Season 7, Episode 15 - Chimera

Air Date: (UK) Janurary 20th, 2004
Air Date: (US) January 30, 2004

Samantha Carter begins a relationship with a detective, from whom she must hide her life at Stargate Command. Daniel comes face to face with the Goa'uld who has taken his former girlfriend as a host.

Credits | Spoilers | Teaser

Plot Summary (for those who won't see it for a long time):

The episode has two main plots running simultaneously...

Firstly, there is the Daniel centred plotline where we learn that Osiris has accessed the memories of her host and discovered that Daniel once saw a tablet that revealed how to find the Lost City. At the time, he probably didn't have a clue what it was. She visits him while he is sleeping and uses a memory recall device on him, influencing him to dream about the tablet and tries to get him to translate it in his dream and reveal all to her.

The other part of the story is how Sam finds a boyfriend, goes off on dates, has sex etc.. Sam's boyfriend is a cop named Pete and very curious about her because he can tell that she is hiding stuff from him. He calls in a favour and gets a friend to do a background check on her. When it turns up less than it should he realises that she is involved in some pretty top-secret stuff.

While Daniel is describing his dreams to Teal'c and Sam, Teal'c works out that Osiris is manipulating him using the memory recall device. They guess that Osiris must be using Asgard beaming technology (that Anubis obtained while probing Thor's mind) to visit Daniel at night, so they set up a trap with some new technology they have been developing that supresses transport beams and ring transporters. They plan to let Osiris lead Daniel to the information so that they have it for themselves, but trap Osiris preventing her from relaying the information to Anubis.

Anyway, Sam's overly curious boyfriend follows her and stakes out the stake-out at Daniel's house. Needless to say, things go wrong, Osiris works out that Daniel is tricking her and tries to escape. After realising that she can't beam out she tries to make a run for it and there is a fire-fight in the street. She appears to have some new weaponry that can be mounted on the first finger (very small) and fires a red laser type beam.

Pete tries to get involved, and gets hurt badly. Eventually Jack stops Osiris with a tranquilizer dart and they rush Pete to the hospital at the SGC. He survives and since he has seen so much, Sam is able to tell him everything.

The Tok'ra help them separate Osiris from Sarah and Daniel is reunited with her in a doubly happy ending.

My comments

I thought this episode was pretty average. I found the story about Sam and her boyfriend pretty boring personally, although it was interesting to see Sam in different situations that we would not normally see and learn a few new things about her. She has an alphabetically ordered bookshelf!

The Osiris story was a little more interesting to me really, mostly because of the new revelations with the new technologies. I much preferred to see the Daniel/Sarah/Osiris interactions than the Sam/Pete interactions.

I found it really quite unrealistic how Teal'c worked out what was happening to Daniel so quickly and with so little information. Okay, he is very alert, but these were dreams after all and it just came off in really bad way to me. They couldn't have known for sure, yet they went to all that trouble with the setup anyway. They also happeneded to have only just developed this transport inhibiting technology

On a matter very unimportant to Stargate, I really don't like how Amanda Tapping looks with her hair up like she had it when she went on that date. I did however love the humming of the Stargate theme in the lift

This episode leaves us with a few unanswered questions...

• Firstly, what happened to Osiris (the symbiote)? They extracted it, but is it still alive?
• What other secrets of Asgard technology has Anubis learned from Thor? Why haven't we seen some of these technologies in use already?!
• Did Daniel discover the gate address to the Lost City? The ending made it seem like he didn't find it out, but he could have just been concealing it from Osiris.
  
  What I found odd is that they talk about there being a gate address on the tablet... surely it would be written as the normal symbols and both Daniel and Osiris would instantly be able to know where the Lost City is? They mentioned 7 symbols which implies that it required 8 chevrons to get there (the point of origin wouldn't have been needed in the address).
• Osiris was using Asgard transporter technology, but the place she transported from couldn't have been far away (probably a cloaked ship in orbit), so what happened to this ship? You would think that Anubis would want to have Osiris return because she could have invaluable information. I can't really see her just be accepted as lost because she didn't return...
• What would they do with Sam's neighbours? They definitely wouldn't have missed that huge firefight in the street

Overall I'd give this episode 5.5/10

This post has been edited by Aesir: Jan 20th 2004, 4:58 PM

Basic Rating (im half asleep lol)

+sam got a boyfriend who didnt die
+Nice to see an end to the orsiris arc.
+daniel got someone who he loved back (unlike his wife)
+jack was up to his usual self
+sam humming the theme tune to the show.

