Spoilers, ahoy! Wish I had room for a Daniel icon with the square glasses because da-yum! he sizzles in those.

I liked this episode! Highlights included: Daniel being hot & brilliant, Puff! (I love Teal'c!), Daniel being hot & brilliant, Teal'c grabbing Cam's arm, Teal'c going out to slay the dragon, Daniel being hot & brilliant, they found Merlin, Daniel being hot & brilliant, Sam punching Ba'al, Daniel being hot & brilliant, Daniel doing the mind zapper thing, Daniel being hot & brilliant...well, I suppose the trend is more than obvious at this point. :)

Seriously, I've been wanting some follow up on the whole, "Used to be an ascended being" thing and I'm thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to see a little bit of it. (I wish we'd gotten something like that for Sam in the post-Jolinar era, too.) But for all that I was enjoying it, am I the only one who was having "Absolute Power" flashbacks? Given the gift of knowledge for how to build the "defensive" weapon? It was eerily familiar; I wonder if the writers were aware of that?

One of the saddest things about the series finale is that I have the certainty that they do not have the time to explore these interesting developments and their consequences rather than just fearing yet another think-y storyline will be dropped in the dust by the writers. *sigh*

I'm disappointed that the writers can't do more with Ba'al than have him hanging around, making disparaging comments. He's supposed to be evil, not petulant and lippy. *rolls eyes* Yeah, I enjoyed it when Sam punched him - he was annoying enough by then that he'd more than earned it - but the canon-loving side of me wandered how it was that both Sam and Teal'c could so easily push him around since I can well remember the day when the goa'uld had unbeatable physical strength. Yeah, whatever. It was a curiously timed bit of catharsis after the Don Imus week. Sam may have punched Ba'al for his comment but I saw Don Imus go down. ;-)

I liked Cam in this episode. He still isn't in charge of anything but he does best when interacting with his team and I loved, loved, loved the Teal'c/Cam this week -- as well as the Sam/Cam, Daniel/Cam, and the Vala/Cam. Actually, I enjoyed Vala, too. She was toned down a bit and showed genuine concern for Daniel. Wish this was how they always wrote these two characters.

While the orici (or however that's spelled) was waving her hand over the frozen DVD, it occurred to me that the writers had finally gotten their leather-clad bimbo. Anise may have fallen flat but the new chick is just another Anise. I know, I know; Vala pranced around in her tight leathers but there's this huge diff because Claudia Black can make anything work. She has a better written part, for certain, but there's so much there there, that she can pull off the bimbo costumes and still be more than just a scantily clad beautiful woman. The orici, on the other hand, looks like a cheap Halloween version of a dominatrix.

Those are relatively minor grumbles for me, though. The team was together. The transporting from planet to planet in a self-contained loop to protect against the Ori and their ilk was cool. Cam and Vala were part of the team rather than stealing the limelight. Lots of problem solving. COntinuity with some former seasons. Very nice CGI dragon. Dry Teal'c humor. Teal'c the stoic warrior. Hot Daniel. The plot moved along well.

The team goes home empty-handed and minus Daniel -- *sniff* -- but then again Daniel has Merlin's memories and some of his knowledge. I know a fairly big plot spoiler coming up; it has been nicely set up here and I'm looking forward to it.