Serpent's Song (218)

[Lunaeclipse]

I was a little surprised at just how harshly Jack seemed to react to Apophis, especially as Apophis has caused no harm to him personally (that I can recall) or, at least, not in the same way that Daniel and Teal'c have suffered. I get the impression that, after everything Apophis has put them through, he just wants to get rid of him. I can understand that, but it does seem strange that an officer of his rank wouldn't think beyond that.

Um didn't pops kill Jack in the Nox episode? And he was responsible for taking Skaara that Jack had close personal attachment to.

[Lunaeclipse]

Jack doesn't like Apophis because he took Skaara away and Skaara was almost like a son-kinda thing to him. Also Pops killed Jack, Daniel and Sam in the nox ep. I don't think Jack takes nicely to that either.

Daniel's reason is similar except it was his wife and Apophis did more to hurt Daniel - and in Daniel's denfense Apophis started the 'argument' in this ep.

Teal'c has the whole servatude/slave thing and then had to give up his family to free his people. He saw the way Apophis treated people and it seems by what he said that Teal'c thought he should suffer a little too.

Sam's being killed by him seems to be the only reason she would have, or am I forgetting something?

This episode started off with me being happy that someone, even if it wasn't SG1, finally beat him. Then Jack, all smug makes one of my favourite quotes about Apophis being his own god, and makes other funny remarks. Then we see (not in order) The host and we see that he has suffered the most at the 'hands' of Apophis. It shows us that Daniel and Teal'c have more hate for the serpent (aptly nicknamed) than we thought. Dr stands up to Teal'c at a time when he was acting 'fearsome', which was dramatic. When the host dies it's sad and Daniel shows compassion, obviously seeing past Pops and realising that the host was innocent. And we get to kinda meet the new baddie. The Tok'ra adding the fear factor to it.

For me this episode was a rollercoaster in the good way. It had a bit of everything.

[hlndncr]

I always found this episode to be rather boring. I do think it is interesting that every one had their turn with Apophis and all but Sam had a personal reason to hate him. Sam on the other hand, got involved because she wanted to go through the Stargate and this is her job, and when she talks to Apophis for her it really is all business. Janet was another anchor of strength here, acting as the moral conscience. (Interestingly a role Daniel often fills as well, but can't here given his hate for Apophis.) She is going to show compassion and fulfill her role as a physician regardless of the patient. Love her for that.

[Lunaeclipse]

I always found this episode to be rather boring. I do think it is interesting that every one had their turn with Apophis and all but Sam had a personal reason to hate him. Sam on the other hand, got involved because she wanted to go through the Stargate and this is her job, and when she talks to Apophis for her it really is all business. Janet was another anchor of strength here, acting as the moral conscience. (Interestingly a role Daniel often fills as well, but can't here given his hate for Apophis.) She is going to show compassion and fulfill her role as a physician regardless of the patient. Love her for that.

I really admire Janet in this episode. She stood up to Teal'c who is stronger and bigger than her, because of her job and I would guess beliefs. Everyone else wanted to see Apophis suffer, but she thought about basic 'human' rights/needs.

[hlndncr]

I really admire Janet in this episode. She stood up to Teal'c who is stronger and bigger than her, because of her job and I would guess beliefs. Everyone else wanted to see Apophis suffer, but she thought about basic 'human' rights/needs.

I agree. This was a really great episode for Janet. It shows the kind of strong, moral person she is.

[Lunaeclipse]

I loved seeing the dark side of Tea'c in his episode too. For me he has always been controlled and in this episode we get to see that there was some anger in there. I think we all knew it was there, but it was something else to actually see it in him. For me it was a scene that gave Teal'c more depth of character.

[maneth]

Great episode, lots of food for thought for later. One thing that bugged me though, if it only took 30 minutes to reprogram the dialling computer for a faster sequence, why the heck didn't they do so earlier? I got sick of the slow original sequence after seeing it about three or four times...

[ChulaksPrincess]

This was a good episode. I felt sorry for the host of Apofis. Teal'c attempting to stop Jannet from giving him pain medicine was quite a moment to remember. Jack was so happy Apofis was dying. That was funny.

[majorsal]

This was a good episode. I felt sorry for the host of Apofis. Teal'c attempting to stop Jannet from giving him pain medicine was quite a moment to remember. Jack was so happy Apofis was dying. That was funny.

i remember being very impressed with the numerous emotions this ep could bring up/out. it wasn't black and white with this character's death... good storytelling.

[Lunaeclipse]

This was a good ep to show the other side of the human and host relationship.

[Noxbait]

1st off...I love the desert camo. : )
"Holy buckets." Woohoo..it's Apophis! wow...Hammond's voice was like ice when he said "we've met" regarding Apophis. brrr....sometimes i forget that he was there when Apophis came to the SGC in COTG.

I like Jack "Should've shot 'em." Very cold, yet I can't disagree with him. After the heartache Apophis put Teal'c/Daniel/Jack through...I don't blame him a bit.

After reading some of the above posts, I was thinking about what a lot of you have said about the guy's reactions to Apophis. I think that Jack is pretty darn mad about Apophis taking Skaara. So that accounts for some of it. While it is never exactly shown (as far as I know)...I think some of the animosity springs from his friendship with Daniel and knowing what Apophis did to ruin his life. He's nothing if not loyal and a good friend deep down. I think that is a big part of his anger.

oooh. love the whole scene with Daniel and Apophis. So cold when he says "I know where your child is." yikes. oh yeah, he hates Apophis with every fiber of his being, and his quiet control was chilling.

