"We have encountered many strange phenomena, Jonas Quinn, but we have yet to meet anyone who can see the future."
— Teal'c
The team visits a planet whose people believe that their arrival is the fulfillment of ancient prophecy telling of strangers who would come through the stargate to free them from the Goa'uld Mot. At the same time, Jonas begins to experience precognitive visions which turn out to be the result of a potentially fatal brain tumor.
"Prophecy" provides examples of the following tropes:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In one of Jonas's visions Mot's forces manage to send a bomb through to the SGC after somehow gaining SG-15's iris code.
- Blessed with Suck: Jonas gets precognitive abilities as a result of a rapidly-growing brain tumor that will eventually kill him if it isn't removed.
- Cassandra Truth: Averted for the most part; after Jonas's first few visions turn out to be accurate everyone treats his predictions with the appropriate amount of gravity.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Fraiser calls Jonas out on this, pointing out that his constant need to prove himself a valuable member of the team is extremely unhealthy and in this particular instance could very well end up costing him his life.
- Continuity Nod:
- Fraiser is initially concerned that Jonas's symptoms could be the result of his past exposure to naquadria radiation.
- When the others are initially skeptical about his newfound abilities, Jonas points out that they didn't believe him when he started seeing invisible creatures in "Sight Unseen" either, and they turned out to be real.
- Jonas believes that his transformation is a result of the experiments conducted on him by Nirrti.
- Deadly Nosebleed/Psychic Nosebleed: Jonas begins to suffer from a combination of the two as his condition worsens.
- Faux Affably Evil: Mot.
- Foreshadowing: The Tok'ra Sina reports that Lord Yu is still managing to hold out against Anubis after more than a year. In the next episode "Full Circle", Yu is finally able to rally the other System Lords to his cause and leads an attack fleet against Anubis' mothership in orbit of Abydos.
- Hyper-Awareness: Jonas speculates at one point that his precognitive powers may simply be a logical extension of his inherent hyper-vigilance, until Carter points out that it doesn't really work that way.
- Instant Sedation: The Jaffa guards collapse pretty much instantly after Natania slips them poison to free O'Neill and the others. This is lampshaded by O'Neill, who asks what the hell she gave them.
- The Mole: Chazen informs Mot of the villagers' planned revolt against him, prompting him to arrive early in ships and easily thwart the uprising.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Chazen sounding the alarm after he discovers that the prisoners have escaped pretty much ruins the ambush planned by Mot.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Gets deconstructed in one of Jonas's visions where Mot manages to attack Earth; O'Neill and Teal'c have a clear run at the gate but Teal'c goes back for Major Pierce after he gets shot, which ends up getting Teal'c killed, which in turn distracts O'Neill long enough for Mot's forces to completely overpower him.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Averted; Fraiser calls in a specialist neurosurgeon to remove Jonas's tumor.
- The Prophecy: Ellori believes that the team arriving on his planet is the fulfillment of ancient prophecy stating that strangers would come through the gate to help liberate the people from Mot.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Jonas's vision of Carter being rushed into the infirmary turns out to be one of these; after he warns the others about it, Hammond and O'Neill ground her from returning to the planet, only for it to turn out that she was injured by an electrical surge during routine repairs on the gate.
- Who's on First?: Yu better believe it's happening again!Carter: It's hard to believe that Yu hasn't been destroyed yet.Sina: Given that he is the only System Lord still in opposition to Anubis, his persistence is remarkable.O'Neill: You go, Yu!
- You Can't Fight Fate: Zig-zagged. Jonas's vision of Carter comes true despite (and because of) trying to change it. His final vision is averted thanks to their actions, but the ancient prophecy was fulfilled as a result.
- You Have Failed Me: Ellori tells O'Neill that Mot once had several sick people in the village executed for failing to deliver their quota of naquadah in the mines. Later, Mot begins to kill Chazen for inadvertently tipping off O'Neill to his ambush, but is shot by Natania before he can finish the deed.
