Stargate (SG-1) -- Oma and Daniel

[butterfly]

I'm wondering if she said what Daniel thought she said. After all, he doesn't really 'get' her, they never truly connect. Is he reading the right meaning into her words?

First, let's examine the set-up. Daniel walks out of the darkness, into the gate room. That's an interesting choice. It certainly fits -- the Stargate is what took him out of his own world the first time.

Oma's face is... stern, almost forbidding. Not an incredibly reassuring look, at least.

"Your fate is in your hands."

Now, is she speaking of this one choice? Yes, but also no. She's speaking of his life's path. His fate has always been in his hands, but he's forgotten what that means.

Daniel shifts directly from a conversation with Jack to one with Oma, which makes me wonder if Jack can hear the rest of his side of the conversation here (aside: I adore Jack in this episode. He's so fierce in saving any part of Daniel he can, even when the only thing he may be able to save is Daniel's reputation.).

"Lightning flashes. Sparks shower. In one blink of your eyes, you have mis-seen."

Right. What did you mean when you said my fate was in my hands?

"When the mind is enlightened, the spirit is freed and the body matters not."

You're talking about ascension, right?

The camera shifts to Oma's face here, which is closed. It's interesting how quickly Daniel jumps on the ascension idea.

Rising to a different plane of existence. You're saying I could do that? Become like you?

"You must complete the journey you began at Kheb."

I wasn't around for Maternal Instinct. What journey, precisely, did Daniel begin there? Because as an answer to his actual question, it really doesn't seem to be.

"Only then will you be able to find your way to the Great Path."

Shifu mentions this in Absolute Power. Says that all individual paths eventually lead to the Great Path.

What do I do?

"Release your burden."

Okay, well, consider it released. What's step two?

"A tall man cannot hide in the short grass."

"You know, I really don't have time for one of these conversations.

"One cannot reach enlightenment by running from death."

'Self-preservation is a powerful instinct' -- Daniel to Teal'c in S7's The Changeling. Oma is telling him that she knows that he wants to ascend because dying is scaring the hell out of him. He won't reach enlightenment that way.

Tell me what to do.

"Many roads lead to the Great Path. Only the willing will find their way.

Okay, well, I'm willing. So, let's go. Do your thing. Glow me.

"The river tells no lies, though standing on the shore, the dishonest man still hears them."

Right. I didn't think it was going to be that easy.

The next time we see Daniel and Oma, they've both made themselves more comfortable, sitting down on the stairs/platform for the Stargate. Their discussion turns more intimate and caring.

Millions could still die.

"The future's never certain. You saved many without regard for your own life."

I could have destroyed the device.

"You believe your journey is still not over."

Actually, I'm not sure what the point of my journey this far has been. I mean, if the point is being honest with yourself... I believe my entire life has been a failure.

We see Sam sitting in Oma's place, refuting his point -- "Just so you know, Jonas had a change of heart." We see that she is by his bedside, truly telling him these things.

"You can never reach enlightenment if you do not believe you are worthy."

Then, I guess we may have a problem.

When Teal'c comes in, he offers a gift back to Daniel. I don't know the circumstances of the gift, or what it meant to the two of them.

I know that it shifts the scene. Daniel is no longer with Oma and no longer in the Stargate room. He and Teal'c communicate together through the medium used in his conversations with Oma, much as he does with Jack later. It's interesting that he and Sam do not communicate. She offers him something that he doesn't accept -- validation of his own worthiness. He doesn't connect back to her the way he does with Teal'c and Daniel. Put together with his actions in S6 and his dream in Absolute Power and I think that Daniel's feelings toward Sam are a lot more complicated than hers toward him.

"Because it is so clear, it takes a long time to realize it. If you immediately know that the candlelight is fire, the meal was cooked a long time ago."

Yeah, a monk at Kheb said that to me. I didn't know what it meant then and I don't know now.

"Why do you feel you have failed on your journey? You opened the Stargate for your world."

I cracked the code. A lot of other people made it work.

"The very next thing you did was help free the people of Abydos from evil."

I had the chance to live out my life with her. I couldn't leave it alone. I was the one that unburied the gate, what happened to her was my fault. I couldn't save Sha're. I couldn't save Sarah. Every Gou'old I helped eliminate; another one took its place. Maybe I did something good every now and again but nothing I've ever done seems to have changed anything.

"These tasks of which you speak were great challenges. Perhaps they were even impossible to achieve."

Does that absolve me?

"You feel your journey must continue until you have found redemption for these failures?"

No. Not any more. Not if I'm dead.

"Exactly true."

You said I was the only one qualified to judge myself. So matter how much I want to achieve enlightment, or whatever you want to call it, what happens if I look at my life and I honestly don't believe I deserve it?

"The success or failure of your deeds does not add up to the sum of your life. Your spirit cannot be weighed. Judge yourself by the intention of your actions and by the strength with which you have faced the challenges that have stood in your way."

What if I can't?

"The people closest to you have been trying to tell you that you have made a difference. That you did change things for the better."

Not enough.

"The universe is vast and we are so small. There is really only one we can ever truly control."

What's that?

"Whether we are good or evil."

I adore the music here. Beautiful.

You're leaving? You can't leave.

"The rest is up to you."

Why? Why me? Why give me this chance?

"Anyone can reach enlightenment. Anyone prepared to open their mind as you did when you first came to Kheb."

They're trying to save me. They're healing me. I can feel it.

"Then your journey will continue as before."

And this is where Daniel makes a quick and decisive choice. Because before, it was ascension or death. Ascension would have been running away from death. Here, he has a choice between ascension and his old life.

What if I don't want to? Not that way.

"Walking the Great Path brings great responsibility. You cannot fear it nor hesitate in your resolve."

I understand. I'm ready to go with you.

"Then stop them."

In what I've seen, ascension always occurs in the moment of death. If this is true across the board, it's an interesting thing to think about.


Ah, and Stella Kowalski is a bigoted fascist in S4's The Other Side. At least, I'm pretty sure that's the same actor. It's the episode that Odo's in. He's also a bigoted fascist.