Affinity
EPISODE #807
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 08.20.2004
SYNDICATION AIR DATE: 10.31.2005
DVD DISC: Season 8, Disc 2
WRITTEN BY: Peter DeLuise
DIRECTED BY: Peter DeLuise
GUEST STARS: David DeLuise (Pete Shanahan), Erica Durance (Krista James), Derek Hamilton (Doug McNair), Gary Jones (Walter Harriman), Lucas Wolf (Jennings), Peter Bryant (Hoskins), Michael Rogers (Col. Richard Kendrick), Christopher Attadia (Eric), Benita Ha (Brooks), Rob Hayter (Sergeant), Adrian Hughes (Paul), Brad Sihvon (Joe), Kate Mitchell (Purse Woman), Judith Berlin (Mrs. Conners), Brad Kelly (Thug Friend #1), Sean Millington (Thug Friend #2)
Teal'c has become quite the local hero in Colorado Springs. Having recently acquired an apartment, he has felt obligated to intervene in minor local disputes as a law-abiding citizen, giving him far more popularity among the locals than perhaps needs to be drawn to him. Colonel Richard Kendrick and the entire National Security Administration is more than concerned.
O'Neill sends Daniel to discuss the matter with the Jaffa. Now that he no longer carries a symbiote, Teal'c is able to more easily blend in, but helping others in need is not really permitting him to keep a low profile. In the midst of their discussion, Teal'c's next-door neighbor Krista invades with a pack of cookies as a bribe to help with some pipes in her apartment. She is introduced to Daniel, who says as he departs, that plumbing is an exception to the rules of noninterference.
Sam and Pete ("Chimera") have lunch in a park in the city, where he informs her that he's put in a transfer to the Colorado Springs Police Department. Assuring her that, in his love for her, he's never been more certain of anything, he pulls out a small box and reveals its contents. Inside is an engagement ring.
As Teal'c and Krista bring home groceries and discuss plans for lasagna, a young man snatches a woman's purse. Teal'c's friend Eric encourages the Jaffa to intervene, and in the last second he tosses an avocado hundreds of feet through the air, hitting the thief squarely in the head. As Teal'c receives congratulations for another crime diverted, someone snaps images of him from a nearby building ...
In the night Teal'c overhears a man beating on Krista's door. He discovers it to be Doug, her boyfriend, who is clearly intoxicated. After an exchange of threats, Doug departs, promising to call her tomorrow. Later, after another fight, she decides to break off her relationship, and asks Teal'c to teach her lok'nel, an ancient form of martial arts training that she has found him practicing. After a period of tremendous progress on her part, she suddenly stops the sessions. Teal'c finds bruises on her arm, and soon learns she is seeing Doug again. Teal'c promises Doug that if he ever harms Krista again he will die at Teal'c's hands.
After two weeks Carter still has not said "Yes" to Pete's proposal. She discusses the situation with Jack, who assures her that plenty on-base personnel have families. When she asks him if things had turned out differently, he gives her a definitive answer. "I wouldn't be here."
Later, Carter joins Daniel in his lab. O'Neill has just got off the phone with Colonel Kendrick, who reports that Krista's boyfriend has been found dead in her apartment, and evidence is pointing to Teal'c as the murderer. To make matters worse, both he and Krista are missing. Teal'c is currently wanted for kidnapping and murder.
Krista and Teal'c are indeed on the run, but Teal'c only believes she wishes to be free of the city for a few days, not knowing Doug is dead. When he realizes they are being followed, he loses them with some bad driving, taking Krista to a motel for the night. When he wakes up, she is not to be found, and multiple guards at his door return him to Stargate Command. Colonel Kendrick says they received an anonymous tip on his location. Meanwhile, Dr. Jackson gets a phone call and a message in the Ancient language. The individual on the other end has footage that proves Teal'c did not kill Doug, but Jackson must translate the Ancient into Goa'uld before receiving the tape.
