"If we fall asleep, we may never wake up."
— Dr. Reimer
The team become infected with an alien parasite that will kill them if they fall asleep while searching for the Sangraal on the planet Vagonbrei. Meanwhile, Vala undergoes a psychiatric evaluation to determine her suitability as a potential SGC employee.
"Morpheus" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Body Horror: The sleeping sickness is caused by a microscopic parasite which lodges itself in the victim's brain, where it stimulates the production of melatonin and feeds on the hormone until it engorges itself to the size of a golf ball, eventually causing a fatal aneurysm.
- Captain Obvious: Teal'c makes the stunning observation that the village has been deserted for a long time.
- Continuity Nod:
- The team go to Vagonbrei, one of the three planets mentioned as a possible hiding place for the Sangraal.
- Daniel mentions Vala's actions in "Crusade" and "Beachhead" to persuade Landry to take a chance on her. He also points out that General Hammond once faced a similar decision regarding Teal'c.
- Continuity Overlap: As with "Flesh and Blood", this episode takes place immediately prior to the events of the Stargate Atlantis episodes "Allies" and "No Man's Land". So, Woosley is still on site at the SGC, setting up his guest appearances in "No Man's Land" and "Misbegotten".
- Deliberately Monochrome: The scenes on Vagonbrei are all in desaturated grey tones, adding to the dreamlike feel.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Daniel talking about Vala at the beginning of the episode:Daniel: Look, I know she's no angel. She's lied, she's stolen, she's cheated, she's misrepresented herself, she's... lied.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Vala's attempts to compliment the psychiatrist while hooked up to a lie detector.Hutchison: You're looking very nice today. (gestures to her hair)Vala: Thank you. You're looking rather dashing yourself.Hutchison: Oh, thanks. (pauses as he notices the polygraph needle scribbling madly)Vala: I mean... nice. (needle continues scribbling) I, I mean, not objectionable. (needle continues scribbling; Vala gives it an "oh come on" look)
- Ghost Town: Vagobrei is totally deserted and derelict when the team arrive, as the locals have long since been killed off by the sleep parasite.
- Gibbering Genius: Lampshaded when Daniel is trying to tell the others that he's found the address for Vagonbrei at the beginning of the episode. The fact that half the words are in Welsh, and most of the rest in Ancient, doesn't really help.Daniel: I got it! I got it. (speaking very fast) Sir Gawain to Gwalchmei, Cuhlwch and Olwen, Verus Gen Bree.Carter: (to Mitchell) And you say I'm hard to understand.
- History Repeats: A decade after they first re-opened the Gate, the SGC once again finds itself up against a nightmarish and technologically superior foe. Once again, the SGC's Commander is also faced with a choice of whether or not to allow an alien — one they have little reason to trust — to join the organization and work with their flagship team. Daniel even lampshades in-universe that Landry's facing the exact same choice Hammond did 10 years earlier with Teal'c.
- While it's not explicitly pointed out in-story, Daniel's also now in the exact same position Jack was in during "The Enemy Within". He's the member of SG-1 lobbying a reluctant commander to recruit Vala and staking his career and reputation on bringing this alien wild card into the fold.
- Inkblot Test: Dr. Hutchison gives one to Vala, though he gives up when she keeps responding with abstract concepts like "courage" and "respect".
- Lie Detector: Vala is hooked up to one as part of her psych eval.
- Magical Defibrillator: Averted; Carter and Daniel attempt to revive Dr. Reimer with the emergency defibrillators when he suffers a heart attack, but it doesn't do anything and he dies.
- But also played straight, in that the other characters don't even bother trying CPR or epinephrine.
- Morality Chain: Invoked by Landry, who makes it clear that if he manages to get approval for Vala to accompany the team offworld, then it will be Daniel's responsibility to keep her in line.
- Morton's Fork: Go to sleep and get an aneurysm from the parasite, or drug yourself to stay awake and have a heart attack from stimulant overdose.
- Must Have Caffeine: Actually played for drama; the team on the planet resort to popping caffeine pills in order to stay awake until Reimer manages to overdose and dies of a massive heart attack, at which point Carter declares that they can't risk taking any more and they're just going to have to prevent each other from falling asleep.Mitchel: Compliments of Doctor Lam. We have…dextroampheta-something, moto-whatchamacallit, uh, caffeine pills, and good old fashioned coffee.
- They actually had several different drugs, one of which was an amphetamine of some sort.
- Dextroamphetamine is the technical name for Dexedrine a medicine to treat Narcolepsy and ADHD, moto-whatchamacallit is probably Modafinil (Provigil) a wakeful promoting medicine (eugeroic) that is similar to a stimulant but not technically a stimulant, Modafinil is used to treat narcolepsy and some other sleep disorders. Caffeine Pills and Coffee are self explanatory.
- Never Sleep Again: Once the team are infected with the parasite, they can't fall asleep or they won't be able to wake up again and will eventually die of an aneurysm as it feeds on them. This is made even more difficult than it would be ordinarily due to the fact that the parasite actually stimulates the release of sleep-inducing hormones in the brain.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Daniel, the character who's been screwed over the most by Vala's actions and shenanigans since "Prometheus Unbound", is the one advocating for her membership in SG-1. Landry even lampshades that Daniel's literally the last person he'd have ever expected to go to bat for Vala. Daniel's well aware of the Trope, knowing the request has more weight coming from him than it would've had coming from any other member of the team.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Carter assists Reimer in performing an autopsy on Lt. Ackerman after he's killed by the parasite.
- Secret Test of Character: Woolsey offers to help Vala pass her psych eval if she agrees to provide the IOA with inside information on the running of the SGC once she's admitted, only to reveal at the end of the episode that it was actually a part of the test, as they had to be sure she could be trusted.
- Shout-Out: One of the questions on Vala's psych evaluation is the "You see a tortoise lying on its back in the desert but do nothing to help its plight; why?" question from Blade Runner (she gives the novel response that she doesn't help because she is also a tortoise).
- Sixth Ranger: Though she isn't officially a member of the team yet, Vala becomes a probationary employee of the SGC after passing her evaluation.
- Take That!:Mitchell: I'm starting to regret staying up late to watch Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo last night... Check that, I regretted it almost immediately.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Invoked in-story. Mitchell wonders why the Ori haven't pulled this trope with Earth and are focusing instead on conquering and occupying Jaffa worlds. Teal'c theorizes that the Ori presumably know about the Ancient weapons platform in Antarctica and are wary of going up against it just yet (and with only their first wave of crusaders in the field).
