Carter: I've just never... blown up a star before.
O'Neill: Well, they say the first one's always the hardest.
A routine mission to help the Tok'ra move to a new base goes wrong when Tanith escapes and calls down Apophis to attack. Carter and Jacob come up with a daring plan that they hope will take care of Apophis once and for all, but Teal'c's personal vendetta against Tanith threatens to jeopardize the mission.
"Exodus" provides examples of the following tropes:
- And Then What?: Jack asks this when Jacob/Selmac take him to task for disrupting the Tok'ra's long-term plan to keep the Goa'uld fighting each other, until the opportunity arises to take them on. When Jack asks "And then what?" Jacob's response is a rather unconvincing "We're working on it."
- Bullying a Dragon: Tanith takes the opportunity to taunt Teal'c about his murder of Shaun'auc, despite being a prisoner and completely at Teal'c's mercy.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: When O'Neill and Teal'c are stranded on Vorash with the sun about to go supernova:Teal'c: How much time remains before the sun explodes, O'Neill?O'Neill: Huh? Oh. [Checks watch] 45 minutes.
- Cliffhanger: The episode — and the season — ends with Teal'c presumed dead and the rest of the team plus Jacob stranded in another galaxy on board a lifeless ship, when Apophis's mothership shows up, having survived the destruction of Vorash's sun.
- Coming in Hot: O'Neill and Teal'c crash into the surface of Vorash after the glider they're in is damaged.O'Neill: Mayday, mayday, we are so going in.
- Continuity Nod:
- The team has come into possession of Cronus's mothership after they killed him in the previous episode.
- Jacob warns O'Neill against messing with Goa'uld technology, pointing out that it didn't go so well for them when they tried to retrofit a Death Glider.
- The team dial the black hole planet from "A Matter of Time" as part of their plan to destabilize the sun.
- Cool Chair: O'Neill quickly claims Cronus's former throne.Jack: Ooh! Shotgun.
- Cool Starship: The team now have their very own Goa'uld mothership after taking Cronus's. O'Neill in particular is extremely possessive of it.
- Crazy Enough to Work: The plan hatched by the Carters to take out Apophis's fleet, which involves dropping an active stargate connected to a black hole into a nearby sun, causing some of its mass to be pulled into the black hole, which would then destabilize it and force it to go supernova.
- Destructive Saviour: Jacob accuses the team of being this in their much more aggressive approach to fighting the Goa'uld, pointing out that every time they manage to kill one system lord a much more ruthless one emerges to fill the power vacuum.
- Finish Dialogue in Unison: O'Neill and Daniel do this after being told that they're about to try and blow up a sun.O'Neill: Wow.Daniel: That's, uh...Both: ...ambitious.
- From Bad to Worse: What starts out as a routine — if annoying — mission to help the Tok'ra move base quickly goes south when Tanith escapes and informs Apophis of their whereabouts, prompting Carter and Jacob to come up with their aforementioned crazy plan to deal with him once and for all. Then Teal'c's vendetta against Tanith causes him to inadvertently strand himself and O'Neill on Vorash, where he gets shot and captured by Tanith. The rest of the team manage to rescue O'Neill before the sun explodes, but the resulting energy wave blasts their ship into another galaxy, along with Apophis, who is still very much alive. And things get even worse in the next episode.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Lampshaded by O'Neill when Tanith manages to escape despite being kept under guard by the Tok'ra.Teal'c: Tanith could not have escaped through the stargate. It has been heavily guarded the entire time.O'Neill: Yeah, what, by the same guys who were guarding him in the first place? No offence.
- Hannibal Lecture: Tanith is fond of giving these to anyone who'll listen after the Tok'ra reveal that they knew he was a mole.
- Hurl It into the Sun: The team jettison an active stargate into Vorash's sun, though this is a slight variation in that they intend to use the gate to destroy the sun, rather than the other way around.
- Hyperspeed Escape: Both the heroes and Apophis attempt to do this as the sun goes supernova. They manage to get away, but unfortunately the energy wave knocks them four million light years off-course.
- In the Back: One of Apophis's Jaffa appears out of nowhere on Vorash to shoot Teal'c in the back.
- Long Game: When O'Neill demands to know what the Tok'ra have done to fight the Goa'uld lately, Jacob reveals that their plan basically involves letting them fight among themselves until such a time arises that they can all be taken out at once.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Jacob criticizes O'Neill's — and by extension, the rest of the Tau'ri's — gung-ho attitude towards taking down the system lords, incorrectly stating that it is largely thanks to their efforts that Apophis is now as powerful as he is, when it’s the Tokra‘s fault Apohpis is as powerful as he is.
- Later, Teal'c's obsession with exacting revenge on Tanith leads him to strand both himself and O'Neill on Vorash, resulting in his own capture and delaying the team's getaway, which in turn causes them to be knocked off-course.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Carter and Daniel are adamant about going back for O'Neill and Teal'c after they get stranded. Jacob assures them both that he agrees, but he is able to be rather more pragmatic about it.
- Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: Carter becomes the Trope Namer.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Teal'c is determined to get his revenge on Tanith for killing Shaun'auc. He does initially — albeit reluctantly — agree to leave him on Vorash and let the supernova take care of him rather than killing him personally, but when it emerges that he has a ship standing by to extract him, Teal'c is unable to let him get away and gives chase.O'Neill: It's a Jaffa revenge thing.
- Running Gag: O'Neill once again brings up his hatred of cliches.
- Spanner in the Works: Tanith manages to put a wrench in the team's plan on two separate occasions; first of all when he escapes and summons Apophis, and then later when he signals a ship to extract him from Vorash, leading Teal'c to go after him.
- Star Killing: Carter's plan to take down Apophis involves destroying a sun.
- We Need a Distraction: Jacob sends out a fleet of unmanned Death Gliders to lure Apophis away from Vorash so that he can extract O'Neill and Teal'c. Apophis sees through the ruse, however.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Tanith pulls one of these, collapsing in his cell on the Tok'ra base, forcing one of the guards to check on him out of concern for the host. He then kills the guard and makes his escape.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: A heroic version; the Tok'ra feel that they've gotten all the use they can out of Tanith and they can't take him with them to their new base in case he informs Apophis of its location, so they intend to remove him from the host and leave him behind on Vorash.
