"Your world is a strange place..."
Concept-wise, this is pretty simple- the gang explore a world and find some crystals, some of the crystals disguise themselves as Jack. So, early on in this series, this seems to be another example of an episode in which the point is not so much exploring the Stargate but rather with a threat which they bring back to Earth with them.
Except there's more. This episode deepens the series not so much by exploring the lore as exploring character, as the crystal entity is introduced to Jack's tragic backstory- the fact that he carelessly left his gun around, that his son thereby accidentally used the gun to tragically shoot himself, leading to devastation and the collapse of the marriage.
This episode uses the conceit of the crystal entity to explore this, as we meet Sara, Jack's ex-wife, and the two reconcile against the odds, with it looking as though they may even get back together. It's well-handled, well acted, and it's clever how Sara interprets the entity's clueless statements and questions as being deeper than they are.
And yet... it may hit differently in the USA, with its extremely permissive gun laws but, to me, there can be no forgiving what Jack did. You can't have guns in a domestic setting, and leaving it lying around for kids to find is utterly beyond the pale. Yet Sara is not angry at him...?
Still, the episode is well done, and there are consequences perhaps for Jack's personal life but also in that the team now all know of his dark past. As ever, it's fascinating in these early episodes seeing the series explore what it wants to be.
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