Cold Lazarus

Cold Lazarus is the seventh episode of the first season of Stargate SG-1.

Plot
On an exploratory mission of P3X-562, SG-1 find a strange planet of unreal, bright-yellow sand dunes, littered with smashed blue crystals. None appear to be intact. Jack goes off to explore out of eyeshot of the rest of the team. When he does so, he encounters a blue crystal that isn't smashed, and, staring into it, he tentatively reaches towards it and suddenly it blasts him backwards. He is unconscious. Suddenly, a replica of him is standing over him, apparently manifested by the blue crystal, or transformed from the blue crystal. Carter calls for Jack to return through the Stargate, and the replica ("Crystal-Jack") goes, leaving the unconscious Jack behind.

Back on Earth, Crystal-Jack does not appear to be hostile, and seems to have a purpose that it doesn't even quite know itself. It seems confused but focused. No one else on the base works out that he is not the real Jack. He leaves the base that day and returns to the home he left many months ago.

This was where he lived with his wife Sara, and their son Charlie. Charlie killed himself accidentally using Jack's gun, and Jack never forgave himself for it - he and Sara split up. Crystal-Jack now returns to this house and speaks to Sara. She is shocked to see him. Crystal-Jack asks to see Charlie, and Sara asks him if this is his idea of a sick joke, but it is obviously not. She runs back inside the house, upset.

Crystal-Jack is invited in by Sara's father and allowed to look around Charlie's old room. He has flashbacks of the love that used to permeate the house, as he nestles himself amongst Charlie's belongings. Sara finds him crying in the room.

Jack and Sara talk for a while and later go to a park where they sit and continue their conversation. Sara seems to wish that Crystal-Jack would say he wants to get back together, but they are both still very upset about the death of their son. At this moment, Crystal-Jack suddenly falls to the ground, bolts of blue electrical energy arcing from him into the ground and the bench.

Meanwhile back at the SGC, Carter analyzes the smashed crystals they brought back, and she and Teal'c confirm that the damage was done by Goa'uld Staff Weapons. One of the more intact crystals suddenly speaks to her, assuming a human-face-shape for a moment. They realize that the crystals are a strange alien race that must have been destroyed by the Goa'uld (this explains the initial reaction to Jack, blasting him away, as humans and Goa'ulds are alike in form).

The crystal explains that their race is composed of energy, they call themselves the Unity and relate the tale of how once a Jaffa was killed by accident by one of them and the Goa'uld in revenge gathered all the crystal Unity together and slaughtered them. It also warns them that they are running out of energy now that they are on Earth away from their planet, and when they do there may be a dangerous radioactive reaction. At that moment the real Jack O'Neill returns from the planet, having awoken, and they all realize that the other one, Crystal-Jack, must have been a crystal like this one. The SGC is immediately searched and they discover that he has left the base.



Sara has taken Crystal-Jack to the hospital. She is tending to him when he bursts out in electricity again and the hospital is cleared. SG-1 and the police arrive, and evacuate the area, ionizing particle radiation is reaching dangerous levels. Sara has a very confusing moment as the real Jack runs past her into the building as she is led out.

Once inside, SG-1 find Crystal-Jack slumped in a corner, dying. Crystal-Jack explains that he was able to see into Jack's memories and thoughts, and, after incapacitating him, saw that he was not Goa'uld. He wanted to help Jack get better so he searched for Jack's pain, and found the death of Charlie in his memories to be a far greater pain than any physical one. Crystal-Jack thought that if he could somehow bring Charlie to Jack then he would get better but he didn't understand the concept of permanent death of humans because there is no permanent death amongst the Unity.

Jack replies that Charlie is gone, but Crystal-Jack disagrees, saying that Charlie is always with Jack and touches his chest over his heart and at that moment, he changes into an identical duplicate of Charlie. It is a very emotional moment as Jack sees his son again. They now have to take Crystal-Charlie out of the place. Jack walks him out and Sara can't believe her eyes. Jack explains it's not really Charlie, but he and she hug each other and whisper that they "were pretty great together", "the greatest" in fact.

Lastly, Crystal-Charlie is brought back to the SGC and he, along with the rest of his crystalline race, is to be returned to his planet so that he won't die. Jack walks him up the ramp to the open Stargate and they step through together.

Goofs

 * Continuity: O'Neill's son's name is Charlie. In Stargate (1994), we see a certificate saying Tyler O'Neill.
 * Script Error: When the real Jack dials back to earth, General Hammond informs Captain Carter whoever is dialing in used a GDO to deactivate the iris. A wormhole has not been established at this point making it impossible for someone to send a deactivation code.