Line #40 Recap/StargateSG1S7E3FragileBalance


1	->''"He can't be more than fifteen years old. Are you saying that Colonel O'Neill has somehow regressed more than thirty years overnight?"''
2	-->'''-- Gen. George Hammond'''
3
4	The team believes that a rogue Asgard may be responsible when O'Neill is seemingly turned into a teenager overnight.
5	----
6	!!"Fragile Balance" provides examples of the following tropes:
7
8	* AgeDownRomance: ImpliedTrope. Jack O'Neill is apparently de-aged into a teenager overnight, but it turns out to actually be a [[CloneDegeneration cloning mishap]] caused by a rogue alien who kidnapped Jack. The clone is allowed to start a new life on Earth, with the real Jack dropping his doppelganger off in front of his old high school and him getting some interested glances from a group of girls. It might be {{Subverted\|Trope}}, however, given he only considers this ''after'' he learns he's a clone, but the real Jack clearly approves.
9	* AlienAbduction: Loki's kidnapping of O'Neill plays out like a stereotypical alien abduction, complete with levitation and floating lights. There's a montage of Daniel and Teal'c interviewing other "abductees" whose stories match O'Neill's, and Daniel acknowledges that their claims [[LampshadeHanging sound cliché if you've seen enough TV]] but insists the details are too specific to be ignored.
10	* ArbitrarySkepticism: Daniel is the only member of the team willing to accept right off the bat that O'Neill has suddenly regressed to a teenager, because it's hardly the weirdest thing that's happened, both to O'Neill specifically and them in general.
11	* TheBait: Young O'Neill acts as this in the plan to capture Loki, allowing himself to be re-abducted so that he can take out Loki with a zat gun and beam the rest of the team up to the ship.
12	* ButHeSoundsHandsome: This exchange when young!O'Neill runs into one of his old war buddies outside a liquor store and claims he's O'Neill's nephew:
13	-->'''Beck:''' So how's old Jack doing, anyway?
14	-->'''Young O'Neill:''' Uh, he's fine. He's not that old, either.
15	* CallBack:
16	-->'''Young O'Neill:''' Hey. I realize that it [[Recap/StargateSG1S1E5TheFirstCommandment doesn't actually say "Colonel" anywhere on my uniform.]] But it should.
17	* CaptureAndReplicate: This turns out to be what has really happened in the episode, where a teenage O'Neill shows up at the base and claims to have been [[FountainOfYouth de-aged overnight]]. The Asgard Loki actually captured the real O'Neill to experiment on him and created a clone to replace him, but thanks to a safeguard placed in O'Neill's DNA by the other Asgard, the clone winds up as a child and the ruse becomes obvious.
18	* CloneDegeneration: It's revealed that the clone is dying as a result of his genetic structure breaking down, a result of Loki not caring about the longevity of his replacements, although Thor is able to fix him by the end of the episode.
19	* ContinuityNod:
20	** Teen Jack gets frustrated with people not believing him and goes off on a rant of specific and classified things that have happened to them to prove his identity.
21	-->'''Teen Jack:''' Okay, you want proof? [[Recap/StargateSG1S2E2InTheLineOfDuty Carter, you once carried a Tok'ra named Jolinar, who gave her life to save you.]] [[Recap/StargateSG1S5E21Meridian Daniel, until recently, you were an ascended being.]] [[Recap/StargateSG1S6E22FullCircle Ya broke the rules.]] [[Recap/StargateSG1S7E1Fallen Ya got yourself kicked outta the Oma Desala fan club and had your memory erased.]] [''Sees Teal'c''] [[Recap/StargateSG1S6E19TheChangeling And you and Bra'tac both just lost your snakes in a Goa'uld ambush.]] [[Recap/StargateSG1S6E10Cure Had your tretonin yet this morning?]]
22	** Daniel rattles off a list of weird things that have happened to O'Neill and the team as a whole as proof that him being de-aged isn't that weird by comparison.
23	-->'''Daniel:''' Stranger things have happened.\
24	'''Teal'c:''' Name but one.\
25	'''Daniel:''' Well, there was [[Recap/StargateSG1S1E8BriefCandle the time he got really old]], [[Recap/StargateSG1S1E4TheBrocaDivide the time he became a caveman]], [[Recap/StargateSG1S2E17Holiday the time we all swapped bodies...]]
26	** When Carter attempts to give a briefing on the X-302 to a group of pilots in place of O'Neill, one of them points out that she [[Recap/StargateSG1S7E1Fallen flew second seat on the last flight]].
27	** Young O'Neill rejects Jacob's offer to place him in stasis while they attempt to find a cure for his situation, as [[Recap/StargateSG1S6E4Frozen the last time the Tok'ra helped him out]], he ended up [[Recap/StargateSG1S6E6Abyss "rescuing an old girlfriend he'd never met before"]].
28	** Loki claims that O'Neill is more advanced than most humans because he was able to [[Recap/StargateSG1S2E15TheFifthRace use the Ancient repository of knowledge]].
29	* DeadpanSnarker: Young O'Neill delivers ''exactly'' as much snark as you'd expect from a teenage O'Neill.
30	* ExpendableClone:
31	** Young O'Neill calls the rest of the team out on this, accusing them of not caring what happens to him after they find out that he's a clone, so long as they get the original back. Somewhat downplayed as the team do care about what is happening to Young O'Neill, but neither they nor the Tok'ra can do anything about the genetic issues and they still need to get the real O'Neill back.