-not enough tealc, loved the donut bit as well
-no stargate (its the name of the show, id like to see it at least once)


total rating

**1/2

Right first of all it gets a 6/10 for me. Not enough action as we are used to seeing on Stargate. I did not like the fact Osiris had Asgard transporter technology although we knew how she got it I think its not fair that they use it as those Asgard probably studied years for that tech and Osiris/Anubus took it from Thor in a matter if hours.

Second of all I don't think Teal'c was Teal'c in that episode. he seems to have lost his edge a bit and his assertiveness. he was more 'loose'

Third there was a tiny bit of humour in the episode with Colonel O'Neill replying 'kinky' to Daniel's dream thing. And the fact that Teal'c had doughnuts in the van was also pretty funny. I can't believe Sam and Pete gatecrahsed that 50th Anniversary!!

The humming of the theme song was just a bit weird aswell.

At the end of the episode it was pretty good that Osiris is gone and Sarah is back with Daniel and that Pete didn't die so Sam's curse is over (we think)!

Question... So do we now have an Asgard transporter and a ship possibly in orbit!!!!??? Hopefully we do so we can put it to good use...


SPOILERS... Looking ahead and looking forward to next weeks episode as the Super Soldier returns to attack the beta site! Read the synopsis from Sky and apparently Selmac and Carter have developed a new weapon to combat the soldier. Should be interesting to find out about. Hopefully alot of action in next weeks ep cos the past few have been a little lacking in that area!

Just to sum up 6/10! Average 3 Star ep!


On Aesirs post he said something about Sam's neighbours whereas it happened at Daniel's house so......

This post has been edited by Raz: Jan 20th 2004, 4:51 PM

It was an ok episode. The Daniel/Osiris story was the more intresting story. I'd still like to know where Osiris tansported in from and does Sarah retain any of Osiris'knowledge about Anubis.
I assume the Tok'ra took Osiris, what do they plan on doing with the symbiote.

It was a good episode. Sam looked great with her hair differently for once, and the humming the theme tune was funny. Teal'c with the donuts was such a simpsons moment. There's just not enough RDA in it these days though...

I thought this ep. was good, yeh not much action but from what i've heard the next few gona have more of that so tis ok. Not enough RDA (which kinda getting used to) and Teal'c. Loved Daniels 'Yes Jack I'm fast asleep' and the hole convo in the lift between jack n sam. I don't really understand y sam not mad at pete for following her etc. Also why did daniel have normal hair when he was younger... then change to geeky floppy hair then back to normal hair? lol yes i kno the real answer for that.

Lol yeah that daniel bit was funny. I feel kinda sorry for jack now, he's the only member of SG-1 not seeing anyone and on top of that he has to watch sam dating someone else. i think daniels hair probably the same because osiris was manipulating the dream- they don't always have to be exactly the same. does sarah annoy anyone else or is it just me?! i liked the bit at the end where sam told pete about the stargate

I actually rather enjoyed this episode. I am glad the "curse" that Sam had is over but i am also disappointed, as her new boyfriend is an "obstacle" in the way of jack and Sam.

I enjoyed the humming of the theme tune in the lift, it did seem weird though. I also enjoyed the fact that Sam's new boyfriend thinks that she was joking when she said all her previous boyfriends were dead. I wonder what he will do when he finds out she wasn't joking! Among many things that i enjoyed in this episode, i have to say that one of my favourites is the fact that Daniel may have another chance to fix the mistakes he made with Sarah all those years ago.

Having said this i have been left with a few questions.
+Where was the ship that was transporting Sarah/osiris, as somebody has to be wondering where she is.
+Where did the jammer technology come from, the only explanation i can think of is that they wished to add something similar to the Prometheus to prevent what happened in "Grace" or to prevent people like the rogue asgard Loki taking humans for experiments again.
+What did Daniel mean with the statement about "the origin of doors?. Does he mean that it is the source of the first stargate or it leads to a larger network of gates? I have no idea. (If somebody can help with this please tell me)
+Finally, the stargates were designed by the ancients, so why didn't the symbols on the tablet and the ones on the gate match. The only reason i can think of is the ancients wrote numbers for each symbol starting with the point of origin.

Finally i have to say i enjoyed this episode despite the question, 8/10 from me.

They might come back to the missing osiris thing in another episode..maybe her jaffa will come back to wreak revenge or something or maybe they just shrugged their shoulders and went home. what happened to the symbiote though, how did they get it out without killing sarah- does she have to use that stuff that Teal'c/Bra'tac etc use?
as for the rest of the qs i have no idea..

i was in mixed emotions for this episode, i thought the acting on Amanda Tapping's part was brilliant, as was everyone elses i guess. But im a little cheesed of that Sam's boyfriend didnt die. Nevermind, theres always the next episode for him to die in some horrible goa'uld attack, here's hoping.


overall 9/10

You just know he'll die! It's a long-term relationship for sam if she goes out with anyone for longer than one episode.

lol. I do now get the impression this will all end in a situation where sam will have to chose between jack and the bloke from tonights episode, obviously we know who she is going to choose.

OK setting aside the prejudice that this didn't feel much like a Stargate episode (what with there being no actual Stargate per se) and therefore will probably not be rated too highly by those who want tons of guys with big guns and special effects, I'll allow that this was pretty fun to watch.

Stargate always seems to do best when it welds two stories into one episode and, from a story point of view, they did quite a good job here, with the paralells to what was going on in Sam's life and in Daniel's dreams. Often the writers can forget to bring stories together at the end and they feel disjointed but the did good here, dovetailing nicely into a happy enough resolution.
That said this is very much one of those where you have to look through the plot inconsitencies and basic storytelling and just enjoy the performances and the damn fun everyone seems to be having making it. Yep I always think it translates very well on screen when people are having a good time doing something and you can rally see it here. I bet David Deluise had everyone cracked up all the time. I could really see his father in him at times.
As I said, if you're the shoot 'em up type then you're probably not gonna find much to reccomend it here.

This was chock full o' in jokes too. Right from the "all my boyfriends are dead" non joke to the humming of the theme tune in the lift...how cool was that!

The lift scene stands out for me because I have always thought that RDA and AT have a really great sense of comic timing when they work together.
In fact AT really shone here. She managed to portray such a wonderfully newly-in-love and yet slightly sad that she can't really share her life so well. A lot of fun (not to mention flesh...even I gasped slightly at those shoes!) and a little bit of angst.
Now as a bit of a J/S shipper I should be sitting here with my Pete voodoo doll and all, but I really liked the guy (probably because the actor made him so good) and I really liked the fact that O'Neill was pretty cool with her having a guy in her life. Some might say smug even. I like that moment (and the acknowledgement of it) of awkwardness in the lift scene too. Hey it looks like three out of four of them are getting laid and I reckon Jack owes everyone one for quite a few times when he's copped off with some bird so all's cool.

MS shone too though. Through all thay yawning and being tired he did a nice bit of comedy himself, particularly the scene in the commisary. Don't know why but I really liked that scene. And I loved the fact that Teal'c seems more human. I know there's a bit of negativity over that development but I think it's good. After seven years I'd think the man would lighten up a bit. And he likes donuts. Another Homer Simpson reference maybe?

Anyway overall I enjoyed this. It entertained me for an hour which takes a fair bit of doing, and I already want to watch it again so I'll give it a thumbs up.

This post has been edited by Majikthize: Jan 20th 2004, 6:32 PM

I found this ep really difficult to watch (only because of the Sam/Pete scenes)

Michael Shanks was excellent and the Daniel/Osiris story was excellent.
Jack was as gorgeous as ever.
I would have to say my favourite scene was the elevator and the humming. As Majikthize said the comic timing was excellent.

One question no one can answer for me is why Pete survived the ep

Well, it was better than 'Grace' in that the massive number of mysteries will probably be revealed soon.

I would like to know a lot more about the anti-Goa'uld tech device. Why would it prevent a transport device from working, but not the hand device or the weapon? Was it in the van? And could she have escaped after blowing it up?

The first dart the Jack shot missed, and that confused me. Did he just happen to shoot as she was doing the shock wave thing?

I LOVED carters car...
VOLVO FOR LIFE!
as soon as i can afford another one, although she held up well concidering she was rear ended by a bus...

I had to look up 'Chimera', I was thinking of the Greek beast, but apparently it also could be "A fanciful mental illusion". Interesting, I had no idea...

Did Osiris know Daniel was lying (I am convinced he was)? Or did she just give up when he did?

The Pete storyline was interesting to say the least, but the show would have been better without it. At the very least it will hurt the Jack/Sam people. I really didn't like his character though, and it seems that he will become a permanent member of the cast now that he knows so much. I hope I am wrong though, what could he possibly contribute?

Sam:<surprised> Colonel!
Jack: Carter
Daniel:<yawning> coffee...

This post has been edited by andy4an: Jan 20th 2004, 9:59 PM

From what I understand, the device blocks Goa'uld signal frequencies. For Osiris to beam out she has to send a signal to her ship which activates the transport device. The hand device and weapon dont require a signal because their right there on her hand.

If Osiris truely was on a ship, and she never reported back, don't you think the ship would have, well, destroyed Earth?
Anyway, this episode was OK...I was expecting a little more interaction between Osirisarah and Daniel, but oh well....
The lack of the Stargate really takes this episode down though, and it's noticable.
I'll give it a 4.3/10.

I mean....it just didn't seem focused on the Stargate element much at all. He translates it...what does it say? What are the addresses? Are they going to go there? Did he truely not know? What about Pete and the Stargate?
Is Osiris truely gone, or did she take over Ala-"The Enemy Within"?
I do hope the rest of the Season 7 eps actually focus on Stargate....Because I'm noticing a bit of a lack of that in Season 7.

I just had a crazy though, and I welcome you all to make fun of me for it.

Daniel tells Osiris that there are 7 symbols he can't read. Why would there be 7 symbols? They only need 6 plus the point of origin. Unless...
it's an 8 chevron address!
The Ancients could have tried to ensure that no one would find it by making the address so unique.

Let the punishment begin!

Well I see some of the loose ends are starting to tie themselves up. This episode should have been titled, "Love For Carter". I have to admit that I haven't seen the chemistry this good among the cast since Window of Opportunity. A few stretches in the plot in which the lines just flowed and flowed well. The timing was perfect.

Good to finally bring closure to the whole Osiris escapade without the host being lost. Perhaps Daniel will pick up where he left off in his relationship with Sarah. Oh and Carter get's some "quality time". At least this bf won't die. . . this time. There were points in the episode in which it looked like the Carter from season 1. At least she was able to let her hair down. . . . of course it didn't fall very far.

im currently download the usualy 440mb file for this ep. watch it tonite i will hopefully my id on this site will be fixed. so i can talk bout it!

Firstly Pete wasn't actually a Cop perse' he was an FBI agent, which makes a lot of difference. I thought this was a decent episode, and now that Pete knows all about the Stargate Sam and him can have a normal relationship, and hopefully without the bf dying in some bizarre event that has lots to do with the hidden Stargate.

Pete is an FBI agent? Where was that? I know that he phoned an obviously old FBI buddy to get the skinny on Carter, but that doesn't mean he is one himself. Was there something else to indicate he was that I missed?

Okay, my thoughts. I have kind of mixed feelings about this one. I kind of enjoyed it in the main but I found a lot of it boring too and think it could have been done with a bit more pizzazz really. I watched it again this morning and found myself fast forwarding through quite a lot. The scenes with Sarah/Daniel and Jack/Sam were too repetitive - oh there's Daniel and Sarah working on a tablet. Oh, look there they are - working on that tablet. Again. You get the gist. Although, admittedly, Daniel did look very cute throughout the episode.

And, hey, what about that Mulder moment there when they figured out the dreams! As someone's already pointed out, I found that a little convenient and somewhat strange. I was confused as to why Daniel was so fixated on the fact that the details of the real life incidents were different in his dreams. Hey, it's a dream! That's what dreams do. Oh well - maybe it was something instinctive that he knew something just wasn't right.

