"It's my first day!"
— President Henry Hayes
Newly-elected President Henry Hayes is briefed on the existence of the Stargate program. Kinsey, now Vice President, tries to take control of the proceedings and bias him against the current staff of the SGC using evidence from Richard Woolsey's recent investigation into its operations.
"Inauguration" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Clip Show: The show's fourth, following "Politics", "Out of Mind" and "Disclosure". Ironically, one of the clips in this episode is from an original segment in "Disclosure", that is to say a clip from an earlier clip show.
- Continuity Nod:
- Woolsey presents the evidence from his investigation into the SGC.
- Hammond gives Woolsey the disk of incriminating evidence that O'Neill obtained from Kinsey's computer, which Woolsey then passes on to the President.
- Deadly Euphemism: Kinsey's answer when Woolsey asks what will happen if the President doesn't come around to his way of thinking is simply to say that "things happen."
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: When Hayes starts to suspect that Kinsey may be tied to the rogue NID:Hayes: I'm starting to get a bad feeling about where some of that campaign financing came from.Maynard: Mr President...Hayes: Did I say that out loud?
- Dysfunction Junction: Woolsey describes SG-1 and Hammond as such.
- The Fundamentalist: Kinsey continues to display fundamentalist Christian leanings, which seems to exasperate Hayes more than anything else.
- Heel Realization: Woolsey is struck by the realization that the people he's working for aren't the good guys when Kinsey more or less admits to him that he's willing to do whatever it takes to make the President see things his way.
- Lower-Deck Episode: The non-Clip Show parts of the episode revolve around Hayes and his advisers, with the team only appearing in recycled material from previous episodes.
- Military Maverick: Woolsey cites the team's history of liberally interpreting their orders as evidence against them.
- Nothing Personal: Woolsey continues to make it clear that he bears no personal grudges against the staff of the SGC even if he thinks they're doing a horrible job, and is visibly disturbed when Kinsey seems to imply that there's something untoward going on in the relationship between O'Neill and Carter.
- Only in It for the Money: Played with. When Woolsey recounts the financial motivations of the business interests behind the rogue NID faction, Hayes points out that the kind of people willing to go to such lengths might have greater ambitions than mere profit, and one could only hope that their motivations were so simple.
- Our Presidents Are Different: Hayes establishes himself as a President Personable with his affable demeanor and willingness to listen to both sides of the debate, replacing the Invisible President of previous seasons.
- Rank Up: Kinsey is now Vice President following the election.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Hayes insists on listening to all the evidence before deciding one way or another about the fate of the SGC, and eventually concludes that though they've made some mistakes, the team seem to be doing the best they can in impossible circumstances.
- Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?:Hayes: Hosted alien dignitaries, acquired alien technology, traveled back in time... did they really blow up a sun?
- Weirdness Magnet: Woolsey lampshades the many, many times that the members of SG-1 have been taken over by alien influences.Woolsey: Major Samantha Carter. implanted with a Goa'uld symbiote, then two years ago, her body became host to an alien virus... Daniel Jackson. Fell under the influence of alien technology on numerous occasions. Had his body play host to not one but twelve alien psyches simultaneously, most interestingly of all, apparently died and, according to the report, evolved into a higher being... Teal'c, an alien [...] Like his fellow team members, he too has shown a vulnerability to alien influence. Which finally brings us to the team leader, Jack O'Neill. Infected by alien contagions a half dozen times. experiment on by extraterrestrials, another half dozen times. Had his memories manipulated on numerous occasions. Had the entire repository of an ancient alien database effectively downloaded into his head.
