Cor-ai (episode 16) is a Teal'c episode and it's... not bad? There are some annoying things about it, but as far as season one goes it's pretty average.
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| That's an odd assortment of foods. |
SG-1 arrive on a planet that Teal'c identifies as one he's been to before - Cartago. There are signs of a lot of people having been here very recently - fresh food laid out, a fire still burning, etc. Teal'c reveals that the Goa'uld regularly visit this planet to capture potential hosts. Although he doesn't say anything yet, Teal'c has experienced this before. The locals often manage to hide when they see the stargate activate.
This is actually my one big problem with this episode. A whole lot of it relies on characters either not saying things that they should reasonably say, or not asking questions that they should reasonably ask. The resolution of the episode is reasonable, but the way they get there is so slow and meandering because basically all the characters conspire to keep the audience - and each other - in the dark.
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| I winder if this room's going to be important later? |
Before much longer the locals show up. One of them instantly recognises Teal'c as the Jaffa who killed his father. Teal'c doesn't deny it and submits himself to be tried under the legal system of this planet. The rest of SG-1 are ready to start a war over this and bring Teal'c back to Earth whether he wants to go or not, but I find it very difficult to side with them on this issue.
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| "This is my serious face." |
And that's basically the episode. Daniel displays a truly astounding ignorance of his supposed field of expertise, Jack volunteers - insists, in fact - to replace Teal'c's court-appointed lawyer, but since he's guilty and isn't denying it there's not much to be done. They try to apply modern American standards to the proceedings and are quite rightly told (respectfully) to shut up. Jack even tries the "he was just following orders" defence, which Teal'c rightly calls bullshit on.
Daniel talks to the locals and discovers that they hide whenever the Goa'uld appear, but only if there's time for all of them to get to safety. If any can't make it, none do. He also learns from Teal'c that the man he killed was missing a leg. He and Teal'c then explain to the court that Teal'c was ordered to kill one of them and chose that man because he was preventing the rest from getting to safety. But the prosecution basically makes the argument that he still killed a guy and nothing anyone says will change that. Therefore Teal'c is sentenced to death.
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| It's a pretty cool room. |
Meanwhile Jack and Sam go back to Earth to try to convince Hammond to send an invasion force to free Teal'c. And he shuts them down immediately - as he should. Teal'c is, by Earth standards, a war criminal, and far beyond American jurisdiction. He's not a citizen and officially doesn't even exist, and risking soldiers' lives to save him from prosecution would be crazy.
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| It's hard to tell how much damage they've done, but there's a lot of smoke. |
So they return to Cartago only to find that some Jaffa (including Shak'l, one of the Jaffa they encountered on the planet of the Nox) have arrived just ahead of them and are busy rounding up some of the locals. A fight ensues and Teal'c risks his life to save some of the locals, before handing over his weapon and submitting himself for execution. But his accuser saw what he did and decides to recant, letting Teal'c off the hook. So SG-1 go home and no one learns anything.
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| Indeed. |
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