32	** Played straight with Loki, who creates temporary clones of those he abducts so their absence goes unnoticed, experiments on the genuine article in the mean time, then swaps them back once he's done. The clones aren't meant to live very long in the first place, as he never anticipated someone would catch on (or that the Asgard would safeguard O'Neill's DNA, hence his clone winding up as a child).
33	** Even the normally benevolent Thor doesn't quite get why O'Neill asks him to fix his clone's DNA so that he'll survive.
34	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Loki's the first Asgard we meet who's gone rogue and is willing to cross any and all lines to solve their ongoing genetic degradation. [[Recap/StargateAtlantisS05E11TheLostTribe He won't be the last]].
35	* FountainOfYouth: Subverted; the characters initially assume that O'Neill has been de-aged, but it turns out that he's a clone and the original has been abducted by the Asgard.
36	* GotVolunteered: When the rest of the team track down young O'Neill to break the news to him that he's a clone:
37	-->'''Daniel:''' There's no easy way to tell you this, so... Sam's just gonna come right out and say it.
38	-->''(Carter [[DeathGlare glares at him]])''
39	* HumanPopsicle: Discussed; Jacob offers to put young!O'Neill in stasis in order to buy them more time to come up with a fix for his genetic instability.
40	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Young O'Neill's first destination after fleeing from the base is a liquor store. Unfortunately he doesn't get very far, given that he's a fifteen-year-old.
41	* ImThinkingItOver: After O'Neill asks Thor to try and save the life of his clone:
42	-->'''Thor:''' Are you certain, O'Neill?
43	-->''(O'Neill hesitates; young O'Neill smacks his arm)''
44	-->'''O'Neill:''' I'm thinking!
45	* ItCameFromTheFridge:
46	-->'''Teal'c:''' Are you conducting some kind of scientific experiment, O'Neill?
47	-->'''Young O'Neill:''' Hey, come on! That salsa's still good.
48	* MaliciousMisnaming: Daniel refers to Loki as "that Ass-gard".
49	* PubliclyDiscussingTheSecret: After he does a runner, the rest of the team find young!O'Neill fishing in a nearby stream. When he warns them not to come any closer, they end up yelling to be heard over the rushing water while talking about cloning and alien abductions.
50	* TheReveal: O'Neill hasn't been de-aged; he's a clone that had the metaphorical tamper-evident cap pierced, and the original is still missing.
51	* SeenItAll: Humorously lampshaded by Daniel when the others express some skepticism that the random teenager who wandered onto the base is O'Neill.
52	-->'''Hammond:''' Are you saying Colonel O'Neill has somehow regressed more than thirty years overnight?
53	-->'''Daniel:''' Stranger things have happened.
54	-->'''Teal'c:''' Name but one.
55	-->'''Daniel:''' Well, there was the time [[Recap/StargateSG1S1E8BriefCandle he got really old]], the time [[Recap/StargateSG1S1E4TheBrocaDivide he became a caveman]], the time [[Recap/StargateSG1S2E17Holiday we all swapped bodies]]...
56	* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: In his first scene, the teen O'Neill is wearing Jack's now-oversized and baggy clothes (although given the context, he likely just woke up in oversized pajamas and had to raid the wardrobe for whatever he could find to get to the SGC and report the situation).
57	* ShortTeensTallAdults: The rest of the cast tower over the fifteen-year-old O'Neill, despite the fact that adult O'Neill is taller than both Carter and Daniel. Lampshaded when the clone comes face to face with the original and remarks that he's taller than he thinks he is.
58	* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay:
59	** Daniel is persuaded that young O'Neill really is who he claims to be at the beginning of the episode simply by the exasperated way he yells Daniel's name.
60	--->'''Daniel:''' Sounds like him - at least the loud, grating parts.
61	** During the briefing of the X-302, young O'Neill starts to discuss things. The airmen in the room just think of it as a joke, but when he asserts "Hey. I realize that it doesn't actually say "Colonel" anywhere on my uniform. But it should." everyone suddenly sits up at attention.
62	* SpeakInUnison: O'Neill and his clone end up doing this when they finally meet, to the annoyance of both of them.
63	* StealthInsult: Teal'c and Carter attempt to persuade O'Neill that he should embrace being young again, leading to this gem from Teal'c:
64	-->'''Teal'c:''' Do you not experience increased health and vitality?
65	-->'''Young O'Neill:''' My ''vitality'' was just fine, thank you.
66	* TestedOnHumans: Loki was apparently banned from the Asgard genetics council for conducting "unsanctioned experiments" on humans. O'Neill demands to know if that means there are ''sanctioned'' ones.
67	* TrustPassword: Young O'Neill uses sensitive information regarding the rest of the team to try and convince them that he is who he says he is at the start of the episode. They're still not totally convinced until they get the results of the DNA test back.
68	-->'''Young O'Neill:''' Okay, you want proof? Carter, you once carried [[Recap/StargateSG1S2E2InTheLineOfDuty a Tok'ra named Jolinar who gave her life to save you]]. Daniel, until recently, you were an ascended being. [[Recap/StargateSG1S6E22FullCircle You broke the rules,]] [[Recap/StargateSG1S7E1Fallen you got yourself kicked out of the Oma Desala fanclub, and had your memory erased.]] ''(To Teal'c)'' And you and Bra'tac [[Recap/StargateSG1S6E19TheChangeling both just lost your snakes in a Goa'uld ambush. Had your tretonin yet this morning?]]

Context Recap / StargateSG1S7E3FragileBalance