Beware of spoilers in the report below, both for this episode and for the final episodes of Season Eight!
Daniel Jackson and Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell (Ben Browder), SG-1’s new commanding officer, must go on an interplanetary scavenger hunt when Daniel learns that he and Vala have been bound together by an alien energy field. They are searching for an alien necklace that Vala once pawned off on a former friend of hers — who now wants her dead. They are also concerned about aliens known as the Lucian Alliance.
They meet the man — Inago, a former Jaffa warrior who now sells trinkets at an alien bazaar — and arrange an exchange: the “worthless” necklace Vala sold him for the “worthless” power coil he sold her. First, of course, the team has to track down the power coil …
Later, Daniel and Vala join Teal’c and new S.G.C. commander General Landry (Beau Bridges) in petitioning Senator Fisher in Washington, D.C. Authoritarian and quite pragmatic, Fischer is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Senator is pleased with the fact that the Replicators, Anubis, and the Goa’uld have been effectively defeated, since the Jaffa are now free and serve their former masters no longer.
Teal’c tries to impress upon him that the Goa’uld are still a threat, since they command many human slaves. And Daniel emphasizes that there are other threats out there, including a new enemy from another galaxy: the Orii.
The Orii (who appear to play a role in Season Nine’s previous episodes) are ascended beings, akin to the Ancients. Daniel apparently made first contact with them when he fell into a coma at Stargate Command and had a vision of sorts. One of the Orii “priors” (perhaps a scout) also came through the Stargate, gave a religious speech of some sort, and then burned himself to death without any apparent technology or incindiary devices. And there may be other such priors now showing up on other planets.
Nevertheless, Fisher knows that in theory the Orii can’t act in our galaxy without incurring the wrath of the Ancients. He is convinced that it is now in Earth’s best interest to spend its time and money building more Daedalus-class ships rather than exploring through the gate. He cuts the Stargate program’s operating budget by 70 percent.
“The Ties That Bind” will go before cameras at the end of March, and will air on The SCI FI Channel in the U.S. this summer. Stay tuned for more!
(Thanks to Morjana and Dana Jeanne for the tip)