I think you're right in that Shyla does seem to at least want to care about her folks. It may be a case of a good person with a terrible upbringing. If dad's about 700, and she hasn't had to extend her life, that means maybe there were other siblings or before her who didn't last. And so maybe mom was in a long live of wives--sort of bringing new levels to the disfunction in a family. Daniel obviously thought well enough about her to think it worth while to go back to help her and the people living there.

And I sometimes wonder if Daniel got stuck with the diplomatic stuff partly due to Jack's comment about 'that boy can sure grovel' -- just about all the alien races they meet seem to need a lot of that.