Simon: Real Baal will step forward

Beware of spoilers for the ninth season of Stargate SG-1 below, especially “Ex Deus Machina!”Viewers will finally learn the fate of the real Baal in Stargate SG-1‘s tenth season, actor Cliff Simon told fans at last weekend’s Official Stargate SG-1 / Stargate Atlantis Convention in Vancouver, B.C. After the character cloned himself in Season Nine’s “Ex Deus Machina,” Baal returned twice in the season, only to be killed off again and again — prompting fans to wonder just when they were seeing Baal, and when they were seeing one of his doppelgangers.

“The real one is still out there, which is going to come out in Season Ten,” Simon said during his stage panel with actor JR Bourne (“Martouf”).Simon will return in “Insiders,” currently slated to be the fourth episode of the upcoming season. In the episode, Stargate Command captures several copies of Baal and must determine which one is the genuine article. Some of the Baals will even fight with one another, Simon told the crowd.

Cliff Simon plays many Baals in Season Nine’s “Off the Grid” — though the Goa’uld’s purposes remain a mystery.

“They’ve gone overboard and now there’s like 20 of us,” Simon laughed. “… I try to make a very, very subtle difference in each clone, so that you think it’s the real one. But there are two that could be the real one.”He said that he liked this new direction for his character, which in the world of sci-fi makes it virtually impossible for him to ever be entirely killed off.

Simon also said that he is returning to the set of Stargate to film another episode in a couple of weeks. (It is possible that this will be episode seven, “Counterstrike.”) “It’s a pretty big storyline, and they can’t just leave it,” Simon said. “… It’s always been insinuated that Baal will help SG-1 fight bigger, badder guys.”

“Insiders” will air this summer on The SCI FI Channel in the U.S.! Learn more in GateWorld’s Season Ten episode guide.