Overall Rating: 7.4
A nice, crisply told, high concept sci-fi episode with the enjoyable return of Major Kawalski and a saucy little hint at the latent attraction between Carter and O'Neill for the shippers out there. :)
Plot Synopsis:
In the depths of a storage room at Area 51, there is a commotion. A forgotten artifact springs to life and reveals an embattled duplicate room through its mirror-like surface. A long-haired Sam Carter and another familiar face - Major Kawalski! - exchange fire with some Jaffa as Carter dials up the mirror in desperation. She and Kawalski touch it and flash into our reality, setting off intruder alarms almost instantly. They are surrounded and taken into custody. After the initial shock and suspicion wears off and the duo is taken to the SGC for questioning, los dos Carter meet for the first time and AltSam asks for asylum. Hammond is a little uncomfortable with the idea of allowing alternate humans into his command structure (he says some lines should never be crossed); however, the President agrees to offer them amnesty as refugees after hearing the sad story about the destruction of Earth in their reality.
Later, as alternate Carter is getting settled in with the help of Jack (there to inform her that she and Kawalski have been accepted into the SGC), we learn that she and alternate Jack were married (she never joined the military, so they could hook up without any fuss) and that her version had just recently been killed defending Cheyanne Mountain from Apophis' Jaffa. Our Jack, feeling a tad awkward as altSam tries to get closer in search of comfort, listens to her sad story about their failure to prepare Earth in time and about their last meal before the invasion, and he stays for a while to offer support.
Shortly after he leaves, AltSam experiences a sudden painful shift out of our reality and goes into shock. When Doctor Fraiser can find nothing wrong with her, AltSam realizes the shifting is a phenomenon she'd considered called "entropic cascade failure." Her matter is slightly out of sync with our reality (the law of entropy is being violated) and the existence of two contradicting Carters has accelerated her subatomic breakdown. The convulsions will get worse the longer she stays on our side of the quantum mirror. She has to go back where she came from or she'll be torn apart at the subatomic level. In response, Daniel and Jack forge a daring plan to contact the Asgard in AltSam's reality and request their assistance in beating back the Goa'uld invasion of Earth.
With Teal'c posing as the alternate (still first prime of Apophis) and keeping the Jaffa patrols away from the storage room that houses the dimensional mirror, Jack and Kawalski blow their way into the power room and fire up their alien doodad to juice up the gate while Teal'c and AltSam (posing as a prisoner) break up an interrogation party being lead by Apophis. It seems AltHammond is refusing to disclose the location of the Beta Site. Teal'c is assigned to get that location out of one of the prisoners and he orders the other Jaffa to follow Apophis out. AltSam uploads the dialing program and the gate fires up as expected. As she prepares to flee the scene, she is stopped by a Jaffa guard but Teal'c distracts him with a cease fire order and she slips out. His cover blown, Teal'c clams up in the face of Apophis. Unfortunately, guards have spotted Daniel dickering with the mirror and as Jack and Kawalski come back to the mirror room, they too are caught. The whole group is brought before Apophis and he appears to kill AltHammond when he doesn't believe their story about alternate realities. Just as he's about to kill the rest of them, the Asgard swoop in and beam him away - Earth is saved! Hammond is beamed aboard the Asgard flagship and healed and the both of them are returned to pick up the pieces on Earth. Sam and Jack say a tearful goodbye, Sam realizing he really isn't her Jack.
Writing: 7.5
The plot clicks along quite nicely, and the episode is very entertaining - if you get that much accomplished when producing a television show, you've done your job. The dialog is even pretty compelling in a few places - particularly between AltSam and Jack; although it's a legitimate gripe to suggest that perhaps the emotion sometimes comes across as pasted on (i.e. it really isn't germane to the plot and it can go a tad overboard). I won't be too critical of this, however...that sort of thing is done ALL THE TIME in science fiction and action movies. What impresses me about this script is that they were able to keep Carter...Carter-like...while showcasing how a few life choices can ever so slightly alter a person's personality and leave them just different enough to matter. The two Carters were distinctly different...and yet not. I find that nifty.
