Jack and Teal'c in Season 4

Given the amount of Jack and Teal'c scenes we were given in S4 we should have seen some real development of Teal'c as a character and in his relationship with Jack, but all we really got at the end of twenty two episodes was a few minutes in Tangent and a few minutes in Exodus of genuine Jack and Teal'c relationship development.

I thought there were a few tantalizing hints that Jack's feelings might have been hurt by the way Teal'c was willing to abandon them all in Crossroads and there was some nice angsting over Teal'c by Jack in The Serpent's Venom, but given the amount of episodes in which those two were paired up, we got very few new insights into their friendship. I think there is a potentially fascinating situation between those two, where you have two alpha males, both used to leading others, who don't always agree on the best way to solve problems, and who both tend to assume ultimate responsibility for those they perceive as being in need of their protection. (Which would definitely include Daniel, and I think would also include Sam, however much Teal'c and Jack might do the 'gosh, no, she doesn't need our protection, 'cause she's a soldier and we've never noticed she's a girl, no, really…' act. I don't think that withering look Teal'c gave Jack in Upgrades was just because he'd taken Daniel into danger, I think Teal'c felt Jack had screwed up big time taking those two on a mission like that with no weapons, no proper game plan and no back-up from the SGC, while they were all hyped up and silly on their armbands.)

Teal'c is 50+ years older than Jack. He was commanding men literally before Jack was born, and yet he has accepted Jack's leadership…up to a point. I felt in this season we did get a few interesting hints about what might happen if that point was crossed and that was finally explored in Exodus. (Which is why I don’t have a problem with those events, because I felt that was legitimate character development.) Teal'c has made unilateral decisions before, such as in Deadman Switch, where he totally ignores Jack's protests and gives himself up to Arris Bock in place of Kora (sp?) because he felt that was the right thing to do, but that was for much more noble motives; whereas in Exodus he (pretty much) overrules Jack for his own reasons.

I'll be very interested to see what Jack and Teal'c's relationship is like in S5 and if they'll feel there are any storylines which would benefit from exploring that aspect of their relationship. Teal'c is stronger and older than Jack, but he's on Jack's turf most of the time and he is someone who seems to have a great respect for chain of command. He is actually the one who treats General Hammond with the most consistent respect. And he and Sam are generally much less of a nuisance to Hammond than Jack and Daniel are. So, as well as his personal respect for Jack, he might also follow his orders as a mark of respect for General Hammond as Jack is Hammond's choice of leader.

 I do think there's a lot of potential in that relationship but I do also think they really alienated a lot of viewers by putting Jack and Teal'c together so often and to so little purpose in S4, and that has probably led to a lack of tolerance for that pairing, even if it was being written in a more productive way. Basically I think a lot of people are just sick of the sight of those two together.

I know I got to the stage by two thirds of the way through S4 where I felt ready to chuck something at the screen if I saw one more episode where the team was divided up into Jack'n'Teal'c and Sam'n'Daniel because they weren't *doing* anything with those pairings once they had them. All the characters were doing was occupying the same space. We weren't learning a single thing about them or their friendship with one another. Which was probably why, given the fact that the writers didn't seem to be putting them together for any reason whatsoever it did feel after a while as if they weren't actually putting those couples together at all, they were just keeping the other pairings apart. And they also managed to keep Daniel and Teal'c as far away from one another as it was possible to get even in episodes (such as Scorched Earth and D&C) where they did go out of their way to insert scenes which put Jack and Sam together, again making it feel as if there was some weird policy of segregation being implemented by writers and directors who had apparently temporarily taken leave of their senses.

But I think they only need to write a few more episodes like Tangent and Exodus where the Jack and Teal'c interaction actually felt as if it had some significance and that relationship will be restored to its former popularity with viewers. Always supposing of course that they don't make the same mistake of totally ignoring some pairings while overdosing us on others.

I'm at the stage where I don't really want to see the team split up at all, and if it is I feel a lot more enthusiastic about the prospect of Jack-Daniel, Sam-Teal'c and Daniel-Teal'c episodes than I do any other combinations, but if they gave us scenes like Sam and Daniel in Serpent's Venom, Jack and Sam in Solitudes, and Jack and Teal'c in Message in a Bottle I might feel very differently.

Lori

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