By this point, the continuity around the characters is so rich that they can do an episode where the Stargate is not mentioned and the prop doesn’t actually appear onscreen at all. It introduces a new recurring Earthbound threat called the Trust, made up of those members of Maybourne’s old NID that hadn’t been arrested already. The business of other interests on Earth having their own designs on alien tech has been a thread since season two, but it works better with somebody really slimy in charge for the audience to hate, like Maybourne or Kinsey. This introduces three bad guy characters, but far too briefly. We don’t even get to hiss at them much, and two of them will get killed off in their next appearance. That’s no way to do it.
The meat of the story, though, is Teal’c taking an apartment offbase, in what must surely be the most crime-racked neighborhood in all of Colorado Springs, and befriending his neighbor, played by Erica Durance. I was afraid our kid was going to give this the thumbs-down because it was leading into the land of smoochy stuff, especially with Carter surprising the audience by accepting her boyfriend’s proposal. He enjoyed it a lot more than I thought he would. Happily, Teal’c beating up wannabe tough guys and knocking out purse-snatchers with well-thrown avocados is just as entertaining for a boy his age as gunfights on alien planets. The best moment, however, is Carter delivering a rather brilliant rant about society’s pressuring women to neither be alone nor accept anything less than the absolute love of their life, and, after a perfectly-timed, awkward beat of silence, Daniel asking “How are things?”
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