Mitchell wakes up in a strange home, with blood on his hands and flashes of violent imagery in his mind. Police enter the home and arrest him for murder.

24 hours earlier, SG-1 visited Galar, an advanced world long protected by the Asgard, to possibly initiate an alliance. The planet’s emissary was eager to demonstrate a technology that its scientist developed from leftover Goa’uld tech – a device that allows memories to be transferred from one person to another, with the recipient experiencing them as if they were his or her own. Mitchell is the recipient of a demonstration, receiving the emissary’s memory of a conversation with Dr. Reya Varrick, the project’s top scientist. The technology holds great promise for military and other types of training, so the military is eager to develop the relationship. SG-1 agrees to go back to the planet to attend a reception. Mitchell and Reya flirt with one another; when she learns that the project is being taken from her control, she angrily leaves the party and invites Mitchell to walk her home. They share a drink, and soon after, Mitchell wakes up with blood on his hands and flashes of violent imagery in his mind.

The rest of SG-1 is shocked the next morning when the emissary informs them of Mitchell’s arrest and confession. They quickly suspect that someone has used the memory device on Mitchell. In the interest of diplomatic relations, the planet’s leaders are willing to release Mitchell and send him back to Earth, but he wants to prove his innocence. That requires the help of the remaining scientists, one of whom – Dr. Marrell – is her ex-husband. They are eager to help – they believe that the military killed Reya to take control of the project, and framed Mitchell because he could be whisked off planet easily. To detect a graft, the scientists need to hook Mitchell back up to the device and have him relive particular vivid memories.

Mitchell remembers seeing his father in the hospital, after an accident claimed both the test pilot’s legs. He remembers watching the launch of the space shuttle with him, a point at which his father professed his intention to walk again. The resultant baseline should be enough to confirm the graft – but it doesn’t. Daniel and Teal’c try to go over the other evidence of the investigation, including the blood sample that indicated Mitchell had been drinking around the time of the murder. Blood tests at the SGC confirm that Mitchell was somehow stunned into unconsciousness, suggesting that he was attacked before the murder. But the emissary seems to be stalling the investigation, withholding some evidence in the name of planetary security.

The scientists have one more tool at their disposal – if Mitchell has a memory of similar content to the murder, a more exact comparison can be made. Mitchell obliges, recalling a mission in which he destroyed a convoy of refugees based on faulty intelligence. The new information establishes Mitchell’s innocence, but he is determined to go one step further and find the true killer, even if no one else – including the murderer – wants to know.

written by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
directed by Wil Waring
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Warren Kimmel (Dr. Marell), Benson Simmonds (Dr. Amauro), William Atherton (Emissary), Anna Galvin (Dr. Reya Varrick), Maximillian Uhrin (Young Mitchell), Ian Robison (Mitchell’s Father), Brian Drummond (Security Officer), John Treleaven (Colonel)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Stargate Command readies for an unscheduled incoming wormhole when a sudden unusual energy spike surprises everyone. The IDC confirms that SG-1 is returning early from a mission, and they step out of the stargate in their black off-world uniforms. During their debriefing, they mention several details that strike Landry as anomalous. Before they can resolve the discrepancy, the stargate activates again – and the SGC once again receives SG-1’s IDC, this time on schedule. Landry orders the iris opened, and SG-1 emerges from the wormhole wearing green off-world uniforms.

Genetic tests confirm that both teams are the real SG-1, but the green team’s mission and memories sync up with the history experienced by Landry and the rest of the SGC. The green team interviews the members of the black team to try and figure out what is going on. Landry suspects that Baal’s cloning technology may be at work, but Green Carter argues that an anomaly may have caused the wormhole to jump between parallel realities. When additional SG-1s begin contacting SGC asking to be let home, the hypothesis is pretty much confirmed. Green Carter and Black Carter theorize that a wormhole that interacted with the black hole created by the Ori’s attempt to create a super-gate to the Milky Way may have established the anomaly. Now those alternate realities that are relatively close to Green SG-1’s are being funneled there. Landry orders all gate travel suspended, except for emergencies – which still allows over a dozen alternate SG-1s to reach this reality.

