Evolution, Part 2

Summary | Production | Transcript | Review

O'Neill seeks help from a former comrade to rescue Daniel and Dr. Lee, who have been kidnapped in Central America. Carter, Teal'c, and Jacob infiltrate Anubis's super-soldier facility.

RATINGS SCORECARD
OUR RATING -
FAN RATING - 7.88 
NIELSEN - 2.2 
EPISODE #712
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 01.09.2004
SYNDICATION AIR DATE: 11.22.2004
DVD DISC: Season 7, Disc 3
STORY BY: Peter DeLuise and Damian Kindler
TELEPLAY BY: Peter DeLuise
DIRECTED BY: Peter DeLuise
GUEST STARS: Carmen Argenziano (Jacob Carter), Tony Amendola (Bra'tac), Frank Roman (Rafael), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), David Palffy (Anubis), Zak Santiago (Rogelio), Enrico Colantoni (Burke), Victor Favrin (Chalo), Ian Marsh (Thoth), Miguel Castillo (Pedro), Dan Shea (Sgt. Siler), Dan Payne (Kull Warrior)
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The State Department has been given 72 hours to pay ransom or Drs. Jackson and Lee will be killed at the hands of the anti-Honduran extremists. Colonel Jack O'Neill plans on entering Nicaragua and extracting them himself. But General George Hammond insists he join forces with C.I.A. operative Burke, who believes he knows Jackson and Lee's location. To O'Neill's chagrin, he agrees to guide the Colonel through the forest.

Meanwhile, Raphael and his men continue to deprive the captives of water and food, hoping information will eventually come. He is very curious as to what the Ancient device's purpose really is, but Jackson insists it is simply an artifact and that he's just an ordinary archaeologist. Raphael does not believe him and has one of his thugs reveal torture equipment he plans to use. Later, Jackson returns to his hut, unable to move under his own power. Lee, seeing this sight, is taken to be tortured next.

Samantha Carter, Jacob Carter, Teal'c, and Bra'tac are formulating plans to infiltrate Tartarus and gain as much intelligence as possible on Anubis's new army. Unfortunately a powerful sensor array prevents anyone from entering the system undetected. Luckily a Stargate is inside Anubis's compound. Jacob/Selmak plans to enter the compound disguised under the Kull's armor, allowing him to pass through the forcefield and deactivate the sensor array. Then, a scout ship can enter, and personnel armed with the Tok'ra's radioactive isotopes can survey the base undetected.

Colonel O'Neill meets Burke outside the same café that Jackson and Lee met their guide, Rogelio. Burke gives Jack the information he knows (which is enough to get them in the right direction), but the operative soon brings up issues from the past. As it turns out, O'Neill was responsible for him getting posted to Honduras – not vouching for him when Burke shot their teammate. Aggravated, Burke departs to let O'Neill find the men himself.

Lee, returned from a torture session, admits to Daniel that he told Raphael about the device. Raphael now knows how to turn on the Ancient healing device.

Jacob dons the Kull gear and successfully breaches the Tartarus Stargate. On the other side he is taken to a laboratory by Thoth, a Goa'uld technician. Before he can commence scans Anubis arrives and assigns him to the remote probes. This inadvertently allows Jacob/Selmak to leave the lab, lower the sensor array and admit Sam, Teal'c and Bra'tac in the Tel'tak.

O'Neill and his Honduran guide find the location where Daniel and Lee discovered the Ancient healing device. They are met up by Burke, who has had a change of heart, and has decided to settle the past disputes with Jack. He pays the guide, and the two to go off in search of the archaeologists themselves. Soon they come across Duran and discover that he survived Raphael's gun shot. Assuring him that help is on the way, they continue on into Nicaragua.

Raphael's personality is radically changing. Daniel soon learns that he has turned the device on, and demands that it be deactivated. The dangers are unknown. When one of Raphael's cronies, Chalo, also asks that it be turned off, his boss kills him.

Returning from the remote probes, Thoth realizes his newly-arrived Kull warrior is missing. He reports this to Anubis, who orders that it be found. Meanwhile Jacob sneaks the others into the facility. They enter a symbiote holding area and find a Goa'uld queen, who appears ready to spawn thousands of Goa'uld as blank slates for the warriors. This will allow Anubis to imprint them however he sees fit. They plant C-4 near the tank and depart.

Back in Nicaragua, Daniel and Dr. Lee slowly plan escape, using a shoe and shoestrings to break the wood panels off the back of their hut. Nearby, as the device remains on, Chalo's dead body starts to regenerate ...

Burke is eager to explain to O'Neill events that caused the rift between the two of them. Apparently, Jack has never heard Burke's side of the story. Woods, their third partner way-back-when, had sold the team out and was giving away their position. When he had realized Burke was on to him Woods turned his weapon on him, but Burke fired first. He didn't want to say anything because Woods' wife would never have received a cent of her late husband's pension. Thus, Burke ended up in Honduras for appearing to fire on a friendly.

Chalo's dead body has regenerated in the form of a creature akin to a zombie. As the mutated creature attacks its former comrades Jackson and Lee use the period of disarray to escape. Soon Raphael and his men put down Chalo again and give chase to their captives. O'Neill and Burke overhear the gunfire and move in. Lee, exhausted from the run, is told by Daniel to hide as he leads them away. Eventually Raphael catches up and shoots Jackson in the leg, forcing Daniel to the ground. Jack comes from behind and kills all three of the extremists before they can skin him alive.

Jacob, Sam and Teal'c have found an enormous rotunda where Anubis is addressing his army of Kull warriors. There are literally thousands of them; far more than anyone had predicted. When Anubis unleashes this army on the galaxy nothing will be able to stop him. Thoth finds them, but is disabled. An alarm sounds and the team calls for the cargo ship. They blow the C-4 and make a dead run for the launch pad. Once inside the Tel'tak a Kull manages to board during take-off. It injures Teal'c and Carter before Bra'tac coaxes it onto the ring platform, transporting the creature into the atmosphere.

Chalo, his dead form still in the game, tries to take out Jack and Daniel, but is blown apart by Burke's weapon. O'Neill now has his men back, and as a thanks, O'Neill agrees that he will get Burke reassigned to a more temperate climate.

Back at the S.G.C. the Tartarus team returns with the bad news. Fortunately Anubis will be forced to find a new queen to spawn more warriors, but the current compliment can trample the face of the galaxy.

- D. Read

PRODUCTION NOTES

  • "Enrico Colantoni guests as Burke, a former black ops buddy of O'Neill's, and does such a formidable job that, for months later, we were still talking about the fact we have to bring him back and give him his own team. Like so many of the show's creative good intentions, it never comes to pass – but things worked out for Enrico all the same. Last I hear, he's tearing it up on Flashpoint.

    "As much as I didn't love the super-soldier, I was all over the zombies that stalk the jungles of Nicaragua (Vancouver woods with a little help from our Greens Department). Speaking of tearing it up, Director Peter DeLuise does a brilliant job here with the action, particularly one shot that sees the Zombie Chalo blown apart. The other guys felt it was too visceral ('Pretty damn goopy!') but I didn't see the problem. It was a zombie after all, not a human being. I mean, it's perfectly acceptable to decapitate robots onscreen. I think the same logic would apply. I was overruled." (Writer / producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)