The Benevolent Society of Angry Misanthropes: Stargate SG-1: Bloodlines

Episode 12 (Bloodlines) is a Teal'c episode. You won't know this if you're watching for the first time, of course, but that invariably means it's going to be shit. I don't dislike Teal'c himself mind you, as a character he's fine. It's just that episodes focused on him tend to be bad. He's definitely more of a supporting character. This episode does introduce an important character who'll be showing up a lot more later though.

A Teal'c episode? Indeed.

The episode opens with Teal'c dreaming about a Jaffa boy being given his Goa'uld. Then suddenly the boy is Teal'c, and things get a little chaotic before cutting to SGC, where Teal'c is just waking up in an operating theatre. The attempt to remove his Goa'uld without killing him has failed.

It turns out that (as well as the incidental benefit of freeing Teal'c from his reliance on it) the main objective is to acquire a Goa'uld for study. This seems to have some pretty serious ethical implications, given that Goa'uld are intelligent beings - in a word, people - but that goes entirely unacknowledged. Instead Teal'c suggests returning to Chulak - his home world - as there are many Goa'uld there not yet implanted into Jaffa hosts.

Teal'c takes the rejection of his suggestion unusually hard and so Jack follows him to find out why. It turns out that Teal'c has a wife and son left behind on Chulak, and his son, Rya'c will soon be old enough to receive a Goa'uld. Teal'c very much does not want that to happen and tells Jack that he will return to Chulak with or without the rest of SG-1. Gradually everyone gets on-board with the plan to rescue Rya'c, just in time to prevent him from going through the Stargate alone. So SG-1 put on some disguises and head through.

Where did they get those disguises from on such short notice?

The gate on the other side is guarded (presumably thanks to the team's earlier visit) by a squad of Jaffa, including a couple of priests for some reason. but Teal'c manages to bluff his way past them. They then remove their disguises - for no apparent reason - and head to Teal'c's old house - which has been burned down.¹ There's also a symbol painted on the side that Teal'c identifies as the word "shol'va", meaning "traitor".

Did he really think Apophis wouldn't punish his family?

Suddenly Teal'c's old friend and mentor Bra'tac appears. There's a bit of back and forth between him and Jack and they throw each other to the ground before Jack sends Daniel and Sam back to the gate and tells them to leave if he isn't back within 24 hours. Then he, Teal'c and Bra'tac head off to look for Teal'c's wife and Rya'c.

Oh hey, it's Tony Amendola!

They arrive just in time to disrupt the ceremony where Rya'c will receive his Goa'uld. The Goa'uld and priests are killed in the scuffle and Teal'c's wife, Drey'auc, is not happy about any of it. It turns out that Rya'c is terribly ill and will die if he doesn't receive a Goa'uld immediately.

Jack somehow instantly recognises the symptoms of scarlet fever and suggests that if they get him to Earth then modern medicine may be able to save him instead, so they decide to head back to the gate immediately. Unfortunately Ryac's condition is too far advanced and he'll never make it, so Teal'c gives him his Goa'uld. Now Rya'c will live but Teal'c will not.

Not dead yet.

Meanwhile Sam and Daniel get distracted on their way back to the gate by a group of priests carrying a fancy box. They follow them back to a little temple or shrine or something where they transfer something from the box into a tank full of Goa'uld. Before moving on. Sam and Daniel wait for them to leave before moving in and grabbing one of the Goa'uld, which they put into a thermos.

Feeding time?

As they're about to leave, Daniel stops, thinking about how each one of the Goa'uld remaining there will one day need to take a human host. Sam argues that killing them when they're weak and defenceless would be wrong - but kidnapping one for study is perfectly fine, of course - but Daniel shoots the tank anyway. On the way back to the Stargate they meet up with Jack's group, just in time to give Teal'c the Goa'uld they just acquired.

Aww, look at those poor, innocent, body-snatching parasites.

There's a bit of a chase back to the Stargate and they decide to leave Drey'auc and Rya'c behind even though they could easily bring them. Bra'tac decides to stay too, despite having to out himself as a traitor to help SG-1 escape. Well, I say having to, but it was either that or kill some Jaffa who were guarding the stargate and he made the wrong choice. Realistically, he, Rya'c and Drey'auc should be dead shortly after this episode, but they survive.

So they get back to Earth not having made a single positive difference to anything. They didn't save Teal'c's son, they didn't get a Goa'uld to study, but they did put three potential allies in greater danger. Good job team! Introducing Bra'tac was really the only point of this episode, and even that's minimal. Like all Teal'c episodes, this one was dumb and pointless.