Watching Double Jeopardy again has made me think about the difference between the Sam Android and 'our' Sam. Which has also made me think about the difference between S1 Sam and S4 Sam.

I know Android Sam isn't S1 Sam as such; she is a S1 Sam who has discovered that she is a copy of a flesh and blood Sam, and has all the emotions and memories of the 'real' Sam while having never met many of the people who have formed who 'she' is. So, she is already on a divergent path from the one real S1 Sam was. She is a copy who knows she's a copy and who ultimately sacrifices herself for the real Sam, presumably because she feels the real Sam is 'worth' more because she is human.

However, leaving aside the fact that Android Sam isn't flesh and blood, she is also someone who has never been exposed to many of the experiences that seem to have shaped who Sam is by the end of S4. A couple of the significant differences seem to me to be that our Sam was blended with Jolinar, and that her father has subsequently become a Tok'ra. By being blended with Jolinar, Sam establishes a relationship with the Tok'ra that is unique to her. She had already mentioned feeling separated from the other three because of her gender in S1 (Hathor); then in S2 she has something else separating her from them which Jack and Daniel, at least, don't seem to be able to grasp very easily (ITLoD). They both appear a little repelled by her Jolinar abilities, even when they are useful (Seth). The only person who seems sympathetic is Teal'c and even he has never said anything reassuring to her on the subject. He has just shown himself to be much more positive about the Tok'ra than they are (The Tok'ra). Daniel is comforting in Jolinar's Memories but the fact he is sympathetic to Sam's trauma from being exposed to a memory of having sex with Bynarr, doesn't mean that he thinks of her blending with Jolinar as a 'good' thing for her personally even if it saved her father's life and has (occasionally) had useful consequences for the SGC (Tangent).

So our Sam presumably has a greater sense of isolation than Android Sam, but this might be one of the things that has made her stronger. She did seem more confident to me than Android Sam (and a bit less patient). She has certainly had to overcome some very traumatic experiences - bonding with Jolinar, losing Jolinar, discovering she is now changed forever because of it and is consequently prey to emotions that are not her own, as well as sharing some capabilities in kind with their enemy, the Goa'uld. We know that she knows what it's like to have been horribly tortured. We know that she knows what it's like to have had sex with Bynarr (yeuch!) but also sex with Martouf (cor!). She probably has memories of a lot of good and bad things, including friends, battles, and the losses of people she has never personally met but for whom she might carry Jolinar's burden of grief. She carries this around with her all the time. It is part of who she is now. Our Sam can never again be someone who wasn't once blended with a Tok'ra, just as our Jack can never again be someone whose son didn't die, or our Daniel can be someone who hasn't lost Sha're, or our Teal'c can be as he was before he was made a Jaffa. It is part of the package that makes Sam - Sam. Just one difference between our Sam and Android Sam, and S1 Sam and S4 Sam, amongst a whole collection of other differing experiences, and perhaps from all the other Sams out there in all those infinite alternate universes.

Lori

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