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First Aired On: July 16, 1999
Written By: Tor Alexander Valenza
Directed By: Peter DeLuise
Guest Stars: Kevin McNulty (Dr. Werner), Eric Schneider (Dr. Mackenzie), Teryl Rothery (Dr. Janet Fraiser)
Synopsis:
Episode starts with SG-1 exploring a creepy planet. Daniel says the hallway is an advanced design but it's been stripped and deserted. They come to a sealed door and Teal'c says it's of an ancient Goa'uld design. He then finds a way to open the door. Inside they find 9 dead people...icky, decaying corpses. Carter stoops down next to one and finds a Goa'uld entry mark on the person's neck, so they can safely assume the dead people were Goa'ulds. Teal'c identifies a crest on one of the tables as belonging to the Linveress, a "minor league" of Goa'ulds who challenge the system lords. Daniel finds one of those Goa'uld tablet-thingys that change wording when you wave a controller in front of it (see "Brief Candle" if you don't know what I mean). Anyway, he waves the PTD (page turning device) in front of the tablet but nothing happens. He does, however, report feeling something brush past him. O'Neill says that's enough, they're going home and will leave the corpses to the medical containment unit.Next we see Daniel coming out of the shower. He looks up, alarmed, as he hears someone call his name. He looks all around the room but there's nobody there. Afterward, he asks Carter if she was calling his name but she says no.
Dr. Fraiser announces after her examination that the Goa'uld were dead before the hosts were. Unfortunately she can't examine the Goa'uld corpses because there are no dead bodies to examine--they rapidly decay and are absorbed by the host. Each dead Goa'uld leaves behind a protein marker inside the host when a Goa'uld dies. This protein marker records that the person was once a host (hence the "marker" left inside Carter from Jolinar). They're not sure who killed the Goa'uld. O'Neill suggests the Ritu, Teal'c suggests the system lords. As for the tablet, Hammond tells Daniel to keep trying to translate it. During the debriefing, however, Daniel's has been on edge and is particularly interested in the Stargate that's dialing up. After the meeting he rushes to the window as the Stargate engages and sees the members of SG-7...looking exactly like the corpses they found on the planet. He looks again, and everyone is completely normal. Huh. Weird.
Cut to Daniel inside his room trying to translate the tablet. He refines one of his translations from "attack" to "enter by infiltration." One second the room is quiet, the next he hears the Stargate dialing...and the sound is coming from inside his closet. He opens the doors and sees the gate horizon inside it. Confused by this, he reaches into the horizon, only to be grabbed by the same corpse he's been seeing everywhere.
Daniel blacks out and wakes up in the infirmary where O'Neill's keeping an eye on him. O'Neill asks what happens, Daniel asks him if he believes in ghosts. Jack answers no, Daniel says he doesn't either so there must be a logical reason behind it. Daniel hesitantly tells Jack what he saw in his closet. Not surprisingly, Jack doesn't buy it...and from the looks of it, neither does Daniel.
SG-1 minus Daniel discusses this. Dr. Fraiser and Dr. Mackenzie are running some tests as to the possible side effects of gate travel. Dr. Mackenzie points out that O'Neill has been suffering from headaches lately, O'Neill says that's beside the point since a lot of people suffer from headaches. Worried that gating is hazardous to your mental health, Hammond is recalling all off-world teams and refusing to let any teams that are on-world go through the gate until they can figure out what's going on. Dr. Mackenzie announces that it's possible Daniel is suffering from schizophrenia since the symptoms match all too well. While the mental condition doesn't run in Daniel's family, it's possible it can be brought on by stressful environment. Can anyone say "gate travel is stressful"? Anyway, they say SG-1 should keep an eye on Daniel and let him get some rest, but be careful in case he gets dangerous to himself...or to them.
So Jack entertains Daniel in the VIP room with a game of chess. Daniel wins (albeit complaining that he could've won two moves ago), and Jack suggests a game of gin. Daniel goes to the closet to get the cards and hears the sound of the gate dialing again, just like he had back in his room. He opens the closet, suspecting he'll find the same thing there he did the last time, but nothing is inside. Returning to the table, they begin setting up the game. However, before they can start, Daniel hears that nasty squeaking sound the Goa'ulds make and, gulp, sees a Goa'uld climbing around on Jack's arm. Jack, oblivious to the creature, deals the cards while Daniel does his best to ignore the fact that Jack is about to be attacked by a creepy, slimy Goa'uld. When the worm finally enters Jack, he's still oblivious to it and Daniel lunges at him to remove it. Oops. Think this can be taken as progressing to violence upon a fellow team member?
