"How deep is the river if you cannot see the bottom?"
— Oma Desala
Oma Desala offers Daniel a second chance at ascension after he's killed by Replicarter, but Daniel is more concerned with stopping Anubis from using the superweapon on Dakara. Meanwhile, Carter begins to have second thoughts about her upcoming wedding to Pete after the unexpected revelation that her father is dying.
Last appearance of Jacob Carter/Selmak, Oma Desala, Anubis and Pete Shanahan.
"Threads" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Whether the Replicators have been completely destroyed by the Dakara weapon or not. Jacob and Sam both agree all of the Replicators within the Milky Way Galaxy were certainly destroyed. The trade-off is that they have no way of knowing if there were other Replicators still active outside the Milky Way (such as back in the Ida Galaxy). This leaves the show an opening to bring back the bugs if they ever needed to. While the Replicators would ultimately return in The Ark of Truth, however, a different method was ultimately used for their swansong.
- And Then What?: Bra'tac points out that the Free Jaffa fought for their freedom for years without ever giving any thought to what they would do after they won, what kind of government would be formed, or how they would unite Jaffa who spent centuries fighting among themselves for rival Goa'uld.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Oma Desala tries to convince Daniel to ascend again, as the alternative is permanent death. Eventually he Takes a Third Option and returns to the mortal plane.
- The Atoner: It's revealed that Oma is this after being the one to (inadvertently) help Anubis ascend in the first place.
- Big "NO!": Anubis gets one before Oma attacks him at the end of the episode.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: This exchange after Carter accidentally interrupts a date between O'Neill and Kerry Johnson, with the implication being she was about to admit to her feelings for O'Neill:Johnson: Well, this is awkward.Carter: Ya think?
- Broken Pedestal: Any remaining reverence that Daniel might have had for the ascended Ancients is well and truly shattered with the reveal that they're letting Anubis do whatever he wants just to punish Oma for a mistake she made years ago.
- Call-Back:
- Pete leading Carter up to the house he's put a payment on with her eyes closed harks back to when he took her dancing in "Chimera".
- Carter thanking O'Neill for being there for her while her father is dying and his response ("Always.") is a reference to her hallucination of him while she was stranded on the Prometheus telling her that he would always be there for her.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Anubis freely admits how evil he is, albeit while he's posing as "Jim", stating outright that the Goa'uld are evil by definition and Anubis is the worst of the lot.
- Continuity Nod:
- In the opening scene of "Citizen Joe", O'Neill mentions on the phone to Carter that he's going to be liaising with a CIA agent named Johnson to investigate the Trust. Here, we meet Agent Kerry Johnson, who he is apparently dating.
- Oma confirms that she was the one who intervened to stop Daniel from destroying Anubis while he was ascended, though it was his choice to return to human form.
- Carter mentions that she has some idea how it feels for a person to have a Tok'ra symbiote die inside them.
- Jacob points out that he really should have died years ago.
- Curtain Clothing: When Daniel re-descends — once again naked — outside the conference room at Stargate Command, Jack pulls down the SGC colors for Daniel to use as a temporary skirt/kilt.note
- Damned by Faint Praise: After Jacob meets Pete for the first time:Carter: It's been two hours since Pete left. You haven't said a word.Jacob: I did so.Carter: "He seems nice"?Jacob: I believe that's three words.Carter: I'm gonna marry him.
- Decapitated Army: Bra'tac mentions at the end of the episode that as soon as Anubis was out of the picture, the Kull warriors became confused and disorganized without any orders to follow.
- Disposable Fiancé: Carter ditches Pete in favor of possibly resolving her UST with O'Neill.
- Everyone Can See It: Both Jacob and Johnson seem to advise that Carter and O'Neill work out their issues already, though they don't spell it out in so many words.
- Evil Laugh: "Jim" drops the act and indulges in some truly evil cackling once Daniel finally puts two and two together to realize that the guy he's been chatting with all episode is Anubis.
- Faux Affably Evil: Anubis while pretending to be Jim. He's jovial to both Oma (who knows perfectly well who he is) and Daniel (who doesn't), while actually plotting the extinction of all life in the Milky Way.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Daniel sees the ascended plane as a diner he visited as a child after the death of his parents.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Aside from the main headline about Daniel, the paper in the diner has various articles about different topics, including "Yoga NOT the path to enlightenment" and "Wraith on the way to Atlantis".
- Freudian Slip: When Johnson breaks up with O'Neill after realizing that he has feelings for Carter:Johnson: You have issues. It's okay, we all do. There's just one big one in particular that I don't think I can love with— live with.
- Hash House Lingo: Amusingly, Oma speaks like this, since Daniel sees her as a waitress in the Astral Diner.Oma: Frank, I need a Noah's boy in a blanket, two hen fruit wrecked on a shingle with a mystery in the alley, a warm Eve with a moldy lid and two checkerboards, alright? Oh yeah, hold the pig.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Oma pulls one by forcing Anubis to engage her in battle for eternity, directing his attention away from the mortal plane.
- Inn Between the Worlds: Invoked by the Astral Diner, though it's not literally a diner; it's just perceived that way by Daniel since he's not fully ascended.
