Moebius, Part 2

"Moebius, Part 2" is the twentieth episode of the eighth season of Stargate SG-1.

Synopsis
After finding a second Stargate in Antarctica, the alternate SG-1 team head to Chulak to get Teal'c who is the First Prime of Apophis on their end. During the escape process, Jack, Sam and Teal'c flee to Ancient Egypt and meet Daniel Jackson who is a member of the original SG-1. Now, the four must work together to repair the timeline that the original SG-1 accidentally altered.

Previously on Stargate SG-1
SG-1 uses the Time Jumper to travel back in time to Giza, Egypt and steal a Zero Point Module from Ra in the hope of using it to open a wormhole to the Pegasus Galaxy and also defend Earth. When the Jumper is found by Jaffa, SG-1 is forced to remain in the past, causing the timeline to be altered. As such, an alternate timeline where the Stargate was never found and as such where the Stargate Program and Stargate Command never existed is created. To help their alternate selves, a video tape of the original team is discovered and the second Stargate in Antarctica is unburied.

Plot
The scientists working on the recovered Puddle Jumper cannot make it work because they don't have the ATA gene. General Hammond is assembling a military team to go through the Stargate and locate Teal'c. Jackson and Carter are still arguing that they should also be allowed to go, but Hammond says they lack the necessary military experience. As they are arguing, Colonel Jack O'Neill arrives to join the team. He has only agreed because Kawalsky asked him to.

As in the previous episode, alternate timeline Carter continues to display a strong tactical intuition. She says the team will be going into enemy territory, outgunned and outmanned--but she has an idea.

She takes O'Neill to the Jumper as Jackson says the video explained that O'Neill has the gene to operate it. Jackson and Carter encourage him to sit in the command chair and he is able to power it on. Hammond agrees to let the team take the ship (which McKay names Gateship One) through the Beta Gate to find Teal'c, and agrees that Dr. Daniel Jackson and Dr. Samantha Carter are to join the team at O'Neill's request. However, Hammond tells them that under no circumstances are they to attempt time travel. Jackson says he has both Gate addresses, to Chulak and back to Earth, and he dials the address on the Jumper console.

As this happens, up in the Control Room, Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay is dismissive, giving it nothing more than a fifty-fifty chance of working although General George Hammond tells him that in the original timeline, it worked for eight years. But once the Stargate finally comes online, everyone is left dumbstruck and amazed while in the Control Room, McKay is equally stunned before stating that he's glad he's not going through the Stargate.

On Chulak, the team is caught by Jaffa loyal to Apophis and imprisoned. Daniel Jackson is taken to Apophis for interrogation. Teal'c defects to their cause after viewing himself on the video talking about freedom for all Jaffa and helps them escape, but Daniel Jackson is infected by a Goa'uld and shot by Teal'c. The Goa'uld Jackson kills a solider and shoots Teal'c in the left arm before he is finally killed by Kawalsky and O'Neill.

Teal'c tells them that Jackson's infection means Apophis already knows everything Jackson knew, including the location of their ship. He will undoubtedly plan an invasion of Earth. The team are ambushed by Jaffa. During the escape, Kawalsky is killed, and O'Neill, Carter, and Teal'c flee in the Puddle Jumper, and are chased by Death Gliders; the Jumper getting damaged in the process.

Unaware of the jumper's cloaking capacity, they believe that only way they can survive is to time-travel. They travel back to 3000 B.C. and use the Stargate to pass from Chulak to Ancient Egypt where the original versions of SG-1 were stranded and where Ra is still alive and ruling. Carter and O'Neill agree the only way to stop Apophis from invading Earth is to fix the timeline in the past.

The alternate team makes contact with the locals, who recognize "them" from the original team's visit 5 years before. As Carter becomes increasingly concerned about causality, the locals bring them to a tent with one introducing them to Dr. Daniel Jackson, the only survivor from the original SG-1. Jackson is confused to see them, but realizes the timeline must have been altered. He reveals that SG-1 attempted the rebellion because O'Neill and Teal'c didn't want to stay under Ra's rule without doing anything about it, and O'Neill, Carter and Teal'c were executed when it failed. He has not yet made the tablet detailing the second successful rebellion attempt because it hasn't happened yet. This means that his current plans with the underground of the local populace are destined to succeed, however, they lead to the Stargate being removed from Earth by Ra. The plan is to instigate the rebellion, thus diverting Ra's attention, and securing the Stargate to where it was originally buried, allowing the original timeline to evolve as it was supposed to.

