If you have any comments on this review, please email me at the address at the bottom.
At the end of the first part, SG-1, Baal, and Adria were trapped in the cave with the dragon. Apparently, the fire and other effects of the dragon feel real enough that they panic. They manage to escape from the cave into a nearby forest. Teal'c bravely tosses a C-4 morsel to the dragon, but it has no effect when it explodes in the dragon's stomach. When SG-1 tries to get Baal to deal with the dragon, they find that Baal's knowledge was somewhat exaggerated. Fortunately, Daniel deduces that the dragon's name must be the Ancient translation of "Morgan LeFey", and the dragon turns off.
Upon defeating the dragon, they return to the cave with the belief that the Sangraal will be real now. But it's still a hologram - however, this time it activates some kind of transportation device that sends all of them (except Adria) via the stargate combined with an Ancient transporter to Merlin's lab on another planet. Adria is miffed at being left behind and vows to track them down.
In Merlin's lab, they find Merlin in stasis. They revive him, and Daniel explains the current situation in the galaxy to him. Meanwhile, the others discover that they cannot dial out through the local stargate, so in order to leave they must alter the DHD. This is made especially challenging, because every few hours Morgan LeFey's defense program transports all of them to an identical lab on another planet.
Merlin agrees to help them. He begins utilizing an Ancient memory-storage device (last seen in season 7's "Lost City, Part 1") to begin the construction of his weapon. He soon realizes that his body is too weak to complete the device, so he downloads his knowledge and memories into the device. When Daniel tries to use it, Merlin's memories download into his brain. Daniel tries to assimilate Merlin's memories. He is able to continue constructing the weapon, and he develops telekinetic powers.
While Daniel is working, Carter and Baal begin altering the DHD (with Teal'c guarding Baal). Baal continually denigrates Carter's abilities until finally she hauls off and punches him in the face. Teal'c's smirk at this is priceless. Baal becomes more cooperative, and they finally manage to stop the program that is automatically sending them to new worlds. They also enable the DHD to dial out.
They are too late. Adria has finally found them, and her troops arrive along with her. Daniel realizes (with his new powers) that she is coming, and the rest of SG-1 put up a good firefight, but they will soon be overwhelmed. Baal is shot. Daniel uses his powers to call down lightning to take out the Ori soldiers, but this nearly exhausts him. He and Adria have a final confrontation, and Daniel manages to fend her off for long enough for the rest of SG-1 to dial out and escape. Then he collapses and Adria takes him away.
Back at the SGC, SG-1 is trying to figure out the gate address of the planet that they escaped from, in the hopes they might return and find some clue about Daniel's whereabouts. Vala, in particular, is despondent. Also, he had not finished the weapon, so they might find some information about that. On one of the Ori ships, Daniel claims to have lost all of Merlin's memories, but Adria is not convinced.
This episode is a bit odd as the second half of a two-parter, because it's rather slow. We start off with the rush of excitement fighting the dragon, but this fight was pretty predictable. The most surprising part to it was that Daniel hadn't already thought ahead and figured out what the dragon's name must be. I did like Teal'c's silent decision that he should throw the explosive at the dragon instead of Mitchell: as Mitchell has said before, he doesn't really command SG-1.
The next part of the episode, in Merlin's lab, is the slow part. All of the events are important, but it's pretty talky, and I didn't find Merlin that compelling. He nicely confirmed the Ancient history that we know with the story of his life: he lived on Atlantis, then on Earth before current civilization had arose, then he ascended, then he return to mortal form at the time of King Arthur. One amusing bit was when he off-handedly silenced Baal.
The scenes of Adria searching for SG-1 were repetitive and uninteresting. Actually, they reminded me of the scenes in The Princess Bride where Prince Humperdink is searching for Buttercup, which is not a flattering comparison in this case.
Daniel sacrificing himself to gain Merlin's memories was sensible, and pretty predictable. What was more interesting were the reactions to it: Vala was beside herself. Just what is the relationship between the two of them? Mitchell's speech about how hard it is to watch friends sacrifice themselves was spot on. It's something that SG-1 has done time and time again.
But all of this effort seems to have been for naught. The weapon was not completed. Even if SG-1 relocates the planet with the lab, it seems unlikely that they will be able to make any sense of the materials there to continue working on the weapon. Daniel has been capture, and potentially Adria will tap his knowledge. Even if Daniel refuses to divulge any information, one would think the Ori would have ways of obtaining it. Heck, they could dig up one of Anubis's spiky-brain-balls.
So what will the SGC's plan be now? They've lost their one remaining hope for a weapon against the Ori, so they'll have to think of something new. This is a major setback.
One incidental last point: is Baal really dead? We saw him get shot, but then we don't see him again (or his body, that I recall). It's hard to believe he's done for, but who knows?
avondale@astro.umd.edu