Season 1 Episode 4 – The Broca Divide

By Jess

Brief Summary:

SG-1 travels to a planet that is made up of a light and dark side (“The Land of Light” and the “Land of Dark”, respectively). While on the dark side, they encounter beings that resemble cavemen and are slightly roughed up by them before encountering other beings and escorted to their Land of Light. After SG-1 returns to Earth, everyone, except for Daniel and Teal’c, begins acting strangely and becomes just like the Neanderthal-like creatures from the dark side. Daniel and Teal’c must return to the planet to find an antidote as the plague begins spreading like wildfire through the SGC.

The S/D Point of View:

As they sit at the briefing in the beginning, we see Sam and Daniel sitting next to each other again. Jack makes a few snarky remarks and Sam gives him a patronizing smile (S/J people would see this as a lovey dovey type of thing, but we know better). Daniel is cute when he asks them if they can give the planet they’re about to travel to a name that would be easier to remember.

When they’re on the planet’s Land of Light and are talking with their leader, Councilor Tuplo, Sam and Daniel sit next to each other once again. When SG-1 step away from their hosts and gets into their little huddle, Jack announces that they’re going to move out now. Daniel counters with an incredulous “W-w-wait, move out??” He insists that they stay and get to know their culture, especially to find out what significance the bulls play in their art and architecture. Sam seems to back Daniel up on this, if only silently. Jack shoots them down and after he leaves, Sam and Daniel share a disappointed look.

After they arrive home and are about to begin the debriefing, Daniel gets into an argument with Jack and Hammond about the military vs. scientific aspect of the mission. He argues that they should have stayed longer because they could have learned more about the people’s culture. Sam immediately sides with Daniel and adds, “Not to mention primitive man.” I didn’t know that Sam was interested in anything like this before. Perhaps it is one of her interests, or it was just an excuse to defend Daniel. Daniel then brings up the Broca Divide, and Sam explains the concept to a clueless and apathetic Jack. The debriefing ends abruptly when a Marine named Johnson wigs out on Teal’c and threatens to beat him up.

Not long after, Sam and Daniel are down in the Gate room, and they nonchalantly discuss what might have happened to Johnson. We get more Daniel cuteness when Sam suggests that he was drunk and Daniel muses, “I don’t know; it didn’t seem quite like inebriation…” While there, they witness two more men (more Marines, or Airmen? It’s hard to tell) in a struggle up in the briefing room, and they crash through the glass and end up on the floor of the gate room. Daniel and Sam rush over to them, and Sam calls for a medical team before she finds an annoying itch on the back of her neck.

No matter what the Sam/Jack people say about the scene where Sam “seduces” Jack in the locker room scene, I see it as the virus taking over her mind and making her irrational, as it has done to the other people who have been infected by it. It’s probably due to the fact that he is the leader of her team. Maybe it somehow made her think that Jack was Daniel (Wishful Thinking Alert™).

After Jack’s “wrestling match” with Sam, he runs into Daniel, who notices that he’s been roughed up. When Jack tells him about Sam seducing him, Daniel seems really surprised (not sure what to read into his “You poor man” comment, but it was hilarious). He immediately shows concern for Sam, saying to Jack, “Is she all right? Maybe I should go see her.” The effects of the virus have taken over Jack as he gets into a fight with Daniel over Sam. He asks “why?” and Daniel answers “What do you mean ‘why’? Because I care about her.” Jack inquires further and he repeats, “It means that I care about her, she’s my friend.” It would seem that Jack sees Daniel as strong competition for Sam, but again, he’s being irrational as Sam was in the locker room scene. Nevertheless, poor Daniel falls victim to Jack’s fist and the insole of his boot.

That’s about all for the Sam/Daniel point of view, even though we still have quite a way to go in this episode. There’s a little discussion between Jack and Sam at the end where Jack brings up her cute little tank top number. I think Jack was just being jokey here. Sam seems a bit befuddled by his remark and just shrugs it off. In summary, we see Sam and Daniel grow a bit closer as Sam backs Daniel up quite a bit here. It shows how much they have in common as scientists.

Sam/Daniel moment count: 3