Jaffa attack the camp, and Jackson and alternate SG-1 hide in a secret weapon room. They discuss strategy for stealing the gate. Jackson explains about the ship's cloaking device. A surprised O'Neill begs to know why the hell Daniel didn't leave that detail (the cloaking device) on the tape before. Daniel just nonchalantly replies that he thought he had. The Jaffa leave without finding them. Carter and O'Neill go to test the cloak to see if it still works, as the ship had been hit when they came through. Carter works on repairs and O'Neill begins flirting with her, but she surprises him with a rejection and tells him she's actually attracted to Jackson instead. O'Neill is totally incredulous finding it hard to believe, but begrudgingly accepts it. He goes outside to keep watch and spots a Jaffa patrol approaching. Fortunately Carter gets the cloak to work just in time, at the very last minute. However, it soon fails again, and the patrol attacks the Jumper. Carter is afraid that if the patrol penetrates the shield, the Jumper might explode. So edged on by the danger she kisses O'Neill, much to his surprise, then says she lied about being attracted to Jackson, she just wanted to go slow and get to know him a little better first. An ecstatic O'Neill returns her kiss ardently. Just then, Teal'c and Jackson bring the armed villagers and rescue the Jumper.

The rebellion ultimately succeeds. Ra's Jaffa surrender, outnumbered by the local Ancient Egyptian population, who were armed with staff weapons and Zat'nik'tels, looted from a Goa'uld armory by Jackson and his rebels. The alternate SG-1 bury the videotape, along with the Zero Point Module, for the SG-1 of the future to find. The Alternate-SG-1 and Daniel Jackson from the original SG-1 (of 3000 BC) live out the rest of their lives in Ancient Egypt.

The original SG-1 of the present day receive the videotape and the ZPM left for them a few weeks before they were to go back in time. As the timeline has been restored, they have no reason to go back in time, and they've gained a ZPM free of charge. The episode ends with SG-1 at O'Neill's cabin, fishing, in a scene identical to the end of "Threads", except there are now fish in Jack's pond.

Realizing they are now living in an alternate timeline in which an Alternate-SG-1 lived out their lives circa 3,000 B.C. Jack O'Neill comments, as to the presence of fish in the pond (having been told there were supposed to be none by the Alternate-O'Neill speaking on the canopic jar videotape) - "Close enough".

Notable Quotes
O'Neill: What do I do?

Dr. Carter: Sit down. He sits.

O'Neill: Now what?

Dr. Jackson: You're supposed to have the ability to fly this thing.

Dr. Carter: With your mind!

Hammond: Are you absolutely certain about them, Colonel?

O'Neill: No sir.

Hammond: Good luck. And godspeed.

O'Neill: Safety off, point and shoot. Not at me.

Dr. Carter: I don't really like guns.

O'Neill: Neither do I. How do you feel about explosives?

Dr. Carter: Those I like a little better.

Jackson: Well this can't be a good sign.

O'Neill: Why is that?

Jackson: Where am I?

O'Neill: Ancient Egypt.

Jackson: No, I mean the me from your timeline.

Teal'c: I killed you.

Jackson: Why?

Teal'c: You were a Goa'uld spy.

Jackson: A good reason.

Dr. Carter: It was horrible.

Jackson: Yeah, I'm sure. Why are you here?

O'Neill: Yes. Excellent question.

Carter: Apparently nothing we did affected the timeline.

O'Neill: But we didn't do anything.

Carter: Not yet. Apparently we were going to. Two weeks from now. But now we don't have to.

O'Neill: Excellent. That's it. I like it.

Carter: Didn't that tape say there were no fish in your pond?

O'Neill: Close enough.

Goofs

 * When the alternate SG-1 arrives in the past, Teal'c notes that the Ha'tak vessels have the mark of Ra. However, while there does appear to be a ship landed on the Great Pyramid, there's only one, not multiple ships and it looks more like the Cheops-class warship Ra used in the original movie. However, while he still refers to it as a Ha'tak, he later refers to the ship as singular during conversation. The word Ha'tak may simply mean "warship" (or battleship, cruiser, etc), rather than being a specific class designation.
 * When the original Daniel asks where the alternate Daniel is, Teal'c tells him that he killed his alternate self. However, while Teal'c did shoot the alternate Daniel, it was O'Neill and Kawalsky who actually killed Daniel.
 * It could be argued that the entire two-part episode is one big time paradox. The Stargate series usually makes a very strict distinction between time travel and travel between alternate realities. It is often established that when one is traveling in time, one is doing so on a single timeline, within a single reality (1969 being a good example). As such, time travel does not create different 'branches' or realities when changes occur (the alternate timeline is only shown for the sake of the episode), instead it changes the entire timeline (both past and present). Because of this a paradox occurs when the ZPM is recovered in Giza. Because SG-1 recovered the ZPM, they no longer had to travel back in time to recover it, resulting in the ZPM not being recovered and SG-1 going back in time to get it. And so the loop goes round and round.
 * When Carter fires the gun at the enemy from the puddle jumper, no gunshot is heard, but a special effect instead.

Wins

 * Won Leo for "Dramatic Series: Best Costume Design" (Christine Mooney)

Transcript
To view the transcript for , the transcript is located at /Transcript.

In other languages

 * French: Retour vers le Futur (2ème partie) (Back to the Future (part 2))
 * Italian: Moebius (Parte 2) (Moebius (part 2))
 * Spanish: Moebius (Parte 2) (Moebius (part 2))
 * Czech: Moebius (část 2.) (Moebius (part 2))
 * German: Moebius, Teil 2 (Moebius, Part 2)
 * Hungarian: Moebius (2. rész) (Moebius (part 2))