Pete and Sam upturn Krista's department and discover evidence that Teal'c was framed –- the body appears to have been deliberately moved to support this. Across the street they discover evidence that there was a stakeout monitoring the two apartments. A local pizza place reports a Caucasian male ordered out over half a dozen times. Pete begins to run a check on the license plate from the restaurants surveillance footage. He learns the social security number and credit cards used to obtain the car were from a man who died six months ago, and now intends to check and see if the rental company has satellite tracking for the automobile.
Meanwhile, Daniel has gone missing. He is taken to a warehouse where an entire former-N.I.D. cell is operating. They have also captured Krista. Daniel learns Krista killed Doug, but in self defense, and nothing would have happened if she hadn't learned the Jaffa technique for crushing a wind pipe. The operatives saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.
Threatening to kill Krista, Daniel is forced to translate the Ancient into Goa'uld. The operatives transmit the data, wipe the hard drives and zat the two unconscious. Just before Sam, Pete and military units enter, the rogue group escapes using Asgard beaming technology.
After the cleanup team finds little of value, Sam says Yes to Pete's engagement proposal, and the two embrace.
Teal'c has decided to move out of his apartment, despite the fact that most of the incident was Krista's fault. With National Security pressuring him and his easy-to-spot oddities, he feels it will be for the best. He says goodbye to Krista and Eric and drives off.
ANALYSIS
- In public, Teal'c often covers the gold emblem on his forehead. He explains to people that it is a tribal mark from his homeland, Mozambique, and that Dr. Jackson hired him to come over to the U.S. and assist him in his archaeological expeditions.
- When it comes to typical piping, Teal'c is an effective plumber.
- On Chulak an unresolved dispute between a man and woman necessitates a "pledge break," offered up by one and accepted by the other. If the offer is not accepted, a weapon is required.
- Teal'c's young friend Eric, so inspired by his idol, placed the symbol of Apophis on the bottom of his skateboard. Despite how Teal'c feels about the symbol, he is honored.
NOTES
- Teal'c's apartment number is 401. Krista's is 402.
PRODUCTION NOTES
- (Read more on this episode "In the Making ..." by Joseph Mallozzi)
- Peter Bryant (Trust agent Hoskins) previously played Fro'tak in Season Two's "Family."
- "[David DeLuise] is wonderful, and we will see some of him in Season Eight, so I'm looking forward to having him back." (Actress Amanda Tapping, in an interview with GateWorld)
- "It's always interesting to delve into the character's private lives, be it their downtime at the cabin or their cloying relationship with their new boyfriend. In Season Eight, we'll be exploring Teal'c's life off the base. It would be fun to do something similar with Daniel. What does he do in his free time? Does he date? Does he cook? I'd love to pursue his relationship with Sarah now that she's been de-Goa'ulded." (Co-executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a Q&A with Stargate SG-1 Solutions)
- "The theme of 'Affinity' is Teal'c's and Carter's right to have a life, Carter to have a love life, and Teal'c to have just a life, because he lives on the base, and he's a security risk. And now that he doesn't have a symbiote, you can't just mug him and take his symbiote like they did when the billionaire grabbed him because he was terminally ill, and they grabbed the symbiote out of that other Jaffa guy. Because he no longer has a symbiote, and he has tretonin in his system, he's not a security risk in that way.
"So he would like to have something that resembles a normal life, even if it's not normal for a Jaffa to have that kind of life. He wants to interact with other people, and he feels that he has a right to have relationships with women, and go grocery shopping, and watch movies like everybody else. So he goes out in the world, and gets an apartment and starts to experience life as an Earthling.
