"We're gonna wipe them out, Jack. All of 'em."
— Jacob Carter
The Tok'ra arrive with a mission for Daniel: to infiltrate an upcoming summit of the Goa'uld system lords and assassinate them all by releasing a poisonous gas that's fatal to Goa'uld symbiotes. The rest of the team wait at the new Tok'ra home base, only to become trapped when the planet is attacked by Zipacna, while Daniel's mission is complicated by the unexpected arrival of Osiris.
First appearance of Ba'al and first direct reference to Anubis.
"Summit" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Back for the Dead: The Tok'ra Aldwin, last seen in season 3.
- Batman Gambit: The concept of the Goa'uld Summit is a Meta example; see Real Life Writes the Plot under the Trivia tab for more details.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Before the mission, Elliot states that he's looking forward to finally seeing some action; by the end of the episode all his teammates are dead, he's mortally wounded from having a tunnel collapse on top of him, and he has a Tok'ra symbiote in his head.
- Call-Back: The Tok'ra have synthesized the chemical that the Reol use to camouflage themselves by altering others' memories and perceptions.
- Characterization Marches On: Ba'al in his debut here. He's described by Yu and Daniel as a sore loser (even by Goa'uld standards). This is at odds with Ba'al's later appearances. That said, he is petty if the situation warrants it (ex. his later bickering with O'Neill).
- Chekhov's Gun: Towards the beginning of the episode, Ren'al shows Carter a tank where the symbiote Lantash is being kept in stasis; after the tunnels are bombarded by Zipacna's forces, the tank is destroyed and Lantash goes into Lt. Elliot in order to save them both.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c and the severely wounded Elliot trapped in the Tok'ra tunnels as Zipacna bombards them from above, while Daniel is on a space station with a handful of angry system lords and his cover about to be blown by Osiris.
- Continuity Nod:
- As promised, Lt. Elliot has been officially assigned to an SG team and embarks on his first mission.
- Ren'al reintroduces Aldwin, pointing out that the members of SG-1 already know him after he assisted Teal'c in rescuing them from Netu.
- Ren'al tries to assure Carter that every effort was made to save Martouf after the events of "Divide and Conquer".
- Data Crystal: The formula for the Goa'uld poison is erased from the Tok'ra's computers after being transferred to a crystal, to keep it from falling into enemy hands & being used against the Tok'ra.
- Deadly Gas: The Tok'ra have devised a chemical weapon which is harmless to humans but utterly fatal to symbiotes; they plan to have Daniel release this at the summit in order to wipe out the system lords.
- Emergency Transformation: With his tank broken in the cave-in, Lantash jumps into Lt Elliot, who was also gravely injured, in hopes of healing them both.
- Foreshadowing: Osiris says that the Tok'ra captured by Zipacna would not have revealed the symbiote poison to him even under Cold-Blooded Torture; Zipacna says that's correct, but Anubis has more impressive methods of obtaining information. This foreshadows what Anubis does to Thor in the season finale .
- Gender Bender: Zipacna muses on Osiris's decision to keep a female host (after all, after escaping Earth he/she could have easily discarded Sarah Gardner and taken a new male host if he/she so chose).
- Genocide Dilemma: Averted for the most part, as Jacob reveals that the long term plan for the Tok'ra is to wipe out all the Goa'uld using the symbiote poison. He does struggle a little more when Daniel points out that this will also result in the deaths of thousands of Jaffa, but even then he seems to consider it an acceptable loss.
- Go-Go Enslavement: Many female viewers found Daniel's manservant disguise... interesting.
- Henpecked Husband: Zipacna intimates that Osiris was subservient to his queen Isis, which Osiris denies.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: O'Neill's excuse when Aldwin tries to rope him into the orientation tour alongside SG-17:O'Neill: Thank you, Aldwin, but I have to go help Teal'c... wait for... Daniel.
- The Infiltration: Daniel infiltrates the Goa'uld summit by posing as Lord Yu's personal slave using a synthesized version of the Reol chemical to trick Yu's memory.
- Lie to the Beholder: The Reol venom works this way, causing Yu to see Daniel as his trusted slave once he's been injected with it. None of the other System Lords meant to be in attendance have seen Daniel before, so they won't know he's not supposed to be there. Unfortunately, he doesn't count on Osiris showing up as Anubis's envoy, and she is able to recognize him instantly.