- Interrupted Declaration of Love: Carter goes to O'Neill's house to tell him she's having second thoughts about marrying Pete. She's cut off from telling O'Neill how she really feels about him by the entrance of Kerry (letting the secret out that she and O'Neill are seeing one another).Carter: I'm sorry to bother you with this, but uh, see, there's actually a very good reason that I'm bothering you with this, and if I don't tell you now, I might never…
- Killed Off for Real: Jacob reveals that Selmak has been dying for some time, and finally slipped into a coma after the weapon was activated in the previous episode. This ends up killing him too, since Selmak isn't conscious to prevent himself from releasing toxins into Jacob's system.
- Loophole Abuse: Oma admits that she "walks the line" by helping those from the lower planes to ascend, since she's not really supposed to.
- Maybe Ever After: It's implied throughout the episode that O'Neill and Carter might finally be ready to take some steps towards resolving their UST, but it's never made explicitly clear in canon whether or not they got together.
- Metaphorically True: Pretty much everything "Jim" says to Daniel before his true identity is revealed; he never actually lies, but words the truth in an incredibly misleading way to get to Daniel to trust him.Daniel: Why are you talking to me?"Jim": Oh, you mean because these other snobs won't even look at you? I'm different, like Oma.Daniel: Really? 'Cause I kinda got the impression that you two don't quite see eye-to-eye."Jim": What, that little...? (laughs) Oh, that was nothing. We both operate somewhat outside the normal rules and regulations. Sometimes we disagree on how far outside we should go, that's all.
- Must Have Caffeine: A minor running gag throughout the episode has "Jim" constantly demanding more coffee from Oma, presumably just to piss her off.
- Naked on Arrival: Daniel gets dumped naked in O'Neill's office when he's sent back to the mortal plane at the end of the episode. O'Neill gives him a flag to preserve his modesty when he reunites with the rest of the team, though it doesn't seem to do much to alleviate Carter's embarrassment.
- Never Found the Body: Daniel was last seen on a Replicator ship that disintegrated in deep space. O'Neill is nonetheless absolutely certain that he's not dead; what's more, he's correct.
- Neutral No Longer: Oma has finally had enough of Anubis's gloating and breaks the non-interference clause to take him down.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It's revealed that Oma is the one who helped Anubis to ascend in the first place, though she didn't realize how evil he was at the time.
- No Man Should Have This Power: This is O'Neill's opinion of the Dakara superweapon being in the hands of the free Jaffa. They agree to destroy it at the end of the episode.
- Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: Defied; despite the fact that Daniel has been missing for over a week and his last known location is a ship that exploded in space, O'Neill refuses to hold a memorial service for precisely this reason, as by this point he's well and truly aware that Daniel's deaths don't tend to stick for long.O'Neill: Forget it! How many times have you thought he was gone, and then he shows up... in one form or another. I'm sorry, but we're not having a memorial service for someone who is not dead.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Anubis successfully retakes Dakara, is seconds from using the superweapon to destroy all life in the galaxy, until he disappears (thanks to Oma), and then the Jaffa re-retake Dakara from Anubis' Kull warriors. None of this is actually seen; the heroes only discuss it at the end of the episode.
- The Punishment: Oma's punishment for helping Anubis to ascend is to watch him wreak havoc on the universe while the Others refuse to stop him. The most they will do is to not allow him to use his ascended abilities directly. He can still be an evil System Lord with perfect immortality.
- Put on a Bus: With Jacob's death, the Tok'ra's presence on SG-1 comes to an end. They won't return until the penultimate episode of the series and for the film Continuum. Justified, as relations between Earth and the Tok'ra had all but collapsed during "Death Knell" and Jacob was the Tau'ri's last real advocate on the High Council.
- The Reveal: It was an unwitting Oma Desala who helped Anubis attain Ascension centuries ago. Anubis' half-Ascended state is revealed to have been not some fluke, but an intentional action by the Others. It's all to punish Oma for repeatedly flaunting their authority and violating the non-interference policy.
- Running Gag: O'Neill finally gets his team fishing trip.
- Sealed Evil in a Duel: How Oma ultimately deals with Anubis, since she can't kill him outright; just keep him distracted fighting her.
- Time Skip: Carter states in the opening scene that about a week has passed since the events of the previous episode.
- Wham Episode:
- Anubis is neutralized, but at the cost of Oma being locked in a never ending fight with him.
- Jacob Carter/Selmak dies. The Tok'ra will not appear on-screen until the penultimate episode, two years later.
- Sam breaks up with Pete Shanahan.
- Wham Line: After Jim explains to Daniel how Anubis became half-ascended, he reveals his true identity as the System Lord in a single line."Jim": Me? I don't have anything against Oma. I think she's great, don't I? Hell, she's the one that helped me ascend!
- Wham Shot: Even the Others, who have ignored Daniel, Oma, and "Jim" the whole episode, can't help but react to Oma finally stopping Anubis.
- What the Hell, Hero?: For a loose interpretation of "hero"; Daniel gives the Others a lengthy calling-out over their behavior, not that they pay him the slightest bit of attention.Daniel: Isn't it enough already? I mean, a whole galaxy of innocent people enslaved and tortured for generations, now we're on the verge of being destroyed for nothing? For what? For one mistake a good person made trying to do a good thing. Come on, the least you could do is listen to me, that can't be against the grand highfalutin' cosmic rules! Hey, I'm talking to you! ...Okay. Okay, well, I know you can hear me. Hasn't she suffered enough already? And certainly enough other people have suffered to punish her. Don't you think you've made your point?
