#the first commandment

She has a conversation with Daniel where she comments that Jonas always liked to be in control, and when Daniel asks what she saw in him (tactful, Daniel!), she replies that she has a soft spot for the lunatic fringe and mentions that Jonas’ black ops past obviously affected him, all while Jack is walking right behind them… Jonas later tells Sam that she’s ’the healer of the emotionally wounded’ - ouch.

SG1 find out that Jonas told the natives he could ‘turn the sky orange’ so they wouldn’t have to live in caves (due to high radiation levels from the sun), and Teal’c recognises this description as a Goa’uld force field/ shield. Sam, then Jack, are captured by Jonas, but Teal’c, Daniel, and one of the natives (Jamala), find the other part of the shield generator, which they use to prove that Jonas isn’t a god as he can’t activate the shield by himself. And Jonas is killed by his people, who throw him into the Stargate after he’d dialled earth without sending through a code, meaning the iris is closed.

Sam feels guilty for not shooting Jonas when she had the chance, and Jack tells her that killing a man is no badge of honour. A powerful line.

Further Thoughts

I felt this was much darker in tone than the previous two episodes, because the villain of this episode is an ordinary human.

The planet was abandoned by the Goa’uld, who left the shield technology behind, and the natives live in an abandoned mine - I wonder if this planet was mined for naquadah (not mentioned on the show yet) in the past.

Daniel comments that Abydos was an exception as most of the planets used by the Goa’uld are more like this planet (a forest), and Teal’c comments that the Goa’uld terraformed planets. This explains why they all look like British Colombia 😀

I’ve been trying to find an image of the drawing Teal’c does of the valley (which Jamala compliments), but haven’t had any luck yet!