Carter: The Kelownan government wants to re-establish trade relations with Earth.
O'Neill: I hope you diplomatically told them where to shove it.
The government of Kelowna contacts Earth, keen to re-establish trade due to the tense political atmosphere on their planet; Hammond feels that the naquadria is worth trying to negotiate for, though O'Neill is wary about offering military technology in exchange. As the talks stall, Jonas meets with his old professor, Dr. Kieran, who claims to be part of an underground resistance movement attempting to seize power from the government.
"Shadow Play" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: Gets inverted, with the protagonists being the ones to withhold advanced technologies from the Kelownans for fear that they would use it to destroy themselves.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: First Minister Vallis offers Jonas a full pardon and the opportunity to return to his former career if he spies on Dr. Kieran.
- Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: Absolutely everything about First Minister Vallis from his name to his costuming to the way he's framed in shadow establishes him as villain. However he's actually very reasonable for the situation he's in and his seemingly sinister request to Jonas turns out to be innocent.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Dr. Kieran is concerned that his activities are being monitored by the Kelownan government. It's unclear how much of this is paranoia as a result of his schizophrenia, as the other scientists really were carted away — but they were placed in psychiatric hospitals rather than being arrested.
- Category Traitor: Many of the Kelownans still view Jonas as this after his actions in "Meridian".
- Conflicting Loyalty: Jonas is caught between his place on SG-1 and a lingering feeling of duty to his country.
- Continuity Nod:
- O'Neill vocally protests the idea of re-establishing relations with Kelowna after their officials tried to frame Daniel.
- Teal'c tells Jonas that when he first returned to Chulak after his defection, he too was shunned and branded a traitor.
- Carter mentions that the SGC is reluctant to offer military aid to other planets after their encounter with the Eurondans.
- Cutting Back to Reality: Unfortunately, it turns out that Dr Kieran has been studying naquadria with inadequate shielding, and has developed schizophrenia as a result - meaning that the resistance movement was just a delusion. In his final scene before he's taken away to a psychiatric facility, Kieran assures Jonas that the coup is almost ready to begin - then looks up to that one of his allies from the resistance is standing behind the observation windows, nodding reassuringly. Jonas follows his gaze... but there's no-one there.
- Downer Ending: The episode ends with Dr. Kieran still in the grip of his hallucinations and about to be shipped off to a psychiatric facility after it's revealed that he developed schizophrenia as a result of long-term exposure to radiation from the naquadria.
- Worse, the fact that he's delusional means there's no resolution to the diplomatic crisis the episode centers around. It's heavily implied Kelowna is at war with its neighbors by the episode's end, and they're no longer responding to contact attempts through the stargate.
- Enemy Mine: The Kelownans claim that the other two superpowers on their planet, the Tiranian Confederacy and the Andari Federation, have a long-standing history of hating each other and have only joined forces out of convenience to attack Kelowna.
- For Science!: Kieran states that this was the initial motivation of the scientists working on the naquadria project, and he regrets that it's now being used to develop weapons of mass destruction.
- Friendship Moment: Teal'c and Jonas have a moment at the beginning of the episode due to the fact that similar circumstances caused them both to join the team.
- Hallucinations: It's revealed that the entire anti-government resistance is a hallucination suffered by Dr. Kieran as a result of his brain being damaged by the radiation. He also has hallucinations of Jonas throughout the episode.
- Hypocrite:
- At one point Carter and Jonas suggests that a diplomatic solution might be easier to reach if the Kelownans were to tell the other nations about the existence of the stargate. The Kelownans are quick to point out that if that were the case, the stargate wouldn't be a secret on Earth.
- The SGC refuses to provide even defensive weaponry to the Kelownans out of fear what they might do with it. Now, flash back to all the times O'Neill and the others got pissy with the Tollan and Asgard for not sharing their weapons technology. Seems the Tollan got the last laugh... though it is worth noting that the Kelownans have previous both on not being totally trustworthy and on nearly blowing themselves to kingdom come with their own technology, so it's not like it's totally unfounded.
- It's also worth noting that where other races are unwilling to share anything with Earth, Earth is willing to offer medical technology and other forms of assistance to other planets; the precedent set by the Tollans' history has just left them anxious about providing other cultures with outright weapons.
- La Résistance: Kieran claims to be part of a resistance movement attempting to take power from the government, but it turns out to be a part of his delusions.
- Space Cold War: The Kelownans are locked in one of these with the other two superpowers on their planet, the Tiranian Confederacy and the Andari Federation, and are concerned about it progressing further after the latter two parties sign a peace treaty which gives them a considerable military advantage over Kelowna.
- Take My Hand!: Jonas does this when Dr. Kieran manages to fall from a scaffolding. Given that Jonas turns out to be a hallucination, it doesn't end too well.
- Unobtainium: Hammond and Carter insist that the naquadria is too valuable for them not to at least try to negotiate for it.
- You Remind Me of X: A variant where Hammond tells O'Neill that he sounds like Daniel after he protests the idea of giving military aid to the Kelownans. O'Neill responds that they "spent some time together".