- Mercy Kill: Jacob invokes this when Daniel shows some hesitation over the fact that the hosts of the System Lords will also die if the assassination goes as planned, pointing out that most of them are hundreds if not thousands of years old after going in the sarcophagus so many times, and would likely die just as quickly as Apophis's host did back when he wound up in SGC custody.Daniel: So we're doing them a favor?
Jacob: In many ways, yes. - Neck Snap: Aldwin dies this way, after he lands awkwardly on his head after getting thrown by the blast wave of an explosion.
- The Neutral Zone: The Goa'uld summit takes place on an abandoned space station in neutral space where no weapons are permitted.
- "Not So Different" Remark: For all their emphasis on equal partnership in contrast with the Goa'uld, Carter accuses the Tok'ra of caring more about the symbiotes than the human hosts after she find out that they chose to remove Lantash from Martouf and put the symbiote on life support, despite the slim possibility that he could still have healed Martouf's injuries. Ren'al counters that it's more likely they would have both died and it's better for one to live.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Zipacna was pretty laughable in his first appearance, but here he manages to totally obliterate the Tok'ra base, resulting in the deaths of several Tok'ra and SGC personnel.
- The Only One: Despite the fact that assassination and subterfuge are not exactly his specialties, Daniel is the only person qualified to infiltrate the System Lords' summit, as it requires a human (a Tok'ra or Jaffa would be killed by the symbiote poison) who is fluent in Goa'uld.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Tok'ra, who have always been concerned about the power vacuum from wiping out System Lords since their introduction, are ready, willing, and able to finally kill 'em all. O'Neill even lampshades it:O'Neill: Welcome to the dark side.
- Oh, Crap!: Osiris when (s)he learns that the Zipacna serves Anubis.
- Out of the Frying Pan: Discussed by Jacob and Jack. Jack points out that Jacob has complained in the past that the SGC's killing off of System Lords (such as Heru'ur, Cronus, and most recently Apophis) keeps creating power vacuums that even worse Goa'uld invariably step in to fill, and therefore it's a little odd that he's decided on a plan to kill all of them at once. Jacob retorts that because they're killing them all at once, they're won't be any System Lords left to fill the power vacuum, therefore averting this trope. Unfortunately, there was one long-banished Goa'uld he didn't account for...
- Overpopulation Crisis: This is one of the factors driving the Tok'ra's decision to deploy their anti-symbiote toxin against the entire Goa'uld population here and now. For millennia, the Goa'uld have been spreading through the Milky Way Galaxy like a plague. Now, for the first time in their history, the Goa'uld are experiencing zero population growth. The Tok'ra don't know why, but it makes conditions ideal for deploying the weapon.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Much of the interaction between the System Lords, especially where Ba'al is involved.
- Poison Ring: Loaded with Reol toxin.
- Riddle for the Ages: Daniel asks Jacob what would happen if he jabbed himself with the ring meant to make others perceive and remember him as Jarren. "I don't know. That in itself should scare you."
- Sarcasm-Blind: Aldwin.Aldwin: Are you interested in Tok'ra engineering?
O'Neill: Oh... interested doesn't quite describe how I truly feel.
Aldwin: Well, you're welcome to join us. - Sore Loser: Ba'al is one (even by Goa'uld standards) according to Daniel's conversation with Yu at the summit.
- Spanner in the Works: Osiris's appearance at the summit complicates Daniel's mission on two separate fronts; on the one hand, she recognizes him and could blow his cover with the other System Lords at any moment, while on the other hand his personal attachment to Sarah makes it that much harder for him to release the poison.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: While Nirrti is still on the loose following the assassination of Cronus and "Rite of Passage", she's not welcome at the Summit. The System Lords collectively still regard her as a renegade for sabotaging the Treaty negotiations with the Asgard back during "Fair Game" (with the added benefit of kicking one of their rivals to the curb).
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Ren'al replaces Anise/Freya as a somewhat distant female Tok'ra scientist, but without the Fanservice.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Osiris and Zipacna make no secret of the fact that there's no love lost between them, despite the fact that they're both in the employ of Anubis and so ostensibly on the same side.
- Try Not to Die: Yu says a variation on this to Daniel as they enter the summit.Yu: Do not make me look foolish by allowing yourself to be murdered.
- Understatement: O'Neill's line about the Goa'uld ships landing on the planet: "They appear to be amassing a few troops."
- Who's on First?: Yu's a character involved in this episode, so naturally...Jacob: Yu will be among the system lords attending the meeting.
Carter: I thought you said he was going in as a slave.
Jacob: The system lord Yu.
Carter: ...Little joke there.
O'Neill: Funny.
