The Light

From SGCommand

SG-1 Season 4
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The Light is the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of Stargate SG-1.

[edit] Plot

SG-5 along with Daniel Jackson discovers a deserted Goa'uld palace on P4X-347. One of the rooms in the palace contains a pedestal that generates a huge, cascading light show that mesmerizes everyone.

Back on Earth, Samantha Carter along with Lieutenant Barber for SG-5 prepare to leave for the planet, but Barber commits suicide by running in to the energy vortex of the unstable wormhole. As a result, the rest of SG-5 and Jackson are recalled from the planet. As usual, Jackson is impatient to return to the planet to continue working on various devices and translations within the palace. As the day progress, Jackson gets more frustrated and decides that he needs to return to P4X-347 to continue work. O'Neill tells him that they will return the next morning, and Hammond refuses to send him earlier.

The next morning, Jackson fails to report in, and when SG-1 investigates, they find him moments away from committing suicide from depression. O'Neill is able to stop him and take him the SGC infirmary where Dr. Fraiser detects a significantly low level of neural activity that appears to be drug withdrawal. The rest of SG-5 is also displaying similarly low levels of neural activity.

While Jackson in the infirmary, the rest of SG-1 go to the planet and discover the same room with the light show. The three of them are hypnotized by it, although Carter is not able to detect any other form of radiation. As the team continues to explore the palace, the find a young boy, Loran. He claims that his parents have left, but will return soon. SG-1 takes various environmental samples, along with blood samples from Loran and O'Neill returns to Earth to deliver them to Dr. Fraiser.

Within a short amount of time, O'Neill begins to exhibit similar symptoms as SG-5. Jackson is continuing to deteriorate and the rest of SG-5 has already died. As Daniel's neural activity continues to drop, Dr. Fraiser has no choice but to send him back to the planet and hope that whatever is in the palace will be able to save him. Once he reaches the planet, Jackson begins to slowly recover.

SG-1, once Jackson recovers; manage to figure out how to shut off the light generating pedestal. Since they have a few hours before the withdrawal symptoms begin Teal'c, O'Neill, and Carter explore the countryside outside of the palace. On a nearby beach, they find the remains of two humans - most likely Loran's parents. As they begin to feel the effects of withdrawal, quickly return to the palace where they begin to feel better almost immediately upon their arrival.

Jackson, on the other hand, stayed back to translate has been feeling fine the entire time. They reason that the light itself is not causing the addiction, but rather something else. After examining the pedestal, the learn that it emits radiation without the light. O'Neill confronts Loran; he shows the team the control panel and how to disable the device. Teal'c is able to figure out how to shut down the device slowly, to wean the team off the radiation.

After a few weeks, SG-1 returns home and they tell Loran that he can come with them.

[edit] Notes

• This is the second episode in a row in which Daniel Jackson was not quite himself.
• It is stated in the audio commentary that Loran is about 15 years old.

[edit] Sources

• Official Stargate SG-1 site. MGM. Visited June 8, 2006. Most of site requires Flash.
• Screenplay (PDF). Distributed by MGM. Prepared by Casablanca Continuity (2000-11-14). Retrieved on October 15, 2006. Linked to from Official Stargate SG-1 site. Also see Google's cache.
• Summary from GateWorld. Visited May 8, 2006.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at The Light (Stargate SG-1). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with SGCommand, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.