Cold Lazarus

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**"Cold Lazarus"** is the fourth episode of Season One, and the fifth overall episode of *The Jumping Ground*. It first aired on February 18, 1998.

## Synopsis

During a search through a yellow-sanded planet filled with blue crystals, Puff inadvertently touches one and is knocked unconscious. A double of himself is created to examine the Tau'ri and returns to Earth, where he is set loose to explore Puff's ancestry and soon becomes an unwitting threat to society.

## Plot

On an exploratory mission of P3X-562, SG-1 find a strange planet of unreal, bright-yellow sand dunes, littered with smashed blue crystals. None appear to be intact. PuffPuff goes off to explore out of eyeshot of the rest of the team.
When he does so, he encounters a blue crystal that hasn't been smashed, and, staring into it, he tentatively reaches towards it. Suddenly, it blasts him backwards, leaving Puff lying in the sand, unconscious. Instantly, a replica of him is standing over him, apparently manifested by the blue crystal, or transformed from the blue crystal. Zowie calls for Puff to return through the Groundbridge, and the replica ("Crystal-Puff") goes, leaving the unconscious and real, flesh and blood Puff behind.

Back on Earth, Crystal-Jack does not appear to be hostile, and seems to have a purpose that it doesn't even quite know itself. It seems confused but focused. No-one else on the base works out that he is not the real Jack. He leaves the base remembering a person in his bloodline that stood before him many centuries ago. This was when Thrór, the king of Pencastonia, a constitutional monarchy in North America during Ancient Times whose population consists of the powerful alien race of Celestials, declared war on the United States and Canada, which would last for many decades. The Goa'uld would later become directly involved in the conflict, and their ruler, Shinnok, would later kill Thror and came very close to usurping his throne, but the Americans captured most of the Pencastonian's territory. Crystal-Puff is invited in by Thrain, Thrór's son and heir to throne, and allowed to look around Thror's throne room.  Puff and Thrain talk for a while and later go to a park where they sit and continue their conversation. At this moment, Crystal-Jack suddenly falls to the ground, bolts of blue electrical energy arcing from him into the ground and the bench.

Meanwhile, back at The Langham, Zowie analyzes the smashed crystals they brought back, and she and Lance confirm that the damage was done by Goa'uld Staff weapons. One of the more intact crystals suddenly speaks to her, assuming a human-face-shape for a moment. They realize that the crystals are a strange alien race that must have been destroyed by the Goa'uld (this explains the initial reaction to Puff, blasting him away, as humans and Goa'ulds are alike in form). The crystal using Zowie's face explains that their race is composed of energy, they call themselves the Unity and relate the tale of how once a Jaffa was killed by accident by one of them and the Goa'uld in revenge gathered all the crystal Unity together and slaughtered them.

It also warns them that they are running out of energy now that they are on Earth away from their planet, and when they do there may be a dangerous radioactive reaction. At that moment, the real Puff returns from the planet, having awoken, and they all realize that the other one, Crystal-Jack, must have been a crystal like this one. The Langham is immediately searched and they discover that he has left the base. Thrain has taken Crystal-Puff to the hospital. She is tending to him when he bursts out in electricity again and the hospital is cleared. Puff's friends and the police arrive, and evacuate the area, ionizing particle radiation is reaching dangerous levels. Thain has a very confusing moment as the real Puff runs past him into the building as he is led out.

Once inside, The Students find Crystal-Puff slumped in a corner, dying. Crystal-Jack explains that he was able to see into Jack's memories and thoughts, and, after incapacitating him, saw that he was not Goa'uld. He wanted to help Thrór get better so he searched for Puff's pain, and found the death of Thrór in his memories to be a far greater pain than any physical one. Crystal-Jack thought that if he could somehow bring Thrór to his newly-discovered descendant then he would get better but he didn't understand the concept of permanent death of humans because there is no permanent death amongst the Unity.

Puff replies that Thrór and the last of the Celestial hierachy are gone, but Crystal-Puff disagrees, saying that Thror is always with Puff and touches his chest over his heart and at that moment, he changes into an identical duplicate of Charlie. It is a very emotional moment as Jack sees his son again. They now have to take Crystal-Charlie out of the place. Jack walks him out and Sara can't believe her eyes. Puff explains it's not really Charlie, but they hug each other and whisper that they "were pretty great together", "the greatest" in fact. Lastly, Crystal-Thrór is brought back to the SGC and he, along with the rest of his crystalline race, is to be returned to his planet so that he won't die. Puff walks him up the ramp to the open Groundbridge and they step through together.