8.06 "Avatar" Episode Guide
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Précis
The Game Keeper's virtual reality technology enables Teal'c to enter a virtual SGC where he can battle Anubis' Super Soldiers. Teal'c tries over and over to defeat the warriors, but, sensing his real doubts, the game will not let him win or leave. With Teal'c's life in danger, Daniel enters the game and uses a precognition cheat to help Teal'c win, freeing them both.
Guide | Transcript
SciFi.com Official Summary
Goa'uld supersoldier drones have breached the Gate room and have killed Brig. Gen. Jack O'Neill. In a bold move, Teal'c does a barrel roll, retrieves a modified P-90 sidearm, and takes out the drone.
This was much too easy as far as Teal'c is concerned—and when he gets out of the virtual-reality chair, like the ones SG-1 had encountered on planet P7J-989, he tells scientist Dr. Lee just that.
O'Neill and Lt. Col. Samantha Carter agree with Teal'c that the VR chair is useless as a training tool against the Goa'uld and their supersoldiers. But the only way it can be made more realistic is if the chair is programmed from the experiences of one who has fought the Goa'uld. Teal'c is willing to go along with an experiment during which the chair will learn from his moves within the scenario, making it harder and more realistic as he plays.
But as Teal'c plays the VR "game," it quickly gets up to his level of expertise and surpasses him. And each time he dies in the game, he gets a shock from the chair. While the shocks are not lethal, the cumulative effects, as Dr. Carmichael points out, could give him a heart attack or drain his adrenaline levels lethally.
The game resets each time Teal'c dies, because it knows from reading Teal'c's actions and his mind that, in reality, he would never give up until the Goa'uld are destroyed. But Teal'c doesn't have forever. If he doesn't defeat the three supersoldiers (one of which is cloaked) and disable the Naquadah generator set for overload by a Goa'uld spy on base—whose identity keeps changing every time the game resets—he will never win and the chair will kill him. He's already being kept alive by an adrenaline feed. And the machine won't let him escape the game by using the built-in failsafe—taking the elevator down to level one—because it knows he really would never quit until either he or they are dead.
Carter and Dr. Lee are helpless as they watch the simulation play out on the monitor, killing Teal'c over and over. They can't take him out of the chair or shut down the program abruptly, but O'Neill wonders if they could hook up a joystick and give Teal'c a little help. An impressed Carter says the chair's neural recorder causes a two-second delay (imperceptible to Teal'c) between the programming in the chair and Teal'c's experience in his mind. Carter and Lee figure to hook up a second chair to the first one without using the recorder in the loop. The second player would then have a two-second advantage, seeing actions within the game before Teal'c.
Dr. Daniel Jackson goes in. Teal'c, having seen Daniel as the Goa'uld spy in the past few simulations, immediately kills him. After a reset or two, Daniel fires a zat at Teal'c to get him to him listen to what's really going on. Now they are able to take out the supersoldiers, courtesy of Daniel's artificial precognition. All that's left is to find the Goa'uld spy and the Naquadah generator.
They find Carter leaning over the device. She says she's trying to disarm it and that Sgt. Siler, prostrate on the floor, was the spy. Is she lying? O'Neill then enters. Is he the spy? The real Teal'c and Daniel and the virtual Carter and O'Neill are at a standoff, weapons trained on each other. Just then, Daniel sees what is about to happen and tells Teal'c to look out. Siler pops up, his eyes glowing like a Goa'uld's, and Teal'c shoots him dead. Carter disables the device. The Goa'uld have been defeated and Teal'c is free of the chair.
Game over.
Cast
- Richard Dean Anderson as Brig. Gen. Jack O'Neill
- Amanda Tapping as Lt. Col. Samantha Carter
- Christopher Judge as Teal'c
- and Michael Shanks as Dr. Daniel Jackson
Guest Stars
- Bill Dow as Dr. Bill Lee
- Andrew Airlie as Dr. Carmichael
- Gary Jones as Sgt. Walter Harriman (Technician)
- Dan Shea as Sgt. Siler
- Dan Payne as Supersoldier
Production
- Written by Damian Kindler
- Directed by Martin Wood
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- Season Eight Episode Guides
- Episode Guides
- Transcripts
- 2.04 "The Game Keeper" Episode Guide
- 8.06 "Avatar" Transcript
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--Kylie Lee 13:26, 17 Aug 2004 (PDT)