SG-1 tries getting a sample of naquadah from a couple of fake Jaffa, which goes horrifically wrong. Daniel rescues the local princess from committing suicide. As thanks, SG-1 ends up as slave labour in the local naquadah mine, where Daniel promptly almost dies. Again.
Thankfully, that princess he saved at the beginning of the episode has access to a sarcophagus, and uses it to resurrect him. And then gets him addicted to its mind-altering effects. He convinces her to let SG-1 and him go home. And the rest of the episode is dedicated to his kicking the habit, with a bit of Daniel/Jack angst thrown in.
"Need" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Daniel blows the team's cover in order to stop a complete stranger from killing herself.
- Compressed Vice: Daniel becomes heavily addicted to the sarcophagus after just a few uses, and after his psychotic break while coming down from its effects, he appears to make a full recovery in a very short time.
- Cooldown Hug: O'Neill embraces Daniel during their confrontation in the storeroom at the episode's climax, when Daniel finally stops fighting and promptly becomes a sobbing wreck.
- Dark and Troubled Past: O'Neill hints at his own history with addiction when confronted with the fact that Daniel's going through heavy withdrawal from the sarcophagus:O'Neill: Oh God, look at you. I know what this is. I know what it's like.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Daniel rants that O'Neill "never shows [him] any respect" while in the midst of his sarcophagus-induced power-high.
- Fantastic Drug: The Goa'uld sarcophagus, which essentially has Daniel acting like a strung-out junkie after repeated usage. Carter even points out the fact that Daniel's behavior after returning to earth is consistent with somebody jonesing for a fix.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Daniel agrees to marry Shyla once she's gotten him hooked on the sarcophagus.
- Interrupted Suicide: Daniel stops Shyla from throwing herself off a cliff at the beginning of episode, kickstarting the rest of the plot.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He takes his sweet time and is kind of an asshole about it, but Crackhead-Daniel does manage to free the rest of the team and get them sent back to Earth without needing to use violence, just as he promised.
- Kick the Dog: Daniel telling Carter that she's never really known what love feels like. She uses his saying something so hurtful as proof that he is Not Himself.
- Made a Slave: The team are forced to work as slaves in the planet's naquadah mine due to Pyrus believing them to be spies.
- The Masquerade: Pyrus poses as a Goa'uld and continues mining naquadah to send through the stargate to prevent the other Goa'uld from realizing that there was an uprising and invading the planet. He's kept it up for an incredible 700 years, so apparently the Goa'uld literally never check up on them so long as the deliveries continue.
- Nailed to the Wagon: The team keeps Daniel restrained to prevent him from returning to the planet in the hopes that he can wait out his physical withdrawal, as Carter believes it would be too risky to try and wean him off the sarcophagus gradually.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Daniel saves the princess from killing herself, and in return the team are sentenced to work to death in the mines.
- No OSHA Compliance: Lampshaded:O'Neill: You know, I've seen an awful lot of union violations around here. I should probably speak to your supervisor.
- Non Sequitur: Carter randomly blurting out "we don't use the sarcophagus!" after getting a flashback from Jolinar.
- The Paranoiac: Pyrus is excessively paranoid about outsiders trying to steal his naquadah due to repeated sarcophagus use. Daniel later becomes this while suffering through withdrawal, insisting that the others are trying to kill him by not allowing him to return to the planet.
- Psycho Serum: Repeated use of the sarcophagus while healthy is shown to cause increasingly erratic behavior, paranoia and delusions of grandeur. According to Carter, the Tok'ra avoid it for precisely this reason, believing it to be partially responsible for the Always Chaotic Evil tendencies of the Goa'uld.
- Really 700 Years Old: Pyrus is over 700 years old as a result of the sarcophagus prolonging his life.
- Resurrective Immortality: Daniel's tendency to return from the dead or near-dead on a regular basis is lampshaded by O'Neill after he is buried in a cave-in and later returns looking no worse for wear:O'Neill: Surprisingly difficult to kill you, isn't it?
- Royal Brat: Daniel acts like this while he's on a Power High from the sarcophagus, lounging around in his new robes and lording over his enslaved teammates.
- Touched by Vorlons: It's revealed that Carter is now able to sense the presence of a Goa'uld due to the after-effects of her possession by Jolinar, in addition to retaining at least some of Jolinar's memories.
- We Have Those, Too:Shyla: Surely you have never seen anything so beautiful? We call them trees.Daniel: Ah. Um, so do we.
- What the Hell, Hero?: O'Neill repeatedly calls Daniel out on leaving the rest of the team down in the mines while he's busy getting high.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Princess Shyla seems to believe that she's starring in a traditional fairy-tale romance in which she is Princess Classic and Daniel is her One True Love. When he doesn't play his part correctly, she starts getting him addicted to the sarcophagus so that he won't be able to leave her.
- Yandere: Shyla acts this way towards Daniel, believing him to be her 'destiny' after he saves her life. When she realizes that he isn't really interested, she manipulates him into staying with her first by holding the rest of the team's freedom over him and then by getting him addicted to the sarcophagus. She does admit that she was in the wrong by the end of the episode, however.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: O'Neill uses this when Daniel pulls a gun on him during their fight at the end of the episode. He's right.
