The race is on to Dakara. Carter and her father join Teal’c and Bra’tac, where they make a shaky start on deciphering the writing on the temple that the Jaffa freedom fighters have taken over. Anubis has sent Baal and his fleet to retake the temple and end the Jaffa rebellion. And using the knowledge that the clone Carter has ripped from Daniel’s mind, the Replicators are converging on Dakara to destroy an Ancient weapon which could seal their doom. When Carter and her father manage to awaken the Ancient technology, they set about try to figure out how to make it do precisely that.

Replicators open the stargate at the SGC and quickly overrun the gate room. O’Neill seals the mountain and orders all hands to evacuate, and begins preparations to reduce Cheyenne Mountain to a smoking hole in the ground rather than allowing the Replicators to seize it. Over Dakara, three fleets engage in a pitched battle – the Jaffa rebel fleet, Baal’s forces, and Replicator-controlled Goa’uld ships. Carter manages to strike a brief truce with Baal, assuring him that the Jaffa and Goa’uld forces should join up to hold the Replicators away from Dakara. Just after a huge Replicator lander takes up a position just outside the Temple of Dakara, all of the Replicators across the galaxy freeze up: Daniel has managed to to turn his interrogation against his captors, turning the tide of battle even though it will cost him his life.

written by Damian Kindler
excerpt written by Robert C. Cooper
directed by Peter DeLuise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Carmen Argenziano (Jacob Carter / Selmak), Tony Amendola (Bra’tac), Cliff Simon (Baal), Erik Breker (Colonel Reynolds), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Isaac Hayes (Tolok), Jeff Judge (Aron), Dan Shea (Sgt. Siler), Emy Aneke (Baal’s Jaffa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

In the wake of the successful Jaffa revolution and the final destruction of the Replicators, Teal’c and Bra’tac are honored as heroes, but the Jaffa retain control of the Ancients’ weapon on Dakara. Teal’c and Bra’tac reluctantly contemplate their future as leaders of a new Jaffa government even as the rebel Jaffa fleet sets off to pursue Anubis’ forces. Daniel finds himself in a limbo that curiously resembles a diner, and Oma is there too, though she isn’t exactly forthcoming with any details of whether Daniel is closer to life or death. The only other person in the diner who will pay Daniel any heed is a garrolous patron who seems to be almost too eager to tell Daniel what’s happening – particularly with regard to a ruse that Anubis has used to lure the Jaffa into a trap. And at the SGC, Carter’s father reveals that his symbiont’s imminent death will mean his own – and urges Carter to seek out happiness before she, too, is facing down her own mortality.

written by Robert C. Cooper
excerpts written by Damian Kindler
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Isaac Hayes (Tolok), Mel Harris (Oma Desala), George Dzundza (Jim), Carmen Argenziano (Jacob Carter), Tony Amendola (Bra’tac), David DeLuise (Pete Shanahan), Clare Carey (Kerry Johnson), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Cliff Simon (Baal), Rik Kiviaho (Anubis)

Notes: Two versions of this episode exist, the 90-minute version originally broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel, and a one-hour version prepared for syndicated broadcast; the first copies of the Season 8 DVD boxed set mistakenly included the syndicated version rather than the full original episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

An English teacher named Daniel Jackson – fallen from favor in his career as a linguist and archaeologist – is summoned to a top-secret facility at Cheyenne Mountain, as is a junior government aeronautics employee named Samantha Carter. Once they sign confidentiality agreements, a man named General Hammond finally reveals why they’ve been brought there: an archaeological expedition in Egypt made an unusual discovery – an intact camcorder containing an intact tape. The tape shows Jackson and Carter, but radically different from the sheltered, routine lives they live now. On the videotape, Daniel Jackson claims to be a member of an elite team called SG-1 which travels through a device called the stargate; he also says that a timeship carried them into Earth’s past on a risky mission recover an alien artifact called a zero point module. Also on the tape is Jack O’Neill, a retired Air Force general, and a hulking humanoid alien named Teal’c. Apparently, the taped message was left in the event that the mission failed, resulting in radical changes to the timeline. The expedition also uncovered the time travel vehicle mentioned in the tape, which O’Neill supposedly has a unique ability to control. With no experience, and highly skeptical of what they’ve been told, it’s now up to this unlikely handful of adventurers to restore what may – or may not be – Earth’s real history.

teleplay by Jospeh Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
story by Jospeh Mallozzi & Paul Mullie & Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper
directed by Peter Deluise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: David Hewlett (Rodney McKay), Don S. Davis (General Hammond), Robert Wisden (Major Samuels), Colin Cunningham (Major Davis), David Lewis (Cameron Balinsky), James Purcell (Dr. Hersfield), Alessandro Juliani (Katep), Georgia Craig (Sabrina), Jay Williams (Ra), Benjamin Easterday (Ra’s Jaffa Commander), Neil Schell (Mr. Crandall)

Notes: Though he has appeared in Stargate SG-1 before, this was guest star Alessandro Juliani’s first appearance in the series since becoming a regular on Sci-Fi Channel’s new version of Battlestar Galactica.

LogBook entry by Earl Green