Recap / Stargate SG 1 S 8 E 16 Reckoning Part 1

"If the Goa'uld can't find a way to stop them, the replicators will easily overrun our galaxy in a matter of weeks."

— Jacob Carter

Jacob Carter returns to warn O'Neill that the replicators have launched an all-out assault against the Goa'uld for control of the Milky Way galaxy. Meanwhile, Teal'c and Bra'tac attempt to capture the holy land of Dakara in order to ensure the success of the Jaffa rebellion once and for all, and Daniel is taken prisoner by Replicarter, who hopes to learn the secrets of the Ancients from his subconscious memories of his time as an ascended being.

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"Reckoning, Part 1" provides examples of the following tropes:

• All for Nothing: Based on Jacob's exposition, his attempts to mend the rift between him/Selmak and the Tok'ra leadership since "Death Knell" haven't been going well. Even a year later, they're still strained — and any further attempts to repair it are ultimately rendered moot by Jacob going AWOL and 'borrowing' classified communications tech.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: O'Neill's response when Jacob admits to stealing technology from the Tok'ra High Council to help Earth.
  O'Neill: No complaints, I'll take anything I can get. Weapons, receivers... silverware.
• Badass in Distress: Daniel is captured by Replicarter.
• Batman Gambit: Anubis anticipates that the rebel Jaffa will attempt to take Dakara while his forces are tied up fighting the replicators, and plans to use the opportunity to end the rebellion for good while they're all gathered in once place.
• Better the Devil You Know: It's mentioned that several of the rebel Jaffa are defecting back to the Goa'uld due to the threat posed by the replicators. Jacob also points out that while they might ordinarily want to see the Goa'uld wiped out, in this case it would be a very bad thing since the replicators taking over the galaxy would be even worse.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Replicarter transforms her arm into a long metal blade that she uses to kill Lord Yu in the opening scene.
• Boarding Pod: The replicators board the team's ha'tak vessel this way at the beginning of the episode, and later do the same to Thor's ship.
• The Bus Came Back: Jacob/Selmak returns for the first time since disappearing partway through the previous season.
• Call-Back:
  • The meeting between the system lords and Ba'al's representative in the teaser takes place on the same neutral space station as the Goa'uld summit in season five.
  • O'Neill makes Ba'al wait to speak to him (by hologram) while he enjoys a leisurely lunch, much as Colonel Simmons did to him a couple seasons back. Like Simmons, Jack was even eating a sandwich, too.
    • "Impudence" also comes up again during the ensuing conversation.
• Captured on Purpose: Replicarter allows herself to be captured, knowing the System Lords think she is the real Carter, so she can easily dispatch the System Lords at the peace conference.
• Continuity Nod
  • Carter mentions that Daniel has previously been able to remember certain events from his time as an ascended being.
  • O'Neill asks Carter if she's thinking about using the time jumper to go back in time and stop Replicarter from getting what she needs.
  • Carter still feels guilty about giving her replicator double what she needed to overcome the effects of the disruptor.
  • When Replicarter is probing Daniel's mind, she appears to him as Oma Desala in the tent that he lived in on Vis Uban. The robes he wears are also the same ones that he wore as Arrom.
• Contrived Coincidence: The one (never before mentioned) weapon capable of defeating the replicators turns out to be on Dakara; a previously unseen planet which Teal'c decided to capture in this episode for completely unrelated reasons.
• Cryptic Conversation: Replicarter-as-Oma:
  "Oma": If you are seeking an absolute truth, you will not find it. Only truth that applies to you.
  Daniel: That is so extremely unhelpful.//
  • Played with in that Daniel realizes the "Oma" he's speaking to isn't using the cryptic phrases correctly; she can pull them from his memory but not understand them, and is merely parroting them in an attempt to get further inside his head.
• Deadpan Snarker: Once again, Ba'al seems to bring out the worst (or perhaps the best) in O'Neill.
  Ba'al: You cannot be serious.
  O'Neill: Yes I can. I just choose not to... some of the time.
• Dispense with the Pleasantries: Inverted; when Jacob first arrives, O'Neill snarks at him for getting straight to business without bothering to say hello first.
  Jacob: Jack, we got a problem. We need to talk.
  O'Neill: Hi. Hello? How are you, long time no see, what's doing, what's up, hey buddy?
  Jacob: Sorry, Jack. It's good to see you again. Congratulations on your promotion.
  O'Neill: Thanks.
  Jacob: You deserve it.
  O'Neill: Yes, well... what's up?
  Jacob: The replicators. They've launched an all-out attack against the Goa'uld. If the Goa'uld can't find a way to stop them, the replicators will easily overrun our galaxy in a matter of weeks.
  O'Neill: Why didn't you say so?
  (Jacob gives him a look and walks away)
  O'Neill: (following) I'm sorry! You said we had a "problem", not a big, galactic emergency.
• Doomsday Device: It's revealed that the temple at Dakara houses an Ancient superweapon capable of destroying all life in the galaxy.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Yu is rather abruptly killed by Replicarter in the first five minutes of the episode.
• Enemy Mine: Ba'al swallows his pride to ask O'Neill for help as the replicators overrun his forces, pointing out that for the time being, the bugs pose a bigger threat to the both of them. O'Neill initially turns him down, but seems to be reconsidering at the end of the episode when Ba'al reveals that Anubis is still alive and planning on using the Dakara superweapon.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Goa'uld vs. the Replicators. In fact, Replicator Carter explains to Daniel that she's probing his mind specifically in order to find a way to kill Anubis.
