Original Air Date: 03/05/2004

As the newly elected President Hayes steps into the Oval Office, he finds Gen. Francis Maynard, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, waiting for him. Maynard is there to brief Hayes about the Stargate Program, of which Hayes has been unaware until this very moment. Hayes storms into now Vice-President Kinsey's office, angry that Kinsey knew about Stargate Command and never told him. Kinsey claims that he was under a special executive gag order — and that he and Hayes now are finally in the position to clean house at Stargate Command by replacing Gen. George Hammond and SG-1. However, President Hayes says he's going to need convincing. He learns that Kinsey, while head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, tried to shut down the Stargate Program. Gen. Maynard explains that Kinsey later almost convinced the other nations of the world, during an international full-disclosure meeting at the Pentagon to give him control of Stargate Command. The president meets with Kinsey, Gen. Maynard and Kinsey's investigator, attorney Richard Woolsey, who has been brought him in to argue the case that Hammond and SG-1 need to be replaced. Woolsey cites SG-1's insubordination when they ignored orders to suspend all offworld travel pending a review of the Stargate Program. Two years later, the team refused Hammond's own order for SG-1 to stay put. Gen. Maynard counters that, in the latter case, SG-1 averted an alien invasion by sabotaging a mothership that the Goa'uld eventually would have used against Earth. He also reminds Woolsey that SG-1 was under the influence of an alien device at the time. Which brings Woolsey to the number of times SG-1 has fallen under alien control. He cites Maj. Carter's implantation with a Goa'uld symbiote and becoming host to an alien virus. There was also Dr. Daniel Jackson's death and Ascension into a higher life-form; and the fact that Teal'c — an alien and one-time Goa'uld soldier — now possesses full security clearance at America's most classified facility. Maynard counters that Teal'c has earned that trust — and Woolsey notes that this trust almost cost SG-1 dearly when he rejoined the ranks of system lord Apophis. Maynard rebuts that Teal'c had been brainwashed. Woolsey considers that merely another example of how often SG-1 has shown a vulnerability to alien influence. He says Col. O'Neill has been infected by alien contagions a half-dozen times, was experimented upon by extraterrestrials another half-dozen times, had his memories manipulated on numerous occasions and had the entire repository of an Ancient database effectively downloaded into his head. Hayes, impressed upon hearing these extraordinary reports, can't believe what SG-1 has endured. Woolsey maintains that is precisely the point: "How can we trust these individuals to protect our planet given everything they've been through? Who's to say they're completely free of these influences?" After a break — during which Kinsey reminds Hayes that he wouldn't have been elected without Kinsey's support — Woolsey brings up the number of times Gen. Hammond and SG-1 demonstrated "shockingly poor judgment" by placing themselves, Stargate Command and Earth itself in jeopardy. He cites how the effects of an alien device found its way into the civilian population. Woolsey goes on to imply that Hammond and SG-1 have allowed their personal feelings to influence command decisions, citing the time that Hammond refused to close the stargate's iris, despite an incoming barrage, until SG-1 was back safely. He also brings up Col. O'Neill and Maj. Carter's close relationship — at which point Kinsey jumps in to denounce it as highly inappropriate and, if you "read between the lines" of the mission reports, more than it appears to be. The president has heard enough and ends the meeting. That night, Woolsey tells Kinsey he's worried the president will side with Hammond and SG-1. Kinsey tells him it doesn't matter. "Things happen," he says insidiously, implying that — even if it involves making someone "disappear" — he will get his way. The next morning, Gen. Maynard sees that the president is leaning toward Kinsey's point; Hayes believes that the Stargate Program will eventually go public, and when it does, he wants to be able to say he cleaned house when he took office. But Maynard — describing system lord Anubis' recent rise to great strength and his development of a supersoldier army — tells him it is imperative that Hammond and SG-1 remain in place. Earth's best hope, Maynard adds, lies in finding the Lost City of the Ancients, which holds the weaponry that could defeat Anubis. SG-1 believes it might have found it on the planet Abydos. Maynard urges the president to let SG-1 continue on this path. But Hayes says it's not that simple. Hayes knows that if he crosses Kinsey on this issue, he'll leave himself wide open for political retaliation. Even as Commander-in-Chief, he might not be able to protect SG-1. Later, a shaken and troubled Woolsey confesses to Maynard his own grave concerns about Kinsey. Maynard encourages Woolsey to find hard proof of any perfidy. Woolsey reasons that Hammond — who unexpectedly resigned from Stargate Command at one point and then returned — was blackmailed by Kinsey, and is back only because he has proof of Kinsey's involvement with rogue elements of the National Intelligence Division (NID). When Woolsey visits Hammond at Stargate Command, Hammond sees that Woolsey is on the level and gives him a copy of the incriminating computer disc recovered by O'Neill. Woolsey brings the disc directly to the noncommittal president, hoping that, one day, history will show he tried to do the right thing.