Yesterday I mentioned that we were all sitting around watching last week’s Stargate SG-1.  When the phone rang, and Rocky answered.  The call was from the NRA trying to convince him that he needed to support them in their effort to get him carte blanche to blow away anyone he perceived as threatening him in any place he felt he had a right to be.

     Well.  Weirdness of weirdness, the episode we were watching dealt with this a little bit.

     The team found a guy in an abandoned Gu’old laboratory.  He was a Harisis – or a human with the genetic memories and abilities of a gu’old.  They’ve dealt with a Harisis before and learned how powerful they can be.  And the genetic memory of this particular Harisis was patterned from the most dangerous enemy they had ever fought.

     Think finding out you had an exact copy of Emperor Palpatine in your base…except he can’t be killed.

     The Harisis is not yet at full power, so he can be killed.  Some scientists want to study him.  Daniel wants to kill him while they can.

     Daniel.  Wants. To. Kill. Him.  Non-watchers of the show might not realize what this means.  Daniel has always been the conscience of the team.  He’s the one who always tempered Jack’s impulse to kill anything that he perceived as a threat outright.  Daniel is the rational, moral heart of SG-1.

     He never kills unless it is absolutely necessary.  He has always been the one to say “No, wait, let’s learn more.  Let’s find a better way.”

     But he wants to kill this Harisis before it has threatened anyone.  Before it even has the capability to threaten anyone.  You can see the distaste and revulsion on his face as he says it.  He’s not saying it because he wants to, because he thinks it’s right, or anything like that.  He’s saying “kill it now”, even though he knows it’s a violation of all his ethics and morals.  BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT’S NECESSARY.

     And it makes him sick, but he does it because Jack is the one who always makes that argument, and Jack is gone.  So he knows it’s up to him to make that argument.  As much as he hates it.

     As wrong as it is.  It is the only possible outcome.  And you can see it in his face what it does to him to be put in that position.  All of it.  It tortures him to be the one to say it…and it should.  A decision like that should not be easy.  If it’s easy, there is something wrong with you.

     This is a freaking GREAT show.

     Too bad theres so many people out there with guns who would never understand it.