SG-1 is sent to see what happened to another team that hasn't reported back only to find Jonas, the team leader, has taken on the role of a god taking advantage of the natives.
It's no coincidence that Jonas and Carter have a past that comes into focus in this episode. As with many abusive relationships, after leaving him for the abuse, Carter still can't bring herself to shoot Jonas to save those following him even though she knows the abuse she suffered is now being endured by his followers.
Jonas is a master manipulator, a megalomaniac sociopath the likes of which we see in real life cults such as L.Ron Hubbard in Scientology, along with the slave labor given intolerable conditions to work in, all with the promise of better times ahead. The certainty carrot and sunstroke punishment stick.
The parallels between the devotion/fear trap that held both Carter and his followers aren't made obvious for the viewer which if it had been maybe via Jack doing so in a speech to the people that got the "enforcer" team member to snap out of the same mind control Jonas temporarily had over Carter I'd have scored this a 10.
Other reviewers that understand neither why abused people stay in a cult nor why a battered spouse stays in that relationship won't get this episode, but survivors of both will.
It's no coincidence that Jonas and Carter have a past that comes into focus in this episode. As with many abusive relationships, after leaving him for the abuse, Carter still can't bring herself to shoot Jonas to save those following him even though she knows the abuse she suffered is now being endured by his followers.
Jonas is a master manipulator, a megalomaniac sociopath the likes of which we see in real life cults such as L.Ron Hubbard in Scientology, along with the slave labor given intolerable conditions to work in, all with the promise of better times ahead. The certainty carrot and sunstroke punishment stick.
The parallels between the devotion/fear trap that held both Carter and his followers aren't made obvious for the viewer which if it had been maybe via Jack doing so in a speech to the people that got the "enforcer" team member to snap out of the same mind control Jonas temporarily had over Carter I'd have scored this a 10.
Other reviewers that understand neither why abused people stay in a cult nor why a battered spouse stays in that relationship won't get this episode, but survivors of both will.