• Failed a Spot Check: Despite stranding Anubis on KS7-535 back at the end of "Lockdown", the SGC didn't keep tabs and has been unaware he got off-world at some point earlier in the Season. This arguably could be justified in-universe given the events of "Lockdown" (where conventional Goa'uld countermeasures were utterly useless against Anubis' incorporeal form and his Body Surf). O'Neill and SG-1 probably concluded it was too dangerous to send Prometheus or to even dial the Gate and send a MALP through to check up on Anubis. They probably had to hope KS7-535 would keep him contained indefinitely.
• Foreshadowing: O'Neill and Carter discuss using the Ancient time machine that they recovered from Maybourne's planet; in the two-part season finale, they wind up doing exactly that, despite apparently having agreed never to do so.
• From Bad to Worse: By the end of the episode, O'Neill learns that on top of the Goa'uld and Replicator crisis, Anubis has gotten loose from KS7-535 and seeks the Dakara Weapon in order to wipe out all life in the Milky Way.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Thor sends Carter back to the SGC when his ship is boarded by replicators, attempting to fly as far away from Earth as possible before they completely take over his systems.
• Hijacked by Ganon: It's revealed that Ba'al has actually been in the service of Anubis all season.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ba'al's attempt to strike an Enemy Mine with the SGC might have worked, or at least had greater chances of success were Hammond still in command. Unfortunately for Ba'al — and just like back in "Zero Hour" — the new SGC management is understandably holding a wee bit of a grudge over the whole 'Torture, Kill, Resurrect, and Repeat' business from two years earlier.
• Holy Ground: The temple at Dakara is regarded as such by the Jaffa, which is why Teal'c believes that capturing it will ensure the success of the rebellion once and for all.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Yu's final fate, courtesy of Replicarter.
• It's All My Fault: Carter blames herself for Daniel getting captured, insisting that if it wasn't for her then Replicarter wouldn't be out there, despite O'Neill reassuring her otherwise.
• Killed Off for Real: Lord Yu, and presumably Oshu and the other system lords at the summit attacked by Replicarter.
• Koan: Actually ends up being a plot point (see Spotting the Thread).
• Layman's Terms:
  Carter: It took several hundred microsecond long connections and hours to go through each subsequent burst of data, but eventually we managed to isolate the cipher that makes the replicators immune to the disruptor, and we've adjusted it accordingly.
  (O'Neill looks blank)
  Jacob: The weapon works again.
• Lost Superweapon: The weapon at Dakara. The Jaffa apparently have no idea of its existence as it was left by the Ancients, and Replicarter only learns about it from Daniel's subconscious memories.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Replicarter traps Daniel in a false reality where she poses as Oma Desala in order to more easily probe his mind. He does see through it eventually, but not before she's managed to find what she was looking for.
• Neuro-Vault: Replicarter believes that Daniel still has Ancient knowledge from his time as an ascended being buried in his subconscious. She's right.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Replicators are this for Ba'al and the other Goa'uld. Jacob outright states one Ba'al's key mistakes is that he's fighting back as if the Replicators were another rival System Lord rather than adjusting tactics.
• Possession Burnout: Anubis is still possessing humans in his incorporeal form, and the first one we see him in is absolutely covered in lesions and open sores. He eventually ditches it in favor of another host.
• Remember the New Planet: Despite Dakara's immense importance to Jaffa/Goa'uld history, it's never been mentioned before now. This gets lampshaded by O'Neill, who correctly deduces there has to be a catch or else the Jaffa Rebellion would've gone for Dakara on Day One. The Goa'uld also recognize the planet's symbolic/religious importance, so it's always been one of their most heavily guarded worlds (on top of currently being deep in Ba'al's territory). So in-universe, Teal'c and Bra'tac never brought up Dakara before now because even they thought trying to seize it was an impossible pipe dream.
• Running Gag: Daniel quotes Oma's "if you immediately know the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago" koan.
• Showing Off the New Body: After Anubis switches hosts, he spends his entire conversation that follows with Ba'al admiring his new face in a reflective surface.
• Spotting the Thread: Daniel realizes that "Oma" is actually Replicarter when she doesn't understand Oma's favorite cryptic saying.
• Tranquil Fury: Jacob's What the Hell, Hero? response to Jack effectively 'hanging up' on Ba'al's holographic 'call' moment.
• Unexplained Recovery: It's never really explained how Anubis managed to recover from being sent to a frozen wasteland in a dying host at the end of "Lockdown".
• Uncertain Doom: The fate of the Hasara Space Station after the prologue. Presumably, Replicarter had it assimilated for raw materials.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Quoted almost word-for-word by Jacob when Jack, rather than striking a necessary Enemy Mine with Ba'al to stop the Replicators, instead cheerfully tells the Goa'uld to go perform an anatomically impossible act with himself.
• Where It All Began: Invoked by Teal'c after the rebel Jaffa manage to successfully take Dakara.
  Aron: Think of it. This is the very spot in which our enslavement began.
  Teal'c: Then this sacred temple is an appropriate place for our enslavement to end.