Recap / Stargate SG 1 S 5 E 21 Meridian

"I'm gonna miss you guys."

— Dr. Daniel Jackson

Daniel returns from a mission stricken with radiation poisoning after manually disarming a prototype bomb made from an unstable variant of naquadah called naquadria; to make matters worse, the government responsible for the bomb is accusing him of sabotage. As the rest of the team try to clear his name while desperately searching for a means of saving his life, Daniel is visited by Oma Desala, who encourages him to release his burdens so that he can achieve ascension.

First appearance of Jonas Quinn

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"Meridian" provides examples of the following tropes:

• Anti-Nihilist: Oma Desala, surprisingly enough; she states that the universe is so vast and random that the only thing a person can truly control is "whether they are good or evil".
• Artistic License – Medicine: Averted in this episode, as it shows pretty much exactly what happens to someone that gets a lethal dose of radiation. There's nothing they can do for Daniel except attempt to make him more comfortable. Even Jacob/Selmak, using a Goa'uld healing device, says Daniel is too far gone to save. They indicate that the only thing that could possibly save Daniel at this point is a Goa'uld sarcophagus, and there are none that are available without the loss of a lot of lives which Hammond is unwilling to do for one person (since all the known ones are on heavily fortified Goa'uld planets). He is only saved at the end by an Energy Being that helps him Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. They in fact stick so close to the description of how terrible radiation poisoning is, that Dr. Fraser openly wonders if it'd be more merciful to just pull the plug and let Daniel die faster.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Daniel ascends at the end of the episode, with his body transforming into a glowing Energy Being and disappearing through the ceiling of the infirmary.
• Bandage Mummy: Daniel's entire body eventually ends up wrapped in gauze and bandages as his condition worsens. Given the wounds that level of radiation poisoning can cause (as anyone who watched [[Series/Chernobyl Chernobyl]] can attest) this is something of a mercy both for the audience and the show's costuming/prosthetics department.
• Bittersweet Ending: Daniel ascends, which is a very beautiful scene and a huge personal achievement, not to mention a hell of a lot better than the alternative, but as far as his friends — and the audience — are concerned, he's still gone.
• Buffy Speak:
  Daniel: (to Oma) Okay, well, I'm willing, so let's go. You know, do your thing. Glow me.
• But Now I Must Go: Daniel decides to go with Oma even given the possibility that Jacob could save him, as he believes that he can do more good as an ascended being.
• Call-Back: Oma repeats the "if you immediately know that the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked long ago" line from "Maternal Instinct".
• Clear My Name: The rest of team, particularly O'Neill, are determined to clear Daniel's name after the Kelownan government accuse him of sabotage, though Daniel himself doesn't really seem to care that much one way or another.
  O'Neill: This will not be your last act on official record.
• The Conscience: Jonas's role is act as a kind of ethical overseer for the naquadria research. The combination of his colleagues' agonizing deaths, his superiors framing Daniel and the potential destructive power of the weapon eventually convinces him to turn on his government and steal some naquadria for Earth.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When O'Neill suggests trying to find a sarcophagus to heal Daniel, Hammond points out that they have firsthand knowledge of its negative side-effects.
  • Oma tells Daniel that he has to complete the journey that he began on Kheb.
  • Daniel mentions that some very smart people recently warned him of what can happen when a society makes a sudden leap in weapons technology it isn't ready for.
  • The team when first talking to Jonas mention that they are wary of a cultural and technological exchange, having been burned in the past by previous attempts.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Jonas explicitly describes the deaths of the other scientists as "horrific". Radiation poisoning is not a pleasant way to go.
• Dirty Coward: When the device goes critical, the lead scientist on the project immediately runs out the door, leaving Daniel and Jonas to deal with the problem.
• Dissonant Serenity: The disturbing calm with which Daniel describes just what, exactly, is going to happen to his body as it succumbs to the radiation.
  Daniel: The nausea will be followed by tremors, convulsions and something called ataxia. Surface tissues, brain tissue and internal organs will inflame and degrade — I believe that's called necrosis. Now based on the amount of radiation I got, all that will happen in the next ten to fifteen hours... and if I don't drown in my own blood and fluids first, I will bleed to death, and there is no medical treatment to prevent that.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Lampshaded when O'Neill attempts to say something meaningful as he sits at Daniel's bedside.
  O'Neill: I, uh... I just wanted to, uh... I'm really bad at this.
  Daniel: Yes, you are.
• Exact Words: Hammond deliberately words his letter to the Kelownan officials in such a way as to sound apologetic without actually admitting that Daniel is at fault in the hopes of establishing diplomatic relations.
• Friendship Moment: Each member of the team has one of these with Daniel as they take turns sitting vigil and saying goodbyes.
• Go into the Light: Invoked with Daniel walking into a glowing stargate in O'Neill's mind, while his ascended form disappears through the ceiling in the "real" world.
• Going Critical: The prototype naquadria bomb overloads and starts spewing out deadly amounts of radiation during testing, leading the scientists present to speculate that it will explode if the core isn't removed, prompting Daniel to disable it before it can explode and take a good chunk of the planet with it. This is actually an aversion of the Going Critical trope. The device does not explode, it merely goes into a supercritical state that causes it to fill the room with deadly radiation, until Daniel sacrifices himself to move the parts of the bomb apart until they are subcritical again. The event is actually based on a real life event commonly called "tickling the dragon's tail", only substituting Applied Phlebotinum for plutonium and Daniel for the real life physicist. For more information on the real life event, see the Louis Slotin entry on Real Life.