Obviously the doctors think so since the next thing we see is SG-1 walking around a mental institute. They enter a white, padded room where Daniel is lying on the ground. He can't see very well since they took his glasses to prevent him from injuring himself. SG-1 (in particular, Carter who seems on the verge of tears during this whole scene) is upset with this sight, especially when Daniel starts crying in front of them. He apologizes. They talk for awhile, Daniel says the Goa'uld are infiltrating the people in the base, Michael Shanks gets to play a raving albeit very restrained psychotic, hides in a corner, and sees that nasty corpse standing next to Teal'c. When Teal'c says there is no one standing next to him, Daniel tries to attack the corpse. Teal'c grabs him and Daniel sees an iridescent little glob of goo leave him and enter Teal'c. Eek...I'm getting bad flashbacks to black oil traveling under people's skin from The X-Files. The doctors drug up Daniel to restrain him, but not before Daniel hears another voice, Machello's voice, thanking him for delivering him to the vile Goa'uld. (Remember Machello? No? See "Holiday.")
SG-1 goes back to the SGC. More problems arise, however, when Teal'c keels over. Cut to Daniel having a sudden revelation about Machello and his killing devices, then back to the infirmary where Dr. Fraiser announces that his symbiote is dying. They have a day, maybe two, before the larval Goa'uld and Teal'c die. She'd connect his illness with Daniel's except the symptoms just don't match. They don't know what to do to help Teal'c.
Daniel, meanwhile, is trying to get the drugs out of his system so he can think again. He declares himself cured and tells Dr. Mackenzie to contact the SGC and find out if Teal'c is sick. If Teal'c is, in fact, sick, then Daniel demands to talk to O'Neill. Somehow Dr. Mackenzie agrees to this. At the base, Hammond tells O'Neill that Daniel wants to see him, and O'Neill takes off to talk to him.
Daniel explains his theory that Machello has developed some kind of Goa'uld killing device and that's what's been making him go nuts. If it invades a normal person (as opposed to a Goa'uld host) it just gives the person schizophrenic symptoms (i.e. hallucinations, hearing things, yadda). If, however, it invades a Goa'uld host, it kills the Goa'uld. Since the iridescent blob passed from Daniel to Teal'c, Daniel is better and now Teal'c is the one who's sick.
O'Neill brings Daniel back to the infirmary where Carter is waiting. She says Machello has been dead 6 months while these corpses have only been dead one month. Daniel counters that Machello could've planted the killing things months before, just waiting for a Goa'uld to come along and free them, like a land mine. They look through Machello's confiscated devices and find one that looks suspiciously like the Goa'uld tablet Daniel picked up back on the planet.
Carter, Dr. Fraiser, and O'Neill head down to the lab to examine the tablet. Carter and Fraiser place it in the contamination chamber and try to operate the tablet; as a result of moving the PTD over the tablet, 10 of those iridescent blobs are released. Thinking they're protected from the blobs they keep working...but the blobs have other ideas. They pass through the gloves and out of the quarantine. Guess it can move through any object it pleases. (I'm seeing a nasty pattern here, first that nanocyte leak of "Brief Candle," now this...anyone else think they need to quit using that contamination chamber and get a new one?) Those ten little buggers have been released. Four enter Carter, three enter Dr. Fraiser, and three enter O'Neill. Hammond seals off the lab to prevent any further contamination and the three unfortunate souls are doomed to go crazy like Daniel did.
O'Neill apologizes in advance for any stupid things he says when he goes crazy, as does Fraiser. It doesn't take long before the blobs begin to work (three times faster and worst than what it did to Daniel) and O'Neill and Fraiser collapse to the floor, writhing in agony. Carter, however, has fared a little bit better. For some reason she doesn't notice any of the side effects. Huh, think she could be immune? Just when she's feeling confident about her sanity, she doubles over, but it's only so those iridescent blobs can fall out of her ear, dead. Of course! She was once a Goa'uld host and, therefore, her protein "marker" will tell the blobs that the Goa'uld is already dead.