"And we're forwarding the relationship between Carter and Pete Shanahan. Off camera, as we establish on the show, they meet each other two times a week for lunch, and it's date night, and they're continuing the relationship, just like we suggested in 'Chimera,' that they had more experience together than just what you saw on camera. It's what would happen if Teal'c and Carter both proactively pursued their right to have a life outside the base. You know, Teal'c has saved the planet a couple times over, and insofar as Carter's sexual tension with O'Neill, she had 'Grace' where she made a decision. She says it's very easy to be in love with a man I can't have, so she resolved at that point, even though she was conked on the head, she made a resolution that she would, in fact, investigate her right to have a love life. And because she can't have a love life with the O'Neill character, she has to look for love and affection elsewhere. And she has a right to be happy." (Director and consulting producer Peter DeLuise, in an interview with the Richard Dean Anderson Web Site) - "For a long time we've been toying with the idea of doing a story about Teal'c just living on Earth, and what it would be like for him. But we never sort of found a slot for it, so we're finally doing that story. Especially because now he's on tretonin, he doesn't have a symbiote anymore, so he's in our minds even more human than he ever was before. He's still got the tattoo! But you know, it's an interesting conversation piece! It's not like he has to wear a hat every single time he goes out in public anymore. He probably would, just to avoid people staring at him.
"He's looking a little more human. And this is all a result of his tretonin, and being less alien I guess. And one of the sort of steps toward that is he actually gets and apartment and goes and lives in Colorado Springs. Of course, problems ensue. Otherwise there wouldn't be an episode!" (Co-executive producer Paul Mullie, in an interview with GateWorld) - "It's a great Teal'c story. My favorite part of the story is: Here you have an alien, with capabilities that are fairly incredible and a fairly strong moral code, as well. So he's living downtown. If he sees anything happening, he's going to stop it from happening! And I love that. That's actually one of the reasons I love that story so much. He's very capable of just stopping a problem.
"... He's like Batman, living in your neighborhood! Or Spiderman – without the silly mask. And, in fact, it gets him into trouble." (Executive producer Brad Wright, in an interview with GateWorld) - "Teal'c is now becoming more and more human. The tretonin, the hair. He gets an apartment in Colorado Springs and starts living among average people – and ['Affinity' examines] what effect that has. He becomes a bit of a vigilante hero in his neighborhood. It's like having a superhero.
"... In many ways O'Neill is responsible for getting him the permission to not live on the base anymore. And so now he has to deal with the Powers That Be that are putting pressure on him and saying, 'Hey, wait a minute. Teal'c maybe shouldn't be living out in the city.' So the story is still about SG-1 – but now O'Neill is the general. He's in a different situation." (Executive producer Robert C. Cooper, in an interview with GateWorld) - "In 'Affinity' there's a scene that after first reading it I got on the phone to [executive producer] Rob Cooper and said, 'My character would never say that.' As the actress playing Sam and as somebody who probably has the most invested in her personally, I had some real issues with this scene. Rob, however, came up with a very compelling argument in favor of the scene because it furthers Sam's relationship with Pete in a big way. We wound up doing it as written and I told Rob, 'The fans are going to hate me.' He said, 'No they won't,' and I was like, 'Oh yes they will.' I'm praying they don't. In the end I understood what Rob meant. The scene is certainly going to stir up more conflict for Sam in future episodes." ("Carter" actress Amanda Tapping, in an interview with TV Zone magazine [Special #58])
- "Believe it or not, actress Claudia Black (who some of you may remember from such seasons as Nine and Ten) was originally considered for the role of Krista but was busy with the Peacekeeper Wars mini-series at the time. Good thing too as, in retrospect, she would have been all wrong for the role (Erica Durance nailed it) but all right for the part of Vala the following year.
"Around the time this episode was being written, we decided it was silly to always be pinning the blame on the N.I.D. To those who didn't any better, you'd think they were an evil organization bent on world domination rather than one of the good guys. We squinted, looked the other way, referred to them as 'rogue elements of the N.I.D.' and, eventually, came up with a name for a whole new group of bad guys. After much consideration and working our way through a host of possibilities, we decided on one that hadn't been taken on any other show – which was a lot harder than it sounds because Alias went through a slew of them. Anyway, we decided to go with 'The Trust' and wrote that into the script. Only to find out during prep that Alias had used it in a recent episode." (Writer / producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)