You expected Vala to resist the...

You expected Vala to resist the urge to play goddess? I already considered her one, but I have a thing for irrepressible brunettes with a blonde streak. Alas, her devotees weren't so forgiving once Vala owned up to how she used them, and hell hath no fury like worshippers left impoverished. Although Vala was possessed by the Goa'uld Kotesh (not Koresh, eh?) when she first made this outrageous claim, Vala opted to maintain the illusion after returning to her senses, since she's an adulation junkie. For this, her former followers decided to execute her, but Mitchell convinced them to give her a fair trial before punishing her. Danielseized the dais, determined to persuade the jury that Vala willingly exposed herself to expose the Ori as false gods. Sadly, even Vala didn't buy that story. Without missing a beat, the ghostly Prior showed up (Vala recognized him as the one who "tried to burn us to deathtwice") to deliver his usual spiel accept the Ori blah-blah-blah and gain great knowledge; deny them and "be laid to dust." Daniel delivered the Democratic response: "Knowledge is power, but how you use that power defines whether you are good or evil." Vala summed up SG-1's quandary rather succinctly, I thought: "The problem is what the Prior has to offer sounds good until you get to the prostrating and burning part." I got some ugly fundamentalist religion vibes right about then; something a sudden plague did nothing to dispel. However, Vala's vulnerability finally emerged when she tried to save her ailing "people." Even Mitchell teetered on the brink of death until ol' Creepy Face returned to cure everybody from the virus that he caused (mind you, he'd omitted that particular detail). Cue mass prostration among the saved. A hallmark of a classy show is whether it allows the heroes to lose every now and again. It keeps the good guys alien and otherwise human. The Ori are shaping up to be a formidable and captivating enemy; it's going to be a gas watching Mitchell and Co. try to sink these cadavers. BTW, Lexa Doig'sDr. Lam is General Landry's estranged daughter. Dysfunctional family deals with intergalactic menaces I smell another spin-off.