Now all they need to do is isolate that protein marker inside her blood (and remove the stuff that'll make her blood incompatible with theirs) and inject it into Dr. Fraiser and O'Neill to heal them. Dr. Werner tells them not to even bother since it's too lengthy of a process for her to do without the proper technology, but Dr. Fraiser, through her agony, suggests trying centrifuge. Carter follows her instructions on how to isolate the protein from her blood and after a lengthy process, she succeeds. Carter injects it into Fraiser first, then into O'Neill. It works! Those blobs climb out of their ears and fall to the ground, dead.
Last, but certainly not least, Dr. Fraiser takes the cure and injects it into Teal'c, hoping Machello's device isn't smart enough to figure out he'll have both a symbiote and the protein marker. It's not, and the blob falls out of Teal'c's ear. He wakes up better. Everyone turns out just fine. =)
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My Thoughts:
Related Episodes: Let's see. This one's kinda sorta but not really a sequel to "Holiday." It can stand alone from that one, although it helps to know who Machello is. The Goa'uld tablet was first seen in "Brief Candle" and they make a reference to Argos, the name of that planet. Carter's immunity to Machello's Goa'uld killing device is from "In the Line of Duty" and there's a direct mention to that episode. There's a mention of the Ritu from "Show and Tell," a mention of the Goa'uld placed inside O'Neill during "Into the Fire," and that's it...I think. If you'd like to see Daniel go nuts like this in other episodes, just check out "Need."
Daniel Jackson's History/Linguistic/Mythology Lesson:
Sam Carter's Physics Lesson:
Important Stargate Information:
Alien Species/Background:
Important everyday life stuff we learn from Stargate:
Quotes:
Teal'c: "It is the crest of the Linveress."
O'Neill: "Which is what? Or who?"
Teal'c: "A rival league of lesser Goa'ulds who challenge the system lords."
O'Neill: "A minor league."
Teal'c: "Yes."Fraiser: "The Goa'uld died before their hosts. We know this due to a unique protein marker left in Goa'uld bodies or host bodies after a Goa'uld dies."
Carter: "The same protein marker that was left in my body after Jolinar was killed."
Hammond: "But how did it die, Doctor?"
Fraiser: "Well, at this point, Sir, I can't really give you an accurate answer. And...I never may be able to."
Hammond: "Why?"
Fraiser: "As with Major Carter, when these Goa'uld symbiotes die, they rapidly decay and were absorbed by the host. There's no Goa'uld corpse for me to study."
O'Neill: "What about bio-warfare? Poison, disease, that kind of thing?"
Teal'c: "The Goa'uld are immune to such things."
Daniel: "What about the hosts?"
Fraiser: "Humans were normal. No wounds, no infections."
Daniel: "They why are they dead?"
Fraiser: "According to Teal'c, the door was disabled from the inside. Locked in with no food, no water, they probably died of starvation."
Hammond: "Right now I'm more concerned with what killed the Goa'uld and why."
Teal'c: "The system lords would be the most likely suspect."
O'Neill: "But if the door was disabled from the inside, how did they perp or perps get out?"
Carter: "Maybe the perps weren't visible. Maybe we're the ones who let them out."
O'Neill: "Ritu. You think Ritu were in there?"
Teal'c: "Ritu would not spare the host. Ritu weaponry does much damage to the human body."
O'Neill: "Well there ya go."
Hammond: "Dr. Jackson, what about that Goa'uld tablet device?"
Daniel, after a long, uneasy pause while he looks at the Stargate: "Um, it's a Goa'uld dialect akin to Latin. From what Teal'c and I have made out so far, it's some kind of attack plan. I'm...still trying to figure out how to scroll to the next page. If there's a next page."
Hammond: "Dr. Jackson, I want you to make translating that tablet your top priority."
Daniel: "Yes, Sir."
Hammond: "Dismissed."O'Neill, as Daniel wakes up in the infirmary: "Hellooo..."
Daniel: "Hello."
O'Neill: "What happened?"
Daniel: "Do you believe in ghosts?"
O'Neill: "Ah...no."
Daniel: "Well, neither do I, which means there has to be a logical explanation."
O'Neill: "For what?"
