Daniel has an encounter with Amaunet during a mission to rescue a group of captive Abydonians, and Teal'c is forced to make a difficult decision to save Daniel's life, with liberal amounts of Mind Screw in between.
Last appearance of Sha're/Amaunet.
"Forever in a Day" provides examples of the following tropes:
- 10-Minute Retirement: In the dream, Daniel hands in his resignation after Sha're dies since the reason he joined the program in the first place was to find her, but he has a change of heart once he realizes what she's trying to tell him.
- Agony Beam: Amaunet uses the hand device on Daniel for a prolonged amount of time; Teal'c states that it would have killed him if she'd kept it up much longer.
- All Just a Dream: After The Teaser, Daniel spends most of the episode shifting between two realities: one in which Teal'c kills Sha're to save his life and one in which they are able to get her to the Tok'ra in time to save her life. There are several indications that the latter is the dream, but at the end of the episode it's revealed that neither is real and Daniel is still in the grip of Amaunet's hand device having hallucinated everything else, at which point Teal'c comes in and kills Sha're for real.
- Due to the Dead: Sha're is given a traditional Egyptian funeral on Abydos, with Daniel weighing her (metaphorical) heart against a feather and saying a prayer for the dead. Additionally, O'Neill, Carter, Hammond and Fraiser all attend in their military dress blues as a mark of respect, while Daniel wears his Abydonian robes.
- Dying as Yourself: Sha're is able to briefly take control of her body after Amaunet dies, hanging on just long enough to tell Daniel she loves him one last time before she follows suit.
- Easily Forgiven: Played with; it would certainly look like this from Teal'c's perspective given how Daniel appears to instantly forgive him for shooting his wife, but in actuality Daniel has had days within the dream world to work through his issues.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite ostensibly being in Heru'ur's service now, Amaunet has her Harcesis child hidden away from him and the rest of the System Lords.
- Fighting from the Inside: Sha're fights against Amaunet's control to send Daniel a message through the hand device that he has to find her son.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Though he is clearly very sorry about having to kill Sha're, Teal'c states that it was necessary to save Daniel's life, and if faced with the same choice he would do it again.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Daniel indicates that he holds himself responsible for failing to save Sha're.Daniel: All these wonders we have at our disposal, and I couldn't save her.
- Last Request: Sha're uses her final moments to ask that Daniel find her son before the System Lords do, and that he forgive Teal'c for killing her.
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: The second time Daniel "wakes up" in the infirmary, in the version of the dream where Sha're survives. It's made very clear that they only have eyes for each other, leading O'Neill to suggest that the others beat a hasty retreat.O'Neill: Maybe we should...?Carter: I'm glad you're okay, Daniel.[Daniel and Sha're both continue to ignore them]O'Neill: (moving to the door) He's... going to be okay, right?Fraiser: [amused] Oh yeah, I should say so.
- Living MacGuffin: It's revealed that Sha're's child is a Harcesis; the human offspring of two Goa'uld hosts who contains the Genetic Memory of all the Goa'uld. Teal'c says that such a thing is expressly forbidden by the System Lords and that any such child who does get born is ruthlessly hunted down, presumably to stop the information from falling into the wrong hands.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Daniel experiences a dream showing him how the future might turn out as Amaunet is killing him, during which time it's implied only a few seconds pass in the real world.
- Mind Screw: The whole episode is one big one, taking place almost entirely inside Daniel's head.
- Mundane Object Amazement: Played rather poignantly when Daniel talks about how Sha're was amazed the first time she saw him writing with a pen, believing it to be magic.
- Replacement Flat Character: When Daniel briefly retires from the SGC in the dream where Sha're dies, his spot on the team is filled by Robert Rothman, who mostly serves to highlight how much Daniel has grown out of his initial role as the "awkward nerd".Daniel: He's a smart guy... he had a good teacher.O'Neill: Geek.Daniel: Yes. You used to say the same thing about me.O'Neill: I was talking about you.
- Sacrificial Lion: Sha're is the second major character to die in the series.
- Sadistic Choice: Poor Teal'c faces one when he comes upon the tent where Amaunet is frying Daniel's brain with a ribbon device. If he shoots Amaunet, he will kill Amaunet's host, Sha're. If he doesn't, Daniel dies. Teal'c hesitates, and in that brief moment where Teal'c agonizes over the decision is when the vast majority of the episode happens.
- Sadly Mythtaken: Daniel's line "I know a Kheb. There's a reference in Budge." is quite funny if you remember how he badmouthed Budge (that is, Egyptologist E.A. Wallis Budge) in the original Stargate film ("Well, the translation of the inner track is wrong. Must've used Budge. I don't know why they keep reprinting his books.")
- Shoot the Dog: Teal'c is forced to kill Sha're in order to save Daniel's life.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Subverted; at first Daniel is unwilling to even consider forgiving Teal'c and won't even look at or talk to him, but after some encouragement from Sha're he is able to realize that Teal'c had to make a Sadistic Choice so that he is already in a place where he can accept Teal'c's actions when it happens for real.
- Wham Episode: An important secondary character is Killed Off for Real, Daniel's personal quest to find his wife comes to a traumatic end, and a subplot that's been ongoing since the pilot episode is brought to its conclusion.
- Zerg Rush: While the SG teams are trying to hold off Amaunet's forces in The Teaser, an absolutely massive wave of Jaffa is shown rushing over the hills. How the heroes actually manage to defeat them is not shown.
