When they walk past the pylon, Will comments he has never
seen this pylon before and Enik agrees he has not seen it
before either. If the pylons are Altrusian in design,
wouldn't Enik be aware of them all? Or were the pylons
placed in the Land after the time of the height of Altrusia?
In my notes on "After-Shock", I mentioned the new design of
the pylons in season three. Here we see another facet of the
pylon redesign: unlike the pylons in previous seasons, the
triangular key is located on the doorway, not above
it. Thus, when the key is turned and the door opens...the
key disappears with the door! How could a visitor ever close
the door again? In this episode, the camera cuts away and
the viewer does not see whether Will closes the door or it
closes itself; we just hear the electronic throbbing sound of the door
closing! (From Will's motion as he fades to becoming
invisible, it appears he is just walking away from the pylon
without closing it.) When we see the closed pylon as invisi-Will
walks past, the key is back. I think this must have been an
unintentional design flaw when the sets were rebuilt at the
new studio...someone wasn't paying attention to how it had
been done previously and the producers were stuck with it!
 |
 |
Closed door with key. |
Open door, key has vanished. |
Also redesigned is the cave of the Hole of No Return, home
of the Sleestak god. I suppose it could be argued that there
is simply another hole leading to the god's pit.
Jack gives invisi-Will 3 hours to rescue Enik before he goes
after him. Isn't 3 hours an awfully long time just for a
journey to the Lost City? Presumably the Old Temple is in
fairly close proximity. Yet, somehow, it does take Will over
3 hours to make his way to the captive Enik and assist him
with his plan to fool the Sleestak.
When Jack, Holly and Cha-ka are about to go look for Will,
they slide open the temple door only to find Sleestak trying
to claw their way in. Jack says, "There's no telling how
many of them are out there." Um, I'm pretty sure no more
than three!
Jack again makes use of the survival kit found last episode,
retrieving a flare pistol to scare away the Sleestak.
Jack fires the flare pistol out the temple door and we see
the scene shown below. Is this, then, the view from the front of the
Old Temple? The Marshalls are living closer to the swamp
than I thought.

At 21:19 on the DVD, during the tussle between Marshalls and
Sleestak, a Sleestak bumps into a giant stalagmite and the
set piece can be seen rocking as he hits it.
At the end of the episode, Holly asks Will what the god of
the pit looked like. Shouldn't she already know? She saw it
in "Elsewhen".
Unanswered Questions
Where did the previously unknown pylon come from?
It's tempting to say it was simply invisible like the effect
it temporarily bestows on Will, but when the Marshalls
return to the spot to find it gone they could surely have
still touched it if it were only invisible. That suggests it actually teleported to and from
that spot in the jungle! From where? To where? Did the pylon
teleport itself? Did someone do it? If so, who? Is this
effect similar to the Moongiver pylon appearing on various
worlds in "The Pylon Express"?
Will notes that the new pylon is completely empty,
no matrix table present. Then what powers/controls the pylon?
Memorable Dialog
the Sleestak must rule.wav
not
logical.wav
not everything here is logical.wav
Enik shall be sacrificed.wav
at dawn.wav
a
simple Sleestak.wav
sounds
like Will.wav
touch
myself.wav
hasn't always treated us as a friend.wav
logical isn't necessarily right.wav
think how Enik feels.wav
too stupid.wav
invisibility and stupidity.wav
the mystic Altrusian rope.wav
no such
rope.wav
Cha-ka for breakfast.wav
the orb is extremely heavy.wav
uncomfortable.wav
the meaning of morality.wav
Holly want to know.wav
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Episodes