Acting: 7.5
Minor criticism here...in the most dramatic moments, Amanda Tapping didn't quite sell me on AltSam's unique agony and chemistry with Jack. I wanted to get into it...I was always a bit of a Jack/Sam unresolved sexual tension fan and it's nice to play around with an alternate reality where that tension is very much resolved. :) But sometimes it felt like things were going a bit over the top...like the emotion between the two of them was too sudden. She righted the ship in their final farewell...I thought that was done FAR better than the scene in AltSam's quarters (and our Sam Carter's reaction to their farewell kiss was PERFECT), so it wasn't altogether disappointing. RDA handled his role with the right amount of awkwardness and charm. I still am not impressed with Peter Williams (Apophis), but eh...a bad guy's a bad guy.
Message: 7.2
It's not a SUPER-message-heavy show, but it gets bonus points for (a) recognizing that who a person turns out to be in the real world is part nature and part nurture/experience (the subtle differences between the two Carters, the big differences between the two Teal'cs, etc...were all quite believable) - I find nothing more dangerous than the move toward believing in some circles that genetics define who we are - and (b) Hammond's stance on travel between realities (some lines should not be crossed - I couldn't agree more, General...good for you!).
Highlights:
OFFICER: Stargate...what do you know about the Stargate?
ALTSAM: What do I know?! Everything! We've been through this already.
OFFICER: Then let's go through it...again.
ALTSAM: (hilariously channeling her dead husband) Oh, for cryin' out loud...it's a big round thing...it takes you to other planets. Four years ago I made it work...and we've been exploring the galaxy ever since. (LOL...they say that couples start to sound alike...)
JACK: Just...let me get this straight. You're saying this Carter comes from an...alternate...alternate reality?
DANIEL: Apparently.
JACK: Does anyone else have a problem with this?
TEAL'C: Which reality is actually real?
JACK: Thank you, Teal'c.
HAMMOND: She explains.
ALTSAM: OK, look...I know this is hard for you to udnerstand. Quantum theory suggests that for every possible universe, there exists an infinite number of possible variations diverging at every choice we make like forks in the road.
SAM: She's right.
JACK: You just agreed with yourself. (heh)
DANIEL: Actually, Major Carter just agreed with Doctor Carter - this Sam never joined the military.
JACK: Fork in the road stuff?
DANIEL: Again...apparently.
JACK: So it's possible that there's an alternate reality out there somewhere where I actually understand what the hell you're talking about? (ROTFL!)
ALTSAM: We just left behind everyone we ever knew...gave up everything. If you're not going ot give us a second chance...then we don't know any of you.
JACK: Exactly. We don't know you, either. For all we know, you could be her...evil twin. But then we've be dealing with cliches and you know how I feel about those. Well actually (turns to his Carter) you know how I feel. (LOL)
ALTSAM: I haven't had a hot meal in forever. (gets up to examine the meal she's been brought) It was a couple of weeks ago. We were celebrating our first anniversary...and we got the call that the Goa'uld ships had been spotted entering Earth's solar system. We just left everything...you blew out the candles, I turned the oven off...and we just left. They didn't hit Colorado Springs from orbit like most of the other big cities...so the table must still be set.
JACK: Cold by now, though. (Sam laughs through her tears) Look...I should probably...
ALTSAM: Stay!
JACK: Look...
ALTSAM: Please!
JACK: You're dealing with a loss here that I can't even begin to...all I'm saying is...maybe I'm not the one who should be helping you.
ALTSAM: No! You're the only one that can. Look, I know you well enough to know that you don't have a clue what to say. But you don't have to say anything! Just stay...
JACK: Come here...(they embrace)
ALTSAM: I missed you...(this whole sequence was, IMHO, very well done all around)
ALTSAM: If this thing is powered by the energy crystal from a staff weapon then why doesn't it...
SAMS: Blow up?
SAM: I know! My best guess is that the energy is somehow dissipated through the capacitors each time the device is turned on.
ALTSAM: But how do you begin to calculate the...
JACK: Ladies...Carters...are you going to be able to figure this thing out?
SAMS: We'll figure it out. (LOL...science nerd jabbering with herself...scary cute)
SAMS: We did it!
JACK: Already?
ALTSAM: All we needed was the ratio of the decay rate of Naquadah to the decay rate of energy within the staff weapon.
SAM: And I learned how to calculate that when I built our new Naquadah generator - it's just the...
JACK: Ah AH!!! It works, right?
ALTSAM: (turns on the power source) It works! (heh)
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