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Stargate SG-1 Season Four

ABSOLUTE POWER
 
RATINGS SCORECARD
GATEWORLD - * *
FAN POLL - 7.27
SYNDICATION RATING - 2.8 / 2.9 (-15)

Season Ratings
EPISODE NUMBER - 417
DVD DISC - Season 4, Disc 4
ORIGINAL U.S. AIR DATE - 01.19.01
SYNDICATION AIR DATE - 02.18.02
WRITTEN BY - Robert C. Cooper
DIRECTED BY - Peter DeLuise
GUEST STARRING - Lane Gates (Shifu), Peter Williams (Apophis), Colin Cunningham (Major Davis), Gary Jones (Technician), William deVry (Aldwin), Erick Avari (Kasuf), Stephen Williams (General Vidrine), Michelle Harrison (Assistant), Yee Jee Tso (Left Tech), Jenn Forgie (Right Tech), Barbara Fixx (Rear Tech), Coleen Christie (Reporter), June B. Wilde (Maid)
Jackson's teammates notice a disturbing change in him when he is reunited with the Harcesis child and given the Goa'uld genetic memory.

Kasuf has heard a voice. SG-1 returns to the desert planet of Abydos, where Daniel's father-in-law leads them out to a barren plain. He tells them that he saw a whirlwind come out of an active Stargate, and heard it speak the name of Sha're, Daniel's deceased wife.

The team sees an almost magical whirlwind arise suddenly. Daniel identifies himself to the storm, which disappears -- leaving the form of a young boy. He identifies himself as Shifu,the Harcesis child of Sha're and Apophis.

The child represents the key to defeating the Goa'uld. As the product of the forbidden union between two Goa'uld hosts, he contains all the genetic knowledge of the Goa'uld whofathered him -- but no symbiote. SG-1 takes the boy back to Earth, and Jackson begins toquestion him about his Goa'uld memories. Shifu wants to learn about his mother, and Jacksonanswers his questions as best as he can.

Shifu has spent the last year with Oma Desala, a highly advanced alien being who taught himto bury the genetic memories deep within his subconscious. They are too powerful, too evilto be overcome, she taught him. The only way to gain victory over that evil inside him isto deny the battle.

But Daniel wishes to learn the secrets of the Goa'uld -- so Shifu offers to teach him. Heplaces his hand on Jackson's forehead, and a burst of light renders Daniel unconscious.

He awakens sometime later in the base infirmiry. It is not long before Daniel discovers Shifu's gift: he has given him some of his Goa'uld memories. Jackson begins to take advantage of the knowledge, forming a top secret government project to create a network ofdozens of weapons satellites. Once in Earth's orbit, the powerful system will provide apowerful defense against Goa'uld attack.

But the knowledge is changing Daniel, and his friends soon take notice. He has flashes ofGoa'uld memory: Teal'c kneeling before him as First Prime of Apophis, Sam being tortured with a pain stick, striking Jack with a Goa'uld hand device, and even torturing Apophishimself. Jackson begins giving orders, and assigns himself as head of the new project.

One year and $160 billion later, the satellite network is almost ready for launch. Shifu has been living with Daniel in a posh mansion. There are servants and assistants to caterto him. Teal'c has died mysteriously. And Jackson has removed Carter from the new program,apparently because she figured out that his motives were not pure.

When Sam confronts Daniel in his home, he has her thrown into prison. Colonel O'Neill visits her, and is convinced that something isn't right with Dr. Jackson.

O'Neill visits his old friend on the day of the launch, and finds himself transported (viaGoa'uld rings Daniel installed in his mansion) to a secret underground facility. From hiscommand chair, Daniel can monitor and troubleshoot the system.

The launch is a success, but Russia, China, and the other world powers object to the UnitedStates' secret launch of a powerful weapons network. Jackson tests the system by destroyinga Russian satellite, but the nation doesn't get the hint. Rather than consider sharing thetechnology with the rest of the world, Jackson seizes control of it away from the government and turns the powerful weapons on Moscow itself.

