Family

Master Bra'tac sends an emergency signal through the gate, and on arriving on Earth, tells Teal'c that his son Ry'ac has been taken prisoner by Apophis. The team are slightly taken aback - they thought they'd taken care of Apophis and Klorel when they blew the ships up in orbit. Apparently, though, they managed to escape (the audience saw the two of the use the rings before the ships exploded), and Apophis has set up on Chulak again, albeit much weaker, and vulnerable to attack from another system lord.

Realising that Ry'ac's kidnapping is a trap to catch Teal'c, they go to Chulak anyway to mount a rescue mission. Teal'c learns that his wife Drey'auc has remarried an old friend of his, Fro'tak (who, unfortunately, doesn't sport a 'fro), and isn't too happy about it. The first rescue attempt fails when Ry'ac is shown to have been brainwashed by Apophis, but he leaves Teal'c a hidden message asking to be freed once he has apparently broken through the brainwashing.

After killing Fro'tak when he turned informer, they follow Ry'ac's clue and bring him safely back to Earth, but he was just one of Apophis' pawns - he had false teeth with poison inside, designed to wipe out all life on Earth. The teeth are removed, though, and all that's left is to deprogram him, ultimately through a zat'nik'tel blast.

The episode features some really great acting from Neil Denis, playing Ry'ac. He was only 10 or 11 years old at the time, but did an excellent job of playing someone playing a role, when Ry'ac is still under the influence of Apophis' brainwashing but trying not to let on. The moment he spits on his father's face is really powerful, and Christopher Judge is fantastic as a concerned father, too.

It's also always a pleasure to see Tony Amendola as master Bra'tac. He always declines returning to Earth, though, and I have to wonder what there is for him on Chulak? I guess he's trying to stir up more rebellious jaffa, especially now that Apophis is hugely weakened, but it's got to be a dangerous game. He no longer needs to look after Drey'auc and Ry'ac, either, as they have moved to the Land of Light (from the season 1 episode The Broca Divide).

The Serpent's Lair

Season 2 got off to a great start with this episode, a conclusion to the cliffhanger at the end of season 1 (Within the Serpent's Grasp). SG-1 are captured aboard Klorel's ship as it and Apophis' ship are approaching Earth. Klorel's placed in a sarcophagus by one of his jaffa, who is then ordered to kill SG-1. He goes to follow these orders, and reveals himself as master Bra'tac!

Bra'tac and his two fellow unbelievers help SG-1 lead an assault on the two ships, capturing Klorel and using him as a hostage to gain entrance to Apophis' control deck where they disable the controls, then run off to disable the shields so Klorel's ship will do a lot of damage when the two collide.

Meanwhile on Earth, major lieutenant-colonel Samuels is back, seemingly for no reason other than to gloat about the new 'goa'uld-buster' missiles he's developed. Said missiles both detonate harmlessly on the goa'uld ships' shields, leaving Samuels embarrassed and sheepish. It's nice to see general Hammond chewing him out, as he's always been a slimy, unlikeable character.

Despite the impending attack, and gen. Hammond wearing his combat fatigues, there's really no sense of tension in the Earth scenes, as there was in There But For the Grace of God. Granted, the attack was fully under way in that episode, and in this one the ships were just sitting there, but it didn't feel like there was any real threat to Earth. There was some tension on the ships, particularly as Daniel was left behind, but that didn't last long. In fact, the team didn't seem too bothered about what they thought was his death, only showing emotion when they were reunited in the SGC. Neither did Daniel seem to care about the fate of the team when he came back through the gate. But, when reuinted, he and Jack do share a big hug, and all's well again - particularly now the Earth is saved from Apophis and Klorel.

Speaking of those two, it's not made clear where they went - they're shown using the ring transporters, but the only place within range was Klorel's ship with the stargate - but you can probably guess that it's Chulak. Which makes you wonder, why does Bra'tac want to go back? He said he already had a hard enough time regaining the goa'uld's trust after the events of Bloodlines, and this time he openly told Klorel about his hatred for the race.

I heard somewhere - maybe a DVD commentary from a later episode, I'm not sure - that originally Skaara/Klorel wasn't in the shot of Apophis escaping through the rings, but after seeing the huge positive fan response for his appearance in Within the Serpent's Grasp they decided to edit him in so he could return in future episodes. Thank goodness they did!

Bloodlines

In this Teal'c-centric episode, the team travel back to Chulak, officially to try and retrieve a larval goa'uld symbiote, unofficially so Teal'c can see his son Rya'c and stop him from being implanted with one of said symbiotes. We learn a lot about Teal'c, and I think Christopher Judge was probably pleased to be allowed to do anything other than raise his eyebrow, cock his head, and say "Indeed". He does a very good job of showing Teal'c's love for his family and his urgency to stop his son becoming a slave to the false gods that abuse his people. As well as his son and wife, Drey'auc (played by Salli Richardson, currently of Eureka fame), we're introduced to master Bra'tac (Tony Amendola), who over the years would become a fan favourite - I know I was always pleased to see his name pop up in opening credits.

My least favourite part of this episode was when Daniel kills the symbiotes in the tank. It seemed like it was done more for immediate story purposes than character development purposes (to get rid of all the other symbiotes on Chulak so there was only the one left to stick into Teal'c), and it feels so out of character. There are no repercussions either, aside from a dirty look from Carter.

Overall this was a strong episode and one that I enjoyed because it brought more humanity and depth to Teal'c, and paved the way for some great episodes and stories to come in future seasons.