Threshold is episode 2 of season 5 of Stargate SG-1, first aired in 2001.
Teal'c's body is back, but his mind still belongs to Apophis. Bra'tac imposes the rite of Mal'sharran: removing the symbiote and leaving the Jaffa at death's door, so that the truth comes back up with his memories. Between flashbacks of his youth under Apophis and a controlled agony, Teal'c has to choose, a second time, to betray his god.
Why it matters to the mythology
The episode finally reveals Teal'c's youth, his training under Bra'tac and the birth of his doubt: the character's foundations.
The review
An almost theatrical episode, a cell, a dying man, memories, and one of the series' most beautiful on faith. The flashbacks avoid easy imagery: we see a young, ambitious Teal'c, complicit in massacres, and it's that unexcused past that gives his conversion its value. Bra'tac as a merciless spiritual guide is immense. Deprogramming fanaticism isn't gentle, and the series has the courage to show it.
Written by Sebastian
Founder and editor-in-chief of Stargate Initiative
Gallery · 3
Stills from the episode, via TMDb.
The community watches the episode
Creators watch it, react to it, break it down. We're just the bridge: the views stay on their channels.
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