The episode’s title is taken from the Latin lex taliionis, meaning “law of retribution,” a punishment that is equal to the offense — derived from Genesis 9:6 (“Whoever sheds a man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed”) and the ancient law of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
Beware of spoilers in the report below.
Representatives of the Jaffa, including Teal’c and Bra’tac, meet in a rare summit on Dar Eshkalon to determine the future of their people in the face of the Ori threat. But their enemies are many, and a terrorist attack on the summit leaves many dead, including women and children.
Bra’tac is seriously injured and taken to Stargate Command, where Dr. Carolyn Lam (Lexa Doig) cares for him. Teal’c ignores his team’s entreaties and departs on a one-man quest for revenge, having reason to believe that the man responsible for the cowardly bombing is one of his own former pupils, a ferocious and extremely capable warrior named Arkad. He is a charismatic leader opposed the summit, and wishes to lead the Jaffa people himself — and he is a follower of Origin.
Teal’c’s search leads him to an alien bar, where the sympathetic owner points him to a customer named Lizan. A human, Lizan’s people was once enslaved at the hands of the Jaffa and doesn’t mind seeing them now killing one another. But Teal’c will do whatever it takes to find a lead on Arkad.
But the stakes get even higher: SG-1 learns that Arkad may be stockpiling weapons-grade naquadah for an attack on Earth.
The enraged Teal’c’s is taking no prisoners, and his hunt leads him to Ba’Kal, a Jaffa terrorist working for Arkad. Ba’Kal does not fear death, because he believes the Ori will ascend him. But Teal’c is not here to argue religion or to watch Ba’Kal endure torture: he wants answers, and he has removed Ba’Kal’s symbiote and replaced it with a bomb.
But, of course, all is never as it seems. As Teal’c leaves behind a trail of bodies in his search for Arkad, Stargate Command receives an incoming wormhole and a message from Arkad himself. He claims that he is not responsible for the bombing, and offers his sincere help in stopping the impending attack on Earth.
Guest characters include Arkad, Lizan, Ba’Kal, Ki’ara (a female Jaffa at the summit), Nisal (a young Jaffa spokesman at the summit), Bra’tac (Tony Amendola), Reynolds (SG-3 team member), Sergeant Harriman (Gary Jones), a 6-year-old Jaffa girl, and a barkeep.
“Talion” is the seventeenth episode in SG-1‘s production order, and will air in 2007 on SCI FI. Learn more about the show’s tenth season in GateWorld’s episode guide!