The Ties That Bind

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SG-1 Season 9
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Season 8				Season 10

The Ties That Bind is the fourth episode of the ninth season of Stargate SG-1.

Contents 1 Plot 2 References 3 Notes 4 Sources

[edit] Plot

The episode starts off with Daniel seeing off Vala, as she prepares to leave through the Stargate. Vala interprets this as concern on Daniel's part, Daniel instead tells her that it's to make sure she's "thoroughly searched." Sure enough, he discovers and takes back a gold artifact she has stolen. Vala then leaves. One hour later, when Daniel is talking with Mitchell he suddenly collapses and awakens in the infirmary. Dr. Lam tells him that it seems to have to do with the alien handcuffs because his condition became better when Vala came back. She is in the bed next to him. They later inform General Landry about this and their belief that the Ancient communication device caused a permanent bond between Daniel and Vala. In the meantime Dr. Lee tries to run some tests on the two but Daniel stops him when he finds out that Vala knows a scientist who could help them.

So Daniel and Mitchell travel to another planet and meet the scientist, named Arlos, who Vala believes can sever the bond between Daniel and Vala. They don't tell him about Vala but he nevertheless finds out about her and claims he will only tell them what he knows if he can see her again, since Vala not only stole the bracelets but also his heart.

Meanwhile at Stargate Command, Landry is visited by Major Gibson who tells him that the International Oversight Advisory (IOA) decided to cut the budget of the SGC and only finance the Atlantis mission. To change this decision, Landry has to talk to the committee himself.

When Arlos sees Vala again, she lies to him about why she left him, and he tells her that he will only help her if she will bring him back his mother's necklace. Vala, however, has already sold it. Mitchell insists they will get it back. So they travel to another planet where they meet a Jaffa named Inago, who has the necklace but who wants back a useless power coil from an obsolete cargo ship. They agree to trade and then travel to another planet to get the power coil from a monk named Caius, who set it up as a religious device. It turns out that Caius was once a smuggler and only would give back the coil if he gets back his modified Tel'tak, which Vala stole. Meanwhile somewhere else two aliens named Tenat and Jup meet up with a fleet mainly consisting of Al'kesh and inform a human man that they plan to bring back Vala since she defied the Lucian Alliance.

Back at the SGC, the team informs General Landry about what they have to acquire to get the information of the scientist. Also Vala informs them that the cargo ship now belongs to the Lucian Alliance and that this alliance now wants her and Daniel dead since they screwed up a deal with them (see "Prometheus Unbound"). So getting the ship back will be difficult, and since Landry doesn't allow a mission to get it, Daniel and Vala will remain linked. Daniel tries to go on with his work, but Vala constantly disturbs him and even tries to seduce him in his bedroom. Daniel is not amused.

The next day, Daniel, Landry, Teal'c and Vala are at the committee in hopes of getting more money for the SGC, but the Senator in charge decides to run the program with only 30% of the former money since he also doesn't believe the story of the Ori. He believes they should focus their efforts on building more Daedalus-class ships. Vala interrupts and insults the senator, which prompts Landry to allow the mission to get back the cargo ship to get rid of her.

Mitchell, Daniel, Teal'c and Vala travel to a planet to meet Tenat and Jup, who now own the Tel'tak, pretending that Daniel and Vala were captured by Mitchell and Teal'c. The two aliens fall for the ruse and the team gets back the cargo ship while Tenat and Jup remain on the planet. However the two then contact the Lucian Alliance, who ambush the Tel'tak with a large fleet when it leaves the planet. Thanks to Caius' modifications to the ship, the team is able to escape. They then trade everything back to its "rightful" owners until they bring back Arlos the necklace. Though pleased, the scientist admits that he can’t sever the bond and believes that the effect will wear off by itself after some time, something which doesn't make Daniel happy.

Daniel tells Landry the bad news, who also informs him that he agreed to give the IOA a civilian watchdog in exchange for them funding the Stargate program further. In the end Teal'c leaves again for Dakara but Mitchell is sure that he will come back.

[edit] References

Arlos' planet; Caius' Cargo Ship; Grannus; Lucian Alliance; P4S-559; Ring of Shen Marak

[edit] Notes

• This episode shows the state of the galaxy after the fall of the Goa'uld: some Jaffa have become politicians and businessmen and some still believe in the Goa'uld as gods. Several criminals, pirates, and marauders have organized themselves as the Lucian Alliance.
• The weapon Vala (Claudia Black) points at the salesman she sold the necklace to (around 13 minutes into the episode), is almost identical to the pulse pistols she and Ben Browder used in Farscape, but not quite the same design.
• The mark on the forehead of the Jaffa salesman Inago appears to be the same as the ones on the heads of the Jaffa trying to capture the Reol in The Fifth Man.
• This episode marks the first appearance of the "Atlantis"-style wormhole effect on the actual series, rather than in just the opening credits.
• Amanda Tapping does not appear in this episode.

[edit] Sources

• Official Stargate SG-1 site. MGM. Visited June 8, 2006. Most of site requires Flash.
• Screenplay (PDF). Distributed by MGM. Prepared by Line 21 Media Services Ltd (2005-07-26). Retrieved on October 29, 2006.
• Summary from GateWorld. Visited May 13, 2006.
• Review from GateWorld. Reviewed by Lex. Visited May 13, 2006.
• In the Making from GateWorld. Joseph Mallozzi. Visited May 13, 2006.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at The Ties That Bind (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.