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Recap / Stargate SG 1 S 10 E 17 Talion

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"Arkad must die no matter what the consequences. I do not wish to harm any of you, but if you try and stop me, I will."
— Teal'c

Teal'c and Bra'tac are both severely injured when several bombs are detonated during a Jaffa summit. After recovering from his injuries, Teal'c suspects that the culprit is Arkad, a Jaffa leader who embraces Origin, and severs all ties with the SGC in order to avenge those who were killed in the attack.

Last appearance of Bra'tac.


"Talion" provides examples of the following tropes:

  • Blatant Lies: Mitchell's mission report is completely fabricated; he says that Arkad set a trap and captured them, admitting that he was behind the attacks, then Teal'c showed up and rescued them, and Arkad was killed in the fighting. Landry doesn't buy it for a second, but he lets it slide.
  • Blunt Metaphors Trauma:
    Vala: So he leaks the information about the plot, pretends to act towards stopping the attack, and with the time that he's bought, gets his chicks in a row.
    Daniel: That's a pretty good theory — and it's ducks, by the way — the only problem is, we have to prove it to the IOA.
  • Breaking Speech: Arkad gives one to Teal'c while kicking the crap out of him, sneering that he's been spending too much time around humans and he's getting soft in his old age.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Mitchell states that he's been there when Lam is talking about the intense physical therapy Teal'c will have to undertake to get back to full strength.
    • Daniel suggests that Arkad and his followers might blame the Tau'ri for the destruction of Dakara.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Teal'c kills the Jaffa who carried out the bombings on Arkan's behalf by removing his symbiote and planting an explosive device in the empty pouch, which he then detonates.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Teal'c wipes the floor with Mitchell embarrassingly quickly after taking out Daniel, Carter and Vala with a shock grenade.
  • Curb Stomp Cushion: Although hopelessly, hilariously out of his weight class, Mitchell does manage to land a few blows against Teal'c, although it's nothing that actually hurts him.
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Daniel relays a message from the injured Bra'tac to Arkad:
    Daniel: I don't think he'll mind me speaking for him when I say that he'd love to stab you in the eye with a really big knife.
  • Determinator: Teal'c won't let anything slow him down on his quest for vengeance. Mitchell likens trying to stop him to sticking his foot out to trip a freight train.
  • Dirty Coward: Arkad used an assassin to murder Teal'c's mother instead of doing the deed himself, arranged a bombing of a peaceful gathering to endear himself to the Ori forces, feigns peace talks with Earth so they'll be unprepared for his upcoming attack, and beats down an already injured and weary Teal'c, talking smack about Teal'c's supposed "weakness" as he does it. As soon as Teal'c has him at his mercy, all of Arkad's confidence disappears and he dies whimpering in fear.
  • Evil Brit: Arkad speaks with a vaguely Cockney-sounding accent.
  • Fantastic Racism: Lizan, the human informant who Teal'c tortures, speaks quite openly about his hatred for the Jaffa, blaming them for the oppression his people faced at the hands of the Goa'uld.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Arkad is rather polite when he visits the SGC and pretends that he's interested in cooperating with Earth, but he shows his true colors when Teal'c goes to fight him.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Bak'al, the Jaffa who carries out the bombings on Arkad's behalf, is easily identifiable by the large crescent moon shaped scar on his cheek.
  • Heroic Second Wind: Teal'c gets a second and third wind during his fight with Arkad, the latter giving him the energy to pull out the sword he's just been stabbed with and finish off his opponent with it.
  • I Work Alone: Teal'c severs all ties with the SGC and sets out alone to exact his revenge on Arkad after Landry tells him he can't authorize an official mission. When the rest of the team follow to try and talk some sense into him, he wastes no time in disabling them.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Arkad runs Teal'c through with a sword at the end of their fight. He then makes the mistake of gloating about having arranged the death of Teal'c's mother, to which Teal'c responds by headbutting him so that he falls backwards onto a pair of metal hooks sticking out from the wall, before pulling the sword out of his own abdomen and viciously stabbing Arkad in the heart with it.
  • In Medias Res: The episode opens with the rest of the team discovering the aftermath of the attack on the Jaffa summit, with later flashbacks showing the events leading up to it.
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Teal'c does not hold back on the torture in this episode.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Lizan is a racist scumbag, but he's not exactly wrong when he says that, compared to the humans who had to labor under Goa'uld rule, the Jaffa lived like kings. The Jaffa were as much slaves to the Goa'uld as the humans, but they still enjoyed far greater privilege and prestige.
  • Kingpin in His Gym: Arkad is shown training just before Teal'c goes to fight him.
  • Like a Son to Me: Bra'tac tells Teal'c that he thinks of the latter like a son at the end of the episode.
    Bra'tac: I have not said this to you before, and I should have: you are the son I never had. I could not be more proud.
  • Perp Sweating: Daniel invokes this by pointing out that the easiest way to find out what Arkad knows would be to lock him in a room and threaten to let Teal'c kill him.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Teal'c: "I'm am leaving. You are about to explode."
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Part of the reason Teal'c is so disgusted by the bombing is because he considers such tactics to be dishonorable.
  • A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Bra'tac mentions that Arkad was once a student of his, though he always had a sense that there was "something wrong with him".
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Teal'c embarks on yet another one; ostensibly to avenge the deaths of the Jaffa killed at the summit, though Bra'tac suspects the fact that Arkad may be implicated in the murder of Teal'c's mother several years previously may also have something do with it.
  • Sickening "Crunch!": When Teal'c twists Mitchell's wrist during their fight.
  • Smug Snake: Arkad endlessly gloats over Teal'c after the latter is brought to him wounded from several staff weapon blasts. Teal'c's Heroic Second Wind proves that Arkad likely would never have stood a chance if Teal'c had been at the top of his game when they fought.
  • Stock Footage: The Establishing Shot of Arkad's planet is actually a reused shot from "The Other Guys".
  • Unbroken Vigil: When Teal'c first wakes up in the infirmary, Lam states that at least one member of the team has sat with him practically the entire time since he was brought in. Ironically, they weren't present at that very time.
  • Unflinching Walk: Teal'c does this when the bomb he's planted inside Bak'al is about to go off.
    Teal'c: I am leaving. You are about to explode.
  • You Can Barely Stand: Arkad has Teal'c brought before him, then dismisses his guards so the two of them can fight mano-a-mano. However, Teal'c is seriously injured having just been hit with multiple staff weapon shots trying to fight his way past Arkad's guards, making the fight pretty one-sided in Arkad's favor.
  • You Killed My Father: Played with; Bra'tac mentions that Teal'c has long suspected Arkad to have killed his mother in a revenge attack after Teal'c crushed Arkad's fleet in battle, and Arkad later takes credit for her murder, but Teal'c reveals at the end of the episode that he already knew Arkad hadn't carried out the attack personally and had already killed the real culprit some time ago. On the other side of things, Arkad claims that Teal'c was responsible for the deaths of his family while he was still First Prime of Apophis, and claims it inspired him to become a Worthy Opponent for Teal'c.

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