"This is Major Samantha Carter of the United States Air Force vessel Prometheus. As the sole remaining crew member of this ship, I feel compelled to make a log of these events."
— Maj. Samantha Carter
Carter ends up stranded alone on board the Prometheus after an alien ship chases it into a gas cloud, and begins to experience hallucinations of her teammates and father, as well as a mysterious little girl called "Grace", due to sustaining a serious head injury.
"Grace" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Question:Jacob: Are you happy, Sam?
- Bottle Episode: Takes place almost entirely aboard the Prometheus with Carter as the only major character, though the others do make appearances.
- Call-Back: O'Neill asks Carter if she wants a yo-yo when he visits her in the infirmary at the end of the episode.
- Captain's Log: Carter starts one of these after learning that she's alone on the ship.
- Continuity Nod:
- Daniel suggests that the ship may be stranded on another planet after making an emergency landing, similar to what happened in "Memento".
- Teal'c compares O'Neill's frustration while Carter is missing to Carter's reaction while he and Maybourne were stranded in "Paradise Lost".
- The Prometheous is using a hyperdrive lifted from an Al'kesh, and while not explicitly stated this is most likely the one O'Neill and Teal'c had commandeered four episodes earlier in "Avenger 2.0".
- Continuous Decompression: Carter deliberately invoked this at one point, sealing herself in the bridge and venting atmosphere from the ship's other levels to try and propel it out of the gas cloud, though she abandons the strategy when she "sees" Grace being blown out of the ship on one of the video feeds.
- Creepy Children Singing: Carter hears Grace singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" through the deserted ship at various points.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Carter comes up with the idea of using a hyperspace bubble to escape the gas cloud from watching Grace blowing bubbles.
- First-Name Basis: Lamsphaded:O'Neill: Samantha. I'm a figment of your imagination. You're gonna call me "sir"?Carter: Old habit, sorry.
- Brought back at the end when Carter is in the infirmary at S.G. Command. When O'Neill goes to visit her in her hospital bed, she groggily looks at him and calls him Jack, much to his bemusement.
- The Gadfly: Carter's hallucination of Daniel, whose purpose seems to be to annoy and cajole her into coming up with a solution to the problem.
- I Gave My Word: The alien ship leaves without further attacking the Prometheus after Carter keeps her promise to tow it out of the gas cloud at the end of the episode.
- Gratuitous French:Carter: Were you this annoying when you were ascended?Daniel: I don't know, depends on who you ask. I thought I had a certain je ne sais quois.
- Helpful Hallucination: Carter's hallucination of the team and her father all represent different aspects of her imagination, suggesting different ways of dealing with the problem in addition to offering advice on her personal life.
- Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Carter tells her hallucination of O'Neill "one last thing" and briefly imagines kissing him before snapping back to reality.
- Inscrutable Aliens: The mysterious alien ship, which doesn't respond to hails or give any indication of its purpose even after it transports the crew back.
- Loving a Shadow: Carter's hallucinations of Jacob and O'Neill seem to imply that her feeling for O'Neill fall under this, and that she needs to let them go if she's ever going to be truly happy.O'Neill: Sam. I'm a safe bet.Carter: As long as I'm thinking about you, setting my sights on what I think is unattainable, there's no chance of being hurt by someone else.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's never made entirely clear whether "Grace" is a representation of the gas cloud trying to communicate with Carter, or just another hallucination.
- Mind Screw: Subverted; the Teal'c hallucination suggests at one point that Carter is actually on board the alien ship imagining everything else as her mind is being probed, but this turns out not to be the case.
- Negative Space Wedgie: The gas cloud, which is described as being like a nebula but somehow not, causes both the Prometheus and the alien vessel to become trapped inside it and may or may not be sentient.
- Oh, Crap!: Carter's reaction when she realizes the gas cloud is actively corroding through the ship's hull.
- Quieter Than Silence: When Carter first wakes up and finds herself alone on the ship.
- Ship Tease: Carter imagines kissing O'Neill and openly acknowledges her feelings for him, though she also seems to have resolved to let them go by the end of the episode.
- Starfish Aliens: The Daniel hallucination speculates that the gas cloud may actually be a sentient being, though it's never confirmed one way or the other.
- Tap on the Head: Averted; Carter receives a nasty blow to the head and spends the rest of the episode with a severe concussion, heading straight to the infirmary as soon as she's managed to get the crew back and escape the cloud.
- True Companions: Teal'c says that he considers O'Neill to be like a brother to him.O'Neill: You're like, what, a hundred and forty?Teal'c: A younger brother, perhaps. But that is not my point.