Daniel: "When we were in the Linveress chamber I felt something brush by me. And I've heard voices. And I keep seeing the dead Goa'uld from the massacre."
O'Neill: "Where?"
Daniel: "Well, last night they were in my closet in, like, a Stargate event horizon without the gate." Anyone else getting mental images of kids screaming "Daddy! Daddy! There's a monster in my closet!"
O'Neill: "In your closet."
Daniel: "Yes. I don't think they're really dead."
O'Neill: "Who? The stiffs in the morgue?"
Daniel: "No, the nine Goa'uld that were using them as hosts. I translated a phrase on that tablet that I thought meant 'attack' but when I refined the translation I realized it means 'to enter by infiltration.'"
O'Neill: "And you think that's what they're doing?"
Daniel: "Yes."
O'Neill: "Through your closet."
Daniel: "Teal'c said the Linveress were being hunted by the system lords, right? Now what if they used some kind of technology to turn their bodies into...I don't know, energy. Or something."
O'Neill: "Energy."
Daniel: "Or something. I don't know exactly how, Sam can figure that part out, the point is, they're here. They've entered by infiltration and now they want me as a host."
O'Neill: "All nine of them."
Daniel: "That sounds crazy, huh?"
O'Neill: "Mmm...yeah. You gotta admit there are some holes in your theory here."
Daniel: "Well it's a theory, not a proof."
O'Neill: "Why are you the only one who can see them? Why didn't they come through my closet...aside from the fact that yours is cleaner?"
Daniel: "I don't know. The only other theory I can come up with is that I'm having some sort of...nervous breakdown."
O'Neill: "Or something."
Daniel: "Or something, yeah."O'Neill: "Dr. Mackenzie."
Mackenzie: "Colonel."
O'Neill: "I'm not going to enjoy this, am I?"O'Neill: "Alright, let's say for the sake of argument that it is the Stargate, a theory to which I do not ascribe. Then why don't we just put a little sign at the base of the ramp that says, "Gate travel may be hazardous to your health." I can live with that."
Carter: "So can I, Sir."
Hammond: "The Air Force can't. I can't risk any SG officer having delusions in the middle of a crisis. Therefore as we speak all outstanding SG teams are being recalled for evaluation."
Carter: "You're shutting down the whole program."Daniel, as he and O'Neill are playing chess: "Check." O'Neill makes a move. "Oh."
O'Neill: "What? Didn't see that?"
Daniel: "Actually I was oh-ing about something else. Checkmate. I should've done that two moves ago, I don't know what I was thinking."
O'Neill: "Yeah, well...you're a little off."
Daniel: "I don't feel off. I feel...I feel fine. No headaches, no tension, I feel normal."
O'Neill: "That's because it was just stress. And I have a very calming effect on stressed-out people. How 'bout a game of gin?"
Daniel: 'I'm not very good at gin."
O'Neill: "Good! Get the cards."Mackenzie: "Don't expect much. If he becomes agitated, call the aids."
Daniel: "Jack?"
Carter: "It's us, Daniel. Can you see us?"
Daniel: "I was just making sure you weren't figments of my...mind. They took away my glasses in case I broke the lenses and tried to, ah, hurt myself."
O'Neill: "They treating you okay?"
Daniel: "Yeah." He starts crying. "I'm sorry."
O'Neill: "For what?"
Daniel, laughing sadly: "For being such a head case." Now if anyone does not find this line and the way it's delivered totally and completely heart-wrenching, we must be watching different shows.
Carter, on the verge of tears: "It's not your fault, Daniel."
Teal'c: "Colonel O'Neill believes it has something to do with the Linveress."
O'Neill: "You remember in that chamber you said you felt something brush by you?"
Daniel: "Yes." Thus begins his slow descent into insanity in front of them. "It was them. I know you don't believe me but I felt them. They heard me." He runs into a corner, trying to hide. "They're coming. They're coming."
Teal'c: "Only your friends are here, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel: "They're coming! I hear footsteps...footsteps."
O'Neill: "Daniel! There are no footsteps. Stay with us."
Daniel: "Footsteps!" He sees the Linveress corpse standing beside Teal'c and begins to laugh insanely, pointing to it. "I told you. It's one of them. It's right there."
Teal'c: "There is no one at my side, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel: "Yes, there is." He laughs again.
