Someone doesn't want me talking to you

I blame the NSA. Or whichever gov't agency is illegally monitoring my communications.

I'm taking the route that maybe her super funky Tok'ra powers aren't so super or funky anymore.

I've actually wrestled with this whole issue for awhile. I'll buy that the super funky Tok'ra power is something like the sense of smell and naquadah in her blood (as of Season 5, it was still there) makes her able to perceive it in others. For the naquadah to be persistent, it has to be something your kidneys and liver can't filter but it can't be very reactive if it's just going to free float in your blood for years on end. Alas, my physics is woefully shaky, but I'm pretty certain an inert material would make a lousy supercapacitor like we've been told the Stargate is. I've ignored it for now as sufficiently advanced beyond my admittedly miniscule grasp of maerial science as to resemble magic.

OK, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief because I like Carter's ability to sense naquadah. So, it isn't volatile and isn't eternally persistent. Maybe naquadah has a half-life and we're seeing the results of its breakdown? But...materials with half-lives tend to be very unhealthy to have floating around in one's bloodstream and often deposit in bones rather than circulating in the blood.

Can you only sense naquadah in people or can she feel it in objects too?

Very good point. Hathor could do both; she tracked down the under-a-mountain-Stargate from another country. But you know, it isn't as if Carter later walks into Hathor's fake gateroom and says, "That Gate 'feels' wrong!" Maybe you need an active symbiote to sense it in an inorganic application? I find this tenuous but I'll take that fanwank. Thank you!

He's going to have to worry about self-assasination.

Yup - and that's my big gripe about their understanding of social structure/biology of creatures that are essentially clones. Ants and bees are highly cooperative and I can totally see the Ba'als working together very well and being deadly to goa'uld of other genetic lines - but Stargate has set even the clones against each other. So why in the world would he make a series of assassins who would go after him and who know everything he does?

Sorry - I shouldn't have gone into the science geekery. In truth, the biology on this show makes my teeth hurt at times. Thankfully my physics is weak enough that I can usually gloss over difficulties like time travel and the whole set of Moebius storylines.

You bring up many good points. We have no clue where the original Ba'al is. I'm assuming the original is the one who tortured Jack in Abyss, but trying to figure out the sanity of this story development leaves me feeling like I'm in one of his rooms with reversible gravity. Obviously, the blonde tart is evil and I'd like to know who she is and why she's working with him. (Beyond the fact that he's hot. And there are however many there of His Hotness.) I really hope she isn't Ba'al because that just squicks me. Maybe she's his Amonet? I like that solution better -- less squicky.

Yeah, I am hoping that the woman is not Ba'al either but it's always a possibility with these people *sigh* I'm hoping that she's just the one calling the shots for Big Ba'al himself and that he is not on Earth at all. That would make more sense.

And even if these are subordinate clones and/or hybrids, their age can be explained by nanites or whatever those were called. The Goa'ulds used all of those fun toys. I wouldn't dismiss the lameness of the Ba'al story just yet.

True - the nanites could accelerate their development. That would be a nice canon tie-in and solve the "painted into a corner" problem.

I do hope they make something of Ba'al. I was so excited about Camulus but they didn't take that anywhere I thought would be cool. Then again, I did enjoy Steve Bacic in those duds he wore when he arrived. The man looks good in a chest plate and a skirt.