One of my favorite episodes of course. So much to love. A very powerful, emotional episode. Sad about the poor Egyptian host. The Goa'uld really are a clever type of villian as they are monsterous in and of themselves, and also because they take over an innocent person. So you can hate them with your whole heart, yet if you are honest, you find yourself pitying the poor host. Very clever all around. Peter Williams did a great job as usual. Very sad when the host was talking.

and yes, Janet is amazing and wonderful. (as are Martouf's teeth! Tok'ra have great dentists, eh?)

I thought the ending in the gateworld was particularly poignant. Everyone looked rather ill and none too thrilled when Martouf was describing what was going to happen to Apophis most likely.

An excellent story all around.

[Lunaeclipse]

1st off...I love the desert camo. : )
"Holy buckets." Woohoo..it's Apophis! wow...Hammond's voice was like ice when he said "we've met" regarding Apophis. brrr....sometimes i forget that he was there when Apophis came to the SGC in COTG.

I like Jack "Should've shot 'em." Very cold, yet I can't disagree with him. After the heartache Apophis put Teal'c/Daniel/Jack through...I don't blame him a bit.

I think we all knew that Daniel was angry with Apophis, but this shows how much . It's a side of Daniel that we didn't see much of in the early parts of the series.

After reading some of the above posts, I was thinking about what a lot of you have said about the guy's reactions to Apophis. I think that Jack is pretty darn mad about Apophis taking Skaara. So that accounts for some of it. While it is never exactly shown (as far as I know)...I think some of the animosity springs from his friendship with Daniel and knowing what Apophis did to ruin his life. He's nothing if not loyal and a good friend deep down. I think that is a big part of his anger.

oooh. love the whole scene with Daniel and Apophis. So cold when he says "I know where your child is." yikes. oh yeah, he hates Apophis with every fiber of his being, and his quiet control was chilling.

One of my favorite episodes of course. So much to love. A very powerful, emotional episode. Sad about the poor Egyptian host. The Goa'uld really are a clever type of villian as they are monsterous in and of themselves, and also because they take over an innocent person. So you can hate them with your whole heart, yet if you are honest, you find yourself pitying the poor host. Very clever all around. Peter Williams did a great job as usual. Very sad when the host was talking.

and yes, Janet is amazing and wonderful. (as are Martouf's teeth! Tok'ra have great dentists, eh?)

I thought the ending in the gateworld was particularly poignant. Everyone looked rather ill and none too thrilled when Martouf was describing what was going to happen to Apophis most likely.

An excellent story all around.

I agree it easy to forget that when Apophis came to Earth at the start of COTG General Hammond was there and Apophis left with small amount of casualties...

I think Jack was definitely angry at Apophis and because of the nature of the Goa'uld it is far too easy to forget that there is a host in there helplesssly watching and this was a good episode to remind us of that.

You have reminded me about Martouf. When he tells them that Apophis was likely to be brought back using the sarc and then tortured again, his explaination also came off kind of cold to me... Like it was just a way of life for them... It sent chills through me...

I think this is an important episode to watch because it shows the Goa'uld thing from a few different angles and makes you think about what it must be like for the host...

[FrodoFraggins]

9/10

It just isn't as big of a deal when you know Apophis can be resurrected.

I can think of several ways to protect them from the subatomic attacks, mainly be redesigning the gateroom to essentially "bury" it when they don't want any incoming wormholes.

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

Pretty good ep. One of my favourites this season.

I felt so sorry for Apophis's host

And yay Sokar

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

This episode has all the ingredients to be fantastic, but I find it falls well short of that. Where it had the opportunity to deliver some real emotional punch and pivotal character development, it is instead reduced to various scenes of people discussing and bickering.

The highlights come from Daniel's scene with Apophis - which while very out of character for Daniel feels very true - and the few moments we get with Apophis' host. The problems come from Daniel's complete recovery and emotional reversal as the episode continues. The way Teal'c handles his former god does not work for me either, as it comes across as just plain spiteful and a little bit childish.

The main sticking point is that the episode doesn't really go anywhere. After a whole episode of apparantly "interrogating", we learn nothing. This was a fantastic opportunity to flesh out Apophis and give us some understanding, but he is kept as a very 2-dimensional villain. The way the SGC handles Apophis is just completely wrong, as they seem to spend more time leaving him alone instead of really grilling him. Where are all the people who would want a piece of him? Where are the NID? Why isn't Hammond making him a big priority? THIS IS YOUR BIG ****ING ENEMY, A GOA'ULD SYSTEM LORD. DO SOMETHING.

But, no. Let's just have Teal'c gloat a little bit and Daniel taunt him.

Sokar's introduction is pretty cool (I had forgotten he even existed), and the antagonistic nature of the Tok'ra continues to be challenging. The fact that Martouf is really likeable one moment and then turns rude and belittling the next is a clever device for us as viwers, as we are completely torn - much as the characters of the SGC on screen must be. I do like the fact that the episode ends on a sour note, leaving us with mixed emotions.

RATING: 6 out of 10