• Healing Hands: Averted; when Carter attempts to use the Goa'uld healing device on Daniel it triggers a seizure, and by the time her father arrives Selmak claims that Daniel is so far gone that even he may not be able to save him, and even if he lives he will never be restored to full health.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Daniel willingly exposes himself to a lethal dose of radiation in order to shut down the device before it explodes.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Daniel believes that he is unworthy of ascension as he was unable to save Sha're or Sarah and feels as though nothing he's done has made any real difference in the grand scheme of things. However, this is eventually subverted after he hears the rest of the team telling him the effect he's had on them, and he manages to get over it enough to take Oma up on her offer.
• History Repeats: Daniel theorizes that the population who lived on Kelowna ten thousand years ago may have wiped themselves out experimenting with the naquadria, and attempts to warn Jonas against repeating their mistakes.
• Honorary True Companion: It says a lot that aside from the other members of SG-1, the only people to witness Daniel's ascension are Hammond, Frasier and Jacob.
• In Medias Res: The episode opens with the team returning from offworld and rushing Daniel to the infirmary while explaining that he's been exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, and from there uses flashbacks to demonstrate How We Got Here.
• It Has Been an Honor: Teal'c's goodbye to Daniel:
  Teal'c: If you are to die, Daniel Jackson, I wish you to know that I believe that the fight against the Goa'uld will have lost one of its greatest warriors... and I will have lost one of my greatest friends.
• Koan: Oma can't seem to resist letting loose with a few of these, much to Daniel's exasperation.
  Oma: A tall man cannot hide in the short grass.
  Daniel: You know, I really — I don't have time for one of these kind of conversations.
• Made of Explodium: The naquadria is an even more powerful — and unstable — variant of naquadah, with Carter stating that its explosive potential is greater than that of any other nuclear reaction she can conceive.
• Magnetic Hero: Carter explicitly describes Daniel as such as she's telling him that his actions influenced Jonas to side with the team.
  Carter: You have an effect on people, Daniel. The way you look at things, it changed me too... I see what really matters.
• Mental World: As Daniel is dying, he is able to converse freely with Oma on some kind of mental/spiritual plane that mostly seems to consist of the gate room and his office. At the end of the episode, he is also able to pull O'Neill into the same realm to ask that he stop Jacob using the healing device and say his goodbyes.
• Mercy Kill: Invoked when Fraiser confesses to wondering whether it might be kinder to just put Daniel out of his misery rather than letting him die a slow, painful death via radiation poisoning, despite it going against everything she believes as a doctor.
• Never Say Goodbye: Discussed:
  O'Neill: So... what? "See you around"?
  Daniel: I don't know.
• Not So Stoic: Teal'c is quite visibly holding back tears as he says his goodbyes to Daniel.
• The Quiet One: Lampshaded when O'Neill first introduces the team to Jonas:
  O'Neill: Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Sam Carter, and the tall, silent one is Teal'c.
• Precision F-Strike: O'Neill calls the Kelownan officials "lying bastards".
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
  • O'Neill acknowledges that his superiors will gladly pull a Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit on Daniel to get their hands on the naquadria, but he refuses to let Daniel be smeared in such a way regardless of the benefits.
  • Jonas eventually goes against his superiors to establish Daniel's innocence and steal some naquadria to bring back to Earth, effectively making himself a traitor if he ever returns to Kelowna.
• Silent Scapegoat: Knowing that he's going to die soon, the Kelownans try to make Daniel into one, blaming him for sabotaging the bomb to avoid admitting to the design flaw that caused it to overload in the first place. It's implied that Daniel would have gone along with it, but Jonas eventually decides to step up and tell the truth about what really happened.
• Skewed Priorities: O'Neill accuses Hammond and Carter of this for still being concerned about negotiating for the naquadria while Daniel is dying. To be fair to them, it's not as if they don't care about Daniel; they just recognize that the naquadria could give them a serious advantage in the fight against the Goa'uld if they can use it to build defenses.
• Space Cold War: Kelowna is locked in a cold war with two other superpowers on the same planet, which is why it is so keen to develop the naquadria bomb.
• Super Window Jump: Daniel throws himself through a large observation window in order to get to the device and deactivate it, though he does at least shoot the glass multiple times beforehand.
• They Killed Kenny Again: The most notable of Daniel's many deaths, given that the entire episode revolves around it and it actually sticks for an extended period of time.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Gets a lampshade hung on it as O'Neill and Daniel are able to demonstrate that for all their arguing and sniping at one another over the seasons, they really do care about each other when it comes down to it.
  O'Neill: Because despite the fact that you have been a terrific pain in the ass for the last five years... I may have — might have, um, grown to admire you, a little. I think.
• Weapon for Intimidation: Jonas justifies the development of the naquadria bomb in this context, as they'll be overrun by their rival nations without it. O'Neill counters that, for it to have the effect they desire, they're going to have to use it, at least once. After all, Earth has personal experience with that.
• Wham Episode: Daniel dies for real this time, sort of. Some of the impact is lost in hindsight knowing that he comes back, but it's still an emotional episode and he does stay gone for an entire season.