O'Neill has seen enough, and pulls a handgun on his friend, unloading several rounds. ButDaniel has taken precautions, installing a Goa'uld force shield around his command chair.With Jack helpless (and his disloyalty exposed), Daniel destroys Moscow.

As the energy wave floods across the city, Daniel's eyes flutter open again. No time haspassed, and he is back in the SGC infirmiry.

He has learned the lesson that Shifu wanted to teach him: the knowledge of the Goa'uld istoo evil to be used -- even to fight them. The power of the Goa'uld is part of what corrupts them; and as Daniel has learned, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

He stops his teammates and the Tok'ra from extracting any information from Shifu (using thememory recall device and zatarc detector seen in "Divide and Conquer"), telling them that they must let him leave. Only by releasing his burden -- to obtain the Harcesis' genetic knowledge of the Goa'uld -- can Daniel find his own wayagain.

Shifu is transformed into a being of pure energy, like Oma Desala herself. Thankful for thememories about Sha're that Daniel shared, he leaves through the Stargate.


ANALYSIS
  • There is a deliberate tie between "Absolute Power" and "Forever In a Day," the episode that saw the death of Sha're. "Dreams teach," Shifu learns from Daniel. Just as a vision given to him by Sha're taughtDaniel to forgive Teal'c, and that he must find Shifu, so now does he learn through a dream that the Goa'uld genetic memories cannot be used by good people. Dreams are depicted as the battleground of the conscious and subconscious minds.

  • Apophis used nanite technology to cause his Harcesis child to mature quickly, in orderto be used as his next host. Shifu is, in fact, about two and a half years old -- he wasborn in Season Two's "Secrets." The same technology once caused Colonel O'Neill to rapidly age ("Brief Candle").

  • While the team considers the possibility that the nanites went inactive because Shifu had reached the preprogrammed age, their second suggestion is more likely: that Oma Desala was able to disable the nanites after the boy had aged to where he is now. Apophis would certainly not wish to take as a host a boy who appears to be not much more than 8 years old.

  • Teal'c states that all Goa'uld are born evil because of their genetic knowledge. Thisis certainly supported by Tanith, who even before he was fully matured plotted to deceive, betray and murder the Jaffa who carried him ("Crossroads").

    But some Goa'uld can certainly overcome this. The Tok'ra were born with the genetic knowledge of their predecessors, but overcame it to spawn a rebel faction to oppose theGoa'uld and their way of life. Certainly, other factors beyond genetic knowledge play into the equation. The Goa'uld sarcophagus (which the Tok'ra refuse to use), for example, is part of what makes them so evil ("Need").

  • Buried in his subconscious, Shifu possesses all the knowledge of the Goa'uld who fathered him (Apophis), from the day when he was conceived -- a little over three yearsago ("Secrets").

  • Shifu's statement to Daniel that he must release his burden before he'll find hisown way again is similar to Sha're's final message to him -- a fact that Daniel acknowledges when he tells the boy that someone had told him that before. In "Forever In a Day," Sha're told Daniel that he must forgiveTeal'c for killing her -- and move past her death -- before he can pursue the Harcesis.

  • "If the instrument is broken," Shifu says, "the music will be sour." In his own cryptic way, he was trying to warn Daniel that one cannot use evil knowledge for good ends, nor can a good person acquire this evil knowledge and hope to remain good.

  • Oma Desala has given Shifu extraordinary powers -- including the ability to cause very specific dreams, and to transform into a being of energy. At the very least, this certainly gives him the advantage of never being host to Apophis. He can also activate a Stargate -- even dial a specific address -- without accessing the dialing computer or being in the same room (an ability Oma also displayed in "Maternal Instinct").

  • One inaccuracy of Daniel's dream: Carter states that she has never heard of liquid naquaadah. The substance, though, is what powers a Goa'uld staff weapon, and was discussed by Major Carter and her twin from an alternate reality in "Point of View."

  • Assuming that the details of Daniel's dream were accurate, the Russians still possessEarth's alpha Stargate ("Watergate"), though they have agreed not to use it.

