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Oh, you just *knew* I was hoping someone would pick that one. Lol. This will probably be more than you wanted though.

I guess the largest chunk missing from the final draft is Vala's story, her side of things, because she was manipulating events at every level a ton more than Jack was aware of. But it was in essence really a Jack story, not hers, so I let it stay in the background, only hinting at it slightly. Now I have a chance to share a bit! (And hopefully relieve some of those time travel headaches. Or just make them worse.)

The thing with the loops is to imagine that each loop back creates a seperate timeline, erasing all the previous timelines for everyone but the person actually jumping (in this case Vala and then Jack). So timeline0 was the original course of events, leading to the death of everyone, Vala's blending with Panos and the discovery of the time looper. When she jumped back the first time it became timeline1, with only Vala and Panos aware of the previous timeline0. Vala chose to go back to the BBQ because subconsciously she *knew* something had happened there, but because of Adria's manipulation, she didn't couldn't know what. She tries to change things though, but Adria's interference ensures that Daniel will have the artifact somewhere Vala will come across it every time. So say Vala keeps trying for 20 times. In timeline20 Vala gives her promise to try Panos' suggestion and wake Jack up. By this point both Vala and Panos are a bit insane, and Vala is getting weaker under the symbiote's control. But though Panos wants Jack to kill himself, Vala has other ideas. She thinks Jack is unconnected, sane, and can maybe fix what she couldn't. She *wants* him to live, she just can't get out from under Panos' control to communicate her suspicions. In fact, that last thing she says to Jack before he loops is:

“But if you do get frozen again, we’ll all just end up right back here again,” Vala tacks on at the end, her eyes full of that strange luminosity again.

Because she wants him to understand that she's not convinced of Panos' plan.

So, Jack loops. The important thing here though, is to realize that Vala steps out of the way of the machine and does not loop, ensuring for her that no matter how many times Jack loops, it will always be timeline20 for her. So Vala from timeline20 is always influencing Jack's loops because she has no reason to know he understands what's going on. From her perspective, she hasn't woken him yet. Which is why, no matter what promise Jack gets out of Sam, he always ends up back in the stasis chamber, because Vala makes sure of it.

Which is why, when Jack finally loops back to the BBQ, he finds himself sitting across the table from the Vala in timeline20. Slightly unstable, insane, unaware of anything Jack has been through, but a Vala who is beginning to realize Jack is the key. It takes her a bit to realize this is the Jack she will wake up. As Jack accuses:

“Forget Panos. It’s just you and me, Vala, just the way you planned it.”

“I didn’t!” she protests, but there is doubt in her voice now.

“Not yet, but you will.”

And then together, with Panos finally gone, they figure it out.

In the end, when Jack loops all the way back before the BBQ and manipulates events so that the artifact will never exist, Vala and Panos from timeline20 both cease to exist as well, leaving only Jack with knowledge of timelines20, 21, 22, and 23, and now, a completely new timeline with no set events past the BBQ.

“Try the parfait, Vala,” Jack says. “I think you’ll like it.”

From that moment on, the future is undefined.

And wow, that was much longer than I thought it was going to be. You can imagine me having this conversation with my four(!!!) betas. I'm not sure I ever convinced any of them. Lol. *hands you aspirin*