"I know you wish to take my life. And I promise you, before this is over, one of us will feel the pleasure."
— Khalek, to Dr. Daniel Jackson
The team discover what appears to be an Ancient lab where they find a man named Khalek in stasis and take him back to the SGC, only to discover that the lab belonged to Anubis and the man is a hybrid with the genetic memories of the Goa'uld. Daniel believes that Khalek is trying to ascend and advocates killing him before he can achieve his goal, but is overruled by Woolsey, who insists that they should study Khalek for clues on how to fight the Priors.
"Prototype" provides examples of the following tropes:
- 90% of Your Brain: Carter states that the average human only uses 5-10% of their brain, with 80-90% being the requirement for somebody to achieve ascension without outside help.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Khalek's ultimate goal.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: Daniel suggests that maybe the reason evil beings are allowed to ascend is because the cosmic balance of the universe demands that good and evil exist on every plane.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When Khalek is first brought to the SGC he acts like a frightened torture victim, but he quickly drops the act once Daniel lets him know that he can read the experiment logs.
- Bullet Dodges You: Khalek can deflect bullets, but unfortunately for him he has to actually be aware of them coming at him, allowing Daniel to get the drop on him while he's distracted by Mitchell.
- Continuity Nod:
- Teal'c notes that the DNA sequencer found in Anubis's lab is similar to that used by Nirrti in "Metamorphosis".
- Khalek claims that he has memories of Daniel's confrontation with Anubis in "Full Circle". If he is telling the truth, then it also narrows down when Khalek and the Lab went online (at some point during either Season 7 or 8).
- Woolsey references the fact that the SGC is now receiving funding from the international committee due to their budget being slashed.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Daniel snaps at Mitchell for randomly pushing buttons in Anubis's lab while searching for the light switch.Daniel: New Guy!Mitchell: Hey, you touched that!Daniel: I know how to read that.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The lab left behind by Anubis is underground and only accessible via ring transporter.
- Evil Brit: Khalek speaks with a British accent.
- Evil Feels Good: Khalek goes on at some length about how good he imagines it will feel to kill somebody for himself, talking about how "intimate" and "pleasurable" he expects it to be.
- Evilutionary Biologist: It's revealed that Anubis spent some time dabbling with genetic manipulation.
- Force-Field Door: The team initially use one of these to keep Khalek confined, though it becomes irrelevant once he advances to the point where he can psychically disable it.
- Hannibal Lecture: Khalek is fond of doing this.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Hinted at yet again with Daniel.Khalek: Have you ever taken a life, Dr. Jackson? I believe you have. Killed a man... My memories are so sharp and clear, it's as if they happened only moments ago. The countless lives my father extinguished, of those that came before him that did the same. Such pleasure it gave them. But I have not experienced it myself yet. Does it really feel that good?
- Healing Factor: The first time Mitchell shoots Khalek at point-blank range, he heals almost instantly.
- High-Voltage Death: Khalek telekinetically pulls two guards onto the electrified floor that's supposed to stop him from escaping, causing them to fire their guns uncontrollably as they're fried to death.
- I Never Told You My Name: Inverted; Khalek addresses Woolsey by name on their first meeting and follows it up with "no, you never told me your name" off Woolsey's dumbfounded look.
- I Warned You: Defied; Woolsey gives Daniel the opportunity to gloat at the end of the episode when his warnings are proven correct, but Daniel just says that he wishes he'd been wrong this time.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Woolsey is correct in his assessment that studying instead of just immediately killing him Khalek may produce a method of fighting Priors, given his similarity to them.
- Kill Him Already!: Daniel's suggestion as to what should be done with Khalek after realizing exactly what he is. Unfortunately, he's overruled by Woolsey.
- Kubrick Stare: Khalek gives a truly terrifying one of these once he drops the "innocent" act.
- Light Is Not Good: Discussed; Carter says she thought that a person had to be pure of heart to achieve ascension, but Daniel points out that the existence of the Ori proves that isn't the case.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- The team's tendency to do this is lampshaded at the beginning of the episode, when an apparent gate malfunction sends Carter to the wrong address:
Carter: Maybe it wasn't our fault.Daniel: I thought it was always our fault.- Khalek himself is only a problem because Mitchell accidentally revived him before Daniel could read the lab notes- which might have let the team contain or kill him without losing several Red Shirts to his rampage through the base.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Woolsey.
He does have some valid points in that Khalek is the first thing they've come across that might give them a hint as to how they can fight the Priors, but he ultimately fails to recognize the danger until it's too late. - Oh, Crap!: When Daniel realizes that the lab belonged to Anubis.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Daniel lampshades this by pointing that if he is the one advocating for a shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach, there's probably a damn good reason for it.Daniel: Look, you know I would never suggest this lightly. But he is what he is. And given the danger he poses I think we have to ask ourselves what is the point of keeping him alive at all?
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The team find Khalek frozen in a stasis chamber, where he probably would have stayed had they not decided to let him out.
- Super-Senses: Khalek is able to hear Daniel and Carter talking in the gate room from the observation room where he's being kept, causing him to realize that he needs to go back to the planet where he was found to complete his transformation.
- Tap on the Head: Averted; Lam tells Mitchell he has a concussion after Khalek throws him into a wall, though he manages to keep going until Khalek is taken care of.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Daniel manages to shoot Khalek in the heart, and when that doesn't take him down right away he and Mitchell proceed to shoot him repeatedly until he stops moving. Or possibly they just ran out of bullets.
- Thing-O-Meter:Carter: The ascend-o-meter says Khalek's about 80% there.Teal'c: "Ascend-o-meter"?Carter: Mitchell. Wish I'd thought of it.
- Transhuman: Khalek is an artificially-grown human made with Goa'uld DNA — specifically, that of Anubis in his pre-ascended form — meaning that he has access to the Goa'uld genetic memory. He's also been artificially advanced along the evolutionary scale using the DNA sequencer and displays several psychic abilities.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Carter rigs the DHD on Khalek's planet to send him straight back to Earth if he attempts to go back there, but doesn't get the chance to tell anybody about it before all hell breaks loose. She later says that if she had mentioned it, the plan probably wouldn't have worked as Khalek would have overheard.
- The Worf Effect: Khalek flings Teal'c down a corridor with his telekinetic powers, using him like a bowling ball to knock down two SFs.
