I don't remember this episode very well.
Okay, so right off the bat, they establish that the planet they're on is likely to be hostile to visitors and that wherever everyone is, they can't have gone very far, and their reaction is to start poking around?
Teal'c about to be renovated as a gazebo for the second week in a row.
Oooooh, the “Teal'c on trial” episode! I remember this now.
“Maybe they're coming from a swap meet.” Agreed.
“'Circ.' That's a Latin derivation. Circle. But 'kakona,' that's Greek. That's weird. Two root languages in one culture?” Daniel. You speak English. How weird can that really be?
“Circle of Woes” is a really metal name for the gate, though.
If they're gonna be co-counsels, they should really be getting the story out of Teal'c now to prepare his defense. Waiting until they can spring it on themselves at the trial is a very poor strategy. And at least one of them should be getting a story on exactly what the rules of the cor-ai are.
See! This is why they should've asked what the rules were.
Teal'c is very smart to reject the “just following orders” defense that Jack offers there.
And I like that Jack and Teal'c have a very real culture clash here.
Or you could offer an affirmative defense. Yes, I did this thing but I have good reasons.
And here we have exactly what I said. Affirmative defense. I did this thing, but I had a good reason.
I also like the rejection of moral relativism in the cor-ai. Good versus evil is not a teeter-totter where if you outweigh one side, the other one doesn't count. It's a diet. You can trend in one direction or the other, but it all counts, all the time.
“Colonel the United States is not in the business of interfering in other people's affairs.” Pfft. Hammond, I love you, but this is false.
“We can't commit troops to risk their lives in an action I believe is morally ambiguous.” Man, if only this were the actual military. It'd be nice to live in this world.
The boot-stompy sound effect is a little too obviously not actually from their feet.
This does manage to be an ending that isn't a cop-out, too, which is tricky to write for an episode like this.