Oh and please note. Jack - ever the 'dumb' one - immediately cuts to the heart of the matter and points out the flaw in the plan that geniuses Carter and Daniel have failed to spot. WTG, Jack. <G>

What else? Oh yeah...Pete. <g> Where do I start with Pete? Well, leaving completely aside the fact that he's intended to get in the way (temporarily we can hope) of Sam and Jack, I didn't really like him much. He was a little too slick and smarmy for my tastes. And I tell you something, if my new boyfriend had told me to get dolled up to the nines with the promise of a special evening and then we ended up gatecrashing some old biddies' 50th wedding anniversary do - he wouldn't have lasted the week! And I thought Sam looked like a streetwalker in that dress. <shudder>. Do have to admit though that they looked kind of cute in that opening scene. Well...Sam did anyway.

They did surprise me with Sam telling him everything at the end. Annoyed me too to be honest. I mean, for goodness sake! The woman wasn't even allowed to tell her father when he was dying of cancer! And he was an ex-military man who had proved his loyalty to his country and could surely be trusted to understand the words classified and secret. Yet now she's allowed to blab all to some boyfriend she's only just met? Who, let's not forget, got injured sneaking around behind her back trying to find out what she did. Real trustworthy there! Puhlease. It made no sense. And yes, admittedly, Pete had already seen some weird things. But, heck, so did that colleague of Daniel's and Daniel didn't blab to him. All he got was 'a good story' made up to cover the mess. So it gave me the same sense of annoyance that one as when the X Files used to retroactively mess with canon just for their own convience. Felt much the same thing to me.

On the other hand...there's a silver lining. Now there's no help for it. Pete must die. <g> Just like everyone who knows Clark Kent is Superman. The man just knows too much. Hey, maybe that was a cunning plan there from Jack. "Yeah, Carter, you go tell him everything..." then muttering when she left the room "Course...we'll have to kill him if you do...."

Actually, I think the seeds of the doomnation of Sam's relationship with Pete might have been right there in the episode. Being a cop for him, he says, is more than a job. It's his life. It's what shapes him, makes him what he is. A part of him, of who he is. Just as Sam's work does her. To have a long-term relationship one of them would have to give that up and somehow I can't see either of them doing that. Of course I have no idea how easy it would be to stop being a cop in Denver and start being a cop in Colorado Springs....

Did love the elevator scene. That made the entire episode for me right there. I cringed with the Stargate theme - I just have an aversion to shows breaking the fourth wall and always have done, so that made me wince. But others have done it in the past and I'm sure others loved it as a cute in joke. Liked Sam rubbing Daniel's back in the commisary. And the mock 'sexual heat' look he gave her when she said it sounded like every male fantasy. He was cute there.

Was also a little disappointed with the swift - hasty - exit of Osiris. Just as I was with the way they disposed of Hathor before her. Kind of wham, bam...oh she's gone. With Hathor, first time I saw that episode I was convinced for the longest time she wasn't dead and remember being shocked when I finally realised they'd meant it! Same here. Osiris was a wonderfully and deliciously evil villain and I think she deserved more than 'trank dart...gone'. In fact, it was so rushed imo that in that final scene between Sarah and Daniel in the infirmary where we see Daniel's back and Sarah's face I half-expected her eyes to glow. Kind of disappointed they didn't really. That would have been more fun.

Well, from this post I seem to have more things I disliked than liked. But I think that would be unfair to say. I did like this one - I just thought it could have been even better with a little more thought. Besides, having discovered over the past couple of months episode after episode from previous seasons which bored me to tears or which I loathed first time around and now absolutely adore as firm favourites...(Tangent and Fail Safe being two prime examples) I'm trying to avoid making snap judgements on this season's eps. <g> I figure any opinion is subject to sudden change at any moment.

This post has been edited by Albion: Jan 21st 2004, 6:30 AM

Well Stargate in my opinion has really gone down hill this season. Not nearly enough action from the goaulds. There drifting away from what made teh series such a hit in the first place. They had a great opportunity in this episode for some good action scenes with osiris, but they wasted it.

I certainly hope the next few eps are gonna go back to the old school style eps.

Mike.