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overthinking entertainment
Stargate SG-1: Divide and Conquer - Season 4, Episode 5
The SG-1 team fears they may have fallen prey to an untraceable form of Goa'uld mind control when an assassination attempt occurs as Stargate Command hosts a summit with the Tok'ra.
The Tok'ra and Tau'ri plan a treaty for their alliance. Unfortunately, mind-controlled assassins who work for the Goa'uld, known as Za'tarcs are among them. Anise invented a device, similar to a lie detector, to determine who is a Za'tarc, but can hardly believe when Major Samantha Carter and Colonel Jack O'Neill are confirmed to be Za'tarcs.
posted by Carillon on Dec 03, 2025 at 11:13 PM
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This is a strange one. It is a semi-clip show, but some clips were from this episode? And the Anise is kissing Jack? and then we have Sam and Jack admitting feelings? I like some or all of these individually, but they put together in a weird order.
posted by Carillon at 11:15 PM
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Forgive me for being so frank, but fuck this episode.
That scene where the poor lieutenant who was identified a a Za'tarc and agreed to undergo treatment for it just casually goes berzerk and ends up slowly shooting herself in the head while everyone watches is one of those places where I realized that SG-1 and I have different values at times. It's by far one of the most cruelest moments the show has ever offered. Crueler than Kowalski's death. Crueler than Sha're's death. And it's made worse because it's only purpose is to set the stakes for when Sam and Jack are identified as Za'tarcs, only they they never were Za'tarcs! Anise's fancy lie detector was just catching them withholding an emotional moment they apparently shared off-camera from two episodes back. And then Martouf happened.
I know mind control and possession are big parts of the SG-1 mythos and that it's easy to forget that every System Lord chewing the scenery is doing that while squatting in some poor human's body, but the tone of this episode just seemed way, way off.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:14 AM
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It was a weird and off balance episode. Just as the Anise trilogy started as feeling like it was sort of cobbled together. The fact that Martouf, a long term character, was knocked off in a "oops, we forgot to scan that one person" and is then gunned down in a literal hail of bullets, IN an episode broaching the feelings Sam and Jack have for each other....so WEIRD. It was like the writers didn't like the actor type of weird.
I'll also agree the lieutenant's death was also disturbing. I don't think it had to go as far as it did to set the stakes for Jack and Sam.
Looking ahead, we've got some great episodes, but this was kind of the low point for the season.
posted by Atreides at 1:31 PM
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Woah. Yeah, you're not kidding. The next episode is one of my all-time favorites!
posted by RonButNotStupid at 2:06 PM
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It's like 6 different plotlines crammed together. I also understand this is how serialized television works, but if Za'tarc's existed all throughout the shows history, how are we only hearing about them now? And killing Martouf feels exactly like getting him out of the way to help set up Sam/Jack.
posted by Carillon at 3:42 PM
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