One of those teams, whose members include Martouf and Dr. Fraiser, is searching for a cure for the Ori plague. But even a team of eighteen Samantha Carters can’t figure out a way to reverse the anomaly and return the stranded teams to their own realities, so Landry reluctantly concludes that in the name of protecting this reality, the anomaly must be eliminated even if it strands the other teams. Kvasir of the Asgard offers assistance in devising a plan to do so, but Landry is not the only one who is willing to take whatever steps are necessary to defend the home reality – whichever reality that is.

story by Brad Wright and Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
teleplay by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
directed by Peter DeLuise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Lexa Doig (Dr. Lam), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Teryl Rothery (Dr Fraiser), J.R. Bourne (Martouf), Dan Shea (Sgt. Siler)

Notes: The Ori created the black hole in this season’s Beachhead and the SGC found a cure for the Ori plague in The Fourth Horseman, Part 2. The Carters referred to the black-hole-created time dilation effect that occurred in season 2’s A Matter of Time and the time travel effect from that season’s 1969. Black Mitchell referred to the Goa’uld plot to trick SG-1 into thinking they had returned to a far-future SGC in season 2’s Out of Mind and to the Atlantis expedition’s experience in the Stargate Atlantis season 1 episode Home. The home-reality’s Dr. Fraiser was killed in season seven’s Heroes, Part 2. The home-reality’s Martouf died in season 4’s Divide and Conquer.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Mitchell takes some time off from Stargate Command to visit his friend and former colleague Major Bryce Ferguson. Four years ago, he got a piece of shrapnel in his head saving Mitchell’s life, and now Mitchell has had him moved to the Air Force hospital associated with the Stargate program in hopes that their advanced technology can heal the aneurysm that threatens his life. Ferguson has accepted his fate, however – he just wants to know about what top-secret projects Mitchell has been involved in. He’s heard rumors of dogfights over Antarctica and other crazy things – things he may have been involved with himself if he hadn’t been injured. But Mitchell can reveal nothing.

On Dakara, Teal’c and Bra’tac attempt to dissolve the high council in order to allow open democratic elections for leadership of the Free Jaffa Nation. But they are surprised when their allies turn against them without warning. When Teal’c attempts to investigate, Ba’al’s forces kidnap him. The Goa’uld wants to keep the council in place so that he can assume leadership of the Jaffa and prepare them for war against the Ori, and he has brainwashed many Jaffa to help him – including members of the council. Teal’c’s own resistance is too strong, so Ba’al is forced to take harsher measures. Bra’tac turns to the SGC for help; Daniel accompanies him back to Chulak and Dakara to investigate while Carter prepares a rescue force.

The hospital is unable to help Ferguson, so Mitchell gets permission to use a modified version of the memory transfer device to let his friend live his experiences of the last four years. The grateful Ferguson urges Mitchell to get back to the SGC and help rescue Teal’c, and not feel guilty about what has happened – Mitchell is in a line of work where he needs to follow his instincts, even if that leads him into trouble. Mitchell joins the rescue team, clearly with a lot of frustration to take out on someone. The only question is whether he’s more dangerous to Ba’al’s forces or to himself.

written by Alan McCullough
directed by Peter DeLuise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Tony Amendola (Bra’tac), Cliff Simon (Ba’al), Reed Diamond (Major Ferguson), Dakin Matthews (Maz’rai), Simone Bailly (Ka’lel), Yan Feldman (Til’Vak), Veena Sood (Dr. Kelly), Don Thompson (U’kin), Gardiner Millar (Yat’yir), Ken Kirzinger (Jaffa Commander), Erik Breker (SG-3 Leader)

Notes: Mitchell’s prior experience with the memory device was in Collateral Damage. Teal’c was brainwashed by Apophis in season 5’s Enemies. Bra’tac helped him undergo the ritual of Mal’sharran to overcome the brainwashing in the following episode, Threshold. The Antarctic mission that Ferguson has heard about originally occurred in season 7’s Lost City, Part 2, and Mitchell’s part in that mission was shown in this season’s Avalon, Part 1. The exploding building that Ferguson mentions was the result of Ba’al’s activities in this season’s Ex Deus Machina.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer