Stargate SG-1 (1997–2007): Season 4, Episode 13 - The Curse - full transcript

Daniel attends the Chicago funeral of Dr. Jordan, the archeology professor whose most brilliant assistant ever he was before leaving to pursue his far-fetched alien-Egyptian theory and join the Stargate-program, but smells a rat after an explosion is his lab. Daniel brings in the team, soon realizing Jordan's last Egyptian expedition stumbled upon a unique grave, from which pieces are missing, actually holding the remains of at least one Goa'uld divinity: Osiris, god of the aftermath and first Pharaoh. Dr. Frazier's analysis of a canopic [mummy entrails-container] jar finds an amazingly well-preserved symbiont, but the trace of its counterpart reveals one of Jordan's present assistants, Dr. Steven Rayner, whom he suspected, took a golden amulet to open the unique tomb and fell prey there to the other goddess, Isis, who actually turns out to be incarnated in the other assistant, Dr. Sarah Gardner, who remains quite alive and murderous...

- Dr Jordan.
- Steven.

What are you doing here so late?

I was just about to go down to the lab.

We finally have a chance to do
a resonance scan on the Osiris jar.

Great, great.

Another couple of weeks and we never
would have known what was inside.

Well, we could always break the seal
and take a look.

Joking. Well, half-joking.

(sighs)

The Egyptian government expects
these items to be returned intact.

- If we were in their place, I'm sure...
- Sir, the scan will reveal that...



..that Canopic jar contains the mummified
heart of a 3,000-year-old Pharaoh,...

- ..and we're just handing it over.
- I know. I know.

It's the find of a lifetime, Professor.

Yes.

Yes, it is.

- Are you coming?
- Yeah. I just have a few things...

- I'll see you down there.
- All right.

- Morning.
- (O'Neill) Hey.

What's that?

Um...

Teal'c's into this stuff.

I don't get it.

"A great week is in store for you.
You'll be goin' on a trip."

Let me see that.



- OK.
- Oh, my God.

- What?
- He's dead.

- Who?
- My archaeology professor.

Dr David Jordan was a teacher,
a celebrated author,...

..a much revered expert
in the field of archaeology.

And yet, to the end, he remained
first and foremost a student,...

..guided by the simple desire
to discover and understand.

It is fitting, then, that a man
who dedicated his life...

..who dedicated his life
to reviving the wonders and majesty...

..of long-dead civilisations should
himself gain a measure of immortality...

..through that very accomplishment.

I worked with Dr Jordan
for close to 15 years.

He was like a father to me,...

..through his many successes...

..and... some of
his bitter disappointments.

I'll remember him always as a...
dedicated archaeologist,...

..a kind and generous man...

..and a true friend.

The prodigal son returns.

Steven.

Sarah.

Daniel.

It's good to see you.

Yeah.

- Despite the circumstances.
- I know.

I still can't believe he's gone.

So... what exactly happened?
I mean, uh...

The paper attributed his death
to the curse of Osiris.

According to the police...
there was a slow gas leak in the lab.

Something caused a spark. The whole
place went up. He was killed instantly.

We would have called you,
but nobody knew where to find you.

That's, uh, that's OK.

I'm glad you're here.

So, how long's it been? Four years?

Five.

- What have you been up to?
- I've been busy.

Really? I've looked for
signs of you out there.

There's been no papers,
no research projects.

- It's like you fell off the face of the earth.
- It is a little like that.

As I recall, the last time I saw you, you
were giving a lecture to an empty room.

- Well, it was full when I started.
- Maybe the world wasn't ready...

..to hear that the pyramids
were built by aliens.

- Steven, please.
- Yes, Steven, please.

Why did you come? You managed
to stay away all this time.

If you're looking for closure, Daniel,
I'd say you're a little late.

Always a pleasure, Steven(!)

- So are you doing anything, or...?
- No. I'm all yours.

I'm sorry. He's not usually like this.

The last couple of days
have been really hard on him.

Steven? No, he's right. I should have
come back sooner. I guess I was...

..afraid I wouldn't be welcome.

Are you joking? Even after
everything that happened,...

..Dr Jordan never thought any less of you.
You were his best student.

Yes, that became the laughing stock
of the archaeological community.

He kept hoping you'd find proof,
something to shut everyone up.

No, he thought I was nuts.

That's not true. Look, why do you think
it's so hard for Steven to see you here?

He's always been in your shadow.
Even after you left.

I hear his book's on the best-seller list.

I know. He's getting a Porsche.

- Ow!
- I know.

Look, I have to admit, I thought
you didn't come back because of me.

No, that's... that's not it.

We could have ended it
better than we did.

Maybe.

The truth is, I got caught up
in something... incredible.

You found something, didn't you?
That supports your theory? Tell me.

- Come on.
- I can't.

Daniel.

OK. Let's just say...

..that what the world knows about ancient
Egypt barely scratches the surface.

The truth is more incredible
than any of us ever imagined.

Now that's the Daniel I remember.

Come on. I want to show you something.

As you were.

So, General, who's gettin'
assigned to SG-1?

No one. I've decided to reschedule your
next mission until Dr Jackson returns.

You're all long overdue
for some personal leave.

Yes, sir. Well, the leaving part
has been the problem.

I think you'll make it to the front door
before we realise we can't do without you.

- Dismissed.
- Thank you, sir.

Carter, you finally ready
to take me up on that fishing trip?

Actually, sir, I have
a few projects on the go.

Oh, come on. Are you really
trying to tell me...

..you'd rather work in the dark, dank,
dismal underground than sit on a dock...

..with your feet perched up,
sipping a cold one and...

..casting for that ever-elusive crappie?

Strange as it may sound, sir... yes.

Have a good time.

To each his own.

Her. I meant her.

I think.

So Teal'c.

This'll be great. Just you and me.
What do you say? Come on. The loons.

Don't forget the loons.

I thought you might like to see what
we were working on before the accident.

Wow.

- This stuff is incredible.
- I only wish we had more time with them.

The Egyptians have
requested their return.

We've been desperately trying to learn
as much as we can before the deadline.

"Woe to all who disturb this,
my final resting place."

Careful now. All these artefacts
are cursed. Well, that's what they say.

Yeah, I read something like that.

Every member of the original expedition
in 1931 died within a year of the dig.

The ship transporting these artefacts to
America sank off the coast of New Jersey.

- The Stewart expedition.
- Yes.

Those deaths were attributed to mould
spores when they unsealed the chamber.

Mould spores aren't
exactly front-page material.

No, I guess not.

If these things went down with the ship
in 1931 , how did they wind up here?

They found the wreck a few months ago.
The artefacts were in their packing crates.

They brought it up
and they shipped them to the museum.

We just got them last week.

I can stay for a couple more days
if you need some help cataloguing these.

- What?
- Something's missing.

- Are you sure?
- Positive. A gold amulet.

Daniel, I've got to find it.

Just so we're clear on this, sir, it's gonna
be me, Teal'c and the great outdoors.

That means no cellphones, fax machines,
not another living soul for miles.

We'll be unavailable, inaccessible.

- Incommunicado.
- Minnesota, sir.

- I stand corrected.
- If there's an emergency at the base,...

..better plan ahead and tell me now.

If Thor needs me, he's gonna have to
beam me up. If the Tok'ra... forget it.

Excuse the state of things. Budget cuts.

I'm straightening the mess out,
but it takes time.

- I understand.
- So what am I looking for?

- An artefact from the Stewart expedition.
- The lsis jar.

No, actually. I'm, uh, referring to
a gold amulet with a little ebony, um...

It's listed as item 14C.

That was sent to Dr Jordan
with the rest of the artefacts.

- You sure?
- I sent 'em myself.

- I can show you the paperwork.
- No. Um...

What's this, uh, lsis jar
you were talking about?

I'll show you.

That crate was mislabelled when it came
in. I only found it a couple of days ago.

- This one?
- Oh, yeah.

(curator) I've never seen
those symbols before, have you?

Yes. I'm gonna need to do a translation.

Well, if you need me, I'll be in the back,
cataloguing the Polynesian death masks.

(phone rings)

- Carter.
- (Daniel) Sam, it's me.

Hang on a sec.
Thanks for your help, Sergeant.

Yeah, no sweat, Major.

- Where are you?
- Still in Chicago.

In the basement of a museum looking at
what appears to be an Egyptian burial jar.

OK.

Which may not seem out of
the ordinary in a museum,...

..but there's something else
besides the usual hieroglyphs.

There's a second set of markings.

They're Goa'uld symbols.

There appears to be no fish here, O'Neill.

T... it's not about
the actual fish themselves.

Fish are not important in this context.

It's about fish-ing.

The... act of fishing itself.

- I see.
- (cellphone rings)

You didn't?

By request of General Hammond.

No way.

What?

Yes, Daniel. He's right here. Please hold.

Daniel Jackson.

We have caught nothing. We are fishing.

Right. Listen, I need
a little help with a translation.

I've got a line here that reads...

.."Hakoor kra terak shree."

- Banished to oblivion.
- Right.

OK. Thank you.

If you require assistance, I would be
more than happy to return to the SGC.

No, thanks. I think I can take it from here.

- Are you certain?
- Give me that.

- Goodbye, Daniel.
- No, wait...

The ancient Egyptians would remove
the vital organs of the deceased...

..and place them in jars, which
were buried with the sarcophagus...

..so they could be accessed
in the afterlife.

- Is that what we're looking at here?
- The record of the expedition says...

..no sarcophagus was found.
The hieroglyphs identify the jar...

..as belonging to lsis,
who is the Egyptian mother goddess.

- A Goa'uld?
- It's possible.

Isis was the consort of Osiris,
supposedly the first Pharaoh of Egypt.

Now, according to legend,
he was placed in a magic box...

..and dumped into the Nile
by his brother Seth.

- Now that name I recognise.
- The Goa'uld symbols indicate...

..that lsis and Osiris suffered
some sort of punishment or banishment.

- Where to?
- I have no idea.

- Major, I want the contents analysed.
- Yes, sir.

I'd be careful if I were you. It could be
some sort of Goa'uld booby trap...

..left behind by Osiris
as a means of revenge.

Also it's, uh... it's cursed.

Thanks for the warning.

General, there's something else.

The inventory of the
Stewart expedition lists two jars.

- Can you find the other one?
- Well, I can try.

I was gonna head back
to Chicago tonight.

Hello?

Hello?

- Do you mind?
- What are you doing here?

- What are you doing here?
- I asked first.

I work here, Daniel. Remember?

I'm looking for the breaker box,
wherever the damn thing is.

Uh... Right. Um...

- I had a few questions for the curator.
- I don't think she's here.

The lights were out when I came in.
What did you wanna ask her about?

I need information on items
from the Stewart expedition.

There's something missing.

There's nothing missing.

Uh...

A Canopic jar with some hieroglyphs
and some unusual markings.

The Osiris jar.

- Yes.
- Destroyed in the explosion.

- Are you sure about that?
- Yes, positive.

OK, well, what about this gold amulet?

Daniel, if you're looking to get back
with Sarah, that's your business.

I couldn't care less. But I do have
a problem with you coming here...

..and involving yourself in my work.

- Don't you mean Dr Jordan's work?
- No. Sarah and I were his assistants.

You haven't been involved
since you walked out on him.

I didn't walk out on him.
I was trying to protect him.

You mean you distanced yourself
in order to spare him embarrassment.

Daniel, you really
should not have come back.

Look, I don't wanna get into this with you
right now, but you need my help.

Why? You think there might
be aliens involved?

Oh, God.

Preliminary analysis of the jar indicates
the exterior is ordinary ceramic.

It also appears as if
the seal has been damaged.

Any indication of what might be inside?

Well, hopefully a computer-enhanced
MRI will tell us something.

Is that what I think it is?

Yes, sir. It's a Goa'uld symbiote.

The police said that the museum curator
suffered a fatal blunt trauma to the skull.

- They don't think that you had any...?
- No, but Steven didn't do anything...

..to dissuade them from suspecting me,
but fortunately I know a few... people.

They found some bricks at
the bottom of the elevator shaft,...

