Family

Summary | Analysis | Notes | Characters | Questions | Production

The SG-1 team attempt to rescue Teal'c's son, who has been kidnapped and brainwashed by Apophis. Teal'c learns disturbing news about his wife.

RATINGS SCORECARD
OUR RATING -
FAN RATING - 7.00 
EPISODE #208
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 08.14.1998
SYNDICATION AIR DATE: 11.01.1999
DVD DISC: Season 2, Disc 2
WRITTEN BY: Katharyn Powers
DIRECTED BY: William Gereghty
GUEST STARS: Tony Amendola (Bra'tac), Brook Parker (Drey'auc), Teryl Rothery (Dr. Janet Fraiser), Peter Williams (Apophis), Neil Davis (Rya'c), Peter Bryant (Fro'tak), Jano Frandsen (Dj'nor), Laara Sadiq (Female Technician)
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Bra'tac, Teal'c's old friend and former Jaffa master, arrives at the S.G.C. with some unfortunate news. The System Lord Apophis is alive, and has taken Teal'c's son Rya'c.

SG-1 returns with Bra'tac to the planet Chulak, where Teal'c sees his wife Drey'auc again for the first time in a year ("Bloodlines"). But he learns some disturbing news about her. Wondering if Teal'c was ever coming home, and in order to escape the camps (where she was an outcast) and provide a normal life again for Rya'c and herself, she has married Fro'tak, Teal'c's close friend. Teal'c is enraged, and his friends must keep him from declaring an oath of revenge against Fro'tak.

Along with Bra'tac, SG-1 infiltrates the local palace of Apophis to free Rya'c. They locate him and eliminate the serpent guards – but when Teal'c moves to embrace his son, Rya'c calls him a traitor and cries out for help. More guards converge on their position, and the team is forced to flee, leaving Rya'c behind. The young boy has been brainwashed by Apophis, in order to punish Teal'c for his betrayal.

Back at the home of Fro'tak, the group watches a broadcast of Apophis and Rya'c. The boy claims that his mother has been captured, and calls his father Teal'c a traitor. Apophis puts a price on their heads, and the Jaffa warriors of Chulak come looking for SG-1.

Teal'c learns that Drey'auc does not love Fro'tak, but is still in love with Teal'c. As they fall back into one another's arms, Fro'tak sees them kiss. Himself betrayed now by his new wife and old friend, Fro'tak steals away into the night to report the location of SG-1 to Apophis's guards. O'Neill follows him, however, and is forced to kill him to keep their secret.

SG-1 intercepts Rya'c the next day, as a group of Jaffa move him to a new location. They subdue the guards easily – too easily, they believe – and return to Earth with Drey'auc and Rya'c. The boy is examined, in case he might be planted there by Apophis to destroy Earth or the Stargate (as Cassandra was used by the System Lord Nirrti in "Singularity"). But Rya'c is clean, with no trace of naquadah in his system.

But Rya'c's mother notices that his two missing teeth are no longer missing. The boy is subdued after it is discovered that he has not triumphed over Apophis's brainwashing – he is still a plant, on a secret mission for his "god" Apophis. The teeth are discovered to contain biological organisms. Rya'c was to make it outside the mountain to the surface and bite down hard, breaking the false teeth. The combining of the organism would cause a biological weapon to spread throughout Earth, killing every living thing on the planet in less than a week's time.

The group determines that the only way to overcome Apophis's brainwashing is to subject Rya'c to electro-convulsive therapy – shock treatment. Teal'c fires a zat gun at his son, who suffers great pain as a result. But he is freed from Apophis's control, and all is well.

Teal'c escorts his wife and son to a distant planet, where they can hide safely from Apophis and the Goa'uld.

ANALYSIS

  • This is the second time that a Goa'uld has used a small child to try and destroy the S.G.C. or the planet Earth. The first attempt was made by Nirrti, who planted a naquadah bomb within a young girl named Cassandra in an attempt to destroy the Earth Stargate ("Singularity").
  • Apophis escaped the destruction of his ship in Earth's orbit ("The Serpent's Lair"). According to Bra'tac, he and Klorel (Apophis's son, who inhabits the body of Skaara) escaped by using the ship's Stargate before it exploded.
  • After his defeat by SG-1 (with the help of Bra'tac), Apophis returned to Chulak in disgrace. His forces are now very limited (nearly all of the warriors and serpent guards loyal to Apophis died in Earth's orbit, according to Bra'tac), and he is trying to build them back up before the other System Lords move against him.
  • Fro'tak was not rendered unconscious by the first zat blast from O'Neill, as usually happens. This may be an inconsistency on the part of the producers, or perhaps just a fluke -- an exception to the rule of zat discharges.
  • Though Apophis's forces are now dangerously low, he deliberately sacrificed seven Jaffa warriors to deliver Rya'c back to Earth (five escorted the boy, two guarded the Stargate). It seemed to Apophis to be a price worth paying for another chance to destroy all of Earth.
  • Drey'auc and Rya'c have been sent to live on P3X-797, in the "Land of Light" ("The Broca Divide").

NOTES

  • Colonel O'Neill is from Chicago, a fact first mentioned in "Children of the Gods".
  • "Kelmar'tokim" ("revenge by the wearer of horns") is a Jaffa ritual where one person seeks revenge against another for being wronged.
  • "Shol'vah" is the Goa'uld / Jaffa word for "traitor." "Ha'taka" is a similar insult.
  • "Shishta" is a Jaffa unit of currency. Apophis offered the people of Chulak 1 million shishta for the capture of Teal'c and SG-1.
  • The planet Chulak has multiple suns.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

  • Rya'cRya'c - Teal'c son may have been more susceptible to Apophis's control because of deep feelings of resentment he felt against his father for abandoning them. He has become his father's enemy and greatest fear, and returned to him again. Rya'c has had his family restored, if only for a time, and is now living in safety with his mother.
  • Teal'cTeal'c - Teal'c reason for being a part of SG-1 and fighting against the Goa'uld is to free his people and his family. His family is no doubt one of the most important things to Teal'c, as he continues to demonstrate. Apophis found his greatest weakness in using his son against him, but Teal'c family has been restored to him and is now safe on another world.
  • Drey'aucDrey'auc - To escape the camps and provide a better life for her son, Drey'auc married a wealthy Jaffa named Fro'tak – though she was still in love with Teal'c. When the two were reunited, she was betrayed to Apophis by Fro'tak – though probably because of his jealousy and feeling that he had been betrayed, and not because he was particularly loyal to Apophis.

    Drey'auc and her son are now living in the Land of Light ("The Broca Divide").

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

  • Now that his powerbase is weakened, will another System Lord move to overthrow Apophis?
  • If he survived the destruction of Apophis's ship, where is Skaara / Klorel now?
  • Was Rya'c truly freed from the mind control, or is he still pretending, in order to escape?
  • Since Drey'auc had her marriage to Teal'c "removed," is she still married to Teal'c by Chulak law?

PRODUCTION NOTES

  • There is a continuity goof at the start of the episode: while the Stargate is still connecting (with Bra'tac dialing in), the gate technician reports that they are receiving SG-1's iris code ... before the wormhole connects. The show did this a few times early on in its run, but in fact the GDO's radio signal can only be transmitted through an open Stargate. The gate itself has no mechanism to relay radio signals before a wormhole is established.
  • Production Error: When Teal'c moves to zat his son in the holding room, the zat prop is still in the closed position when it fires.