Bad Daniel! No doughnut!

Well, it wasn't exactly a dramatic rescue, but SG-1's discovery & subsequent snatching of Daniel was pretty cool. Overall, I had mixed feelings about this ep. Though I thought it was pretty good, there was something underwhelming about it.

I gave a little cheer when Richard Dean Anderson's name showed up in the credits. His departure significantly affected my enjoyment of SG-1, so it's especially nice when he comes back for a visit. On the other hand, it would have been better if O'Neill had had a reason for being there. He showed up with no explanation and, while his scenes with Daniel were cute and entertaining, he mostly seemed to be doing Landry's job. His personal interest is easy to understand, but there's no military reason he'd be so closely involved in handling the situation when the commander of the SGC is right there. Nonetheless, I appreciated his presence.

I liked that, throughout the entire episode, we weren't given enough information to know whether or not Daniel was lying. When Woolsey finally came to see him, to tell him he'd be put into stasis until SG-1 reported back on their mission, I didn't know what to think. Daniel as a Prior was fun & creepy and put an interesting positive spin on the Ori. I like that he's so good at being evil; in fact, I have to admit that while I like the character well enough, I only really think he's hot when he's bad.

This episode felt abrupt, like there were too many things packed into 44 minutes. The word is that this storyline was originally intended to span as many as six eps, but was cut down to one, which could explain the feeling of too much happening too quickly.

The cliffhanger we're left with is curious. Did the weapon work? Half a dozen or so Ori ships came through the wormhole after the weapon went through, so it doesn't seem likely, but there are a few possibilities. Perhaps it worked, the Ori are all dead, and the ships that came through are the remaining human forces, led by the Orici, Adria [who, incidentally, SG-1 were fools not to kill when they had the chance]. The Ori might be gone, but there are still many Priors and fanatical followers hanging about. In fact, those very fanatics are the only thing we've seen of the Ori; perhaps destroying the Ori [if it worked] changed very little. "Our" galaxy is still facing extremely powerful beings [Priors] and their drooling armies.

There's also the possibility that the Orici woke up before Merlin's weapon did its thing. She managed to deactivate it before it could destroy the Ori, then brought it back through on one of the several ships that showed up at the end. Now, she's going to go take out the Ancients. Unlikely though it is, that would be an exciting end for the series!