..and they think that they came from
the wall above and... a freak accident.

You know, the papers are saying
the curse of the mummy strikes again.

Do you have any pictures of the Osiris jar,
the one destroyed in the explosion?

Yeah. Here.

- I can't make out the inscription.
- We were unable to identify the symbols.

But Dr Jordan copied them
in his notebook.

Those markings are unlike
anything we've ever seen before.

- They're not Egyptian.
- No, they're not Egyptian.

So what are they?

What are they?

You know. How?

Let's just say I can't go into it right now,
but this is very important.

Did Dr Jordan do any kind
of preliminary tests on the jar?

Not that I know of, but he kept
all his lab results on the computer.

It's dead. We can relax.

Do we know how long
it's been inside the jar?

According to Daniel,
several thousand years.

Well, it's perfectly preserved.

It could've died yesterday.

Something's wrong.

- What?
- Dr Jordan's files are gone.

Everything's been wiped clean.

Including his e-mail account.

Do you keep backups?

Yeah. They're not here.

What are you doing?

The system marks file space
that's been deleted as "tombstone".

It scours the database
looking for tombstone values...

..and marks them as
ready to be overwritten.

There's usually about 30 days
before that happens,...

..so I might be able to retrieve the files
before the tombstone values replicate.

Got something. The professor received
one message on the night he died.

I'm guessing he never
got round to reading it.

That's the results of the carbon-dating
analysis on the ebony portion of item 14C.

The missing gold amulet.

Oh, my God. Daniel,
it's over 10,000 years old.

This means you were right all along.

Yeah, I know.

Egyptian civilisation must be thousands
of years older than we assumed.

- Sarah, you can't... tell anyone about this.
- What are you talking about?

This is exactly the evidence you've been
looking for. It validates your theories.

All we've got is one carbon-dating
analysis on a missing artefact.

So we can contact the technician
who performed the analysis.

What?

Dr Jordan wasn't the only one
to get these results.

Steven.

That Goa'uld symbiote
should be a desiccated husk,...

..but instead it's in perfect condition.

At first we thought it had been
preserved in formaldehyde,...

- ..but now we are not so sure.
- What do you mean?

The outside of the jar is ceramic,...

..but the inside is a technologically
advanced containment vessel.

There's a tiny naqahdah power source
designed to emit a low-level charge.

- Why?
- We can't be certain yet, sir,...

..but I guess the jar
is some sort of stasis chamber.

We think that the symbiote was alive
when it was placed inside.

Why would it allow itself to be removed
from its host and placed in stasis?

I don't believe it had a choice, sir.

The liquid inside the jar
seems to have sedative properties.

If maintained at the proper temperature
and provided with sufficient charge,...

..it could probably keep
a symbiote alive indefinitely.

- Then why is it dead?
- The seal was broken.

Presumably during transport.

If what you're saying is true and
a second jar survived the trip unscathed...

Yes, sir. There could be
a Goa'uld out there.

(Sarah) Daniel?

There you are.
I've been looking all over for you.

- I was doing a little extra research.
- I went by Steven's place and he's gone.

- He's just packed up everything and left.
- I know.

- You think he stole the amulet, don't you?
- Yes.

To stop your theories
from being proven correct?

It's possible. Anyway, I have to find him.

- Well, I'll come with you.
- No. No, it's too dangerous.

We're talking about Steven here.

Sarah, there have been
three deaths already.

Three?

They found the body of the technician
who did the carbon dating on the amulet.

Daniel, I know Steven.

He may be capable of a lot of things,
but he's no murderer.

Well, you may not know him as well as
you think you do. At least... not any more.

What's that supposed to mean?

Let me guess - you can't explain, right?
Well, what do you expect, Daniel?

You show up after five years
but you can't say where you've been.

You've got this ability to read an ancient
language which nobody's seen before,...

..but you can't explain how.

And when we find evidence
to vindicate you...

..in front of the entire archaeological
community, you want to cover it up.

What is going on?

- This is me, Daniel.
- I know.

Then why can't you trust me? What have
you been doing for the past five years?

I wanna tell you, Sarah.

I do. Believe me.

