"He thought he was recording my humiliation. Instead, he was only recording his own."
— Teal'c
Teal'c is captured by Heru'ur's forces during a meeting with the free Jaffa on Chulak. Meanwhile, Jacob Carter recruits the rest of SG-1 for a mission to sabotage a planned alliance between Apophis and Heru'ur.
"The Serpent's Venom" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Ace Pilot: Jacob has to navigate his ship through a minefield while half his attention is occupied by trying to keep the mine on board the ship from crashing into anything. Later subverted, as he attempts a maneuver that he describes as "a pretty fancy bit of flying" but ultimately fails to pull it off.
- Agony Beam: Terok uses both the hand device and the Goa'uld cattle prod on Teal'c.
- Apple of Discord: Jacob's entire plan hinges on getting Apophis and Heru'ur to turn on each other.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:Jacob: Obviously I'll need Dr. Jackson, and there may be some complicated mathematical calculations to be done, so Sam would be a big help too.[O'Neill clears his throat pointedly.]Jacob: Of course, Colonel O'Neill is... always lots of fun to have around.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Terok seems to take a perverse pleasure in torturing Teal'c, at least until it becomes apparent that Teal'c won't break.
- Continuity Nod:
- Jacob is still on Earth after the events of "Tangent" and pilots the same ship that he used to save O'Neill and Teal'c in that episode.
- Carter reminds her father that he owes Teal'c as much as the rest of them do for saving them all when they were taken prisoner on Netu, and he later attempts to rescue Teal'c by pulling the same maneuver that Teal'c used on that occasion.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Jacob's plan, which essentially consists of ringing a live mine into the ship's cargo hold so that Carter and Daniel can reprogram it to attack Apophis's ship and make him think that Heru'ur has betrayed him.Hammond: Sounds very risky.O'Neill: Insane might be another word.
- Defiant Captive: Teal'c absolutely refuses to show any sign of weakness as he's aware that Terok is recording his torture to undermine the Jaffa rebellion. Even after Terok throws the recording device away in a fit of rage, he still refuses to give in.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Daniel mentions that the Phoenician counting system the mine's programming is based on doesn't have a zero, Carter realizes that all his translations of the code have been off by one, since by necessity any species that reached such a level of technological development could not have done so without learning the basic mathematical concept of zero.
- Explosions in Space: When Apophis destroys Heru'ur's ship.
- Heel–Face Turn: Rak'nor pulls one after seeing the strength of Teal'c's commitment to his beliefs, killing Terok and helping Teal'c to escape.
- Killed Off for Real: Heru'ur is presumably killed when Apophis destroys his ship.
- Like an Old Married Couple: O'Neill and Daniel start bickering over the amount of reference materials Daniel is bringing along as they depart for their mission, much to the amusement of the Carters.
- The Mole: Rak'nor starts out as this, posing as one of Teal'c's followers in order to betray him to Heru'ur's forces.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The objective of the mission is to sabotage the treaty between Apophis and Heru'ur and get them to deplete each other's forces, since an alliance between them would severely challenge the system lords and topple the balance of power in their favor. Unfortunately, Jacob never anticipated that Apophis would be able to cloak an entire mothership, let alone a fleet of them, and thus is able to destroy Heru-ur's ship immediately and absorb his remaining forces. This results in one Goa'uld controlling the vast majority of their combined resources (save those lost covering Apophis's escape) rather than an uneasy alliance between two.
- Oh, Crap!: The heroes get one when Apophis uncloaks the rest of his armada, revealing that he has an entire fleet of motherships at his disposal.
- Shirtless Scene: Teal'c spends much of the episode without a shirt as he's being tortured. It is not particularly played for fanservice.
- Space Mines: The meeting between Apophis and Heru'ur takes place in a space minefield, and Jacob's plan hinges on Carter and Daniel being able to successfully reprogram one.
- Spanner in the Works:
- Teal'c unwittingly becomes one when the rest of the team realize Heru'ur has him in captivity and intends to turn him over to Apophis, having previously been under the assumption that he was holding a summit on Chulak.
- Ironically, he also ends up being this to Apophis' plan to betray Heru'ur once their negotiations conclude. As much as Apophis wants his old rival dead, Apophis wants the shol'va dead even more.
- Throat Light: Happens whenever the cattle prod is used.
- Torture Technician: Terok.
- Truce Zone: The location of Apophis and Heru'ur's meeting is described as such; an area of space filled with active mines that prevent either party from using weapons by locking onto any target giving off an energy signature.
- You Killed My Father: A very odd example. Teal'c actually spared Rak'nor's father while he was still Apophis's First Prime, but he was later executed by Apophis after being inspired to follow in Teal'c's footsteps and rebel, something which Rak'nor seems to hold Teal'c indirectly accountable for.