O'Neill, to Carter: "Want to get the aids?" Daniel lunges at the corpse, but Teal'c catches him. A blob falls out of Daniel's ear and into Teal'c, then Daniel rushes to the other side of the room.
Daniel: "Something just went inside Teal'c!"
O'Neill: "You're hallucinating, Daniel."
Daniel: "Well don't just stand there, get it out of him!" Dr. Mackenzie injects him with a sedative.
Machello's voice: "You have delivered me to the vile Goa'ulds so that I may destroy it."
Daniel: "Machello!"Carter: "God, I hate seeing him like that."
O'Neill: "Nothing like losing your mind and knowing it's happening."Mackenzie: "Dr. Jackson?"
Daniel, raising a finger for silence: "Just, ah, one second."
Mackenzie: "Look, Daniel, it's time for your meds."
Daniel: "I don't, ah, I don't need any more drugs. What I need is to get the ones you've got in my system out of my system."
Mackenzie: "No, Daniel, you need rest."
Daniel: "No, I think I've rested enough! Just...tell me one thing. Is Teal'c sick?"
Mackenzie: "Not that I'm aware of. I haven't been to the SGC." Daniel hits the padded wall in frustration. "Dr. Jackson, I insist you calm yourself otherwise I'll have to have you restrained and further sedated."
Daniel: "Why are you so quick to jump to the conclusion I'm crazy? That I'm dangerous, that I'm out of control?... Just 'cause I'm kinda acting that way, aren't I? Just, ah, I just need to get these drugs out of my system. Look, Doctor, I'm sure you probably hear this from your patients all the time but I think I'm cured."
Mackenzie: "You're right, I hear it all the time. I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. You don't get well from something like this overnight."
Daniel: "You do if there were an alien organism inside you making you think that you were sick when you really weren't."
Mackenzie: "Mmm-hmm. And you, um, found this out how?"
Daniel: "Machello told me."
Mackenzie: "Machello."
Daniel: "He's an alien old man we met on P3C 599."
Mackenzie: "Dr. Jackson, you haven't had any visitors."
Daniel: "No, of course I haven't. See, Machello is dead."
Mackenzie: "Dead? Yet he told you there was someone inside you making you appear...crazy."
Daniel, realizing his story sounds exactly like another delusion: "That's a good point. I wouldn't...I wouldn't buy that if I were you either. Just do me one favor, okay? Contact the SGC, find out if Teal'c is sick. If he is...promise me you'll let me talk to Jack O'Neill."O'Neill: "Hey, Daniel."
Daniel: "You don't need to walk on eggshells anymore. I'm better."
O'Neill: "So I hear. Ah, it's not that I doubt you but...um, why do you think it happened all of a sudden?"
Daniel: "I don't completely understand it myself but I saw something come out of me and go into Teal'c. And then I heard Machello's voice."
O'Neill: "Ah...Machello."
Daniel: "Just hear me out. I'm guessing it wasn't actually Machello. It was probably some sort of technological organic recording. Now, it said something about delivering Machello to the vile Goa'uld, which made me start thinking. What if...I had some sort of Goa'uld killing device inside me? One of Machello's inventions?"
O'Neill: "And that's what made you...nuts?"
Daniel: "Well, since I don't have a Goa'uld a side-effect of this invention must be that it makes normal people act like they're...."
O'Neill, mouthing the word but not saying it: "Nuts."
Daniel: "Schizophrenic. Look, Teal'c is sick, right?"
O'Neill: "Right."
Daniel: "Well he does have a Goa'uld."Carter: "Okay, let's say that your concept about Machello's Goa'uld killing device is right. Why did it take so long to go into Teal'c?"
Daniel: "I don't know. Maybe it needed a close proximity to sense his Goa'uld larva. Look, I had a lot of time locked in that little room to think about this, it makes sense. Why am I back to normal? And coincidentally hours after touching me, Teal'c is sick?"
O'Neill: "Alright, why didn't I get sick when we were playing cards the other night and you were jumping all over me?"
Daniel: "Because last I heard you didn't have a Goa'uld larva."O'Neill: "I'd like to apologize in advance for anything I may say or do that could be construed as offensive as I slowly go NUTS!!!"
Fraiser: "Likewise, Colonel."O'Neill: "You look terrible."
Carter: "Thank you."
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