  • If one must have naquaada in his or her bloodstream to use Goa'uld technology, is it possible to artifically insert naquaada into the blood of someone who has not been host to a Goa'uld? Probably not (at least not permanently), since even a protein marker unnaturallyinjected will eventually be washed out of the system ("Legacy").

  • Jack theorizes (in Daniel's dream) that Shifu may be a Goa'uld operative. It's certainly a reasonable theory, considering that the Goa'uld Nyerti put a bomb in the chest of a young girl (Cassandra) to try and destroy Earth's Stargate ("Singularity"), and that Apophis brainwashed Teal'c's son Rya'c and gave him false teeth filled with a toxin to wipe out all life on Earth ("Family").


  • CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
    Daniel JacksonDaniel Jackson - Jackson finally found the Harcesis child for whom he has been searching, after having sent the boy away to safety with Oma Desala. Shifu came to learn of his mother, and Daniel was happy to answer his questions. But when he sought the genetic knowledge of the Goa'uld that Shifu possesses, Daniel learned that evil knowledge can never be used for good. The power that it brings corrupts by its very nature. His lesson came in the form of a very real dream, where he watched himself spend a year of his life slipping into power-hungry corruption, to the point where he alienated his friends and killed countless people by destroying Moscow.

    Shifu told Daniel that he must release his burden -- the desire for secret Goa'uld knowledge -- before he can find his own way again. Now that he has, what path will Daniel choose? Now that his wife is dead and he is no longer searching for Shifu, what purpose will he find in the Stargate program?

    AldwinAldwin - The Tok'ra Alwdin made his first trip to Earth (that we know of), in order to help extract Goa'uld genetic memories from Shifu with Tok'ra technology. Aldwin was hesitant to let Shifu go, considering the great value he had to the struggle against the Goa'uld -- but really didn't have any choice.



    NOTES
  • "Shifu" means "light," according to Dr. Jackson. Perhaps not coincidentally, it is also Chinese for "teacher."

  • The Earth-Tok'ra treaty (negotiated in "Divide and Conquer") includes the requirement for a full exchange of all potential sources of information related to the Goa'uld.

  • One needs naquaada in his or her blood to make Goa'uld technology -- such as theGoa'uld hand device -- function.


  • UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
  • Was Oma Desala on Abydos, or had Shifu come alone?

  • What other abilities did Oma give to Shifu?

  • On what mission did Daniel send Teal'c?

  • What happened to Teal'c? If he died, how?

  • For how long was Daniel dreaming?

  • Was Daniel in control of his own decisions during his dream? Would the Goa'uld knowledge really corrupt him, or was he passively watching Shifu's understanding of its effects?

  • Was the information in Daniel's dream (including the specifics of Goa'uld knowledge)real? Is there such a thing as liquid naquaada? Does he know a way to disable the Russian'sStargate?

  • What will Daniel's "new path" be?

  • Where will Shifu go now? To learn of his father, Apophis?


  • PRODUCTION
  • "Two years old is way too young to make a story where he is interacting with other characters," director Peter DeLuise wrote of the Harcesis child. "We will see the Harcesis child, but he will be much older than two years old."

  • SG-1 writer Joseph Mallozzi posed some teaser questions several months before "Absolute Power" aired: "In 'Absolute Power' we find out what happens to a presumably 'good' individual when they are given that genetic memory. Will they use this knowledge to effect change? Or will they allow this corrupt knowledge to change them?"

  • "That was a deleted scene from 'Absolute Power.' Jack makes a horrifying discovery: It turns out Daniel has been keeping Teal'c a prisoner, experimenting on him, transfusing himself with his naquadah-rich blood which, ultimately, allows him to use the hand device. It was a dark revelation that was cut at either the script stage or in editing." (Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at Our Stargate)

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    The Stargate OmnipediaThe Stargate Omnipedia
    PLANETS
    Abydos
    TECHNOLOGY
    AG-3 satellite
    shield, personal defense
    za'tarc detector
    MISCELLANY
    Harcesis
    naquadah, liquid

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