I wish you could see
some of the things I've seen.

But the world's not ready to know.

Not yet.

I'm not asking you to tell the world.

I'm asking you to tell me.

This is my life's work too, Daniel.

So you're working for the government.
What? Daniel!

I'm sorry.

You're just going to
disappear again, aren't you?

Yes.

I think Steven was right.
You never should have come back.

You believe this Steven Rayner
has been taken over by a Goa'uld?

- Well, it makes sense.
- So how do we find him?

Right now this is our only lead. It's
the amulet stolen from Dr Jordan's office.

It's a priceless relic, but I'm assuming
a Goa'uld isn't interested...

..in its monetary value.

- Then why take it?
- That's a good question.

It's a standard representation of Osiris.
He's carrying a crook and flail.

In the centre is an ankh, which is
the Egyptian symbol for immortality.

- Could it be some sort of Goa'uld device?
- It's possible.

That might explain
why it was the only item taken.

I checked the other
artefacts for naqahdah,...

..which is usually a sure sign of Goa'uld
technology, and I came up empty.

Assuming this Goa'uld is Osiris,
what does he want?

He's been out of the loop. He doesn't
know what happened to Seth or Ra.

He could be looking for the lsis jar.

- Or a way off the planet.
- I've already put the base on alert.

I managed to synthesise
the liquid from the jar.

On its own it should act
as a powerful sedative.

One dart should be more than enough
to knock out an adult Goa'uld.

- Do we really want this thing alive?
- Even though it's been in stasis,...

..it could be a valuable
source of information.

Hold that in reserve.
Your priority is to stop the Goa'uld...

- ..with minimum risk to yourself.
- (phone rings)

Fraiser.

Yes, he's right here. Sir.

Hammond.

Yes.

All right. Thank you.

We got a lead on Steven Rayner.
He boarded a flight to Cairo.

Back to the temple where the jars were
discovered. We could head him off, sir.

I can alert the Egyptian authorities,
but this needs to be low profile.

Dr Fraiser will accompany you.

I think I know why this place
doesn't get any tourists.

According to the GPS,
we've still got another ten miles.

(Daniel) Steven.

I'm not sensing anything.
He's not Goa'uld.

Steven.

- He's bleeding internally.
- Steven, it's me.

Daniel.

What happened?

I took the amulet.
It's over 10,000 years old,...

..so your theory was right
all along. I'm sorry.

Just take it easy, OK?
I need you to hold still.

It's OK. She's a friend.

- What about the jar?
- Huh?

The Osiris jar. Did you open it?

No.

Why did you come here?

I figured out the amulet was a key.

There's a hidden chamber.

I wanted to make the discovery.

- Daniel, we have to get him outta here.
- Steven, who did this to you?

(distorted) I did.

Sarah?

Daniel Jackson.

You seem to know much of the Goa'uld.

Much more than any other human
I have encountered since my awakening.

Now, tell me,...

..where is the Stargate?

I don't know what you're talking about.

Insolence.

This temple was once
filled with worshippers.

- Yeah, well, times have changed.
- So I have observed.

Where is my brother Setesh?

You mean Seth?

He's dead. We, uh, we killed him.

- You lie.
- No.

No, we also killed Ra and Hathor...

..and, uh, who else?

Sokar.

Then you have done me a great favour.

I will rule without opposition.

No. No, you won't rule at all. You see,
we don't worship false gods any more.

You have come far, it is true.

But you are still weak.

Even now, you are torn
between your desire to kill me...

..and your concern for my host,...

..she who freed me from my long sleep.

What do you know of my queen?

Um...

She was trapped like you.

We have the jar.

Where is it?

I'm not gonna tell you.

You are mistaken.

Where is my queen?

Tell me.

What is this?

What have you done?

You will pay for this impudence.

Make no mistake,...

..Osiris will return,...

..and the rivers of the earth
will run red with blood.

- You all right?
- Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I think I'm getting used to that thing.

- Where's Osiris?
- Gone.

Steven?

If we get him out of here right now,
I think he'll make it.

In the meantime, I guess we'd better...
make up a story to tell him.

Sub By Ikati