could've stopped Martouf (and Lantash) cold.

Seaboe

[Brother Freyr]

Do we or don't we have a Xanax detector?

This episode has a nice feeling of continuity from 4x03 and 4x04.

Gotta love Freyas outfit!

You mean the "look, I have boobs and I'm wearing a leather thong" outfit? Hate, hate, hate.

Yep, that's the one.

Stong emotional impact in this ep. Not just Jack & Sam. Martouf's death was pretty awful.

[Starscape91]

This is one of my favorite episodes. I loved the whole Zatarc idea its to bad they don't mention it again until SGU. I loved the scene between Anise/Freya and Jack. I never realized it before, but Freya blamed Anise for the whole Upgrades incident and said Anise would just have to suffer because she likes Jack not Daniel. Jacks expression and comments after Freya makes a pass at him were hilarious.

Loved the scene between Jack and Daniel how Jack tells him Freya made a pass at him and the snake likes Daniel. Also the fact that Daniel thought Sam made a pass at Jack not Freya was hilarious. I'm a big Jack/Sam shipper so I love the fact that they confess their feelings for eachother it's to bad we never got to see Sams confession though. I never like Martouf so him dying at the end I didn't mind, but the way he died and the fact that Sam killed him considering the whole Jolinar thing was sad.

[Matt G]

Tuesday night and another ep of SG1...

1. "Tuesday...not good for the President..." yeah...the secrecy hamstrings things slightly...

2. Per'sus gets introduced...and then a guy goes nuts...woah!

3. "Do we are do we not have a zanex detector" That's Jack O'Neill for you...

4. Well I knew Jack and Sam being zatarcs wasn't going to be straightforward but first time around I'd honestly seen no canon ship at this point.

5. Jack-Anise...fine...

6. Jack-Sam ship?

7. Martouf!

Very wierd ep!

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

Not the best ep but not the worst either.

Not much I can say that hasn't already been said. But I liked the weapon the Zatarcs used.

Sad to see Martouf die. Sort of.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Also the fact that Daniel thought Sam made a pass at Jack not Freya was hilarious.

It was a natural guess, with no hidden ship whatsoever. They'd just been talking about Sam, Jack said "she" made a pass at him, of course Daniel would first think Jack meant Sam. That's not the same as Daniel thinking Sam made a pass at Jack.

Don't get me wrong, I see ship in the episode. I just don't see ship there.

Seaboe

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

A really sad episode episode. I thought this episode, in a way, had a very SGU feeling to it, at least the teaser did.

So Martouf is dead, and he'll never be back. Oh wait. he'll be back (as one from another universe), in season 9.

Stuff from the commentary:

• There was about how the episode focuses on the relationships of the characters.
• The new footage in this episode, that was not shown in Upgrades.

Tomorrow, a top 5 episode of the series (and the franchise), Joe and Paul's first SG-1 episode, the funny "Window of Opportunity."

[Krisz]

An episode that still held my interest with this re-watch. I had to think for a moment to try and remember what this episode was about on seeing the title next up on the DVD viewing list. Has it been so long since I'd last seen this episode?!

I liked the tension with working on how to stop them ending up dead whether they fulfilled their programming or not. The twist with the machine registering unspoken feelings in the same way as altered memories was a great way to bring out an awkward revelation as far as Sam and Jack were concerned.

When Jack volunteers to go through with the procedure to try to deprogram him, the moment Sam calls after him as he's walking down the corridor and he looks back is one of the most poignant moments between the two characters for me. The closest they came again was when Jack is close to death after using the chair in Antarctica in 'Lost City'.

The only bit that let this episode down was the ending as everyone stood around 'lamenting' the death of Martouf. To me they only ended up looking like a crowd of people awkwardly standing around waiting for the director to call "cut"! It failed as a solemn scene for me!

[SaraBahama]

And that actress who played Lt. Aster--she was really something. Seaboe

Thanks for pointing that out -I thought the same thing on the rewatch -I don't think I had the same appreciation the first time!!

[SG3Marine]

Overall it was a good episode. And even though I go along with the whole ship between Sam and Jack, I thought it was a little too much. And Anise's outfit was ridiculous

[Jae'a]

You mean the "look, I have boobs and I'm wearing a leather thong" outfit? Hate, hate, hate.

I think Freya/Anise could've been an interesting character, if the ptb hadn't restricted her role to eye candy.

I hear ya. I couldn't help thinking throughout the episode, "Does Freya want to get dressed for the president's visit?"

My LiveJournal post

[Nut_ty]

This episode has great pacing—the stakes just continue to escalate with each new “dire consequence”. As the episode gets to the point of Jack risking his life for Sam. and Sam getting sedated, for possibly a long time—I just want to scream that they are not Za’tarcs! To prove this, Jack and Sam are forced to state their feelings for each other, something that neither one of them want to admit.

There are some classic moments in this episode. The Jack/Sam relationship arc gets a big boost from this episode. Freya coming onto Jack was a surprise, but who can blame her (RDA is hot )! The dialog between Jack and Daniel about the Freya incident—Daniel assuming that it was Sam, and Jack telling Daniel that the “snake”, Anise, likes him is priceless!

I like Martouf, he’s my favorite Tok’ra after Jacob. While killing him off in this episode is a great end to this episode—don’t take my “Martie” away !

This is one of the episodes where my “scientific” mind is stretched too far!

While the concept of Za’tarcs is very plausible; Anise/Freya’s method of detection and “cure” of Gou’ld programming is on shaky grounds scientifically. For example, how often can you recall an event from your past in such detail so that both your conscious and the subconscious memories are identical?

In both Jack’s and Sam’s cases the results are a false positive—a false memory is indicated where none exists, and what about Lt. Aster? Was she also a false positive?

OK, sometimes trying to make sense of the “science” part of “science fiction” gives me a headache (flame on)!

[jelgate]

I think Anise gets less clothes with every subsquent episode


I know this is like the holy grail of episodes among shippers but as I do not care about the jack/sam ship at all I just find this episode dull. The story of Goa'uld brain washing is hardly something new but the notion of a zatarc is a little different kind of brainwashing in that it only snaps when a certain stimulus triggers tt. I find this concept interesting and would like to have explored it a little more then just random testing. But instead we get this slow pacing of discovering who are zatarcs and the dullness of jack/sam ship.

On the plus side I like watching Martorf dieing. Not that I like Martof had to die but I thought it was done in a tasteful way when he asks Sam to kill him

[dtheories]

My only comment regarding the whole Jack/Sam was there/wasn't there a *thing* is to say that I sensed from Jack more chemistry with Freya. What? What?

It's very hard to imagine Martouf is gone, though it's also interesting to realize that he did not appear in that many episodes. When I think of the SG-1 portion of the franchise and Martouf, he seems a much larger part of the storyline. Well written and performed character to leave such an impression.