Overall Rating: 8.1
The plot concept is nothing special, but this episode is carried by some truly POWERHOUSE acting by Amanda Tapping and especially by Michael Shanks and a well constructed score to pair with a suspenseful script.
Plot Synopsis
SG-1 scouts a planet formerly inhabited by a pack of minor Goa'ulds who opposed the System Lords. The Linvris - all nine of them - are dead. They are discovered with some ancient tablets that contain a Goa'uld dialect akin to Latin, and there is no apparent cause for their deaths. Daniel studies the tablet and in the process, he feels something brush against his arm. The room being quite spooky, O'Neill decides to leave the corpses to the medical salvage team and SG-1 leaves. However, immediately after returning to Earth, Daniel begins to experience strange hallucinations. First, he hears a female voice calling to him while in the locker room, then he sees the faces of the long-dead Linvris instead of those of SG-7 upon their return to the SGC. Things escalate further while he's in his lab studying the ancient tablet. He hears the sound of the Stargate activating and finds a wormhole event horizon in his bookcase. A Linvris "ghost" pulls him through it and the next thing we know, Daniel is in the infirmary and the Stargate is being shut down temporarily while an outside psychologist looks into the possible connection between gate travel and Daniel's apparent Schizophrenia.
They attempt to treat Daniel with rest and anti-psychotic medications on the base, but a game of chess turns into another hallucination - this time of a Goa'uld invading Jack - and Daniel is carted off to the funny farm. A subsequent gut-wrenching visit from SG-1 in his padded room leaves them convinced that Daniel is beyond help - that is until Teal'c collapses suddenly on the return trip after Daniel spots a worm-like creature jumping from his ear into Teal'c arm. With the creature gone form his system, Daniel regains his sanity (though it's masked by all of the sedatives and the apparently crazy story he tells to explain his former condition). Daniel gets a message from Ma'chello - 'You have delivered my weapon to the vile Goa'uld!' - and realizes what he saw going into Teal'c was real. He calls for Jack and explains the whole thing.
Carter and Dr. Fraiser take one of Ma'chello's page turning devices into a quarantined lab to test whether it contains the creatures...it does...but while they're trying to study the little buggers, they break containment and every last one of them goes into Jack, Sam and Janet...they're all about to go very...very crazy and they can't risk bringing anyone in to assist with finding a solution! There's just one thing...Sam never goes crazy. And shortly after they arrive in her body, the creatures escape through her ear and die. The protein markers she carries thanks to the death of Jolinar have confused Ma'chello's worms into thinking they've killed a Goa'uld. A completely nutty Fraiser still manages to come up with the idea of extracting a sample of Sam's blood, separating out the parts of the blood that are incompatible with the others and giving it to them all to spread the special protein marker and fool the worms into leaving. The plan works and everyone - including Teal'c (whose symbiote was near death) recovers.
Writing: 8.0
Although the episode is largely carried by the acting, I think some credit needs to go to the script writer - Tor Alexander Valenza - for establishing the correct progression of knowledge from the audience. If, for example, the script had called for us to see Ma'chello's worm in the opening scene, I think much of the potential impact of watching Daniel go nuts would have been lost. There's no suspense in wondering whether SG-1 is going to figure out that Daniel's crazy because there's a bug in his brain. There is, however, significant intrigue in watching him go crazy for a reason that is not entirely clear. For all we know, early on, the Linvris really are coming back to life as pure energy...the show is certainly capable of it. Either way, tormenting Daniel from some unknown vector is always fun.
Much credit also goes to the director and production staff. Their choice to shoot most of Daniel's delusional scenes in dark background illumination while blaring an intrusive and disquieting "spook-house" score certainly added to my experience of watching (and even re-watching) this episode. And we can't overlook the quality of the dialogue. There are large portions of the script that are nothing more than the usual sci-fi babble - that seems unavoidable in Stargate - but Daniel's scenes in the mental ward were extremely well done and will be included in the highlights below. Thing is...this script was highly visual...most of the strength in this episode lies outside the spoken word.
Acting: 9.8
OK...this episode should have earned Michael Shanks a wall full of acting awards. I'm not even simply talking about his responses to the more obvious delusions - big, frightened acting is easy, though he carries it off without too much overacting. I'm talking about little things like the expression on his face during the scene in the briefing room where the Stargate starts spinning up - a normal occurrence at the SGC that shouldn't make the audience nervous but DOES because we can see the fear building in Shanks' eyes...long before he sees the ghoulish Linvris bodies walking down the ramp. I'm talking about his emotional apology (before his hallucination about the Linvris coming to get him in his padded cell) for being such a head case. And I'm talking about his perfect portrayal of a sane man desperately trying to claw his way out of the fog of anti-psychotic medication and save his friend from certain death. Bravo, Michael Shanks...Bravo!
On top of that, Amanda Tapping looked on the brink of tears watching her friend lose his mind...the quiet and yet extremely painful reaction takes she gets in the psych ward scene and the scene that followed are top notch. The rest of the cast is basically flawless as well, including RDA's usual understated by somehow affecting reactions and Don S. Davis' steady hand of leadership. If I had one complaint, it would be that Teryl Rothery went a bit overboard in her bout with madness...insane people don't have trouble forming words...she shouldn't have been stuttering like someone afflicted with aphasia. Contrast her acting to RDA's (post worm-infestation) if you want to see how it SHOULD have been done.
Message: 6.5
As good as this episode is...it isn't exactly communicating anything with deeper significance. It's performance and presentation without greater meaning. Although I give it a small boost from the "par" line for once again showing how tight the bonds are between the members of SG-1. The way they interact with Daniel as he's going bananas - and the difficulty they have handling their emotions after they leave him to his cell - speaks to the chemistry they have as a unit. I would also like to high five the Gate writers for FINALLY realizing that minor Goa'ulds (read: not System Lords) are just as conquest-thirsty as the big boys...there should be more intrigue with lesser Goa'ulds (in roles other than as servants to System Lords) than there is on this show.
Highlights:
DANIEL: Do you believe in ghosts?
O'NEILL: Uh…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 Linvris 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.
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 Linvris were being hunted by the System Lords, right? Now what if they used some sort of technology to transform 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: Um, yeah, you've got to admit there's 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. Heh heh. (I don't know why I like this exchange so much...but it always makes me smile...)
DANIEL: (crying) I'm sorry.
O'NEILL: For what?
DANIEL: For being such a head case.
CARTER: It's not your fault, Daniel.
TEAL'C: Colonel O'Neill believes it has something to do with the Linvris.
O'NEILL: You remember in that chamber you said you felt something brush by you?
DANIEL: Yes. It was them. I know you don't believe me, but I felt them.
DANIEL: They heard me.
DANIEL: 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! (eerie...)
CARTER: (on the verge of tears) God, I hate seeing him like that.
O'NEILL: Nothing worse than losing your mind and knowing it's happening. (indeed)
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